Unreleased Canadian Folk-Rock Corner: 2

Neil Young: Stringman (demo, 1976)

In 1993, when the whole world went mad for that whole MTV Unplugged caper, it went doubly mad for the idea of Neil Flaming Young doing it as he was precisely the sort of IMPORTANT HERITAGE ARTIST ACTUALLY that made TV people wet the bed. Of course, when it happened, some was a bit dull, a lot of it was very good, but Stringman was just brilliant.

I had never heard it before and in those pre-internet days it was very difficult to find out anything about it (because just asking someone would have been insanity, right?). Now, of course, I know it was, originally, an unreleased track from 1976. Well, let it be unreleased no longer!

And - hello! - here's the sleeve of the bootleg it's taken from...



And that, ladies and gents, concludes the UCF-RC series until I find away to pretend that Rush's Lakeside Park is, in any way imaginable, either folk-rock or unreleased. Love the shorts, dude.

Enjoy!

Unreleased Canadian Folk-Rock Corner: 1

Joni Mitchell: Shades Of Scarlett Conquering (demos, 1975)
A kind person sent me a link to this somewhat less than entirely legal site which had all the unreleased - largely acoustic - demos from Joni's (notice how I called her "Joni" there, like we're mates) 1975 smasheroo, The Hissing Of Summer Lawns.

Some of them just aren't as good as the finished versions. Edith And The Kingpin, for instance, has this really annoying phrasing. But this is just, um, lovely. The finest, mildest, most heart-warming speech impediments in pop, that's our Joni.

Check back tomorrow for more Unreleased Canadian Folk Rock, cos I've lined up a doozy!

Enjoy!