The Lansdowne Tapes

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The Lansdowne Tapes
Compilation album by Uriah Heep

Publication
(s)

September 17, 1993
April 15, 2002 (2CD edition)

admission

1969-1971

Label (s) Red Steel Music ( Great Britain )
Viceroy Music ( USA )
Sanctuary Midline (2CD Edition)

Format (s)

CD

Genre (s)

Hard rock , progressive rock

Title (number)

15
33 (2CD edition)

running time

77 min 23 s
152 min 0 s (2CD edition)

Studio (s)

Lansdowne Studios, London ( Great Britain )

chronology
The Very Best of Uriah Heep
(1993) 		The Lansdowne Tapes Lady in Black
(1994)

The Lansdowne Tapes is a 1993 compilation by the British hard rock band Uriah Heep . The compilation is named after Lansdowne Studios in London, where all of the songs were recorded, and it only contains recordings from 1969 to 1971. It was originally released in 1993 as a single CD edition, and a double was finally released in 2002 -CD edition that differs significantly from the first pressing.

background

The original idea for the compilation The Lansdowne Tapes came from Robert M. Corich, a prominent New Zealand remaster engineer who is also responsible for all the re-releases of Uriah Heep's studio albums when he was collecting material for another compilation entitled Rarities from the Bronze Age from 1991. Corich received master tapes from Warren Eady from the early days of the band. With further research he found out that there were other old master tapes in the archives of the record company. He was also able to locate tapes on storerooms and even in private individuals' garden sheds, some of which were in very poor condition. Corich took on the tapes, did Sisyphean work to restore them as best he could and finally digitized the recordings so that they were suitable for a mix. For his work on The Lansdowne Tapes , Corich also involved the current and former band members Paul Newton, Ken Hensley , Mick Box , Keith Baker and Nigel Pelgrum at the time of publication.

The compilation, which appeared finally in 1993, includes recordings from 1969 to 1971 - that is, from the time when the band still called Spice, over the recordings to ... Very 'Eavy ... Very' Umble and Salisbury up to the recordings for the third studio album Look at Yourself . The material consists on the one hand of alternative versions of songs already contained on the mentioned studio albums and on the other hand of songs that were unreleased at the time of publication. The last song, the intro of "Dreammare", was not printed in the track list.

In 2002 The Lansdowne Tapes was finally released as a double CD, which did not come up with any further unreleased songs, but was expanded to include unreleased versions of already known songs. It should be noted that some of the versions of the first pressing have been replaced by other versions, especially this affects all Spice songs. In addition, the song "Astranaza" - included on the original edition as a single song - was released in the re-release in two parts, which in terms of their total playing time have a longer playing time than the originally published version. Some of the versions released on The Lansdowne Tapes were later re-released on further compilations and the re-releases of the studio albums with bonus tracks, but others were again in alternative versions (sometimes with minimal differences), which provides an overview of the existing versions of the various songs from the years made considerably more difficult from 1969 to 1971.

Track list

  1. Born in a Trunk (3:47) * ( Mick Box , David Byron )
  2. Simon the Bullet Freak (3:27) ( Ken Hensley )
  3. Here Am I (8:12) (Hensley)
  4. Magic Lantern (8:32) * (Box, Byron)
  5. Why (11:18) (Box, Byron, Hensley, Paul Newton)
  6. Astranaza (4:46) * (Box, Byron)
  7. What's Within My Heart (5:22) (Hensley)
  8. What Should Be Done (4:28) (Hensley)
  9. Lucy Blues (5:10) (Box, Byron)
  10. I Want You Babe (5:42) * (Box, Byron)
  11. Celebrate (4:26) * (Alan Gordon, Gary Bonner)
  12. Schoolgirl (3:25) * (Box, Byron)
  13. Born in a Trunk (Instrumental version) (4:02) * (Box, Byron)
  14. Look at Yourself (3:20) (Hensley)
  15. Dreammare (Intro) (1:10) (Newton)

Re-release from 2002

CD1

  1. Dreammare (Intro) (1:01) (Newton) (differs from the version of the first pressing)
  2. Walking in Your Shadow (5:01) (Newton, Byron)
  3. Real Turned on (3:34) (Box, Byron, Newton)
  4. I'll Keep on Trying (5:26) (Box, Byron)
  5. Wake up (Set Your Sights) (6:13) (Box, Byron)
  6. Come away Melinda (3:49) (Fred Hellerman, Fran Minkoff)
  7. Lucy Blues (5:10) (Box, Byron) (identical to the version of the first pressing)
  8. The Park (5:37) (Hensley)
  9. Here Am I (8:12) (Hensley) (identical to the version of the first pressing)
  10. Lady in Black (4:53) (Hensley)
  11. Simon the Bullet Freak (3:27) (Hensley)
  12. What's Within My Heart (5:22) (Hensley) (identical to the version of the first pressing)
  13. What Should Be Done (4:24) (Hensley) (identical to the version of the first pressing)
  14. Why (11:18) (Box, Byron, Hensley, Newton) (identical to the version of the first pressing)
  15. Look at Yourself (3:20) (Hensley)

CD2

  1. Born in a Trunk (4:03) * (Box, Byron) (different from the version of the first pressing)
  2. Magic Lantern (7:57) * (Box, Byron) (different from the version of the first pressing)
  3. Astranaza (Part 1) (3:31) * (Box, Byron) (differs from the version of the first pressing because it is not divided into two parts and has a different playing time)
  4. Astranaza (Part 2) (1:36) * (Box, Byron) (differs from the version of the first pressing because it is not divided into two parts and has a different playing time)
  5. Celebrate (4:21) * (Gordon, Bonner) (differs from the version of the first pressing)
  6. Schoolgirl (3:24) * (Box, Byron) (different from the version of the first pressing)
  7. I Want You Babe (6:10) * (Box, Byron) (different from the version of the first pressing)
  8. Born in a Trunk (Instrumental version) (4:25) * (Box, Byron) (differs from the version of the first pressing)
  9. Lucy Blues (5:09) (Box, Byron)
  10. Come away Melinda (3:49) (Hellerman, Minkoff)
  11. What's Within My Heart (5:26) (Hensley)
  12. What Should Be Done (4:28) (Hensley)
  13. Gypsy (5:52) (Box, Byron)
  14. High Priestess (3:41) (Hensley)
  15. Simon the Bullet Freak (3:27) (Hensley) (identical to the version of the first pressing)
  16. Look at Yourself (3:20) (Hensley) (identical to the version of the first pressing)
  17. Lady in Black (3:30) (Hensley)
  18. Dreammare (reprise) (1:08) (Newton)

General information about the title list

  • All tracks marked with an * were recorded when the band was still called Spice.

Republication information

  • All songs in the re-release (the titles without annotations in brackets) are unreleased versions at the time of release.

useful information

  • "Celebrate" is a three-dog-night cover version. The song was originally released on the 1969 album Suitable for Framing .
  • "Come away Melinda" is a Harry Belafonte cover version. The song was originally released on the 1963 album Streets I Have Walked .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Progarchives.com - Uriah Heep - Discography - The Lansdowne Tapes . Retrieved April 9, 2020.
  2. ↑ amazon.com - The Lansdowne Tapes By Uriah Heep (2002-04-15) . Retrieved April 9, 2020.
  3. ↑ a b c d e discogs.com - Uriah Heep - The Lansdowne Tapes . Last accessed on April 10, 2020.