It seems fairly common for musicians to re-record their own material, sometimes improving upon one of their compositions, though sometimes releasing a lesser, possibly redundant version of it. There are some re-recorded versions of songs many may recognize, while there are some that remain in obscurity to this day. I'm sure we all have certainly aware of one re-recorded song even within our own music libraries. Let's discuss them and decide whether or not some of them were ever necessary and whether some in fact improved on the originals.
Rule of thumb: Please only include one video per post if you are going to provide one. This is for two reasons: 1) so we don't discuss too many songs at one time, fragmenting our discussion. 2) so the loading process doesn't place stress on our browsers. Also, if you are going to quote a post containing an embedded video, please remove the video from the quoted post so that it isn't posted twice. Thanks!
I'll begin with potentially one of the most easily identifiable re-recordings, at least in prog circles. Upon hearing it for the first time in 1981, I was quite indifferent to it but always felt the second half of the original recording could have stood alone as a strong pop rock song. The re-recorded version is a lot jazzier than the original. After listening to it several times more recently, it's grown on me. Both versions were recorded within the same two years, 1979 to 1980. This version was recorded after the Duke version.
This is "Behind the Lines" from Phil Collins' 1981 debut solo album, Face Value. The album was co-produced by Collins and Hugh Padgham.
What is your impression of it?
Bookmarks