Demos That Should Have Been The Real Thing

[Clawson]

Yeah so the title might be confusing but this is about any demos that you've heard that you think should have been used instead of the mix that the band picked to be the final recording of the song.

This was brought about when I heard the ingenious opening of Oasis' Go Let It Out with a line from Austin Powers. While Noel doesn't sing it as good as Liam so I won't include it in the list, Oasis has definitely had a couple of tracks that would have been better off as the final version. The two I'm thinking of are Live Forever with a longer guitar solo and acoustic opening and Songbird which utilized a harmonica and electric guitars.

Any songs you know that had better demos or demos that are more fun to listen to?

['That Guy']

Some of the leaked Brand New Demos should have deffiently made it into The Devil And God...

They were pure gold, seriously I listen to some of them more than the real tracks.

[JairusCain]

only one i can think of at the moment would be the demo version of Linkin Park's "Points of Authority" ("Vertical Limit"). I don't know why but I preferred the original chorus. I'm also fond of a couple of part in the demo of "A Place For My Head" ("Esaul") in comparison to the final version.

[alldaws1]

I don't listen to many demos but I did hear Billy Talent's demo version of Red Flag which I remember preferring to the one they actually released. There's not a whole lot of difference really, just that some lines in the chorus aren't separated by instrumental bits.

[Draevyn]

The only one I can think of at this time would be Bon Jovi's "Someday I'll be Saturday Night" which they eventually released on "100, 000, 000 Bon Jovi Fans Can't Be Wrong" box set, but the lyrics fit the song so much better than the one they put on their album.

[LittleDaniel]

The full-out acoustic versions of Against Me!'s songs on their acoustic EP.

[KevinStorm]

Linkin Park had a song called "Carousel" that wasn't nearly as good as the demo version. I think it was a demo version.

[YI]

Some of the leaked Brand New Demos should have deffiently made it into The Devil And God...

They were pure gold, seriously I listen to some of them more than the real tracks.

[K]

Although it totally doesn't fit with their style anymore, 'On The Run From the MI5" needs to make it to an official Arctic Monkeys release at some point.

[Skummy]

A fairly obscure one, I think, but prior to The Alarm releasing "In The Poppyfields" a few years back, they sent out a load of demos to members of their fan club which were just Mike Peters and a drum machine, and the fans had to vote on which songs were the best, and the most popular made it on to the album, and the original acoustic version of "The Drunk And Disorderly" is infinitely superior to the one on the album.

Also, The Clash's demo of "London Calling" lacks a bit of the oomph of the single, and much less Joe Strummer squawking, but it has its charms, and with the production quality of the single, it could've perhaps been a little better. And, while not strictly demos, a couple of Jeff Buckley's alternate takes on "Hallelujah" are better in places than the one that made it on to the album.

[Benji]

If we're going Demo's and B-Sides, the Foo Fighters have a ridiculous shedload, and I bring it up every time I can because their non-album stuff is about 50% of the time better than what made it on the album (although for album mixing reasons I understand many of their choices).

The Panic Channel's "Bloody Mary" original demo is not quite as good as the one on the album, but it's such a different sound I don't know how they got from one place to the other.

Several Linkin Park songs demo's were better, they highlight how could Chester CAN be as a vocalist.

Edited March 9, 2008 by ___

[GoGo Yubari]

The Weezer demos in between Maladroit and Make Believe were pretty much infinitely better than the atrocity was the actual record that resulted. Sure, they were generic Weezer songs but at least they were decent ones.

[Dingle]

A lot of what I'd have said have been mentioned, so I'll just say that Bullet For My Valentine's "Tears Don't Fall" is much better with singing and not screaming.

On the Billy Talent note, I prefer the Red Flag original but the Devil In a... demo is not as good as the album version.

[Turbo Yannis]

There's a demo version of "I Want To Know Your Plans" by Say Anything and it makes the album version sound shit.

[tristy]

I prefer the demo to "In The End" much more than I do the final album version. The rap is just better in the demo. With a little mixing and fine tuning, it could have been so much greater than it ultimately turned out to be.

The entire Purest Feeling album by Nine Inch Nails was the demo album for Pretty Hate Machine. It's more jazzier and pop than PHM, and I kinda like it that way. All the songs lead into each other, and it has some pretty awesome movie quotes added into the songs. Only song that is atrocious is "Maybe Just Once". It reeks of a Madonna song, for some reason.

[Cactus Drags]

A lot of what I'd have said have been mentioned, so I'll just say that Bullet For My Valentine's "Tears Don't Fall" is much better with singing and not screaming.

On the Billy Talent note, I prefer the Red Flag original but the Devil In a... demo is not as good as the album version.

[Farmer Reil]

It's not quite the same topic, but near enough, since I don't pay attention to demos and stuff. I only ever buy full albums (or, rarely, EPs). So I kinda miss out on all the demos and alternate versions, etc.

I just came in to say that the version of 'Operation Ground And Pound' used in the music video is a fucking atrocity compared to the album version (and even then it's not fantastic ¬_¬). The solo is half missing, and the ending is all kinds of retarded, presumably so they could fit it in to five minutes to make the MTV people happy.

Edited March 11, 2008 by Farmer Reil

[K]

^ I have that version on CD somewhere. I think on a Kerrang compilation.

[supergrass]

The Libertines' Legs 11 session featured a version of Music When The Lights Go Out that was accompanied by a cello in lieu of a bass player and is amazing. That version couldn't have been included on the second album due to the awful recording quality, but I wish they'd gone into the studio and put that early version of the song down.