Name some demos that are better than the album versions

I like demos. I think there is often a spontaneity and purity of concept present in a demo that then gets lost in the final production. Over the years I've heard a few leaked demo versions of albums that I became attached to and then found the actual release inferior.

What are your favorite demos? Any genre, any time...

Bowie - Quicksand

Lemonheads - My Drug Buddy, Bit Part, Rudderless, Hannah & Gabbi

replacements - can't hardly wait [the tim version] is probably my favourite replacements song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8M7q5Mn3-oM

although i guess that is more an alternate version rather than demo....?

2nd the lemonheads post.

pj harvey has a bunch

original version of N.E.R.D.'s "Rock Star"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1F7ysd1Nk4

Always liked the Pod demos more than the album

Throwing Muses - Fish (the demo version thats on the video clip for the track on LiaE)

The original 7 inch mix of "One More Chance" by Pet Shop Boys may be defined as a demo of sorts, I would guess.

Must be a ton of these by the Beatles, Springsteen and Dylan. Folks who fiddle endlessly with songs until they're happy with them.

And commit each successive version to tape I mean. Compare this approach with people like Hammill and Cohen, of whom there are hardly any demos in circulation. These guys know at a very early stage which songs they are going to run with and focus all their energies on getting that definitive studio version.

MGMT's "Time to Pretend" EP has my favorite "demo" versions of "kids" and the title track.

A lot of Julian Cope early stuff, until he started releasing albums made out of demos.

Deus - nine threads

The Pistols 'Spunk' LP

Various demo tracks from American Music Club's "Mercury" that came out on EPs or whatever, they were all far better in the underproduced versions.

beatles - yesterday

Nick Drake - Fly

Most of the vines' "highly evolved"

I liked the demo version of Upside Down by JAMC, but probably not more than the single version.

Oh but On The Wall from the Darklands EP, I do like that one better.

Also much prefer the version of Cancer by Icon A.D. off Bullshit Detector #1 to the EP version. I guess that's a demo.

yeah pj harvey's who the fuck? 4-track

Sonic Youth - some of the goo demos
18th Dye - surprisingly, a few of their demos released on "Left"
Robyn Hitchcock - Perspex Island stuff at the very least, and I'll bet he has a ton of contendors..

Supposedly the demos for Bowie's 'Tonight' are better than the final album.

This probably belongs more in the 'Artists re-recording their music'-thread, but the first two Wolf Parade EP's sounded like demo's and were really good. Then they had to polish and clean up the sound to abysmal effect for their first full length, for reasons completely unclear to me.

Pete Townshend's demos were so absurdly fully-realized and well-produced that they made up most of his first solo album. As to whether or not they were better than the Who's versions, they weren't; how could they be, without Moon? But all of his post-Moon Who demos (and many of the demos for Who Are You) are far better than the album versions.

Spacemen 3 - Losing Touch With My Mind

X- 4th Of July

The demo included on the Beyond and Back compilation is far better than the overproduced version on See How We Are.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyg4rh5r1Mg

Elvis Costello's "Big Boys" demo, the one that's a bonus track on reissues of This Year's Model.

The Jam, "That's Entertainment"

robyn hitchcock's a good call -- his demo of "raymond chandler evening" is one of my fave things he's done.

Elvis Costello's "Big Boys" demo, the one that's a bonus track on reissues of This Year's Model.

Costello has a bunch. "Green Shirt" comes to mind.

I agree on "Green Shirt" too---those two demos blew me away when I got the Ryko Costello reissues, like they were the two songs I listened to again & again, in lieu of the actual albums.

Yeah, "Green Shirt" demo >>>>>>>>>>> "Green Shirt" proper

Y'all are crazy. Green Shirt is a fine demo, but to compare it to the Armed Forces version is bordering on blasphemy.

Here is the wonderful demo version of the X classic 4th of July.

Please listen to it, then compliment me on my keen insight into superior demo versions of songs. I need some validation, people!!!!!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbUsNeyNDJ0&playnext=1&list=PL67869A9159DFE689

I'm a huge fan of demos. ones I prefer to the studio versions:

kate bush - the cathy demos (22 early songs, solo piano)
monster magnet - forget about life I'm high on dope (totally saturated drug rock, heavy)
black sabbath - born again demos (stripped down/spaced out)
negative approach - 1st demo (compressed cassette frequencies make this bass heavy and warm)
throwing muses - the doghouse cassette (hate the 80s production job on the 4ad debut, especially the drum sounds)
shub niggurath - s/t 1985 (again prefer the drier production values)
black flag - 1982 demos (five piece doing my war era material)

forgot this one:

tom waits - the alice demos (blurrier, freakier, more broken down)

Most of The-Dream's demos for other artists. I like his version of H.A.T.E.U. more than the final version. The story about finding the lover's scarf in the car and how he hates himself for loving her is so much better than the silly boxing ring metaphor and summing up the title as "Having A Typical Emotional Upset".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qr7J2GS3ar4

I like that 4th of July demo.

Just remembered this, which became my favorite version of the song the moment I heard it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKIC_Kza4Ek

Definitely the Alice demos! The album he recorded years later is but a shadow of the original.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMDI8G_5D0s

^ time of recording debated but she's def a teenager, like 16-18

I can't even listen to the studio version

Spacemen 3 - Losing Touch With My Mind

― Trip Maker, Wednesday, April 20, 2011 11:59 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yeah really most of the stuff on 'Taking Drugs....

^Agree wholeheartedly.

some of Jackie DeShannon's early '60s demos are so spirited and so professionally arranged, you'd never guess that their sole purpose was to peddle her compositions to other musicians (often successfully).

at least four other artists went on to record this song, although none of them had a hit with it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWu5NkWIaLE

also search Charle Rich's solo piano demo version of "Feel Like Going Home", which appears on the Essential Charlie Rich compilation

Michael Jackson's demos for "Billie Jean" and "Don't Stop Till You Get Enough" aren't better than the album versions, but they do show how complete the arrangements were. For "Billie Jean," Quincy Jones evidently did fuck-all.

haha came here mostly to post Green Shirt!

also, Jane's Addiction - Moutain Song

I listened to the "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" demos with Jay Bennet far more than the final Jim O'Rourke stuff.

Especially all those songs that cut.

Kanye West - The College Dropout (tho maybe it's not a demo, just the og version of the album)

Also surprised no one's mentioned Blood on the Tracks

Just remembered: Billy Nicholls "Snapshot." It's not like across the board better than the album versions, but in some ways the demos sound more modern (like some 8-track band from the 90's) which I *occasionally* prefer...

don't really think of the blood on the tracks early stuff as "demos" per se -- those sessions were supposed to be the album itself ...

yeah, more of a rough mix/acetate situation

but as far as dylan goes, i've always loved the rough demo of "every grain of sand" (complete with barking dog) on the bootleg series...

Stone Roses' "Burst Into Heaven" (or whatever it's titled - don't have my comp w/ my atm) is pretty rad unto it's own right... but it gets this p cool beach-funk makeover on.... er, whatever that special release was with the demos. Again, don't have my comp with me.

there's only one, so far as i know

god i suck

A good chunk of the Fuzzy Warbles demos are better than the XTC released songs.

original version of N.E.R.D.'s "Rock Star"
http://www.youtube.com/v/e1F7ysd1Nk4&fs=1&hl=en

― i put that on my sub (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, April 20, 2011 2:19 AM (19 hours ago) Bookmark

wtf that's like the one song on the album that's toally improved by the live band

Ken Stringellow of the Posies has a lot of great demos, although the favorite that comes to mind is the original version of "Here's To The Future" from his first solo album, This Sounds Like Goodbye, which is basically a glorified demo and is way better than the studio recording on a later album.

Whoa I want to hear the demo version of "Breaking Into Heaven" plz

There was a Posies box quite a few years ago that was pretty much ALL demos, and it was amazing. I never had the real deal (it sold out fast!), but I had some crummy mp3s that I found on Audiogalaxy and slsk. Can't remember if I reconstructed it completely or not. I should probably look at some torrent sites.

yeah that box set was what i was more or less referring to. some of the best demos were never even released by the full band!

'I found a reason' - velvets

Stevie, I'm a 'tard - I got home today to give the Burst Into Heaven demoa listen and was perplexed to find out that I didn't even have it. Turns out I'm really talking about Elephant Stone, which lyrics start right off with "burst into heaven".

anyway, the original
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKDPv3ZLDjI
it definitely has the upper-hand on production and the jangle is a nice addition, but it always comes off as sounding like the rest of their material/habits. whereas the demo has this really killer opener i'm kinda confounded as to why they abandoned:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLGdrptdAZE

Yeah, I was gonna say! I tracked down a "Breaking Into Heaven" demo on YouTube and it was v inferior w/o the epic guitar riffage and harmonies and chirping birds and huge drums and all of that

I love the demo of Thomas Dolby's "Airwaves"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNBelXNhx6M

Also surprised no one's mentioned Blood on the Tracks
― Parenthetical Grillz, Wednesday, April 20, 2011 12:54 PM (10 hours ago)

Was just going to say..."Idiot Wind" definitely

I was trying to find the Walking w/ Jesus demo from this comp, but this will have to do:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pk5kWNONJgQ

I mostly prefer the versions of the PP songs on this comp to their album equivalents. The tape hiss & distorted signals of the demos give the songs a slight layer of menace that suits them imo.

Emperor's "Wrath Of The Tyrant" demo is better than the final recordings on Emperor/Hordanes Land split.
Also, the Hellhammer demos.

The Cure's "Meat Hook". Much better as a demo by Easy Cure than on Three Imaginary Boys.

The Shop Assistants songs that were re-recorded for their album are all much better in their original versions that came out on singles.

glasvegas demos were brilliant, album wasn't great

Blue Oyster Cult - "Fire of Unknown Origin" (the demo is tacked onto the Agents of Fortune reissue, and is so much better than the bombastic title track that appeared several years later...you can just about imagine Patti Smith singing her own lyrics...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mi5poDzfieE

The original 7 inch re-recording of "One More Chance" by Pet Shop Boys, originally intended for "Actually" but then replaced with a way inferior and pointless 12 inch version.

seconded on Nick Drake - Fly, the early Costello Honky Tonk-stuff, Dylan's Blood on the Tapes, and a bunch of the Beatles (e.g. Yes, It Is).

Add:

Fleetwood Mac - Sara
The Beach Boys tour rehearsal bootleg - so nice to hear them harmonize w/out production tricks.
early MMJ albums

Not sure I can honestly say that I like it better than the Blur version, but the Seymour version of "Sing" is really interesting.

Well, nobody's mentioned "On the Wall" by the JAMC, so I will.

Original demo, a "Television" style chimer, the Lp version a "darklands" epic.

"Love for Tender" by elvis costello for some reason, though I love all of Get Happy!
Its fun that there is a whole different version of Imperial bedroom on the bonus disk

You mean the "Clean Money" version?

I liked that EC made *his* rendition of "Girls Talk" for a b-side, but had (clearly) created a demo version with the real tune for Dave Edmunds.

the definitive version?

dunno.

> Well, nobody's mentioned "On the Wall" by the JAMC, so I will.
> Original demo, a "Television" style chimer, the Lp version a "darklands" epic.
> ― Mark G, Tuesday, 31 May 2011 13:03 (2 hours ago)

b-but they did:

> Oh but On The Wall from the Darklands EP, I do like that one better.
> ― a fucking stove just fell on my foot. (Colonel Poo), Wednesday, 20 April 2011 10:51

those early Belle and Sebastian tracks they did live or as radio session tracks were all >>> than the eventual properly recorded versions. they just seemed to polish out all the interesting bits, somehow.

Ah, I'd only seen the reference to the "Upside Down" demo version.

Hidden Cameras - Ecce Homo

I think they did 'demo' versions of other albums too.

Lots of good ones here.

Another is The Caves of Altamira by Steely Dan. The piano demo is preferable to the Royal Scam version.

Hasn't been mentioned and I don't see a lot of metal/punk/HC music above, but the consensus among most Cro-Mags fans is that th "Before the Quarrel" demos are way better than the "Age of Quarrel" album.

The Caves of Altamira by Steely Dan

I like both versions (and they changed a lot of the music and lyrics in the six years or so between the two). The thing I like about the Royal Scam arrangement is that the slickness is almost an objective correlative to the loss of innocence described in the lyrics. It just seems sadder to hear about the "wooly man without a face and a beast without a name" over glossy mid-tempo funk and an over-excited brass arrangement.

“those early Belle and Sebastian tracks they did live or as radio session tracks were all >>> than the eventual properly recorded versions. they just seemed to polish out all the interesting bits, somehow.”

I actually always wondered if the beginning of “electronic renaissance” was from some early demo of “sleep the clock around” (same chord progression).

The Grimes Realiti demo owns this category for me, demo is like 10x better than the album version.

She also made a dope video for the demo

Haircut 100's "Nobody's Fool":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAol4lYBp2E

I love the demo version of “hit the road jack” by Percy mayfield

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXGM8CG-lGs