Fumbler's Café

I see there are a number of very nice "very rare" songs that were demos for Solace on YouTube that were dropped for one reason or another. I was wondering if anyone knows where these might be found (other than YouTube) for download or purchase (bootleg?).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKC8juibTRQ

A number of songs come up from the search for "Sarah Mclachlan very rare" on YouTube.

Some of these are really intriguing. I really like this sound she had at the time. Not that it's better, but different, from her later sound.

they use to be available here for download, but i believe the webmaster received a 'cease and desist' letter from the label asking to remove them. i remember the early demo of 'lost' but can't really remember the other ones. 'solace' still remains one of my favorites from sarah.

I've got most of the rare songs, information about them is on the Solaced site (under Lyrics, there's a section for unreleased material). I haven't put them up for download since Witchy (the admin of Blackened-sky.net, old Sarah site) did indeed receive a cease and desist email from the label.. I decided to skip that part and not upload them at all. If you want, I can send you them by email - let me know!

Thanks, Ellie! I'll do that. I'm surprised Sarah hasn't released a Volume 3 of the Rarites and B-sides" to make these official. I'll bet there would be a lot of interest in it. I get the feeling that she discounts the value of her early work, which is really very good.

Chadwick, I agree, Solace has many great songs. Sarah's writing starts to be really impressive on this album. In addition to the more familiar ones, I like "Backdoor Man" and "Drawn to the Rhythm". I think of the latter when I go down to the local beach here in Everett, WA. She has the deep-seated sense of the rhythm with nature that one feels in the presence of the water.

Ed

Ellie wrote:I decided to skip that part and not upload them at all.

I don't understand, why?
Her old rarities are good, but I guess that if they were not selected for a record, she prefered not to sing them anymore. Some singers have dozen of songs written, but they just never released them. If Nettwerk finds that there's someone on Youtube, "Hearthly Heaven", who uploaded the songs, I'm sure they'll get them deleted by Youtube (unless they don't really care about her now that she left Nettwerk's management team).

Karine wrote:

Ellie wrote:I decided to skip that part and not upload them at all.

I don't understand, why?
Her old rarities are good, but I guess that if they were not selected for a record, she prefered not to sing them anymore. Some singers have dozen of songs written, but they just never released them. If Nettwerk finds that there's someone on Youtube, "Hearthly Heaven", who uploaded the songs, I'm sure they'll get them deleted by Youtube (unless they don't really care about her now that she left Nettwerk's management team).

Well, Karine, maybe they don't care, since many of them appear to still be there after several years. Maybe they're letting them stay to gauge how much interest there is. If so, maybe Sarah might release some of them officially someday. I've bought a number of artist's work, including hers, after hearing/seeing it on YouTube. I expect it's a good marketing tool for artists with real talent. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has been so influenced. After "seeing" selections from Mirrorball and FTE live, among other things, I just had to have them. After all, you can't beat "word of mouth" for good recommendations. Some of this is "preaching to the choir", but people get drawn in who were unfamiliar, like I did, and get swept away....

Ed

Islandflyer wrote:I get the feeling that she discounts the value of her early work, which is really very good.

Not sure if she does that, though.. I've heard in some interview, for Closer I believe, she said something about those songs being small postcards from the past. And that when she listened back to them, she could see she "was in that place at that time" or something like that. I guess she doesn't look back to them because they're her past and they're something she went through back then - not now. She also had a lot of trouble getting material that was good enough for the Solace CD. To quote something out of the biography I've got over at Solaced:

Solace was originally rejected by Arista, Sarah’s distributor in the United States, and had to be reworked over a nine-month period in 1991. “We’d send them stuff that we just felt great about and the label would call and say, ‘That’s not it.’ I’d say, ‘Doesn’t it make you feel something?’ And they’d say, ‘That’s not the point.’ But then what the fuck is the point? I got so heartbroken. At one point I wanted to stop making music.”

I guess that's one of the reasons we got so many Solace songs that didn't make it...

As for them being up at YouTube, not sure why they haven't been taken down yet - those videos are already up for a long time. But I guess your reason could be a good one

I know many singer-songwriters who don't play their old songs. Sometimes it's because they don't like them or just because they don't feel attached to them anymore, almost like if they were written by a stranger. We also have to think that not all fans know about these rarities neither about the struggles between Sarah and Arista in 1990-91.

She could do what Sarah Slean did a few years ago. The fans voted for their favorite rarities, live played songs that didn't fit on any record and that were never released. Sarah Slean recorded them and released "Beauty Lives".

Sarah could do a third "Rarities, B-Sides and other stuff" with only original (but never released) material. I'm sure it would be popular.
On the first Rarities, there are 2 original songs (I Will Remember You and Full of Grace). The rest are covers, live songs and remix. On the second Rarities, no new material, only songs from soundtrack and live sessions, some covers and remix.

A girl can dream!

I know many singer-songwriters who don't play their old songs. Sometimes it's because they don't like them or just because they don't feel attached to them anymore, almost like if they were written by a stranger.

Sarah could do a third "Rarities, B-Sides and other stuff" with only original (but never released) material. I'm sure it would be popular.
On the first Rarities, there are 2 original songs (I Will Remember You and Full of Grace). The rest are covers, live songs and remix. On the second Rarities, no new material, only songs from soundtrack and live sessions, some covers and remix.

I have to agree to these sentiments in their entirety. I am a big fan of her earlier work, It had fight, spirit and an edge that maturity has knocked off in big lumps. I have a love/hate relationship with both Rarities albums. She sometimes appears in a secondary role to other artists/bands and seems to be a session singer on what is, HER, album. Whose idea was it to produce the Rarities in that format? What was going to be gained in doing that? I don't think SMcL was going to be the winner in any sense of the word. I'm sure SMcL has more than enough unreleased material to do that. During my recovery I was encouraged to read books, (Rather than watch TV) and I remember reading part of a book called "Canrock" (or something along those lines) about the music scene in Canada. There were bits in about SMcL in Halifax with The October Game, (One writer was quoted as saying "She had little stage presence") but there was one bit where it was claimed that she had many problems in writing for her debut album and needed alot of help in getting the job done. Whether this accounts for her reluctance to go back to her roots with her earlier work and show the world what was going through her head back then, I don't know. It would be nice to hear her earlier work again. Most of you will know I'm a big fan of "The Waiting" What a wasted opportunity that was, big time. (Who's idea was that to miss that out?)

Q

Karine wrote:

Ellie wrote:I decided to skip that part and not upload them at all.

I don't understand, why?
Her old rarities are good, but I guess that if they were not selected for a record, she prefered not to sing them anymore. Some singers have dozen of songs written, but they just never released them. If Nettwerk finds that there's someone on Youtube, "Hearthly Heaven", who uploaded the songs, I'm sure they'll get them deleted by Youtube (unless they don't really care about her now that she left Nettwerk's management team).

I have been told that Nettwerk are, or were, more than a little controlling with their artists. I know that Uberbelly had the same problems with SMcL/Nettwerks solicitor and received the same "Cease and Desist" letter. I would say that any legal firm sending a Cease and Desist letter are putting the frighteners on you. If they are that sure that you're breaking the law they wouldn't send such letters. I know that from experience!! (The little man can win you know)

Q