Secret Samadhi - 25th Anniversary release, What do you want to see? Options

[dangum]

Next year will hopefully see the release of the 25th Anniversary release of Secret Samadhi.

Hopefully Live will be investigating what could be put on this release so I thought a thread where we could discuss what might be on the release (as well as what we would like to see on the release) would be beneficial.

Here is a snippet from Chad Taylor's blog where he listed the many recordings Live has made over the years Below are the recordings that made after the release of Throwing Copper and before the release of Secret Samadhi. If you want to read the whole thing, then brianblank has provided a link via the Archive.org website: https://web.archive.org/web/20110708022726/...o-question.html

SECRET SAMADHI CHURCHBOX DEMO, 1996 (Columbia, PA) age, 25yrs.
MEDIA FORMAT: DAT

Throwing Copper changed the game. It was a massive success only overshadowed by the tour that surrounded it. PJ Harvey (don’t forget the towel), Veruca Salt, Weezer and Jimmy Chicken Shack were only a few of the openers to support us as we toured the globe for two years non-stop. I bought a house (with cash I might add) and moved into a swanky neighborhood in Lancaster, PA only a few blocks from where Ed had also purchased a home. We were in our early 20’s with way too much money & fame. We both wanted to chill out and enjoy the fruits of our hard work. Gracey moved to Portland OR to marry his first wife and Patrick escaped to the party life of South Beach. The Lancaster clan continued with the high pace energy of the road while still living in a small town. The two didn’t mix well as we ate, drank and generally raised hell from bar-to-bar all in the spirit of celebration. I wrote the riff to Lakini’s Juice on the third floor of my house, passing out over several bottles of red wine but the vast majority of songs were assembled at The Chameleon Club. We had arranged with owner & friend Rich Ruoff to let us write, rehearse and record (still have the cassette) during the daytime hours when the club was closed. Ed brought in GasHed and I nearly died it was so good. The first recording, a board tape from The Chameleon is one million times better than anything on the album! Fuck, I just got chills writing about it. We were so excite, we called Ken and Jay at the Churchbox and booked some time to demo the new material. Ghost would feature the churches massive pipe organ (still better than the album), Freaks, Mall Rat, Photograph and Turn My Head are a few I can recall. Gary liked the vibe but didn’t think we had the single and would push us further. In my opinion, this is the greatest creative era of Live and thankfully, The Churchbox Session are very well documented. I would go as far as to say that the early energy captured in these demos blows always anything we captured on the album. The audio quality is amazing.

SECRET SAMADHI JAMAICA-HOUSE, 1996 (Montego Bay, Jamaica) age, 25yrs.
MEDIA FORMAT: DAT, ADAT

Jay Healy was brought in to record and produce the band. I had used him as an engineer on Solution A.D. and secured a number 1 modern rock single with Fearless. I sold the band on Jay. I thought what we needed based on the Churchbox Sessions was less of a producer and more of an engineer who would document the material. We rented a large estate overlooking Montego Bay and began searching for a sound or a song that would really catapult the band into supernova. My soul loved Jamaica and I began to transform my guitar playing and sound. I had purchased an old Fender Super Reverb and would begin to play into its vibrations. Unsheathed and Heropsychodreamer featured the reverberant quality’s of our rum-punch, pot infused sound. Dahlheimer delivered the guitar to Merica and in a finale, Ed told me to play the riff from Lakini’s Juice. I had almost forgot about it. He and Matt Gracey sat on the balcony as Ed screamed “more wine” in the verse. Thankfully, Trevor, our butler (seriously) brought more wine. These demos capture the band creativity that I think was the essential property that made Live a powerhouse band. The sessions are extremely raw, with very little mixing effort and were only intended to convince Gary that it was time to record. Thankfully, he gave the green light. There are several unreleased/unrecorded songs on these demos that will hopefully find there way to the public over time.

SECRET SAMADHI, 1996 (San Francisco, CA, Los Angeles, CA & New York, NY) age, 26yrs.
MEDIA FORMAT: 2” MASTER, PRO-TOOLS, ½” MASTER, DAT

This album was a cluster-fuck to record. We started in San Francisco, CA only to find that the studio had a buzz sound that transferred to every channel of the console and tape machine. We searched high and low to find a studio nearby but had to settle on LA. After moving tons of vintage recording gear and instruments to Los Angeles, Ed had a terrible allergic reaction to the house dog that lived in the studio. We fired Jay (as we had already spent several hundred thousand dollars and didn’t have a note recorded) and headed home to regroup. The entire band was depressed – it was truly our first major failure and we would have to struggle to gather ourselves and continue. After a short break, Jay called Ed and I pushing to use The Hit Factory in NYC, a well-known buzz and pet free studio. We could start in a week if we agreed to put him back on board as producer. We added a 40-piece orchestra to Lakin’s Juice and Turn My Head and once again tracked the band without click tracks live in a large room. The only overdubs were vocal doubles (very few harmonies), guitar solos (although GasHed and Graze were cut live) and the string sections. We wanted a raw record and got it (funny that it is our rawest recording that also got called over-produced). This is my all-time favorite Live album and the one I felt most represented my sonic vision of the band. When I listen to this album I am driven to tears. I can feel us let go and flow musically like at no other point in our career. I can’t imagine how much better it would have been if we would have not had the stops and stats associated with San Fran and LA. Tom Lord-Alge would once again add the finishing touches. Mall Rat & Photograph are finished masters. Pop Vortex would come from the Shadow Hill sessions and “Crayons” was an early lyric to Century; “come on, come on, return to crayons.”

In terms of unreleased tracks (that we know of) there are the following:

1. Cheetah
2. Photograph
3. Mallrat
4. Vine Street (aka Pop Vortex)

Live performed a few covers during the Secret Samadhi tour

1. Love My Way (Psychedelic Furs cover)
2. She Sells Sanctuary (The Cult cover)

Live also performed a few covers during the Throwing Copper tour which could be considered but personally I think they should have been included in the TC release.

1. Supernatural (Vic Chesnutt cover)
2. Dusted (Guided By Voices cover)

I have seen some pro-shot video recordings from the Secret Samadhi tour.

1. Pinkpop Festival 1997 (Holland)
2. Werchter Festival 1997 (Belgium)
3. Sydney 1997 (Australia) - footage of Lakini's Juice was shot by Channel V. Maybe more exists?
4. Washington, DC 1997 - footage of Lakini's Juice was on Launch #12
5. Howard Stern 1997

TV Appearances

1. Saturday Night Live (1997) - Lakini's Juice / Heropsychodreamer
2. Much Music Canada (Intimate & Interactive) 1997
3. Late Show with David Letterman (1997) - Turn My Head
4. The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (1997) - Turn My Head
5. Hey, Hey It's Saturday 1997 - Freaks performance

Remixes

1. Lakini's Juice (sippin' on Lakini's Juice)
2. Freaks (Labor, Labor, Labor mix)
3. White, Discussion (Sam Sever remix) - probably should have been included in the TC anniversary edition

Since there is going to be a lot of material from Secret Samadhi onwards, I think it would be great if Live would include downloadable content along with the release. It's unrealistic to expect Live to release a 5+ CD compilation or 2+ DVD package so if only the essential material could be pressed onto CD/DVD then it would keep to cost down and the big fans could get their fix with online downloads.

Have I missed anything? (probably)
Got anything else to add? (I hope so!)

Edit 1: added Freaks performance on Hey, Hey It's Saturday.
Edit 2: added remixes
Edit 3: added Turn My Head performance on Late Show with David Letterman
Edit 4: added Turn My Head performance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno

This post has been edited by dangum: Dec 18 2021, 9:12 am

[OutToDry]

I believe there are 3 tracks from SS era already out there under some lp title not to be named or seen