The Batson Sessions: DMB Studio Efforts from 2006 Leaked - News Discussion

[splack03]

Really happy to see Gas Into Fire was actually given a real shot in studio. Drive me Away is really good, but....Gas Into Fire's lyrics are absolutely phenomenal, it would have been nice to have seen Dave use some of those lyrics ("the ambulance with no sirens came to blow you away" is just spectacular)

[bubba40]

With Come Tomorrow, I'm basically at the point where the only good parts are Jeff's solo on B&BB, the horns on Can't Stop, and parts of Virginia in the Rain.

[bartender_man]

Originally Posted by bubba40

With Come Tomorrow, I'm basically at the point where the only good parts are Jeff's solo on B&BB, the horns on Can't Stop, and parts of Virginia in the Rain.

Let me guess-you love AFTW tho right?

[saxman210]

A couple of thoughts:

I think it’s crazy that we’re basically seeing tLWS in reverse. We saw a finished product of some of these songs on CT and then get to see the creative process of how they got there...like going back in time.

It would be fun to watch the collective forum explosion if Dave busted out one of these unheard of songs (Early Home!) as the opener for the first show of the winter tour.

Count me as one who is curious if we get an album out of this now like busted stuff after tLWS. Guess we’ll find out.

[crashintonickdm]

Originally Posted by bartender_man

Let me guess-you love AFTW tho right?

Hard to love anything past 2008ish but AFTW is a way better dmb album

Come tomorrow doesn’t even sound like dmb

[rhizingbines]

Originally Posted by saxman210

A couple of thoughts:

I think it’s crazy that we’re basically seeing tLWS in reverse. We saw a finished product of some of these songs on CT and then get to see the creative process of how they got there...like going back in time.

It would be fun to watch the collective forum explosion if Dave busted out one of these unheard of songs (Early Home!) as the opener for the first show of the winter tour.

Count me as one who is curious if we get an album out of this now like busted stuff after tLWS. Guess we’ll find out.

Some people on these boards with inside info have been hinting at a follow up album to CT since before CT was released. Even using hints like “Red Glare” and “Ask”.

I think in that sense, this is a little LWS-esque in that we’re hearing some new songs that were probably going to be used on that album (and probably still will be).

[Caveat Emperor]

Originally Posted by Cptn. Monkeyman

But yeah, Carson basically answered my questions. It seems there was a lot going on from 2015-2017 and nothing was really set in stone. Come Tomorrow now seems to me like they had way too much material that they worked on, and they couldn’t just let it all go to waste, so Dave just decided to pull what he considered to be the best for one album. I don’t think Dave really thinks about the whole “who produced what” point. To him, they’re all his songs, and he can make whatever album he wants regardless of who produced which tracks. It’s a total Frankenstein album, but apparently he’s happy with the results. I’m just obsessive and I hate seeing great material left behind (Sugar Will, Bismarck)

I think it's now fairly obvious, based on the changes made to "Come On" to add a full string section and "Can't Stop" to remove Boyd's parts entirely, that the point of CT was to create a record that did everything possible to not include the band member that was being kicked out because of sexual harassment / assault allegations.

If it's a "Frankenstein" album, it's because they were working on a short timetable to meet a release date and scrub that band member's involvement.

And yes, count me as someone who wants to see this material revisited (or at the very least played live). The utterly shocking part of this leak is that they appeared to be on their way to a decent, if not very good, album -- and this is, by all indications, almost the exact spot where the band nearly broke up prior to the '07 Vegas shows.

[ForkInFork]

Originally Posted by Cptn. Monkeyman

Yeah the Scream into the Grave tease was a good find on almanacs part. I’m pretty sure bowa36 was the first to share that here. As for the 04 songs, I think this is basically what we’ve got:

1. Hello Again - Made it onto Stand Up
2. Joyride - Released as a bside to Stand Up
3. Crazy Easy - Recorded during Stand Up, but not released
4. Sugar Will - Recorded during abunch of sessions, still never released
5. Good Good Time - Started as a Dave & Friends song, and I don’t think it was ever meant to be on an album. I don’t think they ever took it to studio?
6. Gas into Fire - Became Drive Me Away during Batson Sessions, not released
7. Scream into the Grave - Developed during Batson Sessions, not released

Originally Posted by Caveat Emperor

I think it's now fairly obvious, based on the changes made to "Come On" to add a full string section and "Can't Stop" to remove Boyd's parts entirely, that the point of CT was to create a record that did everything possible to not include the band member that was being kicked out because of sexual harassment / assault allegations.

If it's a "Frankenstein" album, it's because they were working on a short timetable to meet a release date and scrub that band member's involvement.

And yes, count me as someone who wants to see this material revisited (or at the very least played live). The utterly shocking part of this leak is that they appeared to be on their way to a decent, if not very good, album -- and this is, by all indications, almost the exact spot where the band nearly broke up prior to the '07 Vegas shows.

Ive seen this thrown around a lot, but they had full band string sections brought in and recorded like 2 years before the Boyd allegations even surfaced

[Heyberto]

Originally Posted by splack03

Really happy to see Gas Into Fire was actually given a real shot in studio. Drive me Away is really good, but....Gas Into Fire's lyrics are absolutely phenomenal, it would have been nice to have seen Dave use some of those lyrics ("the ambulance with no sirens came to blow you away" is just spectacular)

Since the LWS, it seems the band / Dave has focused a lot on Quantity to be able to find the best ideas to pursue. I think that's a big contrast to their earlier career where they worked harder on a smaller amount of songs. It's pretty clear the LWS was the breaking of the old mold of song construction.

Since then, Dave has certainly seemed to get excited over new stuff. I think about how excited the band was to play those 4 new songs in 2004.. only to have them fall by the wayside very rapidly. That seemed to be the start of a pattern. He'd always go back and work on stuff, but it seldom seemed to stick like it did it's debut year. When they would break out Hello Again or Sugar Will, it just wasn't played with the same kind of vigor. How often has Can't Stop or Idea of You been played on this tour despite making the album (thank god about the former). They just don't seem like they want to play it.

For me, Hello Again could have been another Bartender, DDTW or Two Step. A big song, tour staple had they not effectively abandoned it.

So with Gas Into Fire / Blow you Away, I think it's simple matter of they didn't want to play it or work on it. They worked it up, and lost interest, despite the quality. I think it, along with Break for It, has the most potential out of all these songs.

I also agree that this band should play what they want to.... it just boggles the mind that they don't want revisit some real gems just because they like the feel of working on something new. This band seems to thrive on that feeling, as opposed to the quality of the output.. and it's been the story of the latter part of their carreer.

[KevinTH]

Originally Posted by saxman210

A couple of thoughts:

I think it’s crazy that we’re basically seeing tLWS in reverse. We saw a finished product of some of these songs on CT and then get to see the creative process of how they got there...like going back in time.

It would be fun to watch the collective forum explosion if Dave busted out one of these unheard of songs (Early Home!) as the opener for the first show of the winter tour.

Count me as one who is curious if we get an album out of this now like busted stuff after tLWS. Guess we’ll find out.

Maybe I'm way off, but I keep seeing people post this and I just don't see it happening. Lillywhite Sessions was such a different situation, in my opinion. The eight songs that were heard summer 2000 were very well received and expected to be on the next album. Back in 2000 Everyday was the very first true departure from the DMB sound we were all used to. It did not sit well with a lot of fans so with the release of the Lillywhite Sessions it made a bit more sense at the time for the band to give us Busted Stuff. The Lillywhite Sessions has also just been recorded a year prior to Everyday.

Flash forward and while a similar release drops on the fan base, it happened 12 years after the fact and we have a completely different band. It's 2018, Boyd is gone, Roi has passed, there are new members. Sure they revisited some of that material for Come Tomorrow, but as someone posted supposedly Batson had to pull some teeth to get "Idea of You" on there. Since 2006 the band has written a bunch more material, we never heard a majority of the songs on the Batson Sessions, whereas we had heard majority of the songs on Lillywhite Sessions. The situation feels much different even though it's a similar event. The fan base doesn't have the same attachment to the unreleased material as we did with the Lillywhite Sessions, and quite frankly I think the band is in a much different state.

It still wouldn't surprise me to find Shotgun or Break For It make an album one day, but that has been in the cards for years. And maybe some of the other material makes it out as a more finished product, but I don't think the same rush to do so will be there as it was for the Lillywhite material.

[excitingjae]

Originally Posted by DMBlunts

7-21-2004 -- It's in the "Intro" track before Fool To Think.

not that anyone cares but this has my favorite Sugar Will. I actually lost my mp3s of this show years ago and couldn't remember what show it was until I just listened to it right now.

[grilldanmo]

Originally Posted by jbrown211

The structure of the music is still good, especially live, and that's my main focus. The music is just less layered with less (or no) boyd and the horns on the last few albums. Boyd and the horns are so critical for their sound, especially with many of us older fans on these forums, but the horns seem to be fading with the loss of Roi. Still there, but less impactful to me. Roi was just incredible and i love Coffin for stepping in and not missing a beat, but Roi's playing is perfect.

Roi is one of my favorite musicians ever. His sound is what I miss most in the band, but I moved on rather quickly. Besides already being a big fan of Jeff in the Flecktones and adjusting to his approach and sound within the context of DMB, it's not like LeRoi can come back.

It seems pretty clear that his impact on the music was far greater than it seemed to most folks. We've come to know that he was a foil to Dave and helped embellish, shape, edit, or even trash ideas that he felt weren't good. From what's been published in interviews over the past few years, it seems Dave has taken more control and no one else either has, cares to, or has been allowed to fill that role of challenging Dave or his musical ideas.

That said, Dave keeps writing great music. And we all agree on that. We may not agree which of the tunes he and band have written and recorded/played live are the best, but we definitely agree that there have been great new tunes. As long as that keeps coming, I'm ready to take it in.

[Cscottrun]

The more I listen to the Batson Sessions, despite the relatively low quality and unfinished product, the more I realize how much more I like them compared to CT. At this point, for me, and I know I'm probably in the minority, it's really not even close. There is maybe only one or two songs on CT that I appreciate as much (or maybe more) than the songs on the Batson Sessions.

[hailtopitt]

Originally Posted by Cscottrun

The more I listen to the Batson Sessions, despite the relatively low quality and unfinished product, the more I realize how much more I like them compared to CT. At this point, for me, and I know I'm probably in the minority, it's really not even close. There is maybe only one or two songs on CT that I appreciate as much (or maybe more) than the songs on the Batson Sessions.

i'm with you

[ForkInFork]

Originally Posted by Cscottrun

The more I listen to the Batson Sessions, despite the relatively low quality and unfinished product, the more I realize how much more I like them compared to CT. At this point, for me, and I know I'm probably in the minority, it's really not even close. There is maybe only one or two songs on CT that I appreciate as much (or maybe more) than the songs on the Batson Sessions.

same. Not only the music, but the excitement over them is higher than anything the band has delivered officially in a while.

[rhizingbines]

Originally Posted by Caveat Emperor

I think it's now fairly obvious, based on the changes made to "Come On" to add a full string section and "Can't Stop" to remove Boyd's parts entirely, that the point of CT was to create a record that did everything possible to not include the band member that was being kicked out because of sexual harassment / assault allegations.

If it's a "Frankenstein" album, it's because they were working on a short timetable to meet a release date and scrub that band member's involvement.

And yes, count me as someone who wants to see this material revisited (or at the very least played live). The utterly shocking part of this leak is that they appeared to be on their way to a decent, if not very good, album -- and this is, by all indications, almost the exact spot where the band nearly broke up prior to the '07 Vegas shows.

Boyd’s part wasn’t removed from “Can’t Stop”. It’s one of two songs he plays on on CT

Originally Posted by ForkInFork

Ive seen this thrown around a lot, but they had full band string sections brought in and recorded like 2 years before the Boyd allegations even surfaced

This.

Originally Posted by KevinTH

Maybe I'm way off, but I keep seeing people post this and I just don't see it happening. Lillywhite Sessions was such a different situation, in my opinion. The eight songs that were heard summer 2000 were very well received and expected to be on the next album. Back in 2000 Everyday was the very first true departure from the DMB sound we were all used to. It did not sit well with a lot of fans so with the release of the Lillywhite Sessions it made a bit more sense at the time for the band to give us Busted Stuff. The Lillywhite Sessions has also just been recorded a year prior to Everyday.

Flash forward and while a similar release drops on the fan base, it happened 12 years after the fact and we have a completely different band. It's 2018, Boyd is gone, Roi has passed, there are new members. Sure they revisited some of that material for Come Tomorrow, but as someone posted supposedly Batson had to pull some teeth to get "Idea of You" on there. Since 2006 the band has written a bunch more material, we never heard a majority of the songs on the Batson Sessions, whereas we had heard majority of the songs on Lillywhite Sessions. The situation feels much different even though it's a similar event. The fan base doesn't have the same attachment to the unreleased material as we did with the Lillywhite Sessions, and quite frankly I think the band is in a much different state.

It still wouldn't surprise me to find Shotgun or Break For It make an album one day, but that has been in the cards for years. And maybe some of the other material makes it out as a more finished product, but I don't think the same rush to do so will be there as it was for the Lillywhite material.

I mean it’s basically been confirmed by insiders that there have been plans to release at least some of these songs such as “Red Glare” and “Ask” specifically on an official album since before the release of CT.

It’s not like Busted Stuff in the sense that they’ll feel forced to release it, they were already planning on it allegedly.

[Peregrine]

Is there a tl;dr for how to download this music for those of us who have been away for the last week since the news broke?

[excitingjae]

Some thoughts on the 2004 songs and 2006 songs and the state of the band during this time.


I wouldn't be surprised if the 2004 songs got the old "Where is the Tripping Billies?" treatment.

Dave called Everyday "Dave Matthews with Glen Ballard" and Stand Up "Dave Matthews with Mark Batson". The band was in a bad spot in 2006. Dave working with Batson again was probably bad for the band but he didn't know it at the time. Aside from other band members and their input into the 2006 songs I wouldn't be surprised if these also got the "Where's Billies?" treatment.

Then they work things out and start working on Big Whiskey. (which, by the way had hits)


In an alternate universe what if...

Early 2007 - DMB releases a new album with these 2006 songs and maybe an 04 song or two.

Does it have any hits?

Does the band tour and everything's fine or are they still in a bad spot?

Do they go back into the studio and still produce the Big Whiskey songs?

[kelchlsm]

Originally Posted by splack03

Really happy to see Gas Into Fire was actually given a real shot in studio. Drive me Away is really good, but....Gas Into Fire's lyrics are absolutely phenomenal, it would have been nice to have seen Dave use some of those lyrics ("the ambulance with no sirens came to blow you away" is just spectacular)

While I agree- the bolded is great-

I think Dave did a nice job with these lyrics in the studio-

"Walking down the garden path
I heard a pop and hurried in
And saw you there, I dropped my bags
Little baby love, what have you done?
Off the phone, the cops came in
They're tying up a few loose ends

Somebody drive me away"

Still paints a haunting image- and gives the song justice from the improv of the 04 version.

This is the best of these batson songs

[DMBCardinal]

These are kind of cool and there are some great tunes like ABC, Early Home, and Drive Me Away, but I can't imagine enjoying these demos more than CT. Don't get me wrong, it is exciting to get these demos. The songs that we have heard before like Shotgun and Break Free don't do much for me. We have much better versions live anyways. Break For It and Kill the King are nice though. DYR, Again and Again, Virginia in the Rain, and B&BB are better than anything here and it is good quality. I haven't listened to CT recently, but whenever a song comes on (minus CT the song) I really enjoy it.

[excitingjae]

Originally Posted by Peregrine

Is there a tl;dr for how to download this music for those of us who have been away for the last week since the news broke?

type in "The batson sessions" on google and look for a link that isn't youtube videos or news reports.

[Cscottrun]

Originally Posted by DMBCardinal

These are kind of cool and there are some great tunes like ABC, Early Home, and Drive Me Away, but I can't imagine enjoying these demos more than CT. Don't get me wrong, it is exciting to get these demos. The songs that we have heard before like Shotgun and Break Free don't do much for me. We have much better versions live anyways. Break For It and Kill the King are nice though. DYR, Again and Again, Virginia in the Rain, and B&BB are better than anything here and it is good quality. I haven't listened to CT recently, but whenever a song comes on (minus CT the song) I really enjoy it.

Respectfully, I disagree. I would take a polished version of Shotgun, Break Free, and Break For It (a few of them I would take in their current form) over any song on CT. The songs you referenced from CT are definitely the better of the bunch. An album containing those songs and some songs from the Batson Sessions really would have been a great disc.

[Peregrine]

Originally Posted by excitingjae

type in "The batson sessions" on google and look for a link that isn't youtube videos or news reports.

uploadfiles.io?

[excitingjae]

Originally Posted by Peregrine

uploadfiles.io?

[FeelingGood]

Originally Posted by Cscottrun

Respectfully, I disagree. I would take a polished version of Shotgun, Break Free, and Break For It (a few of them I would take in their current form) over any song on CT. The songs you referenced from CT are definitely the better of the bunch. An album containing those songs and some songs from the Batson Sessions really would have been a great disc.

I think Dave wanted CT to be optimistic, so songs like Shotgun, Early Home, and Red Glare wouldn't have fit his theme (you or I wouldn't have minded it). I still think there's enough content in tBS for another studio release though. My hope is waning...can never understand this band's disconnection from its' fanbase.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

[Titotimmy]

Originally Posted by FeelingGood

I think Dave wanted CT to be optimistic, so songs like Shotgun, Early Home, and Red Glare wouldn't have fit his theme (you or I wouldn't have minded it). I still think there's enough content in tBS for another studio release though. My hope is waning...can never understand this band's disconnection from its' fanbase.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

Tend to agree, there is some dark stuff in these sessions. Although I think Break For It would have been a nice fit/a more listenable song than most on CT

[Moose Thompson]

I'm not very familiar with the '06/'07 band almost broke up - Dave wrote a letter details. I know the broad strokes, but is there somewhere I can go to read more? A thread or maybe an article? Thanks for any help.

[dmbclstj2]

Anyone in the know have an idea as to what songs were considered for CT from these sessions but ultimately chopped? I want to say I heard Red Glare, Ask were considered.

[grilldanmo]

Originally Posted by Moose Thompson

I'm not very familiar with the '06/'07 band almost broke up - Dave wrote a letter details. I know the broad strokes, but is there somewhere I can go to read more? A thread or maybe an article? Thanks for any help.

I read this quite some time ago, so I don't remember the details, but it is discussed in this:

https://dontburnthepig.org/newsartic...ost-broke.html

here's EW original:

https://ew.com/article/2009/05/20/dave-matthews-b-3/

[Carson31]

Originally Posted by dmbclstj2

Anyone in the know have an idea as to what songs were considered for CT from these sessions but ultimately chopped? I want to say I heard Red Glare, Ask were considered.

Death on the High Seas is the only one I'm sure of. That was a contender to be the album's title at one point too.

I'm not sure how close Ask or Red Glare were to being on Come Tomorrow. When I posted those titles I was just messing around to see if anyone would react. Didn't expect it to come home to roost so quickly.

I think there were folks who expected some b-sides on a bonus disc but I honestly have no idea if that was ever in the cards.