Let’s discuss any and all music here. You’ve got a new artist who’s rocking your boat that you want to talk about? Post a video! Found out about that unearthed Coltrane album that has the jazz freak in you losing your mind? Lay it out for us! Do you have a theory about what your favorite band might do for their next album? Let’s hear it! Anything and everything music-related goes here.

This week’s discussion prompt: What are your favorite “lost” or unreleased albums? And of the albums that are truly M.I.A. (i.e. have yet to see the light of day in bootleg or any other form) which ones would you like to hear the most?

For many years, SMiLE by the Beach Boys was arguably the most famous (and highly sought-after) “lost” album by any recording artist. And while it eventually did get two official releases (in 2004 as a collection by re-recordings by Brian Wilson and a number of collaborators, including Van Dyke Parks and the Wondermints, and in 2011 as a compilation/box set titled The SMiLE Sessions, which used the original recordings and included a hypothetical reconstruction of the 1967 album), by this time literally hundreds of bootlegs and fan reconstructions had been released, so for some neither of these official versions truly captured the version of SMiLE that they had imagined.

I got bitten by the SMiLE bug back around 2002, and at the time picked up a bootleg that included this 10-minute track titled “The Heroes and Villains Suite”, composed of numerous bits and pieces of takes from the various sessions for the song. While neither of the official versions (and none of the other fan reconstructions I’ve heard) include this version, for me it’s become an integral part of my personal version of what I imagine SMiLE to be:

As always, any and all music-related posts are welcome. Have fun, and rock out with yr guac out!