EPISODE · Sep 13, 2025 · 2H 54M
Back-to-Back-to-Back Stax-o-Trax
from Snap, Crackle, POP! with Alec Cumming · host Alec Cumming, WPKN
If you're an avid listener of the show*, you'd know that a big fave "genre" of mine to play on Snap Crackle POP! is (are?) backing tracks... that is, the sound of a finished track minus the vocals, so one can hear the instruments and the musicians and the musician's/producer's/arranger's artistry much more clearly. You can see the sausage/donuts/magic being made, in other words. So I decided to dedicate a whole show to these kind of tracks, because... well, I probably listen to Beatles and Beach Boys session tracks much more now than I do to their actual finished tracks. (This is why that, for the life of me, I don't care at all about the whole "mono mixes versus today's remastered crap" thing. As long as I can hear an elctrifying/life-affirming piece of music played in a ass-kicking, classic and/or deconstrucrted way, as long as the "magic" of the art-being-made is still thrillingly evident, I'm there.) Yes, many of these tracks are actually outtakes, alternate versions, rarities or covers in addition to actual backing tracks, but... well, you can deal. Jackson 5 Never Can Say Goodbye (DJ Moch's Extended Reconstruction) I Want You Back (backing track) The Rolling Stones Dead Flowers (alternate version) Brown Sugar (alternate version w/ Eric Clapton) Rice Krispies jingle When the Whip Comes Down (live 1978, Sucking In The Seventies version) The Who I Can See For Miles (mono mix w/ session noises) Little Billy Kids! Do You Want Kids (Pete Townsend demo) Christmas (Pete Townsend Tommy demo) The Kinks Waterloo Sunset (session excerpt + backing track take 2) Starstruck (alternate mix with session chat) Phenomenal Cat (alternate mix with session chat) Do You Remember Walter (backing track) People Take Pictures of Each Other (cover by Steady Water & Bedouine) Misty Water (Village Green Preservation Society outtake) The Beach Boys Let Him Run Wild (Stack-o-Tracks instrumental version) Can't Wait Too Long (1993 mix) With a Little Help from My Friends Walk On By Lonely Days SMiLE backing vocals montage Good Vibrations (45 backing track) The Association Windy (backing track) Never My Love (w/ extended Larry Knechtel end solo) Are You There with Another Girl (backing track) – Dionne Warwick/Burt Bacharach Blackbird – Brad Mehldau The Beatles You Only Give Me Your Money (take 36) Yes It Is (takes 2 & 14) It's Only Love (takes 3 & 2) Getting Better (take 1/instrumental) Getting Better (take 12/instrumental) I'll Be Back (take 2) I'll Be Back (take 3) No Reply (demo) No Reply (take 2) This Boy (takes 12 & 13) Eleanor Rigby (session chat + take 2/instrume) She's Leaving Home (take 6/instrumental) Here Comes The Sun (take 9) * you are? for reals? THANK YOU!
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Back-to-Back-to-Back Stax-o-Trax
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