Matt Monro Forum

Hi.

A random suggestion but I would love to see a Matt Unplugged album. Richard being the genius he is can achieve anything within reason. Why not take the master vocal from the hits and record a new backing track. Perhaps stripped down maybe just a piano and a couple of strings. These sort of albums have been so popular in recent years. The Rick Rubin albums come to mind with legends like Johnny Cash and Neil Diamond doing stripped down sessions with just a voice and a few accompanying instruments.

More recently Glen Campbell has re-recorded his hits with a minimal backing. Gives a completely different sound and interpretation of songs you've known so well over the years.

Now I know Richard has multiple takes of the hits i.e. Alternate Monro. So why not use some more alternate takes and put that incredible voice up front for a change.

Just a thought.

Hope everyone is well,

Alex.

Here's an example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXUKMJYz7EU

Now I know we can't get Matt to re-record but you get the idea.

I think Matt's voice was always up front and never drowned out by the band, what does everyone else think?

I don't mean it's drowned out. I think it's great now and made even better by Richard.

What I'm saying is wouldn't it be great if the backing was more low key like a couple of guitars and a piano. It would feel like Matt was singing to you in your living room. That was the sort of feel I was trying to get.

Take for example his rendition of Yesterday on the BBC TV programme. Fantastic with just a piano and nothing else.

That is a very interesting idea--if Richard could do it, I imagine it would sound really good.

That is a very interesting idea--if Richard could do it, I imagine it would sound really good.

There are a couple of Matt tracks on Matt Uncoverd with minimalistic backing with just George Martin on piano, including the awesome No One Will ever Know

Just listened to No One Will Ever Know. This is exactly what I'm talking about. I'd love to hear Born Free done in the same way.

Hi,

It's a nice idea and actually something we wanted to do with the New York Sessions which has had to be cancelled (for the time being at least) as we have no current working relation ship with Capitol/Universal (although I will continue to work on that!)

Anyway back in November 1966 Matt recorded (at Capitol's now long gone New York Studios) more than an album's worth of tracks with just Piano, Bass, Drums and Guitar - and this is how he wanted it issued. They were head arrangements (ie made up in the studio and not written down) and Matt loved the feel of the songs. Then without him knowing all of the songs were taken back to Hollywood and given orchestral overdubs. These songs became the Invitation to Broadway LP plus a single or two and a few unreleased tracks (two of which still are). As far as i have been able to ascertain the undubbed tapes are still in the Capitol vaults.

As for other recordings being stripped down, well this is possible but there are only limited numbers of multitracks surviving from the Parlophone years and the Capitol tapes are currently off limits, although pretty much everything exists on multitrack from 1971 onwards excluding the two Philippines tracks and oddly his last single (Don't know why that one doesn't survive!). Software is advancing that will be able to separate vocals from backing tracks but it's not quite there yet!

There is a MAJOR problem though, Cost!

It is expensive to get multitrack tapes transferred to modern formats (which is why alternate is just a single album!) and then new arrangements would have to be created, musician's hired and studios rented all of which don't come cheap!
- I am certainly not in favour of putting synthesized keyboard tracks behind Matt. This is not the kind of project that Parlophone would be willing to finance at the moment as they wouldn't consider it a big enough seller to recoup the money spent on it. Should the film on Matt's life ever materialise (and it's currently gone very quiet!) then maybe it could be looked at, but until then........

Actually, I wanted to strip back some of the tracks from Matt's last EMI LP 'If I Never Sing Another Song' for Alternate as the arrangements are quite dated, but budgets got in the way (Abbey Road wanted £16,000 to transfer ALL the tapes I would have liked!)

Richard

We really liked this idea from Alex but of course now that Richard has explained the problems that would be encountered we can only hope that some day in the future this may become a possibility and if that is the case we know that Richard will be there with bells on.

So refreshing to encounter someone who knows their job, Richard.

Would the coalition government had an inkling of same...

Wow if this does happen I for one would love it. The Alternate Monro is awesome and I have to ask my Dad to borrow "his" cd. Lol I think I better buy two copies the next time around.

What about Kickstarter (or whatever it is called) to raise money for any of these ideas?

I have considered kickstarter for another non Matt project but unfortunately at the moment don't think Matt has a big enough following to cover the major costs involved - which would be in the many ten's of thousands of pounds, especially as it would have to be done completely independently of Parlophone.