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Eight unreleased Layne Staley songs may be released soon

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E

Einhander

Member
According to The Pulse Of Radio, eight previously unreleased songs from late ALICE IN CHAINS lead singer Layne Staley are currently being restored and properly mixed by Seattle-based audio designer Jesse Holt. The tunes all have vocal tracks from Staley on them and Holt has asked Staley's MAD SEASON bandmate, PEARL JAM guitarist Mike McCready, for help in completing them.

Reportedly among the songs is "Things You Do", which has surfaced online in various forms in the years since Staley died of a drug overdose in April 2002.

ALICE IN CHAINS guitarist Jerry Cantrell told The Pulse Of Radio a while back that there was more to his friend than the way in which he died. "It's unfortunate that that seems to be the only headline that gets equated with him, because there was so much more to him than that," he said. "Not taking away the fact of the reality of what that is, and how it ended, everybody knows that too. But there's a whole lot more to the story."

Before his death, Staley had planned to work on a solo album and also intended to record vocals for a song by metal outfit TAPROOT. The demo of the song was in Staley's CD player when he was found dead.

There are also rumors that Staley was going to audition for the band that eventually became AUDIOSLAVE. He had reportedly gotten a call from the instrumental members of RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE about singing with them, but never made it. SOUNDGARDEN's Chris Cornell took the job instead, recording three studio albums with that act.
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http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/ei...-chains-singer-layne-staley-may-surface-soon/

Yes please.

It was news to me that Layne was going to audition for Audioslave. That would have made that band infinitely better.
 
N

norm9

Member
Oh man, hopefully it's good vocal tracks and not thrown away stuff he would have been disappointed in us hearing like latter day Tupac tracks.
 
E

Einhander

Member
Macam said:
Nice timing; I've been on AIC kick lately.

But, no, I don't think Staley would've made Audioslave better since I think Cornell has more of a musical range.
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Outside of a couple tracks, I didn't care for the work Chris Cornell did with them. Like A Stone is probably the biggest takeaway from Audioslave. It's a great song. He shines more when he is in Soundgarden. Loved King Animal.

Layne was good in Mad Season, so he would have done good things for Audioslave as well, and who knows, with him as the singer, the band may have taken the direction of the production to a completely different path.
 
KOMANI

KOMANI

KOMANI
I don't think Cornell at that stage had more of a range. Just listen to Staley's coloboration with the Heart sisters, "ring em bells"
 
D

D i Z

Member
ohhhhhhhhh shit! Anything else by Layne would be really fucking appreciated. I hope they get this out in good form. Thinking of what Layne could have brought to Audioslave is intriguing.
 
C

C4Lukins

Junior Member
bad said:
I don't think Cornell at that stage had more of a range. Just listen to Staley's coloboration with the Heart sisters, "ring em bells"
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Those two have such different styles, I would not compare them. Cornell was closer to Zeppelin, The Who, Heart, but could also bring it down to Eddie Vedder or Scott Weiland. He had crazy range.

Staley was great at what he did, and maybe his range was greater then what he did with AIC, but he sort of kept up a very specific voice throughout his time in Alice.
 
H

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
Damn this is great. Layne had pipes as powerful as his pain was deep. I still remember seeing how rough he looked during that MTV Unplugged episode.

https://youtu.be/A-YD1dwtewY

His performance can still bring a tear to the eye.
 
Livingskeletons

Livingskeletons

If I pulled that off, would you die?
C4Lukins said:
Those two have such different styles, I would not compare them. Cornell was closer to Zeppelin, The Who, Heart, but could also bring it down to Eddie Vedder or Scott Weiland. He had crazy range.

Staley was great at what he did, and maybe his range was greater then what he did with AIC, but he sort of kept up a very specific voice throughout his time in Alice.
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Always thought that Staley was the best of both worlds.

You get emotional rawness like Cobain and technical range like Cornell. Throw that in with Cantrell doing your backing vocals, you have some unparalleled vocal work.
 
Premium Quality

Premium Quality

Member
Livingskeletons said:
Always thought that Staley was the best of both worlds.

You get emotional rawness like Cobain and technical range like Cornell. Throw that in with Cantrell doing your backing vocals, you have some unparalleled vocal work.
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Looking back, I'd like to think Staley and Cobain were somehow related.
I can't wait to hear these songs.
I also will never ever get tired of listening to Would?.
It's been some 25 yrs later and the song still sounds amazing.
 
W

whitemex88

Member
Premium Quality said:
Looking back, I'd like to think Staley and Cobain were somehow related.
I can't wait to hear these songs.
I also will never ever get tired of listening to Would?.
It's been some 25 yrs later and the song still sounds amazing.
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the unplugged version is so much better
honestly, all the songs from their unplugged set are superior to all the originals
you really get to hear how great his voice was without any added sfx added in studio
 
L

LakeEarth

Member
Amazing! I remember being disappointed when they released the Mad Season deluxe edition, and I found out the 3 unreleased tracks on the album did not have Layne on vocals (though the songs turned out to be pretty good).

This is a gift.
 
KOMANI

KOMANI

KOMANI
C4Lukins said:
Those two have such different styles, I would not compare them. Cornell was closer to Zeppelin, The Who, Heart, but could also bring it down to Eddie Vedder or Scott Weiland. He had crazy range.

Staley was great at what he did, and maybe his range was greater then what he did with AIC, but he sort of kept up a very specific voice throughout his time in Alice.
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I wasn't the one who was comparing them, but even still... That Cornell that you've mentioned no longer exists. I love King Animal, but the CC on that album is not the same from Flower, or Bad Motorfinger etc.
 
M

Macam

Banned
whitemex88 said:
the unplugged version is so much better
honestly, all the songs from their unplugged set are superior to all the originals
you really get to hear how great his voice was without any added sfx added in studio
Click to expand...

Truth. That Unplugged album was one of those MTV masterpieces, thst really was just something to listen to end to end.

And I'm not a huge AIC fan, as I overlooked them at the time and am only belatedly getting around to their material, so I don't know what Staley's full range was. But as noted, most of the AIC work seems to stay in a pretty similar range.

As for Audioslave, Cochise is still probably the best opening track/video I've seen in a good long while. So good.
 
Premium Quality

Premium Quality

Member
whitemex88 said:
the unplugged version is so much better
honestly, all the songs from their unplugged set are superior to all the originals
you really get to hear how great his voice was without any added sfx added in studio
Click to expand...

I couldn't decide which version to post. Decided to go with the original.
It's stuff like this that makes me feel bad for the younger generations. I grew up with so many iconic bands. You can pretty much feel their emotions bursting through their songs.
I'm not hating on newer bands (I like a lot of the stuff out there), but they don't have that same raw emotion coming out of their songs. It usually sounds manufactured. They also tend to only be a one hit wonder band.
 
M

Mr. Tibbs

Member
Wow, I want to hear these. Is there any background info on where and when the songs were recorded?

I was hoping they might be Alice in Chains related, but this article from 2015 makes that seem unlikely.

Alice in Chains guitarist Jerry Cantrell seemingly confirmed the existence of Layne solo recordings or demos during a 2010 interview, saying, “I’d fucking go over to his place and he’d be playing me shit he’d be writing all the time. I would too. He’d play me stuff, I’d play him stuff, vice-versa.” He did not specify the period when he heard these recordings, if they were from the period when Alice in Chains was still active or if they were from Layne’s later years.

Jerry also said in the same interview that there are no more unreleased Alice in Chains recordings with Layne’s vocals, although drummer Sean Kinney did not entirely rule out the possibility. “If there is, it’s nothing that we would want, or he would have wanted released.”
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Z

Zombine

Banned
Can't believe he's been gone for like 12 years now. I'm always skeptical about unreleased/unfinished music releases. They tend to be unreleased for a reason, and the final product is probably not where the song was headed anyways.
 
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