True. Morse and Portnoy (and eventually George) were always having fun doing covers. They did a couple for Testimony, four for One, seven for ?, and four for Lifeline, but they haven't done any with MPG since that album in 2008. It's hard to separate MPG doing covers from TA because in 2009, they did four for The Whirlwind and then whooping eight for Kaleidoscope.
As far as solo Neal Morse, his last two major prog albums haven't had any covers, Testimony 2 and Momentum.
It's good to see that they did decide to release the other 3 songs from the studio sessions, though. I'm sure Neal didn't want to hold back any b-sides from the sessions, unless they were covers (like he did with the ? sessions, though those were later released on MPG's Cover To Cover).
-Marc.
Sounds like you haven't heard Cover2Cover. There's seven covers from the Momentum sessions, plus the five from Lifeline (including the unreleased King Crimson cover of "Starless"). Now you know. 
I mentioned
Lifeline, but I did forget about "Starless" as it wasn't on the album itself. As for the
Momentum session covers, I'll admit to forgetting about them as I don't typically listen to the Cover albums by MPG. But yes, there were 7 of those.
In that case, Neal, Mike and Randy had not done covers between 2008 and 2012 for those album sessions, so it was over 4 years in-between, although with TA's covers, in 2009 and 2014, it feels like we've gotten more from Neal (and Mike) than from just the solo Neal albums.
Back to the topic of
The Grand Experiment, I went back and read Randy's Studio Updates from back in mid-September and I'll share what he posted here:
September 13 ·
Well off to record a new Neal Morse Band album with Neal Morse and Mike Portnoy, Bill Hubauer and Eric Gillette! I leave out in the morning! This will be the longest session we have ever had together! But writing most of it from scratch so it might take a little longer! I am very excited about the possibilities!
September 17 · White House, TN ·
Well day 2 has ended and we have finished mapping out an epic song. It started as a piece that we put together last November in the first writing session. It was about 20 mins long and we basically cut a few parts out and replaced them with some of Eric's ideas. It was a bit if a challenge but I think in the end it will be great! There are several great ideas to work with and we will be mapping out some new ones tomorrow. For those not seasoned in the recording arts, we have to create a demo of the song for Mike to track drums with. After a few days of mapping out songs we will get final drums tracks and begin re-recording the instruments! I will get some pictures for the next entry.
September 18 ·
Day 3 wrap up: We spent a good part of the day continuing work on the big epic piece. We had a nice arrangement but in the morning Neal felt that it needed more fire to keep all y'all going at the start! So we drafted a new section starting with a riff from one of my demos. We kept going with it and it turned out quite amazing! Later in the day we moved on to a couple other new songs. One was a song Bill had and we tackled it... it has a really cool funky vibe to it! Then Neal had an idea for a Song and we tackled that... with Mike's direction it took an interesting turn and wow! Can't wait for you to hear this album! We have 2 other songs that were already mapped out waiting in the wings which brings us to a total of 5 songs. we have more to work on today so by the end of the day I think we'll have the album mapped out. We begin tracking final drums tomorrow!
Day 4 Wrap up: The day started with Eric, Bill and Neal working on a tune that Bill wrote called Waterfall. It's a really nice piece that is mostly just acoustic guitar and voices... with some cool keys to be added later. The three part vocals are mesmerizing! Once Mike showed up we fixed up a couple things from yesterday and moved on to a new piece. We started with a couple things we wrote last November in the writing session. The funny thing is by the end of the night not much remained of the original ideas as it had developed into something really cool! As of now we have 9 solid songs for the record. Tomorrow we begin tracking final drums for the songs. I believe Mike finished one of the songs already. So there are 8 left to get drum tracks on. We have til Sunday night when Mike has to leave. The rest of us will stay on a few more days to work on some things. I might finish a couple bass tracks before I leave... but I want to take most of the tracks home where I have more options for Bass sounds. So far it's shaping up really nice. We definitely ventured into new territory! There are great songs on this record for sure!
September 19 ·
Day 5: Well today started out with a few more tweaks to the song we completed last night. Once that was out of the way Mike started tracking final drums to it. The more he played through the cooler it became. It really took shape. When we first mapped it out I was really skeptical as it sounded like a mess of disjointed ideas... but we persevered and it became an extremely cool song. Sometimes the best things are born out of great pains! Anyhow Mike got all the drums done on the track and started into the 30 minute epic... why is there always a 30 minute epic? Anyway I digress. So here at the end of the day Mike all of a sudden got this major inspiration to do something at the top of the song in the intro! Something about Xanadu... but I'll just leave it at that! Anyhow there are about 7 more songs left and most are much shorter so we should get through quite a bit tomorrow! One thing you can expect is... while we probably won;t do any covers... one of the main tracks will be a remake of a song from 1969 (?) and it is pretty cool! You wouldn't know the song from hearing our remake but you would know it by the lyrics of course but the music is totally progged out! I will say while everyone here is amazingly talented... Bill Hubauer is a particular genius when it comes to creating an arrangement! His contributions to this record are phenomenal! Eric Gillette is on fire and brings some incredible guitar work as well as his own brilliant arrangements! One of my favorite moments on the album is from his demo! I can't wait to get this thing mixed and out! And better yet... I can't wait to hit the road with it! Dates are being sorted out as we speak! Of course that will be in 2015! I'm toast so back to my hotel room and chill and watch some Netflix and then zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.....!
Day 6: The day started with Mike and Jerry working on what had already been tracked... just dialing it in better. Then Mike jumped into a couple new things. The first is an 11 minute roller coaster ride that Bill arranged of a classic song from 1968. yeah it's a cover but not in the usual sense. This one, while based on the themes of the original sound nothing like the original. You're probably saying...what? Yes one of the main songs is a remake. Not a bonus disc feature... Both Mike and Bill felt strongly about that and Neal went for it... The other song is one of the shorter more poppy songs that has a bit of a funky / sludgy feel to it. It is a cool song though! Think Simon and Garfunkel meet the Hollies, but definitely a little more proggy than that. We settled on 7 songs of the 9 that were on the table. We would do all 9 but the 7 add up to about 70 minutes or so. The verdict is still out on whether or not there will be a bonus disc. But Mike flies out tomorrow night so it will depend on how much we accomplish. The 7 songs is the priority. I think we have drums for 6 in the can as of now. The rest of the week will be the 4 of us writing and recording some bits that are still blank but now have drums that will dictate what happens in those spaces. Things like riffs and unison phrases that tie parts together. Neal has also been working on lyrics as we work. Anyhow that's about it for now. Things are winding down so maybe I'll add one more update in a couple days depending on if there is anything interesting to to tell!
September 24 ·
Final wrap: I'm headed back to LA tomorrow! It's been a long run! But what a great album in the making! Everyone brought such a great vibe and attitude toward it and remained really open to ideas! I tracked bass last night to one of the songs with the working title of the Great Experiment. It's a drop D vibe and I used my friend Mark Roberts 8 String Kramer! I also used my Tech 21 NYC Red Ripper pedal to get that low grungy King's X kind of vibe to it. Really cool song. What's funny is that Neal wrote it the second day and of course it had a real Neal sort of vibe with the keyboard and what not... Mike said he wanted to hear the main riff on guitar so Eric rocked it on guitar and it totally opened up the song... Mike was really instrumental in the direction it went from there! Neal probably never expected his idea to take that direction! But he loves it now! I think he's excited as so many things are different than what he normally goes for. But he has been great in letting things take shape as they seem to want. In the end he knows it will be for the best! I have stems copied onto my thumb drive and I can't wait to dive into them at home! I already plan to use my Wilkins 65 P Bass on a couple of songs! Unfortunately I am not sure I'll have much time before the Flying Colors tour starts! Everyone flies into LA on Sunday night to start rehearsals on Monday! I might find some time next week to knock a couple things out... but the bulk of it won't happen til I get back from Europe. Same for Neal. Eric is getting married and honeymooning so he won't get to things until about the same time. Bill is the only one that can start working on things right away! It will be good to have his finished tracks to work with though! We are trying to get it all done by Nov 1st to hand off to Rich for mixing! Anyhow I look forward to coming in a blasting through the new Bass Amp we just got here in the studio! It just arrived today! It's an Ampeg SVT 4 Pro with a 4 x 10 cab and a 1 x 15 cab! I bought one too so I'll have to un-box it when I get home as mine arrived while I have been here! Hopefully I'll have time to take it over to the rehearsal studio to make some noise this weekend!
So judging by these posts, we can see a few facts:
-They had written 9 songs, but the final album only has 5, with 3 on the bonus disc. Where's the 9th song?!
-Randy says there were 7 songs as a priority, so I wonder which 2 got cut from the album?
-The two epics are of the 20~ minute and 30~ minute length.
-And if 7 songs added up to 70 minutes, with 50+ of those from 2 epics alone, the remaining 3 songs add up to less than 20 minutes.
-"Waterfall", which made it to the album, was a song by Bill.
-At least one song was brought in by Eric as a demo.
-"The Grand Experiment" was once called "The Great Experiment", written by Neal in studio.
-One of the tracks is an 11-minute cover of a 1968 song, arranged by Bill. Not sure if this track made it to the album or not, but Randy said Mike and Bill really wanted it for the album and he says it would be included, but we can deduct that it's title is either "Agenda", "Following The Call", or "Alive Again".
That's all I've got for now. Can anyone figure out what the cover song is and who it's by now that we know the tracklist?
-Marc.
Topic: Official Neal Morse Appreciation Thread (Read 544031 times)
