All this talk about One has prompted me to put on the Making Of One DVDs from the Inner Circle, since I'm not curious about those sessions. I'm typing up direct quotes from the video to share here so shed some light on how those sessions went, with some of it being Neal's (and Randy's) thoughts on the sessions long afterwards (after reviewing the material for the video).
I'll update this post with more quotes as I go along, but here are some tidbits that I've found interesting enough to share for now:
Neal's Foreword before the main presentation -
"One of the first things i remember about it was that right from the beginning I felt like I was supposed to collaborate. Figuring out who to collaborate with was kind of a bit of a challenge. It wound up being that Mike and Randy, particularly Randy George, he helped me a lot with the lyrics. It was fun for me watching all the old footage cuz I don't remember most of the stuff, cuz it was '04, and I didn't remember that Randy and I worked on the lyrics so much. There's so many diferent parts of the process that I didn't reall remember."
Neal wanted to name the album Unity. Mike liked it. Randy suggested One.
Neal on The Creation -
"I can't say enough about what Mike and Randy had to with all of, how it all turned out. When I listened to the original demo, there was really not much of an intro. I had this idea of, for the beginning, the very beginning, of this orchestra thing of God breathing in Heaven before Creation *sings opening*. And on the demo, I put breathing in there. That's what I was going for in that beginning was kind of God by himself, and then when the band comes in, now he creates man. I was really taken with ow much Mike and Randy helped to shape that whole intro thing. I think it was Randy's idea to go into the bass and drums part. We didn't really have any of that stuff, and I think one of my favorite sections, the part that goes *sings the part at 2:24* - I love that part, really exciting part! That was some, in some way derived form a riff that I heard on, Randy had sent me some demos of some of his things that he was wanting to sort of throw into the mix. And so, yeah, the whole intro of Creation, before the vocals start, was really a three-way jam."
Randy discusses how he had a large part in suggesting lyrical ideas to Neal and how Neal surprised him with accepting them during the demo stage.
Neal -
"As I watch the footage, I saw that really it was Mike's vision to have another section in there, and as I was playing he was kind of coaching me on the chords. I'd been hearing this melody, and isn't that bizarre, you know, you're working on this album then you come in the morning and you're just hearing this melody and it just fits, just becomes the perfect thing that you need, and you don't even know that you need it and it just fits in there perfectly. But there's this cool footage of Mike sitting there behind me, "No, no, no. Go to a higher chord." I'm not even hearing what he's hearing, ya know, and then we finally get it, and it's just the right thing. And it builds up, builds up, and cut - "In the evening breezes..." and I'm like "Oh yeah!"
Then there's that footage of Mike and Neal, with Randy, of working out the chord changes before the above vocal part comes in. Neal comments that while his idea was different, it was good!
Randy talks about how, in The Creation, they cut an "Irish Anthem" from the piece, and replaced it with parts they had laying around.
Neal then talks about how The Man's gone was really the first song he wrote for the album. Interesting to note that the opening storm heard in the song was actually recorded from the door to the outside of his studio.
Neal, on Author of Confusion -
"My original version started off with the *sings riff* thing. It was Randy's idea, I believe, to take that riff, which was originally over in Separarted Man or something, to take that riff and use it as the intro for Author, which is AWESOME. Such an exciting intro, ya know, and that became a great thing for live performances, too. Author of Confusion is really exciting live."
Neal, on The Separated Man -
"The Separated Man did not exist. I had never written a track called "The Separated Man" - that was really, I think, a concept that came through the process of organizing the album and re-doing the album with Mike and Randy. I had these sections, but I don't think they all ran together. The "D Jam", the whole middle section, the big jam section in the middle of Separated Man, was part of the intro of the album originally. It's like you're, making a record like this is like you're on some kind of great adventure, and you have, like, scouts and other people with you to help, but it's your record and you're in charge and you've got to make sure that it's right and good, and you don't have that much time to make decisions. You gotta make decisions pretty quickly."
Randy, on The Separated Man -
"The Separated Man itself, along with section, that "I am the man" thing that follows it, I think was originally like that, but the whole acoustic guitar groove thing that happens at the end, the big orchestrated, that builds up to a big orchestrated thing, that was originally the end section, originally in The Creation on the demos. We felt that it worked better later in the album, that was one of Mike's ideas as well. He had a lot of ideas about sections and where they seemed to work best in the album. I think that really adds a lot to it."
Neal, on The Separated Man cont. -
"I'm really grateful to have people around me that I have come to know that I can trust, ya know, cuz if they both agree, or if everyone agrees that it's a good thing to turn in this direction, then I'll generally go 'Well, if you guys think that, then I'll trust you.' And I'll go that way, even though sometimes I might not agree initially. I mean, the over-all sense of this piece is, ya know, that man is now separated and really exhalting himself, particularly in the "I Am The Man" section. ... One of the thigns that's really cool is, going back into the "The Man's Gone" reprise, I think Mike wanted to go straight into the "D Jam" and I kinda had to talk him into, just having a moment after the end of the whole "I Am The Man" part."
FINAL EDIT:
Neal - "It was the first real collaboration with Mike and Randy that I had done, and that was one of the things that made it really special."
Neal, on "King Jesus" - "The one regret that I have has to do with "King Jesus". "King Jesus" was supposed to be on the album, I think, after "Father Of Forgiveness", and before "Reunion". [Note - we now know he was misremembering here lol] And it was too long, the album was too long, it couldn't fit and we had to cut something and Mike suggested that we cut "King Jesus". 'I know this might be touchy but..." was Mike's suggestion. And I think I prayed about it and felt like that's what I should do, but I've always wished that, cuz "King Jesus" I think is a really strong song, in fact, so strong that we have used it as an encore at many different festivals. So I'm sorry that "King Jesus" wasn't on there, it was only on the bonus disc."
Well, that was a fun time! Hearing 2012 Neal and Randy look back and talk about those 2004 sessions was fun and interesting. I'm sure I've watched these before, but I had forgotten about how much Randy was involved with the lyrics, especially with a lot of "Reunion".
As for the whole revisionism of Neal's works (or anyone's works), I'm of two minds. As some might know on here, I often re-work track lists for studio albums, especially for bands that release a lot of bonus tracks (like The Flower Kings). The album, as a whole work of art, is a bit tricky, especially when it comes to narrative concept albums. I like to believe that, for the most part, they should be taken as they are released because, for the most part, the running order was set with a purpose. And I feel that, in this case, Neal wouldn't release anything he wasn't happy with, and that includes during the sessions, after the recording, and even after release. If he ever felt like something needed to change because he felt it would've been better another/his way, then we probably would've seen that on stage. As far as I know, he typically plays his songs as they were released (aside from medleys, extra jamming, and extended solos, but that's just prog in general). It would be like if Dream Theater decided that they liked the 1993 version of "A Change Of Seasons" more and started playing that again.
Personally, I like how all of Neal's albums have come out, and accept them at face value. The songs, their arrangements, and how they were all performed. I rarely listen to his original demos, because I feel like the final work is just more powerful, especially after collaborating with someone. Hearing the transformation from demo to release is fascinating for me, and it really speaks to the musicianship of all parties involved. Yes, these are often Neal's solo albums, but he invites and accept the collaborative natures of Mike and Randy, and if he wants things his way, then they'll happen his way (see above examples from other posts about TSOAD being a double album, or re-writing TGA to be a sequel).
If anyone wanted a purely Neal-only experience for his music, just buy and listen to his demos and nothing more. It's the raw and original vision he had. Otherwise, I think hearing his work through the lenses of collaboration make for the best work he can release. That said, I am extremely excited for Sola Gratia, and I think by the time my Rush Survivor is done, I may begin a new Neal Morse Survivor (since it's been 5 years).
-Marc.