John Henry Demos

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John Henry Demos tmbg compilation cover
John Henry Demos
Collection by They Might Be Giants
First released December 10, 2018
Release details / collectors: Show | Hide 		Tracks 19
Label Idlewild Recordings Length 50:54

John Henry Demos is a limited release collection of demos from They Might Be Giants' fifth album, John Henry. It was originally released as an Instant Fan Club exclusive download in 2012, before being publicly released on CD and vinyl in 2018. The collection consists of full-band studio demos of almost every song from John Henry, presented in album order.

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Description

Background

The recording sessions for the John Henry Demos took place in July 1993, five months before the proper John Henry album sessions started.[1] The purpose of these demo sessions was to practice recording with live musicians. The group wanted to gain experience with their new backing band before they began recording their next album.[2][3] The demos were produced by Pat Dillett, and were recorded in New York; mostly at Excello Recording Studios in Brooklyn, and partially at Skyline Studios in Manhattan. This was the first time the band worked with Dillett as producer, and he has since produced most of the band's subsequent material. The band lineup for the demo sessions was essentially the same as the touring band at the time — Brian Doherty (drums), Kurt Hoffman (clarinet, saxophone) and Frank London (trumpet), with both Tony Maimone and Graham Maby credited on bass. During these sessions the band recorded preliminary versions of most songs from the John Henry album, as well as a substantial amount of other material. John Flansburgh explained the intentions behind the demo recording sessions in a 2020 interview:

The John Henry Demos was kind of an anomaly, because it was our first exploration into working with a full live rhythm section. So, we were so sort of insecure about that, we tracked everything once before [recording the final album]. We worked as hard on the John Henry Demos as we did on a regular album.

In September 1993 the band released the Why Does The Sun Shine? EP. The tracks on this release were likely recorded in the same sessions as the John Henry demos,[4] if not shortly before.[5] This was the first They Might Be Giants release to feature a backing band. In December 1993 the band released the O Tannenbaum single, which featured the B-side "Christmas Cards," an outtake from the demo recording sessions. Also in 1993 the band's management put together a promotional sampler, which collected five recordings from the demo sessions. This sampler notably included "Drinkin'," which would not see a release until 1999's Long Tall Weekend.

The John Henry album proper was recorded in Bearsville, New York, in a five week period between December 1993 and January 1994. For these recording sessions the band brought in producer Paul Fox, as well as Steven Bernstein on trumpet. The band spent two weeks rehearsing the album in Bearsville before they started recording.[6] Everything was re-recorded from scratch, and nothing from the John Henry Demos appears on the final John Henry album.[7] The B-sides "Mrs. Train" and "She Was A Hotel Detective" were recorded after John Henry (and without Paul Fox) at Excello and Skyline studios.[8][9]

Flansburgh described the unique circumstances of the John Henry Demos in a 2019 Tumblr post:

We never embarked on demoing any other album as completely as John Henry, and it is really a singular event. [It was] because we were pulling together a new band and wanted to track the album as a rehearsed unit that the demos were made. Previously the many Dial-A-Song posts from the 80s and 90s, or even sketchier home recordings, were the working demos for our studio recordings. From around Factory Showroom on, our ability to make more finished tracks at our project studios improved and demos often flow into final versions more directly.

Release

In the mid-1990s, a collection of eight songs from the John Henry demo recording sessions were leaked. Low quality recordings of these tracks privately circulated among fans for years, from at least 1996.[10] In 2007 and 2008 the band released a number of tracks from the John Henry demo sessions through their podcast, which was the first official release of this material.

The full John Henry Demos collection was first released as a digital download in June 2012 to members of that year's Instant Fan Club. It was released publicly in the 2018 holiday season on CD, vinyl and digital formats. The vinyl release had the majority of the album on one orange-colored LP, with a separate 7" single containing "Out of Jail" and "The End of The Tour." The additional disc was created to avoid inner groove distortion, as the full album's runtime is too long for a high quality vinyl pressing. The vinyl release was reissued in 2023, with both orange and translucent variants. Like My Murdered Remains and The Escape Team, the album is exclusively available through Idlewild Recordings and is not available on streaming services. The announcement of the album's public release included the following description:

A few years back we released a set of pre-production recordings that would become the John Henry album. Created with long time collaborator Patrick Dillett and our evolving live band, many of the tracks have previously been passed around the internet, often in compromised fidelity. Giving the material a closer listen it only seemed fair that this bit of history got a better airing. These tracks in full high-fidelity sound not only sound remarkably fresh, they provide an interesting look into the process of the album’s creation.

The collection contains a few irregularities. "Stomp Box" is absent, as it was written during the John Henry album sessions, so no demo was recorded.[11] The recording of "O, Do Not Forsake Me" included is John Flansburgh's home demo, and it's unlikely that they recorded a full band demo of it. The collection also excludes the non-album tracks that are known to have been recorded during these sessions.

Track listing

# Title Length  Lyrics Guitar Tab
1 Subliminal (Demo) 2:38

 

N/A
2 Snail Shell (Demo) 3:20

 

N/A
3 Sleeping In The Flowers (Demo) 4:26

 

N/A
4 Unrelated Thing (Demo) 2:28

 

N/A
5 AKA Driver (Demo) 3:09

 

N/A
6 I Should Be Allowed To Think (Demo) 2:27

 

N/A
7 Extra Savoir-Faire (Demo) 2:51

 

N/A
8 Why Must I Be Sad? (Demo) 3:57

 

N/A
9 Spy (Demo) 2:30

 

N/A
10 O, Do Not Forsake Me (Demo) 2:37

 

11 No One Knows My Plan (Demo) 2:19

 

N/A
12 Dirt Bike (Demo) 1:55

 

N/A
13 Destination Moon (Demo) 2:24

 

N/A
14 A Self Called Nowhere (Demo) 3:13

 

N/A
15 Meet James Ensor (Demo) 1:39

 

N/A
16 Thermostat (Demo) 2:05

 

N/A
17 Window (Demo) 0:59

 

N/A
18 Out Of Jail (Demo) 2:18

 

N/A
19 The End Of The Tour (Demo) 3:05

 

N/A

Gallery

  • CD cover

  • LP cover

  • Hype sticker from the 2023 vinyl release

  • Unedited cover photo

Other known recordings from the sessions

The band recorded a lot of material during the John Henry demo sessions. The following tracks were recorded during these sessions, but weren't included on the John Henry Demos collection:

Leaked demo tape

In the 1990s, a leaked cassette tape circulated with eight tracks from the John Henry demo sessions. With the exception of "Ondine" (a b-side from the era), these recordings were all included on the official John Henry Demos release.

Track listing

# Title Length  Lyrics Guitar Tab
1 No One Knows My Plan (Demo) 2:19

 

N/A
2 Sleeping In The Flowers (Demo) 4:26

 

N/A
3 A Self Called Nowhere (Demo) 3:13

 

N/A
4 Meet James Ensor (Demo) 1:39

 

N/A
5 Thermostat (Demo) 2:05

 

N/A
6 Ondine (Demo) 2:24

 

N/A
7 Why Must I Be Sad? (Demo) 3:57

 

N/A
8 Dirt Bike (Demo) 1:55

 

N/A

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