So apparantly D’Angelo recorded most of his Brown Sugar album on his 4-track in Richmond, before rerecording/ remixing it with Bob Power in New York, turning it into the album we know and love. Apparantly he wanted to return to that raw/ demo like sound for Voodoo. Man, makes me wonder what this sounds like. Nile Rodgers once shares a picture of this demo cassette:
I was totally disappointed when the anniversary release of this album did not feature any of these demos, but just these mediocre remixes. I would have paid top dollar for this.
Has anyone ever heard this? Is it really that remarkable? And how raw is compared to the actual release. Songs like Jonz and SDMF and When We Get By; very curious about the differences.
1. "RE: That Brown Sugar demo cassette" In response to Reply # 0
Been waiting an eternity to hear this too!!
I think the one in the pic is a later demo cuz Brown Sugar and Lady were recorded later with Ali and Rafael respectively.
But yeah I’d love to hear D playing “guitar” and “bass” on his EPS thru his 4 track. There was a pod where Bob Power talked about dumping all D’s midi and patches into software (Notator? Vision?) and layering/replacing parts with instruments, but really leaving a lot of the OG stuff in the arrangement. To be a fly on the wall for that
2. "RE: That Brown Sugar demo cassette" In response to Reply # 0
yeah...someone needs to go ahead and curate/drop a 'Brown Sugar Super Deluxe Special Edition' that includes those demos etc...would be an instant purchase for folks like me for sure.