CBS Discos Studios
Mexico City, Mexico
20 January 1973
("Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid" sessions)
| 1. | Billy (0:39/1:19/0:00) (instrumental) |
| 2. | Billy (0:01/5:28/1:16) |
| 3. | Turkey (1:46/2:04/0:02) (instrumental) |
| 4. | Turkey 2 (Tom Turkey) (0:11/5:23/0:16) |
| 5. | Billy Surrenders (1:02/2:24/0:00) (instrumental) |
| 6. | And He's Killed Me Too (1:00/3:13/0:00) (instrumental) |
| 7. | Goodbye Holly (0:13/1:53/0:01) |
| 8. | Pecos Blues (0:10/0:44/0:00) (incomplete take) |
| 9. | Pecos Blues (0:09/3:46/0:00) |
Burbank Studios
Burbank, California
February 1973
("Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid" sessions)
| 10. | Billy (0:17/4:38/0:00) |
| 11. | Knockin' On Heaven's Door (0:00/4:16/0:02) |
| 12. | Sweet Amarillo (1:13) |
| 13-14. | Knockin' On Heaven's Door (1:06/2:30/0:00) |
| 15-16. | Final Theme (0:53/6:56/0:01) |
| 17. | Rock Me Mama (0:07/1:31/0:00) (incomplete take) |
| 18. | Rock Me Mama (0:00/1:55/0:02) |
| 19. | Billy (1:29) (incomplete take) |
| 20. | Billy (0:55) (incomplete take) |
| 21. | untitled instrumental (2:13) |
| 22. | untitled instrumental (0:25/1:25/0:02) |
| 23. | Ride Billy Ride (0:09/0:36/0:06) (incomplete take) |
| 24. | Ride Billy Ride (0:17/3:09/0:00) |
| 25. | "wild track" (0:29) |
Something like (a:aa/b:bb/c:cc) in the track list means that b:bb is the duration of the actual song. a:aa and c:cc indicate how much time of the track is due to introductions, tunings etc.
Review by Lonesome Sparrow
This CD consists wholly of outtakes from the album "Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid" in very good sound quality.
The CD is titled after one of these outtakes, "Pecos Blues", in which Pecos, I suppose, stands for the river that flows through New Mexico and Texas, and not for somebody called Peco, which the manufacturers of this CD seem to have believed, spelling it "Peco's Blues".
Clinton Heylin's book "The Recording Sessions" contains a sessionography of the "Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid" sessions. His book contains a lot of guesswork, errors, inaccuracies and slovenliness, so I don't know how reliable his sessionography is. But is the only one I have, so let's assume it's accurate enough. I let it follow here, so that it can be used in my discussion of what's and what's not on the CD.
FIRST SESSION
CBS Discos Studios
Mexico City, Mexico
20 January 1973
Comparing the contents of the CD with the sessionography, it seems like the tracks on the CD are in chronological order, except for track 10, and that not all the outtakes are on it.
The CD starts with 1 instrumental take of "Billy", while Heylin lists 3. So 2 takes are missing on the CD.
Next comes a vocal take of "Billy", which must be one of the 2 vocal takes (4-5) listed by Heylin. The other one is not on the CD, unless it's track 10, which I will discuss below.
Next on the CD follow a track called "Turkey" and a track called "Turkey II or Tom Turkey", while Heylin lists 3 instrumental takes of "Under Turkey", followed by a vocal take of "Billy". "Turkey II" or "Tom Turkey" doesn't appear anywhere in Heylin's sessionography. Since the lyrics of this song are those of "Billy", I assume that Heylin hence has called it "Billy" and that thus it's the vocal take of "Billy" (9) listed by him. Before "Turkey" Dylan says, "This is "Under Turkey"", but after it he says, "Okay, that's "Turkey"", so that explains why the CD calls it "Turkey" and Heylin "Under Turkey". As you can see in the track list above, there is quite a amount of time preceding the take of this song. During this there are played 2 pieces, which Heylin might have counted as takes. In the other sessionographies in his book Heylin makes mention of when a take is incomplete or omits listing it, but he doesn't seem to have done that in this one. If he has counted those 2 pieces as takes, all his 3 listed takes are on the CD.
Next, Heylin lists an instrumental take of "Billy Surrenders", followed by a take of "Billy Surrenders" with girls. In his review of the sessions he says, "The version of "Billy Surrenders" on the circulating studio tape (which lasts barely two minutes) is just the furtive fumblings preceding the pukka take. The relevant part of "Billy Surrenders" had presumably already been pulled to a master reel along with "Billy 4", also absent from the circulating Mexico City tape and in fact the last thing cut at the eight-hour session." Well, indeed, on the CD there is an instrumental "Billy Surrenders" without girls with a duration of 2:24.
Next, Heylin lists 4 instrumental takes of "And He's Killed Me Too". On the CD there is only 1. It's preceded by 1 minute of fumbling, but there is not a piece played in that minute, so I don't see how Heylin could count that as another, let alone another 3, takes. So 3 of the 4 takes are missing on the CD.
Next, Heylin lists 1 take of "Goodbye Holly" and 2 takes of "Pecos Blues", and that is what follows on the CD. Heylin indicates the takes of "Pecos Blues" as instrumental. The takes on the CD contain vocals, but they do not sing words. Heylin apparently regards this as instrumental.
Heylin lists "Billy 4" as the last take of the Mexico City session. This take is on "Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid", so it's not on this CD.
If the tracks on the CD are indeed in chronological order, there shouldn't follow no more tracks from the Mexico City session. Indeed, according to the insert of the CD all the other tracks were recorded in Burbank. But the first of these tracks, track 10, falls out of the chronological order and hence it's hard to identify which of Heylin's listed takes it's is. I'll try to do that below. Let's first discuss the other tracks.
Heylin's listing of the first Burbank session begins with a vocal take of "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" followed by a vocal take of "Sweet Amarillo". This is what follows on the CD, but preceded by a vocal take of "Billy". This mysterious track 10 I will discuss later.
Heylin's tracks 20 and 21 correspond with tracks 11 and 12 on the CD. Heylin's track 23, the instrumental take of "Knockin' On Heaven's Door", corresponds with the CD's track 14. Track 13 on the CD contains no take, only chatting and fumbling on the instruments, in which however something of "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" is recognizable, so maybe this is Heylin's track 22. But Heylin's track 25, another take of "Knockin'" after the released cut, is definitely missing.
Heylin's track 26 corresponds with track 16 on the CD. Track 15 on the CD is just some fumbling. "Final Theme" is, like "Pecos Blues", a song with vocals, but no words. But unlike "Pecos Blues", Heylin does not indicate this as instrumental. He must be using a complicated definition of instrumental.
Heylin's tracks 28 to 31 and 33 to 34 correspond with tracks 17 to 20 and 21 to 22 on the CD.
Tracks 23 and 24 on the CD are called on the CD "Final Theme". It's the music of "Final Theme" alright, but this time the words "Ride, Billy, ride" are sung to it, so Heylin calls it "Ride Billy Ride", and apparently he calls the take wherein it doesn't get to the singing "Final Theme". So I think Heylin's tracks 35 and 36 corresponds to tracks 23 and 24 on the CD.
Track 25 on the CD is not listed on it. It has Bob Dylan saying "Put down this wild track". He says a few words and then, "End of take", and that's it. It's not listed by Heylin.
So now we've accounted for all of the CD's tracks except track 10. This is a vocal take of "Billy" with a supporting vocal, which according to the CD is from Terry Paul. All the takes of "Billy" from this session we have already found on the CD. Maybe the CD is correct in placing this track at the beginning of the second session, which would mean that Heylin's listing of this session is incomplete. Otherwise, it's must be from one of the other 2 sessions. Heylin lists one vocal take of "Billy" from the Mexico City session, which we haven't found on the CD. Maybe that's track 10, but then I wonder why it isn't on its proper chronological place on the CD. Heylin lists 3 vocal outtakes of "Billy" from the second Burbank session. According to Heylin, Terry Paul didn't contribute anything to this session, but Byron Berline he credits with vocal. All the other vocals, except Dylan's, he calls backing vocals, but that of Berline just vocal. Since the second vocal on track 10 is a supporting rather than a backing vocal, my guess is that the CD's attribution of this vocal to Terry Paul is wrong and that this track is one of the "Billy" takes from the second Burbank session. If so, it's the only track from this session, which might be the reason that it's the only track that is out of place.
In the other sessionographies in his book, Heylin indicates a not circulating take by displaying it in italics. There are no italics in the "Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid" sessionography, which would mean that all the takes are circulating. But since he writes that the take of "Billy Surrenders" that was used in the movies is not circulating, he apparently has not used his convention in this sessionography. So what's missing on the CD, might not be circulating.
There is another CD consisting of "Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid" outtakes, titled "Lucky Luke". I don't know it, but from Eric Schoneveld's review of it, I conclude that it has the same tracks as "Peco's Blues", except that it's missing the last track, the "wild track". (Eric doesn't list "Sweet Amarillo", but since he gives a total time that's only 22 seconds less than that of "Peco's Blues", I think that that's an error.)
Remains one question: are these outtakes worth listening to. I think so, but you might not. If you like the "Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid" album, chances are you like this CD as well. If you don't like it, chances are you don't like this CD as well. If you like to hear takes together with the chatting and fumbling between and during them, you are well served upon on this CD.