Laura Branigan - Unreleased 1981 album
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URL: https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9611
Printed Date: 06 June 2025 at 8:56am
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Topic: Laura Branigan - Unreleased 1981 album
Posted By: cristianmdp
Subject: Laura Branigan - Unreleased 1981 album
Date Posted: 08 June 2021 at 12:38pm
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Hey everyone:)
"Branifan" here. So... is there someone here who might have any info on this one? To promote this shelved/rejected album, 2 singles were released: https://www.discogs.com/Laura-Branigan-Fools-Affair/master/513953 - - Fool's Affair and https://www.discogs.com/Laura-Branigan-Looking-Out-For-Number-One/master/834100 - - Looking out for number one Another single during 1981 was released, featuring the songs "Tell him" & "When", but since those are not included on this https://www.discogs.com/Laura-Branigan-Branigan/release/13430099 - rejected album's TEST PRESSING , we should assume they were not intended to be part of that album. Not so long ago I bought a copy of that test pressing, only to find out it was a bootleg (vinyl record, yeap), pressed in Chile (and the audio recorded on it was lossy and the speed wasn't correct). Still, the best I could find so far. So, besides asking for info on this particular album, did any of you had the actual (real, official) test pressing record in your hands and hopefully can tell more about its real sound quality? Thanks so much in advance! |
Replies:
Posted By: EdisonLite
Date Posted: 07 August 2021 at 4:28pm
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I'm a big Branifan and I knew about this unreleased 1981 album (an album I've referred to as "Branigan 0", since (A) it was never released, and (B) "Branigan" and "Branigan 2" came out later), but I NEVER knew about this test pressing! (And I always assumed "Tell Him" and "When" were included on the would-be album).
Cristian, are you saying that the test pressing you bought (the bootleg pressed in Chile) has the same 2 images shown on the Discog page (the one that starts with SD 19289 and includes the Side 1 & 2 titles)? The 2nd image on that Discogs page indicates an address of Olyphant, PA, which is presumably where Special Recordings Corp is located. Those 2 images would suggest there really was an 8-song test pressing that was ... well, pressed! But if your bootleg has those 2 sheets, then I'd say it's all part of a bootleg scam to make it look like a real test pressing, when it's really just mp3s (probably taken from the YouTube pages that have all these unreleased songs). Also, Cristian, that Discogs page shows that 2 others have registered that they own this test pressing. Can you contact them to see if they have a version from Chile? Or just listed as "Olyphant, PA"? |
Posted By: cristianmdp
Date Posted: 08 August 2021 at 2:26am
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Hi :)
Cool to find a Branifan here :) I don't own the copy anymore. A friend of mine has another copy of the bootleg, in the US, and is one of the 2 users listed as owners on Discogs. For a long time we all believed the record was the original one, but it isn't. You can play the promotion video this guy created (to, apparently, sell a new bootleg, lol), and, even compressed, the audio's kHz are way higher (and the quality is better too, not to mention the speed is correct, unlike the bootleg I had): http://www.disconexion.com/Artistas/unreleased.mp4#t=0.1 The other user on Discogs (that is listed as a owner of the TP) already told me he mistakenly listed it (he assumed it was her regular "Branigan" album). It's clear, though, he won't bother to unlist it from his account, lol. The guy from Chile who had this bootleg pressed has the original TP vinyl, and pressed the bootleg with lossy quality, on purpose... As far as I'm aware, only 5 real TP copies were pressed (one of them at least having the "Rejected" word in red color in the front cover). The bootlegger's website is this one: http://www.disconexion.com/ http://www.disconexion.com/artistas/101.jpg He also had https://www.discogs.com/Laura-Branigan-More-Than-Hits/release/14580261 - THIS bootleg pressed: Of course I know his real name but I'm not disclosing that information, for legal reasons. I truly hope this amazing record sees the light of day, someday, in an official way. BTW, this comes from the actual bootleg vinyl: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQijPE9FLwA - Leave Me Blind (1981) |
Posted By: EdisonLite
Date Posted: 03 June 2025 at 2:38pm
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Cris, It looks like that disconexion site you referred to no longer exists. :( ... at least as far as I can tell. Also...
I looked at the track listing and it does include "When". So it looks like "Tell Him" is the only early Atlantic A-side or B-side that would not have been included on the album. |
cristianmdp wrote:Posted By: cristianmdp
Date Posted: 03 June 2025 at 4:54pm
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Yeah, I can see it's down now. Here's what it looked like when it used to work: https://web.archive.org/web/20211224164202/http://www.disconexion.com/" rel="nofollow - https://web.archive.org/web/20211224164202/http://www.disconexion.com/ You're right about "When"/"Tell him". At the time I posted this, a fake test pressing not featuring "When" was listed @Discogs. It was later known it was a bootleg and the actual, real test pressing, featured "When": https://www.discogs.com/release/13430099-Branigan/history#latest |
Posted By: EdisonLite
Date Posted: 04 June 2025 at 1:03pm
| Cris, that WayBack Machine link you provided led to some really fascinating facts about Laura Branigan I never knew. First of all, more info about her unreleased 1981 album that I didn't know before. But more importantly, about an album she did release in 1973 (!) as part of trio (with 2 other guys) as the group Meadow called "The Friend Ship". Not only are LPs on Discogs (for $15 and above) but also the album is available digitally on Qobuz for about $5. This was all new to me. (Meadow also has a non-LP single, btw). |
Posted By: cristianmdp
Date Posted: 04 June 2025 at 6:10pm
Oh, the Meadow album ♥ What an absolute treasure ♥ The Qobuz one is a complete joke. Extremely lossy (like... 64kbps) and sounds like sh!t of course. The best bet is a good vinyl rip. Yes they released a non-album single in 1972 I think. "Here I am"/"Something borrowed, something blues". Laura was 20 in 1972. Later Atlantic Records would force her to say she was younger (because she was 30 when she released the official debut album). So she'd say she was born in 1957, trying to make people believe she was 25 during her "Gloria" days. That Meadow album was never mentioned publicly during her career in interviews. Somehow she just buried it. There's a story somewhere in the net written by one of the Meadow surviving members about those early years. Let me check. https://www.facebook.com/laurabranigan/videos/chris-van-cleave-within-the-glory-laura-branigan-memorial-gathering-2024/8010471305705155/" rel="nofollow - https://www.facebook.com/laurabranigan/videos/chris-van-cleave-within-the-glory-laura-branigan-memorial-gathering-2024/8010471305705155/ https://vancleavemusic.com/feature/home.html" rel="nofollow - https://vancleavemusic.com/feature/home.html Of course, after Meadow she'd record demos for many songwriters (and write songs herself), toured singing backing vocals for Leonard Cohen ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0k5vpsWb4g" rel="nofollow - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0k5vpsWb4g among other songs), then land in Germany in 1979 with her very first, own TV show, doing covers and original song (and act) ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXJF-YNw4lo" rel="nofollow - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXJF-YNw4lo ), where she would be "discovered" by some Atlantic Records who signed her a contract and put her in Sid Bernstein hands with the production of her 1980/1981 shelved album ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnDg81x6qio" rel="nofollow - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnDg81x6qio and 8 other songs). Some were already released as part of the "Branigan" expanded CD released by Gold Legion years ago. The rest remain unreleased (and so other many songs recorded by her). |