Passage

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

Just wondering, why do you think this album was so short?

It only has 8 songs. At this point in there career, didn't they have alot of songs in the vault that they could have added? Were they so busy they felt they didn't have enough quality songs to add?

 

[SwimAMile]

Although the song count is low, the play time is around 40 minutes, which is around the length of other albums.

As I recall..and others may know better than I...what is unusual about Passage was the live recording technique used for Don't Cry...everyone assembled in a big sound stage and recorded at once. I always assumed it was designed to simulate the atmosphere of the play's stage production.

Speaking of which, I'll take Karen's rendition over Madonna any day. LOL

 

[mr J.]

PASSAGE only included 8 songs due to time restrictions.Back in the 70's and 80's,albums were designed to be approximately 40 minutes.PASSAGE is unusual because half of the songs are extremely long."Occupants"runs 7 minutes,and "Argentina" runs almost 8 minutes(with the intro).Those two songs take up the space of about 4 regular songs."Bwana" is almost 6 minutes.Incidentally,about 20 tracks were recorded during the PASSAGE sessions(there's about an album's worth of PASSAGE outtakes in the vaults),so there certainly could have been more songs on that album.I think one of those songs sitting in the vaults was also recorded by the Doobie Brothers,but I forgot the title.

 

[Harry]

Don't forget too that the limitations of vinyl would only permit albums to be a certain length, and Passage was a product of the vinyl-album era. To make a vinyl album longer, the grooves have to be smaller or tighter together, thus sacrificing sound quality; you'd get lower levels of music and higher levels of surface noise. Knowing Richard's preference for the best sound possible, I'm sure he was aware of the limits and didn't want to go overboard in length, and probably didn't want to issue an expensive two-disc set.

Harry
...comfortable with the 40-minute album length for his commute to work, online...

 

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

That makes sense now. I was listening to this album on my turntable last night & it's a used copy It has Promotional Copy stamped on the front of the album & on the actual LP label it also reads Promotional Copy across the middle of the label. It must have not been used much cause there is NO surface noise at all, it is quite amazing, I kept saying wow this is an lp & it's amazing.

I kept saying to myself that Karen's & Richard's sytle of singing is really nice on this album.

Bwanna is such a neat little song, the story of the song & feel of the beat is very diff from any other C song. I am also blown away at Karen's version of Two Sides, what a great song, she is just smooth as velvet with her vocals.

 

[Mark-T]

So does anyone know some of these unreleased song titles from the Passage sessions?
Mark

 

[PJ]

Whilst in Long Beach , I managed to obtain Carpenters Rarity :

PASSAGE -Argentinian Vinyl Album (1977) :

With only Seven Tracks as for Political Reasons, Casa Rosada /
Don't Cry For Me Argentina were Excluded From Track Listing

Wonder Whether this Track was included on CD Issues / or Remasters
From 1980's and 1998 Re-issues ?

Surprised Carpenters or A&M Failed to Include Some Extra Tracks,
Perhaps Can't Smile (1977 Rerecording) or Another Outtake

Peter....Enjoying this Release ......

 

[PJ]

Mark,

Some Passsage Outtakes :

Real Love ....Not Sure if this is same Song as Doobie's 1978 Hit ?

Better World -Dr John Song , That Would Have Been Fine For More
Electic PASSAGE Sounds and Tracks......

Runaway ...Gallagher & Lyle (UK A&M Artists / Songwriters) ...Richard
Doubts there is Releasable Vocal Track......

Sure There are Some Releasable 1977 Outtakes for Future Studio
Album ......


Peter