As most of you probably have found, the Hyena on the Fables 25th Anniv and the one on Pageant 25th Anniv are VERY different sounding.
The Pageant one has “harder/grungier” sounding guitar.
Both of them are slower than the “official released” version on Pageant.
So that’s 3 versions for sure…
There MAY be another version completely on the Complete IRS Rarities, but I don’t have that to compare.
Anyone have that one to do a side by side?
There’s also a Fables studio outtake version included on the bonus disc of “And I Feel Fine… The Best of the I.R.S. Years 1982–1987.”
The one on the Complete IRS Rarities does sound different than the three aforementioned versions, but sounds more like the Fables demo arrangement than the LRP version. I think they nailed it with the album cut.
Just did a comparison and the version included on the Complete IRS Rarities is the same as the Fables outtake from And I Feel Fine . . . ."
Awesome. Thanks @fightingelf !
I found it on Spotify
So that’s 4 versions of Hyena (if you count the LRP album version)
Fables 25th Anniv
Pageant 25th Anniv
Complete IRS Rarities 1982-1987 AND/OR And I Feel Fine The Best of the I.R.S. Years 1982–1987
Lifes Rich Pageant album version
Thanks everyone!!
Hey @fightingelf (or anyone else), since it appears you have BOTH “And I Feel Fine, The Best of the I.R.S. Years 1982–1987” AND “Complete IRS Rarities 1982-1987”, can you confirm if the versions of “Bad Day” & “Mystery To Me” are the same (as each other) on both?
From what I can tell, versions 1 and 3 are the same. The one on the Fables bonus CD and the one from Complete IRS etc. So… is that just 3 versions?
Ha! @Gargumma…
Duh! That was my original question when I said “There MAY be another version completely on the Complete IRS Rarities…” 
. I’m losing it.
Ok, great catch.
So, 3 versions of Hyena.
Fables 25th Anniv AND Complete IRS Rarities 1982-1987 AND And I Feel Fine The Best of the I.R.S. Years 1982–1987
Pageant 25th Anniv
Lifes Rich Pageant album version
Seem right now??
As far as I know, the version from the Fables 25th anniversary bonus disc is a demo version recorded in Athens prior to recording Fables. The version included on And I Feel Fine is an outtake from the London recording sessions for Fables. The two sound very different to me. So that would be four unique versions: Fables demo, Fables outtake, Pageant demo, and Pageant album version.
I’ve just listened to all three of them: Fables bonus CD, And I Feel Fine CD2 and Complete IRS. They all seem to be the same version, but there is something different in the “I Feel Fine” one, maybe a different transfer or EQ. It has a bit different sounding, but it’s the same instrumentation, tempo, breathing, everything else. Check the details on Michael’s voice and especially the drumming at the end: all the same.
The “demo quality” of the track in And I Feel Fine is more apparent, the hiss, the lack of polish. I’d say it’s all the same version, but the one on Fables (and Complete IRS) was remastered.
Ok. I took the “And I Feel Fine The Best of the I.R.S. Years 1982–1987” version AND the “Fables of the Reconstruction 25th Aniv” version and threw them into CoolEdit Pro to compare the wav forms.
The Fables 25th Aniv one is about 3sec longer, but it is just because one is mastered a little faster or the other is a little slower than the other.
I did a time compression on the longer one and THEY ARE THE SAME… almost.
The wav shapes are the same basically.
One Is just a SLIGHTLY different mix using the same raw recorded tracks.
The Fables 25th Aniv one doesn’t have as much range between the lows and highs which makes it a little “muddier” sounding.
Mike Mills background vocals are MUCH more clear and more up in the mix on the “And I Feel Fine Best of IRS” one.
So, same RECORDING, just mastered/mixed differently.
Considering it’s a demo and most likely recorded “live in studio”, I don’t believe there’s much mixing going on. Like I was saying, it’s the same version of the song (meaning, the same recording done at the same moment), but yeah, the mastering is likely different because those demos were likely remastered for the Fables release. It still comes down to only three existing versions: two quite different-sounding demos and one album track.
I can’t say that I would be particularly disappointed if the version on And I Feel Fine . . . turns out to be just be a poorly mixed version of the February 1985 Athens demo from the Fables reissue, rather than (as indicated in the liner notes) being from the March 1985 album sessions in London. It allows us to hold out hope that the actual outtake version will be something special. We really do need a release of the complete Fables sessions!
Yea, it’s so weird I’ve never seen/heard anything (I think I’m right on that?) like demos/outakes of the album songs from those sessions in London.
So that leads me even MORE to believe that the liner notes about HYENA from “And I Feel Fine Best of IRS Years” are incorrect on the source.
I mean I guess they worked a lot of it out at the Athens sessions in Feb…
But as we proved here, it’s the same recording as the Hyena from “Fables 25th Anniv” which is the Feb 1985 Athens sessions, just mixed differently.
This article suggests that the master tapes of the Fables sessions remained in London, and were nearly lost or discarded before Mike Peters of the Alarm found them. Supposedly the band has these tapes now.
http://thealarm.com/article-mike-peters-discovers-some-mystery-rem-recordings-in-london/
22 years after the discovery of the lost tapes (if indeed that’s what those were) and still no release of these sessions. . . .
Yes, I’d be very curious to hear these tapes. Supposedly they recorded different takes/arrangements of Driver 8 and other songs, like a country version, rock version, etc. Maybe I’m imagining that, but I’m pretty sure I read an interview with Buck once where he mentioned that.
Found the Buck interview where he mentions alternate takes of “Driver 8.” To Vic Garbarini of Guitar World in Nov. 1996, Buck claimed, “We kept trying to rearrange [“Driver 8”]. We did one version with a really heavy guitar that we felt didn’t cut it. Then we actually tried it with acoustic guitar and banjo, with Bill playing bass. Finally we hit on what you hear on the record.”
Assuming these different arrangements were recorded by Joe Boyd, they sound like one of the most interesting things that could be left in the vault.
