Y&T To 'Unearth' Previously Unreleased Material On Upcoming Collection

Y&T will be releasing a CD of previously unreleased material, titled "Unearthed", before the end of the year. The disc will reportedly contain unreleased Y&T cuts from the past — songs that were recorded for a particular record but never made it on vinyl or CD — including a track with unfinished lyrics that the band have re-recorded for this collection.

Says Y&T frontman Dave Meniketti: "Many of the demos are really excellent sounding & many of the performances are classic to brilliant. Many a band will tell a tale of how their demos were better than their records & that rang true many times for us. After all, the performances are 1st time fresh & the band is much more relaxed because it's not costing us a fortune per minute. That can all add up to make quite a difference. If I'm not mistaken, I believe that these reasons might likely lift this CD well above the novelty level. To my ear, some of these simple 8-track demos sound better sonically than a few of our pro studio records.

"I think the real 'magic' is in the moment of the original conception & the execution of the new. To recreate it 12 to 30 years later is fine, but you stand the chance of really losing the vibe & soul of the band at that moment in time.

"Having said all of the above, there are a few tracks that we really want to have out there, but the quality of the recordings we have available to us might not make the grade. So in those few cases we might possibly see ourselves re-recording them from scratch. Trying to track down original master reels of some of this material is difficult or impossible. We've already heard 2 horror stories of 'lost forever' tapes & others are probably lost in the politics of record company bullshit. Especially true when it comes to acquiring the older stuff (70's up to mid 80's).

"The main thing is that the tunes are strong & show that we have worked hard to write so many decent tunes that never saw the light of day. [Bassist] Phil [Kennemore] & I are struck by a sense of pride at the accomplishments that the band has attained & are proud to introduce many of these songs to the fans ears. The vibe alone is worth the risk of 'UnEarthing' these moments.

"This stuff will mostly be untouched, original performances, except for possibly 2 or 3 tunes. We are in the process of recording 1 tune completely anew from a song that Phil wrote that never made a release - and possibly a vocal & solo on 1 or 2 old 'Black Tiger'-era songs that we have only basic track versions of.

"More tapes are being 'UnEarthed' every week & a few more showed up today. One that I thought I would never find a copy of. Man there is WAY too much material here that is worth releasing. It's gonna be a tough decision of what makes the 1st one of these CDs.

"I also just got hold of a live tape of us at Koln, Germany on the AC/DC tour. Scott had recorded it at the mix position with a couple of inexpensive mics & a $300 cassette deck. Good playing & singing on this one & magical moments. That one will have to be shown the light of day at some time in the near future.

"Much more to come. Can't wait to get this finished."