Superstar Car Wash Demos (1992)

Little is known about how these demos were released to the public. There have been rumors circulating for many years. One theory is that one of the band members took the demos home with them, and hid the tapes under the floorboard. Sometime later, they moved out of the apartment and completely forgot about the tapes tucked away in their hiding place. The person who moved in next discovered them, releasing them online.

Another theory is simpler, and maybe more probable. Occam’s Razor? Anyway, it is claimed that someone stole them from the recording studio. I am speculating the studio in reference was the one where the album was recorded, that is Metalworks Recording Studios, in Mississauga, Ontario (Canada).

The one I am sharing here is one of the most popular versions of these demos. To my knowledge, there are several Superstar Car Wash demo sessions. This amazing channel on Youtube has uploaded four sessions, including mine. Let me list them below:

• Version 1: Very similar to mine, but also features the song “Waiting On A Dream“, sung by Lance Diamond. This song never made the final release.
• Version 2: The one I am sharing in this post.
• Version 3: This is the most interesting one. It features instrumental versions of the demos, plus a Police cover for “Next To You“, also instrumental. Some of these songs may appear on the session we published here.
• Version 4: The one named “Marvelous Sauce”, which I speculate is the final session before they hit the recording studio. Read more about it here.
• Version 5: An unknown session which includes two instrumental takes of “Dancing In Your Blood“, which I have shared here.

The fourth version includes the song “So The Story Goes“, sung by Robby Takac. You can listen to it here. This tune is quite nice, but certainly not very much aligned with the general mood of the album. It actually sounds like an Irish, fast-paced song. I am sure they took it out because, overall, it was way too different from the rest.

There are also claims there might even be a demo session featuring a song titled after their previous album, that is “Hold Me Up“. In reality, that song is basically “Tell Me Something I Don’t Know“, possibly its original title before it mutated into the latter, which in turn subsequently mutated into “So Far Away“.

Similarly, another claim is made by some people on the internet, saying that another song titled “So Lonely” is part of one of the several demo sessions. I could not corroborate those claims during my research.

Ok, now onto the version you can download below. What about it? Well, these demos were recorded sometime in 1992. We get a total of 12 songs, 9 of them with lyrics, plus the instrumental versions for “We Are The Normal“, “So Far Away“, and “String Of Lies“. Furthermore, we also have “Tell Me Something I Don’t Know“, one of the three outtakes (along with the aforementioned “So The Story Goes” and “Waiting On A Dream“). I am not sure why the band decided to not include it in the final version of the album. I quite like it, and it fits perfectly with the other tunes. I believe this song somewhat got integrated into “So Far Away“, meaning they took most of its riffs, slightly changed them, and created the final incarnation of the latter out of it. The version I posted here only has John on vocals, and some of the lyrics are replaced with na-na-na’s and du-du-du’s, a technique singers utilize when they are still in the process of completing a given song’s lyrics. A more mature, cleaner version, with complete lyrics and even featuring both John and Robby on vocals can be listened to here.

You can listen to this release below. Download links are available at the end of this post.

TRACK LISTING:

1. Fallin’ Down
2. Already There
3. On The Lie
4. Domino
5. Cuz You’re Gone
6. Don’t Worry
7. Girl Right Next To Me
8. Close Your Eyes
9. Tell Me Something I Don’t Know
10. So Far Away (Instrumental)
11. We Are The Normal (Instrumental)
12. String Of Lies (Instrumental)

DOWNLOAD (Main Source)

DOWNLOAD (Mirror 1)

DOWNLOAD (Mirror 2)