In this old post of mine, I wrote about the various Superstar Car Wash demo sessions which had leaked online years ago. I recommend reading it before continuing any further.
To my knowledge, “Marvelous Sauce” is the most popular one, that is the most diffused one. I believe these demos were basically the final versions of the songs, before they went into the studio to record the album. Today, I want to share this release with you.
Why the name “Marvelous Sauce”? Nobody but the band knows. It may be sarcastic, it may be a reference to something or someone, or it may be the original title of the album before they changed it to “Superstar Car Wash”. During my research, I found a strange link between the Goo Goo Dolls and a progressive rock band named “Marvelous Sauce”, which only released one album in 1991. That discovery took place years ago and I honestly did not fully remembered how the two bands interconnected, until I recently came upon an interview I will discuss below. I recollected both bands were from Buffalo, NY. Anyhow, the two acts somehow did establish a connection and I believe the Goos may have used the latter to help craft “Superstar Car Wash”. This is actually a pretty long shot of mine, as the bands have little in common on a musical standpoint. You can actually listen to the full, rare release below.
In terms of the alleged connection between the two bands, here is an interview (archived version here) with a gentleman named Dave Schulz, a keyboard player from Buffalo, NY. He did some touring with the Goo Goo Dolls, and he claims that he was in a band called “Marvelous Sauce” in his teens, and that they were sharing the same rehearsal space as the Dolls. That’s how they met, and eventually hired him to tour with them. Was that connection between the two bands the reason why “Superstar Car Wash” had its demo sessions named after another Buffalo band?
Another reference to the sentence “Marvelous Sauce” comes from a 1989 poster (pictured below) which advertised a Goo Goo Dolls Christmas show featuring their longtime friend and collaborator Lance Diamond. As you can see, the phrase “With special guest: Marvelous Sauce” appears there. That is another explicit link to the aforementioned band which was sharing rehearsal space with John, Robby, and George. Apparently, they also played at the same venues in a few occasions.
Let’s analyze the demo session. What about it? Well, there are a few interesting things here:
- The song “Dancing In Your Blood” makes an appearance. This is basically the first incarnation of “So Far Away“, with different lyrics and a faster pace
- “On The Lie” here features a different bridge with additional lyrics
- A lost song, called “Tell Me“, is present. In other demo sessions, this was titled “Tell Me Something I Don’t Know“, and in at least one other session it appears with the title “Hold Me Up” (Just like their previous album). I wrote about this tune in the past, and I think this is basically what inspired “Dancing In Your Blood“, and subsequently “So Far Away“. Overall, these three have very similar sound structures and mood. The version in this demo session is the complete one, featuring both John and Robby on vocals
- A song titled “Untitled Instrumental” is basically just the last 40 seconds of “Cuz You’re Gone” without lyrics. Not sure why they would create a single track just for that
- The song “Right Next To Me” is… well, you guessed it… the original title for “Girl Right Next To Me“. This is quite good, as it comes with a faster pace than its final counterpart
- Another lost song also appears, titled “So The Story Goes“. This is a Robby sung-and-written song which is quite cool, and gives out some Irish rock vibes. I am not surprised they decided not to include it in the final version of the album, as it certainly is not aligned with the latter’s overall sound and mood
- Last but not least, an instrumental version of “We Are The Normal” concludes the session. Most likely, this is the one that was mailed to Paul Westerberg.
You can listen to this release below. Download links are available at the end of this post.
PLEASE NOTICE: The demo session comes with .MP3 files encoded at 128kbps. The standard nowadays imposes at least 192, or better yet 320. Hence, these files were encoded using a lower-than-standard bitrate. In many cases, most users with low-to-mid-range speaker setups should not notice any problems with it. Those who have higher setups, however, may encounter some issues with the audio quality being below today’s most popular bitrates.
TRACK LISTING:
- Don’t Worry
- Domino
- Dancing In Your Blood
- On The Lie
- Another Second Time Around
- Tell Me
- Already There
- Untitled Instrumental
- Fallin’ Down
- Close Your Eyes
- Right Next To Me
- Cuz You’re Gone
- String Of Lies (Instrumental)
- So The Story Goes
- We Are The Normal (Instrumental)
EDIT: Unfortunately we had to take the video down as per Armand John Petri’s request.
Temple of Goo - The rarest Goo Goo Dolls releases, for real Goo fans only 