A Boy Named Goo Pre-Mixing Cuts (1994)

One of the (very few) leaks about the Goo Goo Dolls’ 1995 breakthrough album was a Pre-Mixing Cuts compilation featuring almost all of the songs which ended up in the final, retail version. Today, we share it with you all.

We already posted a Pre-Mixing Cuts version for their then-previous full length, “Superstar Car Wash”, a while back. This time, its bigger and more known brother is on the stage.

I don’t feel like I should repeat myself in terms of explaining what Mixing is when it comes to music production. Therefore, I will simply copy-and-paste some sections taken from the aforementioned previous release post.

What is a pre-mixing cut? Let’s have the experts talk about it for a minute. The information below was taken from this source.

Although most people won’t notice it, when done right, it turns a song it into something better. Mixing is more than adjusting the volume levels of vocal tracks and individual instruments. Even though there are other parts of mixing, what is audio mixing in music and why is it important?

Audio Mixing is a process of blending individual things in a recording to come up with as good as a possible version of a song. The mixing process includes:

• Fine-tuning the sense or sound of each instrument using and EQ (equalization)
• Balancing pre-recorded track levels
• Panning tracks between speakers to come up with a stereo image
• Compression, Adding reverb and other effects, improve the already recorded song.
• Taking your song from Good to GREAT!

In a nutshell, Mixing allows musicians to fine-tune the final versions of the recorded songs they want included in their release, improving them in terms of sound quality whilst establishing the complete, overall musical mood of their creation. Mixed songs represent the core of a band’s musical idea, such as how they want the listener to enjoy the finalized version of their craftsmanship. It is the second-last step in the recording process, taking place before final mastering is performed.

When listening to this release, it is likely you will not notice many substantial differences between the pre-mixing cuts and the released versions of the songs. Listen carefully though, because they are definitely there. If you’ve heard the album many times, like I did, you will certainly spot them. Examples include:

• Brief drum intros right before the track begins. A common way for drummers to announce the song is starting, so other members can synchronize themselves for proper execution
• Emphasis on choruses, or its exact opposite. You may hear parts of the songs featuring choruses being louder than the final release, or quieter
• Differences in reverberation, with heavy instruments being louder or, like in the bullet point above, quieter
• Some instruments may sound clearer compared to their released counterpart, or muffled. Same goes for sung parts
• Other minor discrepancies…

Furthermore, in this case, you will notice that some of the songs come with a different bridge. For example, “Eyes Wide Open“, which alternate version I like quite a lot.

Moreover, you will wonder why “Slave Girl” and “Disconnected” were not included. The reason is because these cuts were recorded when former drummer George Tutuska was still part of the band, that is sometime in 1994. After he was fired in the early weeks of 1995, either the band and/or John & Robby decided not to include the song he fully wrote, “Stand Alone“, and to replace it with something else, which ended up being the two aforementioned tunes, both covers of other bands. The latter were also produced by a different producer.

At the end of the day, these cuts represent an interesting peek into how the original shape and conception of “A Boy Named Goo” had been formulated by the, well, original members of the band. Those who are into demos and curiosity in terms of how songs evolve during the several production phases will certainly enjoy these alternate versions of their favorite tunes.

“A Boy Named Goo” was produced by Lou Giordano, who hailed all the way from Boston, MA to the band’s native hometown Buffalo, NY to work on the album.

As a final note, this release also includes an instrumental demo for “Only One“.

You can listen to these cuts below. Download links are provided at the end of the post.

PLEASE NOTICE: Due to YouTube restrictions, I could not publish a single video featuring the entire thing, and had to split it into three parts instead. The video below is the main playlist featuring those three clips.

TRACK LISTING:

1. Burnin’ Up
2. Eyes Wide Open
3. Flat Top
4. Impersonality
5. Naked
6. Burnin’ Up (Version #2)
7. Name
8. Impersonality (Version #2)
9. Stand Alone
10. So Long
11. Somethin’ Bad
12. Only One (Instrumental Demo)

DOWNLOAD (Main Source)

DOWNLOAD (Mirror 1)