A Few Questions about Rose and Blood (Indies of X), and Early X!

[ElefeX]

Hello!

Right, a few things that have been puzzling me recently and I was wondering if any of you kind people have any answers!

From what I have read Rose and Blood (Indies of X) was a release by Taiji after he had left X and it is not an official X release. I know nothing about the music industry/copyright etc, but how was this possible? Did he get permission from the others or did he share the profits?

Also in terms of the songs on the album, some of them are early versions of future songs eg Shadows is Joker, Black Devil is Desperate Angel and they were written by Taiji so I can see how they are on the album. But what about the others? I don’t know about Dangerous Zone, Light Breeze or Rose and Blood (although they sound Taiji influenced so could be his) but Not True (Miscast) was by hide was it not? And End of the World (Art of Life) is Yoshikis?  So surely Taiji must have consulted them before he released the album?

Plus, does anyone have any information on when the songs were recorded? It seems like a very early version Jealousy?

And (might as well ask all my questions in one thread!)

Early X stuff, like Time Trip Loving and Feel me Tonight were (as far as I can tell) never released formally. They seem to stop playing them after about 1986 so did one of the other members of X that left around that time write them; (Jun maybe?) and they couldn't play them anymore, or preferred to play their own stuff? Or perhaps they just didn’t like them and moved onto other songs? I know it is common for bands to have songs that they never release, especially in the early days, but I think it is a shame as there are good X songs that never seem to have been released!

Anyway, any information would be greatly appreciated, even a link as to somewhere I can find info online: I have had a look but not much success! Information from the very early days of X seems to be hard to find!

[Beauty/Broken]

Good questions - which deserve better answers than I can give unfortunately :/

Rose and Blood was released by Taiji and mainly consisted of the demos which he wrote and recorded before production for Jealousy began, Yoshiki didn't have much involvement in the majority of the songs at all, for example - the instrumental song called "Jungle" which was co-written by hide and Taiji features a session musician on drums, the same can be said for most of the other demos. As you can also hear, a lot of the songs are definitely no-where near finished, take Light Breeze for example, that song just features Toshi humming over it for the most part :p As for how Taiji acquired the rights to release Yoshiki's midi demo of Art of Life is quite beyond me, I can't think for a second that Yoshiki would have agreed to it.

And as you quite rightly said, Feel me Tonight and Time Trip Loving were Jun songs and we're discontinued with the band when him and Hikaru departed in 1986. It's quite a shame really, Jun wrote some good music - he's currently a guitar teacher in Tokyo and a few years back he posted recordings on his website of him and his students playing Time Trip Loving as an exercise, unfortunately now it's been removed

[ElefeX]

Thanks for the info, it is really interesting!!! I am sure I read somewhere that Taiji was upset/angry with Yoshiki because he had songs that he wanted to put on an album (possibly Jealousy) but Yoshiki decided against using them, so I guess these could be some of the demos. Interesting to know that Yoshiki had little involvement with the songs and it was a session drummer in most of the demos! I think Toshi humming on some of the demos is quite funny, particularly Black Devil (Desperate Angel) - it sounds like when you are a kid (who am I kidding I still do this) dancing around playing air guitar and humming the tune.....da da da da da....ahem, anyway...

Yeah, it was the release of the End of the World (Art of Life) demo that really puzzled me! I can understand the other songs being released as they were Taiji’s, but I really don’t think Yoshiki would just let Taiji release the Art of Life demo as it is Yoshiki’s masterpiece. Very odd!

Cool, I thought Jun might have written them and that’s why they would have stopped playing those songs. It is a shame, because they are really good songs! Just found his website and had a look. Although those recordings are no longer there, he has some other audio clips up, really good stuff - it would be very cool to have Jun as a guitar teacher!!

[KRazyJess]

Content deleted.

[ElefeX]

Hmm, as far as I know, there is no proof anywhere that Taiji was officially involved in the release of Rose and Blood. If there is, though, I'd like to see it... I always thought it was just fan assumption that he was, based on the fact that most of those songs are Taiji songs, without any real proof of it. I also thought it was most likely a studio bootleg released by people who happened to have access to it and without much to do with either Taiji or Yoshiki or hide (well whoever owns the rights for his music).

You could be right KRazyJess, I have tried to find more info on whether or not Taiji was involved with the release and although everything I have found seems to suggest he is there is no actual source for anything – well in English anyway, there could be more information in Japanese but I can’t read it!! It could well be that it is just a general assumption he was involved.

If it is a studio bootleg then that could explain the mystery of why End of the World (Art of Life) is on it, as if it was an official release then Taiji would have to have Yoshiki’s permission. Also, if it was an official Taiji release would he actually want Yoshiki’s masterpiece on it? If I had left a band due to differences with another member then the last thing  I would do is put a song of his on any album released by me. Maybe the people that produced the bootleg were big Taiji fans so that accounts for it mainly consisting of Taiji songs!

Does anyone have a copy of the actual CD? If so, does it have any further information? Thanks!!! 

[Camazotz]

Well, I've got the Rose & Blood cd, but the most of the text is in japanese. Something is written about Toshi, Taiji and hide in the first page of the booklet, but as I said, the rest is written in japanse ><

[Joker]

Just fixing.
Time Trip Loving was on Orgasm EP. It's a Jun and Toshi song. Feel me Tonight, nobody knows so much, but it was played after Jun and Hikaru left the band, until 1987 or 1988, I guess. There are some gigs where Pata and hide and Taiji were already on X and they played Feel me Tonight. Some people says that Feel me Tonight, as Stab me in the Back, were made by Hally and Yoshiki. But I can't confirm.

[ElefeX]

Camazotz - that’s ok, thank you for looking anyway!!

Just fixing.
Time Trip Loving was on Orgasm EP. It's a Jun and Toshi song. Feel me Tonight, nobody knows so much, but it was played after Jun and Hikaru left the band, until 1987 or 1988, I guess. There are some gigs where Pata and hide and Taiji were already on X and they played Feel me Tonight. Some people says that Feel me Tonight, as Stab me in the Back, were made by Hally and Yoshiki. But I can't confirm.

Thanks for the info Joker. I thought Stab Me in the Back was a Yoshiki song, also credited to Hitomi Shiratori(?) for lyrics but from what I have read that is a pen name of Yoshiki, or is it?

[ElefeX]

Thanks for the info Ami, its really interesting!!!!

So has Yoshiki talked about his pennames then? Even going as far as to have backgrounds for them?