1992.XX.XX – The Sylvia Massey Outtakes
Recorded at Sound City Studios in Van Nuys, CA. USA

“Sober / Undertow / Swamp Song”

Source: Sound Board Studio Recording > DAT-M
Transfer: DAT-M > UXL 2496 > Tascam DA 20 MKII
Gen: CU.ORG Master
Transferred by: Galen

Notes on The Sylvia Massey Outtakes:
In November 2020, Sylvia Massey, the recording engineer for Tool on both Opiate and Undertow, offered a bunch of old memorabilia of Tool for sale on her website with a solid focus seemingly on audio cassettes, DATs and even reel-to-reel consisting of studio outtakes. These items were not remotely cheap as in thousands and thousands of dollars. Unsurprisingly, her store quickly sold out of most everything rather quickly. Unsure of the legality of selling something like that but she did have a note specifying that the only thing for sale were the physical tapes and not the information contained on them. To complicate things, apparently, she was trying to sell the physical Master (Reel to Reel tape) of Undertow. To be clear and without a shadow of a doubt: Sylvia Massey has transfers of every single thing she sold but it is also true that there is no incentive for her to release anything pertaining to Tool in the short or long term.

Notes:
The DAT begins with an argument between MJK and Danny Carey. Appears to be a misunderstanding as is common in life however it is of interest to us as this rare exchange was caught on tape. This last roughly five minutes until a warm-up drum session occurs. First pass of Sober is relatively straightforward with some vocal phasing whereas the second pass is abruptly stopped at the build-up. There is a pervasive what sounds like a digital ‘phht’ which seems to occur somewhat inconsistently. Could be the DAT tape degrading, could be part of the master tape. Pass three of Sober is a lot of Danny laying down the beat as Paul and Adam slowly add some jammy, almost groovy notes and almost seems like Massey herself is mixing in different samples in this version. As always, interesting. Undertow has some strange vocal effects which is something I had not ever heard before. Heavy on bass, this take showcases a band still figuring out the song both musically and vocally. Inconsistent lyrics but you can tell the song is almost there but the band still needs time to flesh-it-out but they could not stick the ending; the song just stops. Pass two, the band really musically nails almost all of the ending but as such it is a work in progress. Swamp Song, at this point, is fully developed and the band performs the song with a clear idea of how they wanted this song to sound.

DAT Tape Time: 90:00

Drums
Sober
(cut intro w/”Mother Mary Won’t You Whisper” / phasing effects on vocals)

Sober
(end clipped)

Drums
Sober
(Different beat, sort of like a remix - see MP3 sample)

Undertow
(Vocal FX, no ending)

Undertow
(98% Complete)

Swamp Song
(False start)

Swamp Song
(Complete)

Swamp Song
(Alt GTR)