12/01/2026
Hey friends, I wanted to share one of my favorite Bobby tracks. It’s a studio acoustic demo of Weather Report Suite before it had a name, and before Part 1 had finished lyrics. It was recorded in August of ‘73, but I’d never heard it until it was released in 2004 as a bonus track on the “Wake of the Flood” release that was included in the “Band Beyond Description” CD box set. I picked it up at Best Buy before leaving for a semester abroad in the Czech Republic, and listened to it relentlessly. Because it was recorded before he and Eric Andersen had written the lyrics to Part 1, Bobby simply la-la-la’s the angelic melody over where the words would inevitably find their place. Hearing this piece at such an early stage is pretty sobering when you consider its potential, and every version that would eventually come to be. I was in the car when I’d heard the (seemingly-impossible) news of his passing on Saturday, and (after the initial shock) I knew it wasn’t going to feel real to me until I got home, listened to this tack and sobbed the whole way through. In 2013, it was released as a digital download as part of the “Complete Studio Rarities Collection,” so it’s out there on streaming platforms, or youtube, or however one might prefer to digitally consume music. Give it a listen, if you haven’t already. Or even if you already have. Thanks for indulging me. Sending BIG love to all
