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SANDY DILLON discography

American singer/songwriter Sandy Dillon recorded two (unreleased) albums for Elektra Records in the mid-80s, one of which was produced by Mick Ronson. She started working with Ray Majors when they collaborated on her 'debut' album "Skating" in 1995, and she eventually married him in 2008.

In December 2012 NRX Records issued a compilation entitled "Flowers" which featured tracks from her two unreleased Elektra albums. The latest Sandy Dillon release is "Shipwrecked" from 2013, a 2CD set which also contained two "buried treasure" tracks with some surprising guests from Sandy's past, notably, a duet with the late bassist Jaco Pastorius recorded live in New York in the 1980's.

Quick links: solo releases | QUIET MELON | DOWNLINERS SECT | RAY MAJORS | HECTOR ZAZOU | SISTERS EUCLID | MAN PARRISH


SANDY DILLON solo releases

Highslide JS "Flowers / Heavy Boys" UK 7" single | 1985
(Mainman/Priority SANDY 1)

Sandy Dillon signed with Tony DeFries and his Mainman agency in 1983 and recorded two unreleased albums for Elektra. "Candy From A Stranger" (1984) was produced by Manny Parrish and "Dancing On The Freeway" (1985) by Mick Ronson and Dieter Meier.

This single coupled two tracks from the 1985 album. "Flowers" (produced by Meier) and "Heavy Boys" (produced by Ronson) are both still part of Sandy's live repertoire today.

NRX Records issued the compilation album "Flowers" in December 2012 with eight songs from "Dancing On The Freeway" (including both sides of this single) plus three from "Candy From A Stranger".

Highslide JS "SKATING" UK CD | 1996
(Bonjour Records CAVA006CD)

Sandy's 'debut' album was released in 1996 and was only available at gigs or by mail order. This was her first collaboration with Ray Majors. The songs "Love That Burns" and "Back Door Friend" were also recorded and eventually turned up on Ray Majors' solo album "First Poison" in 2000.

Tracklisting: You Should Have Known / Skating / The Boat / Candystore / Turn Back To The East / Lavender Cat / Sugarplum Head / The Letter / Save My Soul / Dragonflies / Nothing Matters

Highslide JS "ELECTRIC CHAIR" UK CD | 1999
(One Little Indian TPLP205CD)

Tracklisting: Black Widow / Send Me To The 'Lectric Chair / Float / Too Ruff / Pretty Trees / Too Much Fun / Swimming / Shoes / Powder Lady / See You In Hell

Highslide JS EAST OVERSHOE UK CD | 2001
(One Little Indian TPLP215CD)

Tracklisting: East Overshoe / Second Dad / Send Me A Dollar / Rescue Me / Filth And Dust / Hot Potato / Girls Desperate Measures / I'm Just Blue / Going Away / Hair Hang Down / Exactitude / Mailbox / East Overshoe

Highslide JS NOBODY'S SWEETHEART UK CD | 2003
(One Little Indian TPLP367CD)

Tracklisting: Feel The Way I Do / It Must Be Love / The Stain / Shoreline / Let's Go For A Drive / A Girl Like Me / Honeymoonee / The Silent You / Nobody's Sweetheart / Now You're Mine / Can't Make You Stay / Don't Blame You Now / Mamma's Backyard

Highslide JS SHORELINE UK CD-single | 2004
(One Little Indian 323TP7CD)

Tracklisting: Shoreline / It Must Be Love / Don't Blame You Now
CD-single with three songs from the "Nobody's Sweetheart" album. "Shoreline" features Heather Nova.

Highslide JS PULL THE STRINGS UK CD | 2006
(One Little Indian TPLP499CD)

Tracklisting: Pull The Strings / Play With Ruth / I Fell In Love / Enter The Flame / Documents / Broken Promises / Blindcore / Why / Who's Answering / Baltimore Oriole / Over My Head / Homesick / Motherless Children / Wedding Night / Midway / Carnival Of Dreams

Highslide JS Sandy Dillon toured the UK in March/April 2006 with fellow One Little Indian artists Robert Love and Jeff Klein. The tour was billed as 'the Ghost Flight Revue' and two Sandy Dillon songs ("Why" and "Broken Promises") were included on the tour sampler pictured right, cleverly titled "Ghost Flight Revue" (One Little Indian 739TP7CD).

Highslide JS LIVING IN DREAMS Germany CD | 2008
(Tradition & Moderne T&M 042)

Tracklisting: Can't Afford To Lose My Man / Goin' Down Hades / Graves / Bad Luck Blues / High Flying Bird / Lilly's Hurt Me Blues / Chocalate Shake / Saliva Gland / Sporting Life Blues / Living In Dreams

Highslide JS VARIOUS ARTISTS: Beautiful Star: The Songs Of Odetta
UK CD | 2009 (Wears The Trousers Records)

Odetta Holmes (1930-2008) was an American singer, actress, guitarist, songwriter, and a civil and human rights activist, often referred to as 'The Voice of the Civil Rights Movement'. She was influential to many of the key figures of the folk-revival of that time, including Bob Dylan and Joan Baez.

In 2009 Wears The Trousers Records showed her due respect by selecting a talented group of contemporary female singers to carry on her grand legacy. All profits from the album are split between two charities (The Fawcett Society and The Women's Resource Centre) that benefit women. The Sandy Dillon track is a live version of "Can't Afford To Lose My Man". Other artists included are Linda Draper, Ane Brun, Gemma Ray and Anais Mitchell, to name just a few.

The CD edition is only available from the label, while mp3-files are offered by iTunes and Amazon.

Highslide JS FLOWERS USA CD | 2012
(NPR Records)

Tracklisting: Flowers / Thinking About / There Is No Love / Last Fall / Heavy Boys / Destiny / Dreams / You'll Come Back / Remember / My Best Friend / Give It Away

The compilation album "Flowers" was released in December 2012 by NRX Records. It has eight songs from "Dancing On The Freeway" plus three from "Candy From A Stranger", Sandy's unreleased mid-80s Elektra albums. "Candy From A Stranger" (1984) was produced by Manny Parrish and "Dancing On The Freeway" (1985) by Mick Ronson and Dieter Meier.

The Golden Years label (UK) pressed up promo copies of "Dancing On The Freeway" in 1995 (Golden Years GY004) but the album sadly never hit the shops. The full track listing for the album was: Dreams / Candy From A Stranger / Destiny / Hard In Love / My Best Friend / Hometown Girl / Remember / Flowers / Thinking About / Heavy Boys / There Is No Love / Another New Life / Dancing On The Freeway / Laughing Time / Take Me I'm Yours

Highslide JS SHIPWRECKED UK mp3 download album | 2013

Says Sandy: "It's taken me about 3 years because we recorded in many different places, Berlin, London and Boston, using all kinds of hand built instruments. The stories in the songs are all inspired by the names of real Shipwrecked boats that actually occurred off of the Atlantic coast near the town I grew up in, in Massachusetts."

Tracklisting: Take My Hand / Follow Me / When Sailors Were Cowboys / Quiqui and the Bathtub Gin / The Hepzibah / Can You Hear Me Now? / The Nancy / Lifesaver Man / Skin and Blister / The Emily Marshall Smiled / The Alice / The Shipwrecked Heart / This Little Girl / You'll Come Back / Who Goes There? / Marblehead Man / Skipper Ireson's Lament / Women of Marblehead Chant / Salty Dog Blues / We All Fall Down / Rosevear Ghost / The Spirit of Hopkins / Vernal Pools / Murray's Star Turn / Fish Soup / I Shipwrecked Myself / The Grampus Rocks / I'm a Tidal Wave / Epilogue (the Wreck of the Hesperus)

"Shipwrecked" is available as a download album in mp3 and flac format from cdbaby. It also contain two "buried treasure" tracks with some surprising guests from Sandy's past, notably, a duet with the late bassist Jaco Pastorius recorded live in New York in the 1980's.


SANDY DILLON with Art Wood's Quiet Melon

Highslide JS "MONEY DUE" Japan CD | 1998
(Nippon Crown CRCL-4036)

Tracklisting: Knee Deep In Nephews / My Resistance Is Low / Driftin' / Lady Moon / Soup In A Basket / Meet Me In The Bottom / Hard Time Blues / Turn It Around / Gee Baby / Never Judge A Man / Diamond Joe / Engine 4444 / Am I Blue

Highslide JS Sandy Dillon and Ray Majors toured Britain with Not The Hoople in the mid-90s - playing songs by Mott, the Yardbirds, the Rolling Stones and old R&B standards. Not The Hoople also included Mick Avory of Kinks-fame and members of the Downliners Sect. Eventually Not The Hoople teamed up with Art Wood in Quiet Melon and signed with Nippon Crown in Japan in 1998, billed as Art Wood's Quiet Melon (pictured right).

Three Ray Majors songs were included: "Driftin" , "Never Judge A Man" (Majors/Steve Hyams) and "Knee Deep In Nephews" (Majors/Art Wood).


SANDY DILLON with Downliners Sect

Highslide JS "DANGEROUS GROUND" UK CD | 1998
(Birch Records MB23897)

Tracklisting: Keep On Rocking, Escape From Hong Kong, In The Pits, Midnight Shift, Dangerous Ground, Lucy's Bar Room, Working On The Railroad, Little Queenie, I Just Want To Make Love To You, So Blue, Ease Up, Love With No Strings, Quicksand, Daemon Lover, Bookworm.

The Downliners Sect studio album "Dangerous Ground" was released in 1998 with guest artists Art Wood, Ray Majors and Sandy Dillon. Almost the second Quiet Melon album, if you like. A USA 12-track edition (Steady Boy SB-0032) was issued in 2011 with "Midnight Shift", "Little Queenie" and "I Just Want To Make Love To You" removed from the track listing. Steady Boy also made a 10-track LP version available which also dropped "In The Pits" and "Ease Up".


SANDY DILLON with Ray Majors

Highslide JS "FIRST POISON" UK CD | 2000
(Angel Air SJPCD057)

Tracklisting: Leave Me Be / The Killing Time / I'll Never Leave You / Love That Burns / Writing On The Wall / Soon / Errant Magic / Dangerous Liaison / Jam Rag / Driftin' / Nobody Home / The Dawning (Harry's Theme) / Back Door Friend / Walk The Line / Carrie

Ray recorded this album in 2000 with Sandy Dillon and her husband Steve Bywater. "Love That Burns" and "Back Door Friend" were recorded in 1995, during sessions for Sandy's "Skating" album. "Driftin" and "The Dawning (Harry's Theme)" were recorded for the 1998 Quiet Melon album.


SANDY DILLON with Hector Zazou

Highslide JS "12 (LAS VEGAS IS CURSED)" Belgium CD | 2000
(Crammed Disc Cram 097)

Tracklisting: I Can't Hear You / Channel 12 / Her Eyes Are A Blue Million Miles / Still Moving In Fear / Sandwiched 1 / Sandwiched 2 / Sombre (Le Submarine) / God Believes In Showbiz / Accident Of Love / I Saw You Fall / Excuse Me (If I'm Sad) / Squawk 2

Eclectic French composer/producer Hector Zazou and Sandy Dillon supposedly set out to record 12 rock tracks that defy all attempts at categorization. Helping them achieve their goal were Marc Ribot, Justin Adams (Brian Eno, Sinead O'Connor), Porl Thompson (ex-Cure) and Bill Rieflin (Nine Inch Nails).


SANDY DILLON with Sisters Euclid

Highslide JS "96 TEARS" Germany CD | 2010
(Tradition & Moderne T&M 047)

Tracklisting: 96 Tears / Dead Flowers / This Is The Day / How Many More Years / Good Morning Heartache / Oh Sweet Nuthin' / Love That Burns / Move Over / Travellin' Light / Cars Hiss By My Window / These Arms Of Mine / Dust Pneumonia Blues

Sandy Dillon and Ray Majors recorded this collection of cover versions with Sisters Euclid in Bremen in late November 2006. The originals were performed by ? and The Mysterians, The Rolling Stones, Captain Beefheart, Howlin’ Wolf, Billie Holiday, The Velvet Underground, Fleetwood Mac, Janis Joplin, The Doors, Otis Redding and Woody Guthrie.

Sisters Euclid are a Canadian band featuring Kevin Breit (guitars), Rob Gusevs (keyboards), Ian de Souza (bass) and Gary Taylor (drums).


SANDY DILLON with Man Parrish

Highslide JS "Summer Time / True Romance" mp3 download | 2011
(Parrish Digital)

This is a cross the pond digital internet collaboration, with music created in New York and vocals recorded in London. Sandy wrote the lyrics and did the vocals. Man Parrish did the music, mixed and did the artwork.

Highslide JS Man Parrish and Sandy Dillon have been friends for years and were co-artists on David Bowie's management company Main Main in the 1980's. Sandy moved to London, but they still kept in touch. Says the press release: "Enjoy this dark trip into the underside of romance and love plus a twisted SummerTime with Sandy Dillon's vocal stylings and Man Parrish's Deep Dark and Crisp Synth Stylings".

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