Cancelled and unreleased projects

1960s

Film with Barthelme

• Likely 1966
• Frederick Barthelme: "So there we were in the Red Krayola [...] a name that had come to us while trailing down Main Street in my roofless [...] blue Fiat, shooting 16mm film for a movie we were making at the time (because, before we were a band we were filmmakers, you see). I do not remember what the movie was called; I do not know what became of the evidence. It had burned film, hand-tinted frames, stop-action stuff, cartoons, action scenes, recreations of Godard and Truffaut and much more. It was an amalgam. We had seen Cleo from 5 to 7 and dozens of other fine films, and we were 16mm. There was talk of an Eclair, the camera, not the pastry."
• Mayo Thompson: "I had been making movies when I met [Barthelme], I had a 16-millimeter Bolex and I was making movies, and I asked him to be my star and he said he would, so he was my star. So I filmed, we filmed, something like that. We had a 500-foot roll of film and we had maybe 400 feet of it full already and we were getting ready—we had more coming. But when I came back from Europe I said, “Dude, the way forward, I think, is to start a band.” I’d already done a few folk house gigs, coffeehouse gigs, sung a couple of songs, done one thing on the radio, and he said, “No, you should do that on your own.” I said, “Listen, I’m not doing anything on my own. Forget it. I know what I can do on my own, that’s really not very interesting. Could we please do this together?” And so he agreed and we then destroyed the film that we had made. We drove in his car and I had reeled it out of the window and it just disappeared behind us; a cavalier relation to hundreds of dollars of production, much of it paid for by my wonderful, delightful, supportive, ever-supportive mother, and so on and so on and so on."
• Status: Lost, unfinished

Dairymaid's Lament single

• Recorded February 1967(?) for International Artists (White Rose says 1966) with unknown instrumental B-side
• Status: Unreleased, unknown if lost

Coconut Hotel

Main article: Coconut Hotel

• Recorded in 1967 for International Artists
• At some point was going to be half of God Bless the Red Krayola and All Who Sail With It (source: Mother magazine interview)
• Status: Released in 1995 by Drag City

Album with John Fahey

Main article: Lost album with John Fahey

• Recorded in 1967
• Status: Lost

Mother's Milk

• Demos for Johndavid Bartlett album produced by Mayo Thompson for International Artists. 11 tracks recorded in 1.5 hrs
• Status: Unreleased, likely lost

Opera For Five

• "Following the release of God Bless in May 68, the Greek composer and songwriter Manos Hadjidakis [...] invited Mayo and Steve to New York for discussions about a possible project. Hadjidakis had played God Bless... to his associate the violinist Isaac Stern, who was also known for nurturing new talent. What the pair envisioned was a rock opera featuring Grace Slick in the lead role with the Red Krayola as the backing band. Why they figured Slick would consider leaving a successful career with the Jefferson Airplane for mainstream entertainment is a mystery. After the bizarre red herring there were few fresh opportunities for the duo and so they decided to go their separate ways."

Info:

• Opera for Five (Οπερα για πέντε) was written by Manos Hadjidakis in New York from ~1969 to 1971
• The title is a reference to Bertolt Brecht's "Threepenny Opera" ("Die Dreigroschenoper") whose Greek title is "The Opera of Five" (Όπερα της πεντάρας)
• It was not a traditional opera; closer to a musical
• The opera had five characters and music played by a five-piece band
• Hadjidakis' first choice for the female lead was Grace Slick from Jefferson Airplane
• His first choice for the male lead was American singer-songwriter Emitt Rhodes
• Amy Mims translated the libretto to English as it was written, via post, for over a year
• The visuals were to be designed by Minos Argyrakis (Μίνως Αργυράκης)
• The only known audio documentation is two songs recorded to cassette with Hadjidakis on the piano and Fleury Dantonakis singing in English. The recording has not been released
• Hadjidakis abandoned the project when he returned to Greece in 1972
• A copy of the 80 page libretto is currently in the "Thomas Scherman Papers (1945-1979)" archive in The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
• Supposedly the work contains of 47-49 minutes of music

Cancelled 1971 recording and 1972 production:

• Director: Ludovic de Boer
• Producer: Maurice Huisman for Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels
• Recording Producer: Teo Macero from CBS
• Cast:
  • Amanda: Fleury Dantonakis (Φλέρυ Νταντωνάκη)
  • Don: Michael Kamen (Μάικλ Κάμεν)
  • Sheila: ?
  • Fourth character: ?
  • Fifth character: ?

Status: Unrecorded

1970s

Mayo Thompson single

• Status: Instrumental B-side Woof released by Drag City

The Rockin' Blue Diamonds album

Main article: The Rockin' Blue Diamonds

• Demo recorded for John Fahey's Takoma label, likely 1972
• Status: Unreleased demo, unknown if lost

Album with Manos Hadjidakis

• Album that was planned to be recorded in Greece in summer 1973
• Status: Unrecorded

Mostly About Rauschenberg

Main article: Mostly About Rauschenberg

• Documentary filmed ~1973 co-directed by Christine Kozlov and Mayo Thompson
• Status: Screened but unreleased, clip released

1980s

Music video

• "In June [1980] the band recorded a video-tape, miming and acting out the songs in Ghent with a Belgian T.V. crew. This was at the invitation of A & L who were showing Picasso's Guernica in the Style of Jackson Pollock in the exhibition Art in Europe since 1968 [Kunst in Europa na 68]."
• Status: Unknown

Monsters single

• Rumored by White Rose:
  • "art & language exhibition (eindhoven, holland) 9-10 december 1980 - catalogue has photos from the zoran popovic "borba u new yorka" (struggle in new york) film; there are rumors of a 7" single "monsters" from that exhibition [kees van hulst]"
• Could be related to Monster One on Three Songs on a Trip to the United States / Bismarckstr. 50
• Status: Unknown

Ratman / Future Pilots

• "In April 1981 two new songs were recorded for future release in some form. These songs are Future Pilots and Ratman the Weightwatcher."
• Status: Unreleased English version, released in German as Rattenmensch: Gewichtswächter / Zukunftsflieger, rerecorded for Black Snakes

Retrospective release

• "And there is still a plan to cobble together a retrospective LP as soon as possible—but it's hard to say when."
• Status: Unreleased

Victorine

Main article: Victorine

• Status: Unrecorded, was going to be videotaped live on German television

Ludwig's Law

Main article: Ludwig's Law

• Recorded 1984
• Status: Released in 1998

Baby and Child Care

Main article: Baby and Child Care

• Recorded in 1984
• Status: Released in 2016 by Drag City

Disco Death

• 1986 recording session
• Status: Released in part in 1989 as Malefactor, Ade

1990s

Berlin 2000 Olympic anthem

Main article: All Together Now

• "Michael Schirner and Wolf. D. Rogosky developed a concept for the development of Berlin into an Olympic city and European metropolis. They outlined visions and projects for a new Berlin as the capital of media, business, art, culture, scene, film, sports, youth, etc. Mayo Thompson, musician and artist of the Art & Language group, composed the Olympic anthem “All together now” with lyrics by Diedrich Diederichsen."
• Status: Unknown, likely unrecorded

The Letter / Psychology

• 7" listed in this 1995 discography: http://www.le-musterkoffer.de/alpha/thompson06.html
• Status: Likely expanded into Amor and Language

The Red Krayola T-Shirt

• Mentioned on the label for Chemistry / Farewell to Arms: "DC22 The Red Krayola T-Shirt (1995)"
• Status: Unknown

2000s

Shotgun Wedding

Main article: Shotgun Wedding

• Recorded 2003 in Berlin, at some point was going to be released as multiple solo albums (source: White Rose)
• Status: Released in part in 2009 as Shotgun Wedding

The Red Krayola Documentary

Main article: God Bless the Red Krayola and All Who Sail With It (documentary)

• Status: Unfinished, clip released

Victorine

• Was worked on around same time as Sighs Trapped By Liars
• Status: Unreleased, unknown if recorded

2010s

Cooking in The Kitchen

• 50th anniversary concert planned for Nov 2016
  • November 4 at 8pm the group perform the New York premiere of a new arrangement of Corrected Slogans (1976), their first collaboration with Art & Language.
  • November 5 at 8pm the band present a NYC jamboree (Cooking in The Kitchen), a survey of 50 years of their music with the Familiar Ugly.

Born in Flames II / Sword of God II

Main article: Born in Flames II / Sword of God II

• Planned to be recorded live in 2017, dates were cancelled
• Status: Unrecorded