Scott Weiland - “Learning To Drive”/”Beautiful Day”

About a good five years ago I stumbled upon five unreleased tracks from Stone Temple Pilots on the great STP fansite Below Empty.

The tracks were outtakes from the band’s last two albums, No. 4 and Shangri-La Dee Da, which I immediately dug.

The one track that stood out the most was “Learning To Drive”, which was recorded during the No. 4 sessions. It perked up my ears because it was musically so different than anything I had heard STP do previously. The intro of trippy backwards guitar sets up the mood for a roller coaster ride of a song. Scott adds to setting with the opening lines “Leave me here, I’m OK, Just got back from hell today”. Knowing Scott’s situation, getting out of jail again blah blah blah, it seemed like a very personal track. Then the song gets more upbeat with Scott rejoicing that it’s a “beautiful day”, followed by some sleigh bells. Overall, an odd song by an odd man.

Fast forward to 2007 when I hear that Scott had a track on the soundtrack to the horror flick Bug. It wasn’t a new track, it was another version of “Learning To Drive”, although he toyed around with the idea of changing the title to “Beautiful Day”. The song had a little facelift since the STP version. Scott added some more lyrics, spookier effects and more background vocals, which made the song actually fit in with the movie.

Another year later I noticed that a track entitled “Beautiful Day” was going to be included on Scott’s second solo album Happy in Galoshes. Yup, it was the same fucking song. While “Beautiful Day” pretty much sounds like the Bug version of “Learning To Drive”, I still enjoy it. I think it’s those damn sleigh bells.

So, I guess the point here is that a song can really have no lifeline, even after it’s release, just look at Lennon with “Across The Universe”. Maybe it’s because the artist isn’t pleased with the initial take and it doesn’t match up with what they have in their mind. Or maybe it’s because the song finally finds a home on a album where it fits. Whatever the reason is, just remember that it’s never too late to rework a song. It’s your creation, so keep up the work until it suits your vision. Besides, it will give the die hards more music to add to their collection.