3 Unfinished Projects in Classic Rock History That Became Legendary Anyway

Imagine writing a first draft of a book and then abandoning it, only for swaths of fans to immortalize that first draft and talk about it for decades. That’s more or less what happened to the following three classic rock bands in terms of some very famous unfinished projects. Let’s take a walk through music history and look at what could have been, shall we?

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‘SMiLE’ by The Beach Boys

The Beach Boys’ famed unreleased project SMiLE might be the most famous example of unfinished projects in classic rock on this list. And that’s coming from a group who had several unfinished projects. SMiLE, though, was meant to be a masterpiece follow-up to Pet Sounds. It was going to be a concept album about Americana and the natural world. However, after recording for a year with no end in sight because of Brian Wilson’s perfectionism and declining mental health, the project was shelved. A significantly downscaled version of the record titled Smiley Smile was released in its place in 1967. And people are still talking about what could have been today.

‘Household Objects’ by Pink Floyd

This entry’s a personal favorite of mine, as I really think Household Objects could have been a cool project from Pink Floyd. The band was still reeling from the success of The Dark Side Of The Moon when they decided to go back to their experimental ways with this record. Household Objects was meant to be composed entirely of sounds made from non-instrument objects. Some recordings would later be repurposed and released. However, Household Objects as a whole was just too out there and complicated for even Pink Floyd to complete.

‘Hoodoo’ by John Fogerty

This legendary entry on our list of unfinished classic rock projects comes from former Creedence Clearwater Revival icon John Fogerty. Hoodoo was intended to be Fogerty’s third solo record. The album was almost entirely original, sans one lone Ray Charles cover. After submitting the album to his label, Fogerty had a change of heart and pulled the whole thing. According to lore, he wasn’t satisfied with the recording quality of the record, but he never had the time to re-record it, apparently. He asked his label to destroy the tapes, and only a few bootlegs remain on the internet today.

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