Time & Perspective Quote by Michael Giles

There is something almost anti-mythic about the way Michael Giles frames this discovery: not as buried treasure, but as office debris and bootleg detritus that somehow survived. For rock fans trained on the romance of “lost sessions,” he offers a cooler, more accurate origin story: creative work doesn’t just disappear into vaults; it gets misplaced, mislabeled, copied badly, and shrugged off in the churn of deadlines, tours, and next-album pressure.

The intent is modest, even defensive. Giles isn’t selling a grand narrative of genius withheld from the world; he’s explaining a gap in the band’s own memory and control. That matters because it undercuts the fantasy that artists always curate their legacy. The subtext is about authorship and agency: these recordings were “taken from the desk” and circulated as “various bootlegs,” suggesting a history where the audience’s hunger outran the musicians’ ability (or interest) to manage the archive. Bootlegs become an unofficial parallel canon, built by fans and opportunists alike.

The line “we never got to hear them” is the sharpest twist. It reframes the band not as gatekeepers but as outsiders to their own past, learning about their work the way listeners do: through rumor, scarcity, and chance recovery. “Put to one side” is the most revealing phrase of all, hinting at the unglamorous truth of art-making: sometimes what becomes precious later was once just another tape in a pile, waiting for the culture to decide it mattered.