You gotta let go of the notion that there was a straight line between Freedom and Black Lion. It's not that simple or linear.
What it is is convoluted. This Alan Bates guy seemed to have more than one ball in the air at any given time.
And some of the Arista/Freedom covers were based on the Freedom covers, but some weren't. Again, it seems to be related to the recency of the recording.
I would wonder if Bates worked with Arista to get the covers synced at some point. Arista had money, Real money. Clive Davis money LOL.
The people who cared were bummed when the series was discontinued, but Arista and Arista Novus did right for a little bit after that. Michael was in all of this. God only knows what that dance looked like ..