The b-side of the Sandie Shaw cover is another Smiths tune, I Don't Owe You Anything. Sandie's version is one of my all time favourite songs.
I really can't make my mind up which version I prefer - the original from the debut LP or the wonderful re-take that Sandie added her vocals to some time later.
The tale is that it was originally written by Morrissey and Marras a song they wanted to present to Sandie Shaw in the hope she would end her exile from recording. It is one of the most haunting tunes on the debut LP thanks in part to the subtle use of keyboards and another example of the important role that producer John Porter played in making so many of the early songs sound so special (I've previously told the story of his contribution of mandolin to Please, Please, Please...)
Some 12 months later, all of the band were back in the studio for what turned out to be just a one-off collaboration, although rumours were rife that it was going to be the first of many. The fact that Sandie Shaw was willing to do a fresh version of Hand In Glove and so give it the chart appearance denied it when first released would have been good enough news for Morrissey and Marr. The fact that she recorded such a fabulous version of the song they originally intended for her must have been the stuff of dreams.
Mike Joyce is known to have been moved to tears playing this song during an 1983 gig in London and has long said it is one of his favourite all time songs by the band. Morrissey of course now has no love at all for his ex-drummer.....so its hardly a surprise that in an interview conducted in 2005 that the singer revealed I Dont Owe You Anything was a song that made him 'shudder' and is one he now wished to disown.
Welcome to Part 2 of the series which will highlight some of my favourite album tracks by some of my all-time favourite bands.
Last week I revealed how much angst I had suffered getting down to a list of 5 songs by The Jam and half-jokingly said that next time round I'd make things easy for myself by going for a band that had maybe only released one LP........
I'm sure just about all of you know that Joy Division only released two studio albums in their career - Unknown Pleasures in 1979 and Closer in 1980. Nineteen tracks in all. Choosing five should be a piece of piss then eh?
But let's face it, anyone's five favourite JD album tracks will depend entirely on their mood at the time. Which has meant I've listened to both albums in their entirety three times this week in completely different circumstances, including being in a right stinker of a mood. And the results?? Turned out this was even harder than last week's effort. This series might end up being very short for the good of my health.
I'm almost tempted to make apologies for the songs not included and try to reason why they didnt make it. But no....I must stick to the task in hand.
By pure chance, Disorder is the first track alphabetically. It also happens to be the opening track on the debut album. As an introduction to the albums of the band it really hits the spot. The machine-like drumming of Stephen Morris is quickly joined by the incessant and hypnotic bass playing of Peter Hook. Then it is Bernard Sumner's scratchy guitars....all combining to make a noise that immediately makes your ears prick up and wonder where it is all going to go. And then, at exactly 28 seconds comes the voice, 'I've been waiting for a guide to come and take me by the hand.'
I didn't buy Unknown Pleasures on its release in June 1979. It was a matter of weeks after my first ever gig and I was too busy spending all my paper-round money on all sorts of singles and LPs by new wave bands who were making an impact of the charts, appearing on Top of the Pops and more importantly playing live at the Glasgow Apollo as part of nationwide tours. Bands like Joy Division were confined to pubs and clubs that I was too young to get into. It was early 1980 when I bought the LP on the back of my love for the single Transmission. A mate warned me the album was nothing like the single and I would struggle to like it. And he was right to begin with. But I persisted with the record and had it on regular play. But the association of the band with Nazism that I was reading about in music papers made me very uncomfortable. Joy Division were not a band to boast about in a school common room that was savage in its dismissal of what and who was cool and uncool. And no-one at 16 years of age wants to be uncool. So Disorder remained mine and one other classmates favourite undiscovered dance track of 1979. Never did get it played alongside Chic at school discos mind you.
By the time Closer was released in mid 1980, a lot more folk knew about Joy Division thanks to a suicide and a hit single. This was an album that went Top 10 in the UK where its predecessor had barely scratched the Top 75. Its a sad truth that the band were not a commercial success until after Ian Curtis had taken his life.
Three tracks out of the five chosen today are taken from Closer.
Isloation is a track that could have been a brilliant hit single. The bass and drums are again a big feature, but so too is the keyboard sound that would become such a feature of New Order in the years to follow. Its catchy as fuck - now there's not a phrase you don't use often when talking about JD songs - with a jauntiness that disguises a hugely dark and distressing lyric....
I've selected Passover which might surprise and disappoint some of you. It's almost a standard sounding rock track dominated by a constant drum beat with not a lot seemingly happening with the bass, keyboards or guitar. But its the fragile beauty of the vocal that wins me over every time. Its one where Curtis isnt reaching into the depths of his soul or stretching his role. Its almost as if he's reciting poetry over a track....not all that far removed from some of the material that John Cooper Clarke was releasing at the same time.....I just find it compelling.
The third track selected from the LP is Twenty Four Hours. A stunning bit of post-punk music that wouldn't have been out of place on a PIL or Magazine record. I cant really add any more.
The selection of She's Lost Control may seem as if I'm breaking the self-imposed rules of no singles allowed. But.....the version on Unknown Pleasures is a lot different from the posthumous remix that appeared in late 1980 some 15 months later. One of the most memorable bass-lines ever committed to vinyl. One of the best early uses of synth drums. One of the most passionate and personal lyrics ever written - one where you can feel Curtis deliberately reining hinself in. Its far superior, cleaner and sharper than the single version. Judge for yourself:-
As mentioned yesterday, it took more than a year for ZTT to get round to issuing the second single by Propaganda.
Similar to Dr Mabuse, the release of Duel on 7" and 12" offered different mixes. And similar to my tale of Dr Mabuse, my 7" version has long been lost. But I have long had the 12" version, and indeed featured in on TVV back in February 2010. And I make no apologies for this cut'n'paste job:-
That single was called Duel, a lovely bit of electro-pop that fitted in just perfectly with so many of the other musicians I was developing a love for, and in particular Pet Shop Boys. There was also something quite erotic about the vocal delivery of Claudia Brucken, but visually it was the other female in the band - Susanne Freytag - who really did it for me. The band actually were on UK telly quite a bit around the time of Duel, including a couple of live songs that were aired on Whistle Test during which they proved, as a live act, they could cut it, albeit there were backing tapes involved.
But Propaganda were victims of an FGTH backlash with many music journalists questioning just how much of the success of them and ZTT was down to the production skills of Trevor Horn and Stephen Lipson and the hype-skills of Paul Morley rather than any talents the musicians might have.
So it was a skeptical world that greeted the July 1985 release of A Secret Wish, the debut LP by Propaganda. I remember one Sunday evening that veteran Radio 1 DJ Annie Nightingale played the full 9 minutes of the instrumental opening track, Dream Within A Dream, and thinking that it was just gorgeous. It reminded me of a number of the early 80s instrumentals that Simple Minds had released as b-sides, only they had been taken forward and given a bigger and cleaner production....so I was gobsmacked to tune into the show next week and hear Annie read out a number of angry letters from listeners who had been appalled that some much of the previous show had been given over to such a 'dreadful dirge.'
That's when I knew Propaganda could never win over the great British public. Too arty for some, too plastic for others and too clever by half for the rest. Oh and of course they were German.....
I still love that debut LP. I even fell for the marketing scam and bought a remixed version of it that appeared some six months later, although to be fair, it was a decent enough record on its own. I even bought at least one ZTT compilation LP just to pick up yet another different version of a Propaganda song. But by the time the band got round to releasing their second LP in 1990, I was no longer interested. It coincided with a short time when music wasn't that important in my life....
There's a really interesting wikipedia article on Propaganda that's well worth a read. I was surprised to learn that they're still going strong. Click here for more.
Rather than pull something down from the debut LP, I thought I'd go into the cupboard and dig out some vinyl, and the 12" single of Duel which became their biggest-selling hit, reaching #21 in the UK charts:-
My first exposure to Propaganda came one night at the end of an episode of what by then was called Whistle Test, when this memorable pop promo was played out over the credits sometime around early march 1984:-
This was to be the second single released on the ZTT label - the first being the amazingly successful Relax by Frankie Goes To Hollywood. I was immediately captivated by its charms - it was a big booming tune that offered something different each time you played it. Oh and in co-vocalist Susanne Freytag, they had one of the most stunningly gorgeous women in the pop world.
The single was only a minor hit, peaking at #27, and with subsequent FGTH singles also being multi-million sellers, the relatively small ZTT had to put all its eggs into one basket, so Propaganda were left to one side for the best part of 12 months and it was April 1985 before the follow-up single Duel was released.
For the rest of the year, the band enjoyed quite a high profile, including a number of TV appearances, live gigs and the release of the debut LP A Secret Wish in July 1985. Incidentally, the vinyl and CD versions of the album are very different - they were released some three months apart, and the CD has extended and slightly remixed versions of a number of the tracks.
I loved A Secret Wish. It was the sort of record I had imagined Simple Minds going onto make on the back of their earliest releases instead of gravitating towards the stadium rock behemoths they were becoming. And it was no real surprise that the Propaganda that went out on tour featured the ex-Minds bassist Derek Forbes.....
Incidentally, I still love the album which has aged very well indeed, including an excellent cover version of Sorry For Laughing, one of the early Josef K singles.
The debut single offered different versions on the 7" and 12". My 7" copy has long gone - a victim of stupidity when all my 7" singles were 'lost' in Edinburgh in 1986. I did once have a 12" version, but haven't been able to find it anywhere for years - I'm assuming it was loaned out to someone who never returned it. Or stolen....
Anyways, the other week I found a copy in a second hand store going for just £1.50, so without any further ado:-
not quite the one I love, the one I've left behind or the simple prop who occupied my time.
Nope. This is for Dick Van Dyke. Much loved Sunday Correspondent who has been having a wee bit of a tough time recently (hence the lack of postings) but who last Friday left behind a comment saying this was one of his favourite album tracks by The Jam.
It's one of mine too....but was disqualified for inclusion in last Friday's posting thanks to a slightly different version being released as a single in October 1978, which reached #15 in the UK charts.
Again, it is astonishing to think that this lyric and tune were the work of someone who was barely out of his teens. Sadly, there was never a promo video made. But there was a TOTP appearance:-
The former is a cover of a song by The Who. The latter is a Bruce Foxton composition.
Hope this is accepted as a way of an apology for my rudeness old boy. Hope also you're able to entertain your many fans with another contribution to the Sunday series.
It's Saturday 24th April 2010 - JC, Jacques the Kipper and myself are in my car.
The Place??
The M90 just outside Kinross heading our way to Dens Park, Dundee to watch Raith Rovers who three nights earlier had preserved their first divison status by beating today's opponents Dundee 1-0.
The conversation turns to music and as a track comes on my i-pod which plays through my car stereo (I'm a smug bastard - bu then again none of those two twats drive) I explain that the artist playing is going to be a future topic for a Sunday Correspondents piece by me.
The track that's playing is Landed by Ben Folds.
JC immediately says that its middle of the road music...to which I shout....GOOD....i'll title the piece Vinyl Villain SMOOOOOTH for the day.
Ben Folds completes a musical journey involving my two daughters Amy and Sophie.
Let me explain...
As the girls grew up, they listened to and were influenced by the music that I played. As wee girls when it was time to go to bed they wouldn't ask me to sing Nursery Rhymes. Instead it was things like ..."Dad, sing all the Crowded House songs." or whatever else they'd heard in the car that day. They then started developing their own taste - Amy's first venture into going to concerts was when Alison (my wife) took her and Sophie to see Boyzone and she hated it because it was too loud.
Sophie's band of choice was Steps. I ended up taking her to about 4 or 5 Steps gigs before they broke up on Boxing Day 2001. Many tears were shed that day.
The next gigs I took them to did more for my credibility - their musical tastes were being created by school friends, and we went to see Foo Fighters and Red Hot Chilli Peppers. So their playing of the Foos and Chilis was a change as these were bands they brought me. We went to see them at various times including a double bill at Glasgow Green in 2003.
The girls inevitably developed their own tastes. I would drive them to gigs to see bands that I didn't like, although I'm sure they got fed up with me saying "Its all been done before and I'll let you hear the original." I drove them through to the famous Barrowlands (its a round trip of about 140 miles from our home in East Lothian) to see The Distillers - and seeing the state of some of the people attending the gig and going 'FUCK....I'm becoming ny own father' who used to be appalled at everything I listened to as he commented on the state of everyone on Top Of The Pops.
But the one artists we all started listening to together was Ben Folds. The girls and I first heard his single Landed as I drove them to school in 2005. I had bought the first Ben Folds Five single Kate eight years previously. But after hearing Landed I ended up buying the entire back catalogue over the next year as three-quarters of the Greer Family caught up with his musical output.
His breakthrough came in the early 90s amidst the grunge music that was coming from America. Folds famously described his own stuff as 'punk rock for cissies' - a mix of punk, indie rock, jazz, power pop with a huge slice of humour.
I know Folds can be a bit potty mouthed with his lyrics, but we all loved his different take on popular styles - whether it was a piss take of the Blink 182 and Sum 41 genre with the wonderful Rocking The Suburbs or his ballad version of Bitches Ain't Shit originally written and performed by Dr Dre.
The love of his music culminated in the three of us going to see him for the first time in January 2007 at the Glasgow Academy. Unfortunately, he has only played one more tour in the UK since, and Amy and I went to Newcastle to see him in 2008.
The girls have moved on from going to gigs with their dad and are now regulars at T in the Park, Scotland's annual largest outdoor festival, as well as various other gigs throughout the year.
Ben Folds' new album came out at the end of last month and is a collaboration with Nick Hornby.
Hornby first came to the attention of most music fans with his brilliant bittersweet novel High Fidelity that was turned into a classic film starring John Cusack as Rob Gordon, the record shop owner whose personal life crumbles before our eyes.
Hornby's observations of a collection of obsessive record collecting characters will ring a tone with many of the readers of this and other blogs. The way every relationship is referred to by Rob in terms of mix tapes that define a moment is akin to the musings of our own JC.
The chemistry of Rob and his co-workers in the shop is wonderful - the way they compile 'Top 5s' for every conceivable occasion and show a great musical snobbery with their so called customers, taking the piss and mocking their musical ignorance. Barry, the character played by Jack Black excels at this.
Hornby has been a long time admirer of Folds' work, attending his first London gig and devoting an essay in his 2002 collection of music themed book, 31 Songs, praising the lyrics to Smoke.....later Folds explained that the lyrics to Smoke weren't written by him!!
London based Hornby would e-mail the words for the project to Nashville for Folds who would set them to music. The result is an eleven track album that comes as a special edition with a 152 page book of Nick Hornby short stories.
The first track Working Day could have been written for JC as the chorus is
Some guy on the net thinks I suck And he should know He's got his own blog
The album on the first dozen or so listens is better than I feared it may have been given the disjointed way the songs were put together.
A FOOTNOTE
I remember JC, having taken Mrs Villain to see High Fidelity telling me with great relish how he took great delight when his reply to her question whether Nick Hornby looked like John Cusack was "Naw....he looks like John Greer"
Nick Hornby a few years back contributed £5000 to a community buyout from the previous owners of Raith Rovers FC. His investment came about as he is a friend of fellow author and lifelong Rovers fan Ian Rankin. It was also a way of sealing his relationship with his own team Arsenal and Raith Rovers - Arsenal were formed by David Danskin, a man born in Fife who lived and played football in Kirkcaldy (home town of Raith Rovers) before moving to London to work in the munitions factory at Royal Arsenal, Woolwich.
The picture illustrating today's piece depicts me wearing the DMCA's as badges of honour following my most recent posting which caused JC so much bother. He feels that something similar would happen with the Ben Folds material which is why no direct links to mp3s have been provided.
When word of The Smiths began to seep out of Manchester in 1982, the most arresting aspect of the band, unheard, was its name. Apparently banal, except to citizens named Smith, it implied nothing, gave no statement of intent.
When Rough Trade issues the debut single 'Hand In Glove', a record which, almost uniquely for the period, bore no clear evidence of influence from other musicians, it was evident that this was a band to be enjoyed.
It remains a stunning record, even to this day more than 27 years after its release in May 1983, housed in one the most memorable record sleeves of all time.
Released only on 7" vinyl at a time when the fashion was for 12" singles with extended remixes, it is the song which totally re-defined indie-pop forever more. It sold poorly (to begin with - it did sell consistently though over a two-year period meaning the single isn't all that rare)
It got nowhere near the charts....no doubt not helped by a man's arse being on the cover.
A thoroughly inferior remix version was put together for inclusion on the self-titled debut LP released some 8 months later:-
There was a memorable TOTP appearance - check out the boys in bare feet and the appalling 80s dancers in the audience. The bloke all in white is particularly gruesome:-
There was also a lesser-known version of the song released in 1992 as a track on the There Is A Light That Never Goes Out CD single issued by WEA:-
According to the sleevenotes on said CD, the track was recorded at the Brixton Academy in December 1986. But according to Simon Goddard's words in The Smiths- Songs That Saved Your Life, it is from a live recording at Brixton Ace dating back to June 1983. You can tell from the words uttered by Morrissey as he introduces the song that is indeed a recording dating back to the early days. But the error by WEA is just typical of the shabby way they treated the back catlogue when they got their grubby hands on it.
Finally, one of the few really good cover versions of any song by The Smiths:-
Its a lovely duet from a Swedish bloke and a Danish blokess.
There is another fine duet kicking around that was featured recently by anglopunk over at her excellent, if infrequent blog, Condemned To Rock'n'Roll. Click here for some wise words.....
First of what is likely to be a short series which will highlight some of my favourite album tracks by some of my all-time favourite bands.
Now there's no question that The Jam were an outstanding singles band and that many of the b-sides to the 45s were among their best songs. But equally, there were some belters on the six studio albums they released between 1977 and 1982.
This wasn't an easy task. But it was one which gave me enormous pleasure as I listened to all the albums again in their entirety over the past few weeks. I thought initially about taking the easy way out and choosing one track from each album, other than The Modern World, to give me the 5 songs for today. And then I changed my mind.
I ended up with a long-list of more than 20 tunes and slowly whittled it down. I'm sure that every single other fan of the band would select a different list.....and quite possibly not have any of the five that I've gone for, which are, in alphabetical order:-
The thing is that In The Crowd wasn't a song I was all that fond of when I first bought All Mod Cons, preferring the more immediate impact of the high-octane Billy Hunt, and such-like, but as time has gone on (32 years!!!!) I've come to realise just how lovely a tune and lyric it is during the first half of the song, while the final two and a bit minutes are almost psychedelic with some fine bits of note-bending by Mr Weller.
Pretty Green was at one time mooted as a potential single. And I reckon it would have hit the #1 slot if it had been. Catchy as fuck with a great bass line all the way through.....it would have sounded great blaring out of transistor radios on wonderful Radio 1 247MW.
Its astonishing to think that Private Hell, the story of an angst-ridden, drug-popping, miserable, middle-aged, middle-class woman was written by a 21-year old bloke. I reckon that it is one of Weller's best ever lyrics....could easily have been the basis for a West End stage play. Probably has come to think of it...
The inclusion of The Gift might be the one that surprises most. But I find it irresistibly catchy and very dancey. I just regret that I never took it along to the Blog Rocking Beats nights. We gotta keep movin, we gotta keep movin.....
As for To Be Someone, that simply is the one song that takes me back to being 15 years of age again. Played loudly in my bedroom with the simple aim of antagonising my folks thanks to the sweary words.....and despite the warning in the lyrics, I just wanted to be Paul Weller at that stage in my life. It's also a great tune.
As I said, this wasn't an easy choice. I'll need to come up with a band or singer next week who has maybe only released one LP........
Just a quick reminder that I'm hoping everyone will sign up for Keepingitpeel on Monday 25th October - the brainchild of Webbie, the thoroughly decent bloke behind the excellent site Football and Music.
It's all about commemorating the memory of the most important DJ in my lifetime on the anniversary of his untimely death at the age of 65 back in 2004.
All you're asked to do is put up a posting on your blog that features a song or session recorded especially for one of his radio shows. Something like this:-
It's things like this that make me realise I really am getting old.
A tune comes randomly on the i-pod. It's a track by one of my all time favourite bands - a one-off single that doesn't appear on any LP, so I find it hard to immediately pin down the year of its release. Most likely 2003 or 2004 I reckon. Maybe even as late as 2005. All I can remember is that it is a cover version which was the theme tune to a drama series on BBC TV.
I was stunned to dig it out and see that it dated back to 2000. Turns out that the director of said series, called The Sins, is now quite famous as the director of all the most recent Harry Potter films. I really could have sworn that this was just about the last thing the original line-up of Tindersticks recorded together but I was well wrong:-
Let's face it. It could have been written for Mark Morrison.
But this 1996 record pre-dated his bad behaviour.
I should mention that the CD single came with a warning sticker placed down in the bottom right corner which obscured the final word of the title and instead said
'Warning! This Track Contains the Word ****! 50 Times.'.
I've a feeling it got Super Furry Animals a mention in the Guinness Book of Records.....
The single was dedicated to the memory of Robin Friday, 1952 to 1990. Some of you may know who he was, others might not. He was a professional footballer of some immense talent by all accounts, loved by the fans of all the teams he played for, particularly Reading and Cardiff City. By 1977, at the age of just 25 he retired, fed up of being told what to do and how to live his life.
He died of a heart attack in 1990 at the age of 38.
Just after the SFA single was released, Paul McGuigan of Oasis and journalist Paolo Hewitt jointly wrote a very fine bio of Robin Friday, entitled The Greatest Footballer You Never Saw.
You can read more about Robin Friday by clicking on this wiki page.
Even if you don't like indie-pop, have a listen to the remixes.....they might surprise you.
The main reason I've written about this track today is to give me a reason to mention the really wonderful site Football and Music, which is run by Webbie.
Webbie has been a great supporter of TVV over the years, and has helped promote each of the Paul Haig Days, and in a recent email said:-
I've taken your Paul Haig Day idea and I'm using it for 'Keepingitpeel' on October 25th 2010. Same thing as you did - asking bloggers to post anything from any band who has done a Peel Session. Could you give it a plug ?
Need to get everyone on board to do the same as they did with Paul Haig so any mention by you would be a great boost. Details:
So why not join in on Monday 25th October? It's a cracking idea, and I'm already planning a special posting of some Peel Session stuff that I have in the collection.
Go on, admit it. Its a song that just makes you want to dance.
Irresistibly catchy. It spent two weeks at #1 in the UK Charts in April 1996 as well as being Top 10 in most European charts that summer. It wasn't released in the USA until early the following year where it climbed all the way to #2 on the Billboard Hot 100. But by this time, the career of Mark Morrison was all but over thanks to his inability to stay out of trouble.
Prior to becoming a bona-fide star he had a criminal record having been fined £50 for obstructing a police officer in 1993.
Not long after his success, he fell foul of the law again and was fined £750 for threatening behaviour. But instead of keeping a low profile, he behaved in an increasingly erratic and dangerous way - his next crime being to carry a stun gun onto a commercial passenger aircraft in the UK, for which he was given a three-month jail sentence.
Upon release, his behaviour got worse. He was continually claiming that the police had a vendetta against him and his retaliation was a big 'fuck you' at the Brit Awards in early 1997:-
1998 wasn't exactly a quiet year for Mark Morrison
He failed to appear in court on charges of possessing an offensive weapon, flying to Barbados instead; He was arrested on his return to the UK and remanded in custody. Incidentally he was later cleared of the offensive weapon charge.
He was then convicted of affray for his part in a brawl in which a man was killed, and sentenced to community service. He then ended up in jail as he had paid a lookalike, to perform his community service while Morrison went on tour promoting his follow-up music from an LP entitled Only God Can Judge Me. Later in 1998 he got banned from driving and fined for twice being caught driving without a licence.
It was no surprise that his record label turned it back on him shortly afterwards. Surely his lack of fame would bring a sense of reality to the singer...but if you fast forward to 2002 you'll find he was arrested on suspicion of kidnap and car theft.
For this offence, he was released on bail.....which he jumped. Oh and a London copper was was later arrested on suspicion of taking a bribe from Morrison in return for being granted bail in the first place. And in 2004, he was arrested and spent a night in police cells after a fracas that started when his medallion was stolen, while 2009 saw him arrested for an assault in London.
He's not the messiah....he's just a naughty boy. But he did release one heavenly single with loads of different mixes on the CD:-
Incidentally, he's back recording again. A new record is due for release in 2011. Don't think however, he'll ever have quite the impact he had back in 1996.
That's literally what I have to offer this week. Details of three comments/e-mails.
First up is from an anonymous reader who says
"I'd like to request a repost. Billy Bragg sang her verse saying "let's do one for Kirsty" at his tour-ender last Sunday in D.C. What a great singalong (except we didn't know her version as well...).
Incidentally, anyone who has ripped A New England from me from past postings might want to do ana update. I've re-recorded it without the skips and jumps.....
And finally, an e-mail of the sort that makes doing TVV all worthwhile:-
Hello,
I am writing to you from Paris, France. I like your blog and visit it almost everyday. I am a huge fan of the Smiths and Josh Rouse.
There's a cover from Josh Rouse I really like (see attached). I find it better than the original. Maybe you can publish it one the Vinyl Villain blog one day? Glad to share.
Please continue to make me discover great music and nice classics.
Have a nice day.
Eric
Apart from being hugely flattered by what Eric has written, I was delighted to be given a copy of a song I didn't have. And he's correct - it is a cracking version of a track originally recorded by The Cure:-
As I've said before, I'll do my best to occasionally re-post mp3s featured way back, and also if, like Eric, you've something unusual that you'd like to share, please feel free to make a contribution via The Sunday Correspondents series (but please, I don't use TVV as a promotional tool for new and emerging or unsigned acts.)
Last time round, the longest song by the band was featured - one that demonstrated how important the bass player and drummer were to the sound of The Smiths. This week, its the complete opposite.....the shortest song they recorded and one which is down to the sublime genius of the songwriting duo.
110 seconds is all it takes to get from the beginning to the end of Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want. But it is 110 seconds of perfection.
Was it the band's success that led Morrissey to pen the words 'Good Times For A Change' ?? Certainly in press interviews around the time it was recorded in 1984, the great man was openly talking of the chart hits being good times and there can be little doubt it is a hugely autobiographical lyric.
The gently strummed acoustic guitar glides effortlessly into a mandolin solo for the final thirty-odd seconds, both beautifully by Johnny Marr. Or so you would think.....but as has since been revealed, the mandolin was actually played by producer John Porter......not that this in any way detracts from anything.
Relegated to the b-side of William, It Was Really Nothing (where it would be joined on the 12" version by How Soon Is Now?), Please Please Please has long been among a favourite among most Smiths fans, particularly in the USA where it featured on the big-selling soundtrack to the movie Pretty In Pink. It's also been one that Morrissey has played a few times on tour...and even Johnny has been know to belt it out:-
It has been covered by many, including this savaging by one of the most popular bands the world over these past few years:-
This was the song that made #3 in my 45 45s at 45 rundown back in 2008. It was the highest position in the chart by a Scottish band - New Order and The Clash took the gold and silver medals.
Released in January 1982.
It reached the giddy heights of #63 in the UK pop charts.
This is the sound of happiness. On a double A side 7" single.
... and the band who have turned up to play at the party are Josef K, and as a special treat its all 10 of the tracks released on the only LP ever released on Postcard Records. The mp3s are ripped from the original vinyl of The Only Fun In Town which was given a release number of 81/7.
The Only Fun In Town was recorded in Brussels in April 1981 and was in the shops by late June. It was only recorded after the band had deemed the original efforts for an LP to be called Sorry For Laughing, due for release in January 1981, to be inadequate and unrepresentative of their sound.
The production on The Only Fun In Town stunned quite a few fans and those in the press who were championing the Postcard acts as being the best thing since punk. It was abrasive and edgy, with the guitars high and the vocals low, perhaps reflecting that Paul Haig has never, even to this day, regarded himself as a good singer (incidentally, he's wrong about that!!!)
The press hated the album and the reviews were pretty scathing. Within weeks.....16th August 1981 to be precise, Josef K had played their final gig and officially split a few days later.
The thing is, while a lot of music that was released in 1981 now sounds awfully date, there's a case to be made that The Only Fun In Town has aged well. Yes, the production is a bit bizarre, but then again, it does allow you to enjoy better the guitar talents of Malcom Ross. The difficult thing is judging whether the versions of Crazy To Exist, It's Kinda Funny and Sorry For Laughing are better or worse than those that had been released as earlier singles or b-sides. Personally, I call it a score draw with one being an improvement, one being poorer and the other being as good as.
Seems apt writing about Josef K on the 4th Birthday given that some of the most enjoyable moments at TVV have been around Paul Haig Day and Paul Haig Day II on 6th April 2009 and 2010 respectively. I asked Evan his manager for a wee update on what the great man has been up to and was told, by email :-
Remix of Trip Out The Rider is scheduled for October release on 7" and ayetoons
Rumour has it Avalanche Records Kevin Buckle is trying to persuade domino to release the Entymology album on vinyl.
Also Paul has found some 24 track masters of Josef K tracks. Would need baked but have floated the possible idea to domino regarding remixing some tracks.
Could maybe via the blog see if anyone has good quality live recordings try to unearth some hidden gems.
Oh maybe we could find the lost 24 track masters for Sorry For Laughing, It's Kinda Funny, Chance Meeting etc - maybe Alan Horne has them in his postcard wardrobe...
Rumours of a best of Paul Haig album to accompany Entymology but nowt definite as load of ownership red tape to untangle ...
Paul is working on new material and is quietly pleased that La Roux used Big Blue World on her compilation thing...
More As It Happens.....
Don't know about the rest of you, but all of that has whetted my appetite for going ahead with Paul Haig Day III in 2011. But before then, plans are afoot to have all sorts of blogs commemorating John Peel on the 26th October. I'll have more details about it all and details of how you can get involved early next week.
Cant believe that this time next year I'll be old enough to go to school.
That lot pictured above are Rosa Mota. That's Rosa Mota the band as opposed to Rosa Motathe famous marathon runner.
The band formed in 1992 by and consisted of Ian Bishop (vocals/guitar), Julie Rumsey (vocals/guitar), Sacha Galvagna (guitar), Michelle Marti (bass) and Justin Chapman (drums). Their first two singles were released on Placebo Records after which they signed to Mute imprint, Thirteenth Hour Recordings.
The debut album was called Wishful Sinking and was released in 1995.
But it was only with the release of the follow-up, Bionic, in 1996, that they first came to my notice.
And all because of Clare Grogan.
Readers of old will know my infatuation with the ex-Altered Images singer and will understand why I sat up and took notice of Rosa Mota.
The most perfect woman ever to stride planet pop had been a long time away from the scene, concentrating instead on an acting career. But then the world was informed that she had sung joint lead vocals on one of the tracks on Bionic and there were even rumours she might join the band. The music papers carried a story that Clare had co-wrote a song not featured on Bionic for use on a future single, and quoted her as saying
"It was amazing, it was really nice, no pressure, and it made me realise that I enjoy being in a band. Working with Rosa Mota brought the fun back into it for me."
That was good enough for me, so out I went and bought the CD.
Which turned out to be nothing more than OK, although it does have the brilliantly titled From Her To Maternity as an album opener (sadly the title is better than the song).
Just a pity the proposal came to nothing. On this evidence, we could have had something asking to the pixie of pop fronting a PJ Harvey type band.
The album was produced by Steve Albini and is full of his trademarks such as sonic guitar bursts and a near live feeling to the record with few overdubs. But while there is very little on the album to make it truly stand out as distinctive and special, it does contain a genuine hidden classic that was released as a 45:-
It's about 45mins since Grinderman left the stage at Glasgow Barrowlands. I reckon it was 15 songs including the encore over about 85 mins. Not one of the songs was a cover, nor were any of them stuff from The Birthday Party or The Bad Seeds. And at £25 a ticket, plus booking fee, you might think I'm going to grumble about being disappointed or feeling ripped-off.
Far from it. For this was a blinding live show. One of the best in years. Honestly.
That I'm making such a claim may come as a surprise for those of you who have dismissed Grinderman records as being the Nick Cave equivalent of Tin Machine - and to be fair, there's a few times I've thought the same myself - but with musicians of the quality of Martyn P Casey, Warren Ellis and Jim Sclavunos on board there was always a fair chance it would be entertaining.
But I never anticipated mind-blowing.
The main set was drawn mainly from songs on Grinderman 2, an album that has had the critics fawning. Me?? Was so-so about first few listens, but over past few days have accepted it is a reasonable record let down by two or three average songs. But tonight, even the most average of songs was transformed beyond recognition.
Kitchenette is a track which drags and plods on for over 5 minutes on record but which tonight was turned into the most erotic, sexy, sassy and knicker-wetting number since Prince was at his peak all those years ago. Nick Cave, shirt open almost to the navel, sweat pouring off him as he pounced across the stage like a lion king on heat singing and rapping about how he could make a bored housewife feel good again......let's just say, Mrs Villain would have left me for him right there and then if she was given the chance.
I don't know how many of you have ever been to the Barrowlands - its one of those old fashioned grimy venues in a rundown part of town that many promoters avoid nowadays. They don't like it cos the bars are too small and you dont make enough money and there's hardly any room to sell t-shirts and the like. You cant quite squeeze every penny out of the punters - they're too busy working up a sweat in a low-roofed venue with a wide stage which has an astonishing, almost magical ability to bring out the best in a band. And inevitably, the crowd responds by going apeshit.
It was that kind of night.
But at one point it did threaten to go pear-shaped when the encore began with what i think is a rather lacklustre song Man In The Moon from the debut LP. But it was extended out way beyond its 2 mins on record to something truly spectacular - I couldnt help but compare it to the final few minutes of Paranoid Android........
And to close it all off, we had the song Grinderman. All four band members playing as if their very lives depended on it - Ellis in particular looking like a 21st century Rasputin staring down his would be killers and trying to hypnotise them with his banging of his cymbals and his dervish playing of his violin.
Nick Cave had us all believing his closing words - 'I'm The Grinderman, Yes I Am.' But I reckon that many of us would have also believed him if he had sang that he was The King......
Now if you send the children out of the room, you can have a look at this often talked about but rarely seen promo. It's actually a bit naff if the truth be told but utterly shocking in its day:-
Thanks to everyone who contributed to the charity over the past few days. Hugely appreciate your support. And although I've enjoyed having a few days off, it is good to be back.
TVV turns four years old later this week. There have been times over that period I've felt like packing it in and going back to being a mere consumer of the many other excellent music blogs out there. But its the comments and the emails that lift me out of any gloom or self-doubt and bring me to the keyboard time and again. So again, thanks to those who make the special effort.
I thought I'd try and mark the occasion with a few unusual postings this week. So how about the debut EP from the last band signed to Factory Records before the label went tits-up in 1992?
One of the poppiest things ever released on the label - it was certainly quite different from Happy Mondays. I love Camper Van. As the lyrics suggest, it's just a happy happy song that always make me smile.
I'll be honest and say up until I dug out the vinyl, I couldnt really recall any of the other three songs, Not sure if any of them really have stood the test of time but it was awfy brave of them to put the folk-like eight and a bit minutes of Long Night Narrow Boat on a debut LP. Cant imagine too many Hacienda punters were fond of it.
This EP was released in late 1991 with the catalogue number FAC 319. The debut LP,Laugh (FAC 335) and a second single, a different version of Barking Mad (FAC 347) followed in early 1992. None of the releases sold well, and to the best of my knowledge the band broke up when the label folded a short while after.
Last week. Simon left behind the comment:-
