This is music performed with some of the most callous abandon ever to have been allowed in a recording studio. Many of these tracks have a raw cinéma vérité atmosphere applied to recorded rock and roll. My own performances seem to be either obnoxious or attempting an insufferable cuteness, but often they achieve a compelling electricity in their spontaneous excitement.

We recorded over a few days in the fall of 1975. I was very into a loose, unrehearsed first take sort of approach to recording music. I learned from producer Jim Dickinson the method of throwing a very impromptu rendering of a song onto tape. With multitrack recording one can edit out, clarify or fix anything before the final mixdown. This method gives a fresh, sometimes anarchistic quality to the performances. The first day of the sessions was approached in this way. The second day went according to the producer’s more conservative method of planning and rehearsal.

All in all there is some hot, untamed rock and roll on this disc. You might get a kick out of the off the wall energy of this music that is very hard to find on records from this or any other time.

Alex Chilton, 1992

This record is meant as an addendum to "Singer Not The Song" / "Bach's Bottom" and not a substitution. The idea that somebody would be interested in anything beyond what had already been released is lunacy considering the underwhelming reaction the record industry had to it at the time. When Munster asked if I'd like to take a look at releasing anything that wasn’t out previously, I had to say yes. Now you have it, all the contents of the first crazy night of recording, plus some new ways to look at some of the other material.

Some folks are lucky, they make their first record and it's an elevating experience both musically and spiritually. The first real record I produced was a lesson in how difficult an artist can be. I've been asked for my take on these seminal recordings 40 years later. As so many people have enjoyed them and thanked me for them in the interim (particularly lately), I feel somewhat powerless to pick them apart. It’s sort of similar (not musically, but in terms of the producer/artist relationship) to the "Blowin' Your Mind" album by Van Morrison – you can sense the underlying tension, and not every track is a "success", but it is mighty powerful.

Sure, it would have been nice to have more melody, more sparkle... But Alex was not about melody at the time, he wanted to repudiate his Big Star work and make a sinister record that threatened people. Without half trying, "Singer Not The Song" did accomplish that. It became one of the first punk rock/new wave records, the very first EP for the genre, and was influential enough to spark a few people to re-record these songs with their groups. It has more life, spunk and personality than most of the piffle I hear on the radio these days, so I’m happy to present these tracks with no apologies.

Jon Tiven, Jan 2017