Well I might be the honky…..

…..but I’m hung like a donkey. That’s my favourite Shaun Ryder lyric that is. I might be the honky, but I’m a gullible so and so, and don’t I know it. Amongst other albums, my recent music purchases have included the Deluxe Edition reissues of Happy Mondays ‘Bummed‘ and ‘Pills, Thrills & Bellyaches’. Now I own 3 versions of each – the original Factory Records vinyl, the original Factory CDs and now these London Records versions. Both are double CDs and are packed full of extra tracks, rare remixes, stuff that hasn’t been on CD before, the whole shebang. Well. ‘Bummed‘ is, anyway. ‘Pills, Thrills…‘ 2nd disc is a DVD of the band’s videos. Nice and all that, but for me ‘Bummed‘ is the far better one of the two to buy.

“On one, in one, doin’ one doin’ one doin’ one doin’ one and two and three…….

do it do it do it do it do it do it do it do it

double-double good, double-double good.”

The extra tracks on ‘Bummed‘ capture a band at the height of their powers. Big enough for the good venues (Barrowlands) but not big enough that the neds were into them (a couple of years yet), Happy Mondays sound majestic, none more so than on the ‘Madchester Rave On’-era tracks. Occupying a place between the Martin Hannet productions of ‘Mad Cyril’, ‘Fat Lady Wrestlers’ et al and the LA Oakenfold sheen of ‘Step On’, ‘God’s Cop’ and the rest you get some fantastic scuzzy clattering industrial funk. ‘Holy Ghost’ sticks closely to the sound of ‘Bummed‘ – Ryder bawls some nonsensical, hard-to-decipher poetry, the scratchy guitar wouldn’t sound out of place in The Fall and a bucket full of reverb has been poured over the whole thing. But listen closely and you’ll hear some sort of bass sampler. The first sign of things to come. ‘Clap Your Hands’ is another belter, with some nice wonky sounding guitar all the way through it. If you’ve ever played through a Roland Jazz Chorus and had the tremelo setting on full you’ll know what I mean. ‘Spastic guitar’ my pal used to call it, but I don’t think you can really say that these days.

Still with us?

Good.

‘Wrote For Luck’ on Bummed is of course the standout track. You could be pendantic and say ‘Do It Better’ is right up there (and it is. So is ‘Performance’ – see this video on YouTube for proof), but ‘Wrote For Luck’ does it for me every time. This version (12″ b-side) takes the original and stretches it out to almost 6 minutes, adds some stabby keyboards, some cowbell-y percussion and invents that most horrible of genres, indie dance. Yes. Without this record there would have been no Farm, no Soup Dragons (they’d died a death in 1987 before the Happy Mondays arrived on the scene) and no sitting on the floor at indie discos to crappy James records. Arguably there’d have been no ‘Screamadelica’, no ‘Weekender‘ by Flowered Up and no ‘Joe’ by Inspiral Carpets either, but we’ll keep quiet about that. The 12″ version of ‘Wrote For Luck’ was bloody influential, no doubt about it.

I only saw the Happy Mondays once. It was in the Glasgow Barrowlands around Christmas 1990. The gig had originally been booked for Level 8 in  Strathclyde Uni, but the band were far too big for that venue by the time December came round. Shaun sat on the drum riser for the whole show smoking endless amounts of Blackpool rock-sized spliffs, Bez did his dance and the whole building shook as we jumped up and down on the Barrowland’s sprung dancefloor as one. It was easily one of the most rock ‘n’ roll shows I’ve ever been too. I remember hearing the still-to-be-released ‘Hallelujah‘ with the piercing female vocals at the start played by the DJ before the band came on, and those of us with keen hearing getting down to these new sounds. This was pre ned fanbase Happy Mondays, and most of the crowd were probably ‘on one’. The atmosphere was magic. (Unlike the Stone Roses at Glasgow Green where I got punched in the face. But that’s another story). Here’s the ‘MacColl Mix’ of ‘Hallelujah‘. I’m not a big fan of Kirsty MacColl, in fact, I cannae really stand her, but this mix is my favourite. I love the way the guitar slides down and out of the guitar solo (around 1:56, if you’re still reading…) 

The last track closes the gap between Bummed and ‘Pills ‘n’ Thrills..’ ‘Kilamenjaro‘ (or ‘Rave On’) has plenty of weird noises, plenty of rhythm, a wee bit of glockenspiel plonking around in the background, a killer guitar riff (again – what an under rated guitarist Cow was. Hated by his band mates as well) and a fantastic Shaun Ryder vocal. “We’ve got speed we’ll raise the crowd. Eat a magic boogie till we all black out.” What more d’you need?

Well, you might need this – extra bonus track – Happy Mondays ‘Wrote For Luck’ live at Brixton Academy 27th April 1999. ‘Bang Chitty Bang Bang! Chitty Chitty Bang Bang!’ It’s a belter. And you might need this – extra extra bonus track – Manic Street Preachers version of ‘Wrote For Luck’, with added super-horrible Slash-esque guitar solo, originally on the b-side of the red vinyl 7″ of ‘Roses In The Hospital’ if I recall. It sounds exactly like you remember/expect (delete as appropriate)

That was a big post today, as I’ve been busy at work, hence quiet on here. Normal regular blogging will resume over the next few days. Keep visiting!

*Extra extra extra bonus track – ‘Beyonce’s Twistin My Melon’ mash-up bootleg thang of ‘Step On/Crazy In Love’. Phew! I’m away for a beer. Happy downloading!