Month: April 2008

Hard-to-find

Grrrrrrrrrrrrremlins!

Craig McAllister

Thanks for all the emails. Many of you seem to be having problems clicking on the links and saving some of the music to your computer. Yesterday The Last Shadow Puppets and David Bowie tracks disappeared totally for a couple of hours. Today the Primal Scream tracks seem to be the ones going astray. I have no understanding of this, but I’m as pissed of about it as you might be if the track you really want appears to have gone AWOL. Behind the scenes I have a team of experts who are frantically trying to resolve the issue. As I write, all links are working – I’ve checked them all myself. But I can’t guarantee that’ll be the case in an hour or so. Please be patient! 

Download-only Pixies track from a couple of years ago. ‘Bam Thwok’ is the sound my brain is making trying to fix my download problem. Fingers crossed this link works.

Cover Versions, Peel Sessions

Brand new, you’re retro

Craig McAllister

I’m quite enjoying The Last Shadow Puppets single just now. ‘The Age of the Understatement’ isn’t quite the lost track from ‘Scott 4’ that the band would like it to be, but it twangs in all the right places and rushes past like Morricone beating The Coral to the finish line in the 100m sprint. There’s even a nice whiff of the Electric Prunes in the string arrangements.

Even better to these ears is their cover of David Bowie‘s ‘In The Heat Of The Morning’. Originally recorded for Deram back in the 60s, this is one of the lesser-well known gems in the Bowie catalogue. All strings and weird chords, in the scheme of things it falls somewhere between ‘Space Oddity’ and ‘Wild Eyed Boy From Freecloud’. You could be forgiven for thinking that The Last Shadow Puppets based their entire sound around this record, cos it sure sounds like it. But in a good way. Bowie likes it too. “That’s wonderful,” he said. “A daymaker.” Go on…make your day….

*The Last Shadow Puppets – ‘In The Heat Of The Morning’

*David Bowie – ‘In The Heat Of The Morning’ (Deram Records original release)

David Bowie – ‘In The Heat Of The Morning’ (John Peel’s Top Gear BBC Session, broadcast Christmas Eve, 1967, features Tony Visconti and T.Rex’s Steve Peregrine-Took on backing vocals)

Today’s blog has been half-arsed and lazy. Better quality blogging will resume as normal next week.

Hard-to-find

Albums where the title track went missing #1

Craig McAllister

‘Screamadelica’ by Primal Scream is a modern classic. From the cover art on the outside to the last faded twinkling bit of percussion on the digitized grooves of ‘Shine Like Stars’ it’s as landmark an album to my generation as ‘Revolver’ was to my dad’s. Possibly. It’s also one of a number of albums where the title track is missing. Led Zepppelin‘s ‘Houses Of the Holy’ wasn’t on the album of the same name. You can find that track on ‘Physical Graffiti’. The Doors‘ ‘Waiting For The Sun’ is on 1970’s ‘Morrison Hotel’, released 2 years after the album of the same name. And Primal Scream‘s ‘Screamadelica‘ isn’t on the ‘Screamadelica’ album. But it should’ve been. What was already a great album would have become a really great album.

Dixi Narco ep cover

‘Screamadelica’ (the track) is a 10 minute potted history of everything Primal Scream were about in 1992. It was released on the ‘Dixie Narco’ ep to promote the album. The lead track ‘Movin’ On Up’ took all the plaudits (and the airplay), but if you kept your record spinning past the pseudo-druggy ‘Stone My Soul’ and the barely-recognisable, electric piano ‘n’ pedal steel cover of Dennis Wilson‘s ‘Carry Me Home’ *, you’d’ve found ‘Screamadelica’. Produced by Andrew Weatherall and Hugo Nicolson, they add all the necessary bleeps, squelches and tyre screeches to keep it contemporary, although it starts off like some Blaxploitation movie soundtrack. The brass refrains. Giddy black female vocalists. Thumping George Clinton-esque rhythm section. Some Bobby Gillespie ‘Wooos’. A flute solo straight off of ‘What’s Going On’. The phased guitar-as-percussion track. How very John Squire. Talent borrows, genius steals they say, and Primal Scream certainly nicked from all the right reference points. I think this is one of Primal Scream’s very best tracks, and why it was never include on the album of the same name I’ll never know.

*Footnote. ‘Carry Me Home’ was written as an anti-Vietnam protest song and was considered, but not included on the Beach Boys 1973 ‘Holland’ album. Travesty! My copy comes from the ‘Bamboo’ bootleg, which as many Wilson watchers now know should really be spelt ‘Bambu’. You can download the track here.

* Footnote 2. ‘Dixie-Narco ‘sounds great. ‘Dixie’, the south of America, where the blues, jazz and all that great music comes from. ‘Narco‘. Short for, oooooh, ‘narcotics’. Sounds a bit dangerous. A bit rock’n’ roll. A bit Primal Scream. Not many people know this, but Dixie-Narco is the name of a company who make soft drink vending machines. Stick that in yer Marshall stack and smoke it.

Hard-to-find

Stone Fee! Yeah! Alright!

Craig McAllister

Listen zis baybee. Julian Cope has a lot to answer for. I’ve been reading ‘Japrocksampler’ on and off for the past couple of months, but to be honest I’m finding it hard to get into. For me it’s hardly a page turner and reading it is becoming more of a chore than a pleasure. And I really want to like it. Problem is, I’ve never heard any of the music he’s writing about and that makes it difficult to stay focussed on all the characters, groups, albums and scenesters he goes on about. I liked ‘Krautrocksampler’, even though my knowledge of German music was limited to Neu! and Kraftwerk (of course) and ’99 Red Ballons’ by Nena, but that was enough to get me to the end of the book without any bother. So. To help me get into the book a bit more, a bit of poking about in the far flung corners of the web has uncovered some tracks by the impossibly named Flower Travellin’ Band.

\'Anywhere\' album sleeve

Flower Travellin’ Band were a psychedelic, blues-based hard rock band. Created by Yuya Utchida (a main protagonist in Cope’s book) they originally featured Remi Aso, considered at the time to be the Japanese equivalent of Janis Joplin. Utchida wanted them to shock, and their debut album featured all group members (oo-er) nude on the cover. Much of their material was made up of barely recognisable cover versions. Extended acid-frazzled freak-out soloing and radical rearrangements meant that the simplest of songs took on a new lease of life. Seek out their version of ‘House Of The Rising Sun’ and you’ll see what I mean. Their 1970 album ‘Anywhere’ featured the first known cover of a Black Sabbath track, ‘Black Sabbath’. On the cover of the album, the four members of the band ride their Honda motorbikes naked (naked again!) down some lost highway. This image got them into a bit of bother with the Japanese authorities (again!), but the music on the grooves itself got them signed to Atlantic Records, and it even briefly charted in Canada.

If the MC5 had came from Tokyo...

If the MC5 had came from Tokyo

Cope first freaked out over Flower Travellin’ Band when he heard the 1995 ‘From Pussies to Death in 10,000 Years of Freakout ‘ bootleg album. He says that the 20minutes+ (!) tracks ‘I’m Dead part 1’ and ‘I’m Dead part 2’ are the outstanding moments in the band’s history. To these ears, they sound a bit stoner-rock, long-haired, prog-rock scary. Drugs may well have been involved during the recording process. I certainly need them to listen to all 20+ minutes of each track. Personally, I prefer the more accessible versions of Hendrix‘s ‘Stone Free’ and Howlin’ Wolf‘s/Led Zeppelin‘s ‘How Many More Times?’. As an introduction to Flower Travellin’ Band, they’re as good an entry as any.

A couple of quick facts. In 1973, Flower Travellin’ Band were booked to open for The Rolling Stones. But Mick Jagger’s previous conviction for drugs meant that the tour was postponed. Thems the breaks. However, the band may yet still get the opportunity – a bit of research has revealed that they got back together in January this year and are due to appear at July’s Fuji Rock Festival. Watch zis space, baybee!

 

entire show, Hard-to-find

There she goes. There she goes again. And again…and again…and again…and again…and again…and again…and again…and again…and

Craig McAllister

‘There She Goes’  by The La’s is the best song ever written. Just over 2 and a half minutes of perfect pop – the instantly recognisable guitar intro, the frantically scrubbed repeating drum-n-guitar clatter after every ‘I just can’t contaaaaiiaaaayyyn….‘ line, the middle 8 before going back to the chorus, the ‘she goes again and/or calls my name, calls my name’ refrain you hear on some versions, the wee 3-part harmony on the very last word……it’s all there. The best song ever written. Not that it looks like he ever will, but the royalities he receives from this song alone ensure that Lee Mavers never has to work again.

tsg-cover.jpg

I have as many versions of ‘There She Goes’ as I could ever need. I’ve just bought the newly issued limited edition ‘Sound‘ 7″ ep that has the unreleased John Leckie version on one side and the original single version on the other. I’ve got the original red cover 12″. I’ve also got it on the blue cover 7″ with ‘Way Out’ on the other side. I’ve got the album version (on vinyl and CD, and coming soon, Deluxe Edition CD), the reissued 1988 version, the BBC Sessions version, the ‘Fever Pitch’ ep……..and they’re just the ones you could or still can buy! I also have the promo versions – the one with the alternative intro, the instrumental version, the unplugged version, the, ahem, cough, ‘live‘ in New York version that’s basically an unlabelled studio demo with added crowd effects (but very trippy and very, very good). I also have umpteen demo versions from a variety of sessions and they’re absolutely magic. La’s heaven. Trainspotter gold. Call them what you want, but if you’re a fan of a particular band and a sucker for studio outtakes this, to me, is about as good as it gets until Lee Mavers turns up at my house armed with a battered acoustic, a 4 track portastudio and instructions to “keep tapin’, la“.

lee-guitar.jpg

I’ve recently put all these versions in the one place (a CD) and have been playing them in the car on my daily journey to work. By the time I’m out the car, depending on what day it is, I’m either the happiest man alive or I feel like stabbing someone’s eye out. 21 tracks! Every one of them ‘There She Goes’! Can you handle it? It may drive you batty or it may be The Best La’s Album In The World….Ever! Either way, they’re all here, on this handy-to-download .rar file. Play it all and you’ll begin to hear every faded intro, every subtle variation on the bass line, every backing vocal, every ammended harmony. It’s all there. It’s all magic. And it’s all been sprinkled with a generous layer of 60s dust. No artwork yet. I’ll be working on that over the school holidays in the next couple of weeks.

lasgroup.jpg

Lee Mavers genuinely loves this song. He often played it live twice in the one show (and certainly not cos he was told to by the record company), and if I have 21 22 versions, of which only 4 5 are commercially available, how many versions does Mr Mavers have lurking about his archives? Slevver, slevver, drool, drool, drool.

lee-mavers.jpg

“How many versions!?!”

Tracklisting:

1. John Leckie version

2. Original single version

3. Album/reissued/Fever Pitch etc single version

4. Alternative intro (Go! Discs promo CDP547PRS)

5. Unplugged version (Go! Discs promo CDP547PRS)

6. Instrumental version (Go! Discs promo CDP 547PRS)

7. ‘Live’ version (Go! Discs promo CDP 564PRS)

8. Liz Kershaw BBC Session version 31.5.88

9. Demo #1

10. Demo #2

11. Demo #3

12. Demo #4

13. Demo #5

14. Pete de Freitas Echo demo #1 1987

15. Pete de Freitas Echo demo #2 1987

16. Pete de Freitas Echo demo #3 1987

17. Eden Session #1

18. Eden Session #2

19. Eden Session #3

20. Eden Session #4

21. Ride Yer Camel session – recorded on a ghetto blaster, Barry Sutton’s flat (date?)

*Notes on the tracklisting. I have a played-to-death compilation demo tape that a pal got me from the Go! Discs archives around 1989. The versions of ‘There She Goes’ from that tape are included here. I have no more recording info other than they are labelled ‘Demo 1 – Demo 5’. Some, all or none of them could be the legendary Hedges versions, but we’ve not long now till we find out anyway. Any ammendments to my recording info gratefully received. Come on, all you lot on Las.org – get correcting!

*Shite! Knew this would happen! You go and compile it all and what happens? You remember about that album you bought a few years ago that you don’t play much. ‘Lost La’s’. There’s a version on that. It’s not the best, but it does have an alternative middle 8, and purely for historical value it should be included too. Here’s the first ever live performance of ‘There She Goes’ from the Picket in Liverpool, May 1987.

*STOP PRESS The first 10 people to download the .rar file can email me their address and I’ll send them a free sample of 60s dust from the top of Lee’s old Vox AC30.

STOP STOP PRESS More La’s stuff here and here. Cheers.