Category: Cover Versions

Cover Versions, Hard-to-find

I Wouldn’t Normally Do This Kind Of Thing…

Craig McAllister

…said Neil Tennant a few years back. I don’t normally post new stuff very often (if at all – I can’t actually think of any track that’s made it onto this site that’s been less than a year old*) but I’m making a couple of exceptions tonight.

Flaming Lips

I feel the need to share two hot-off-the-press brand new tracks that have been tickling my fancy the past couple of days. First up, the Flaming Lips. The mid-west psychedelic pioneers have an album out on 13th October and this track has been promoed to radio. Silver Trembling Hands sounds as good as it sounds. Wonky, weird and wonderful. And the best use of computerised falsetto since Prince was last any good.

Feeling_Pulled_Apart_by_Horses_-_The_Hollow_Earth[1]

Next, old twitchy eye himself Thom Yorke. He’s just put out Feeling Pulled Apart By Horses and it too sounds as good as it sounds. Out on 12″ only, you can buy it via Radiohead’s W.A.S.T.E. website. Or (wink wink) you can get it here. A quick word before we talk about the music. See that sleeve? If you squint, I swear it looks like the cover to Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures. If Carlsberg did remixes of album covers…

 In Rainbow‘s Reckoner was apparently constructed from the best bits of the track. The cynical Radiohead-hating numbskulls among you might be thinking that there are no best bits on a low-key Thom Yorke release, but that’s where you’d be wrong. It sounds exactly the same as the cut ‘n paste nerdy laptop techno that has watermarked most of Radiohead’s releases this decade. It bangs and crashes in all the right places, Thom spits cryptical nonsense over the top (“insect bites, machine gun cameras“) and the bassline is funkier than Bootsy Collins’ platform boots. If its verse/chorus/verse/chorus/bridge/chorus/end you’re looking for, you’ll not find it here. If it’s brainiac ambient soundscapes that penetrate your brain while you spreadsheet, jog or wash the dishes, step right in….

Bonus track!

Wouldn’t it be great if the Flaming Lips covered Radiohead? Oh look – they already have! Here‘s their version of Knives Out. Warning –  all trace of the original’s quasi Queen Is Dead-era chiming electric guitar has vanished and been replaced instead with a Flaming Lip who hammers away at a piano with all the finesse of a one-armed arthritic Neil Young on jellies. S’good!

*oh aye. I did put an MGMT track up once. Before it had even been released. On. The. Ball.

Cover Versions, demo, Gone but not forgotten, Hard-to-find, studio outtakes

Wild Wild Horses

Craig McAllister

Well. There goes another of my favourite tracks that I can never listen to again in the same way. Hot on the heels of one reality TV star’s murdering of ‘Hallelujah‘ comes the news that oor ain wee Susan Boyle, SuBo to the rest of the world, will be releasing her own version of The Rolling Stones‘ ‘Wild Horses’. It’s leaked online and it’s eh, no’ as bad as you might think. Aye! A sweeping-stringed, soulful and passionate, inner-demon bearing affair, on first listen it actually brought a tear to my eye.

rolling stones wild horses

Who am I kidding? It’s shite. Aye, it brings a tear to my eye, but for all the wrong reasons. But you knew that already. The original version of Wild Horses is a stone cold rolled gold classic. It’s always been my favourite Stones track, from the Nashville ‘n’ open G tuning twin guitar arrangement via the fragile melody right through to Jagger’s incredibly adult lyrics. Whilst hardly a teenager, it’s hard to believe he was only 26 when he penned it. 26! Sure, in rock n roll terms thats practically pensionable, but given that yer Stones are still a going concern (albeit a limping and wheezing pastiche of their former self) for Mick to have written such a serious, grown up lyric like that the age of 26 amazes me. The Stones will always be known for the down and dirty rock n roll stuff, but songs like this are often by-passed in favour of blustery rammalamma like Satisfaction and Street Fighting Man and (insert yer own Stones title here) I don’t think even Paul McCartney was writing songs as mature as this at the age of 26, and he was always 20 going on 40 at the height of Beatlemania. There’s certainly no way any of today’s young turks could go balls out rock one minute then pen as tender a lyric in the next. Certainly not The Cribs. Or Biffy fucking Clyro. I’m as fond of a Gabba Gabba Hey as much as the bext man, but I wish I’d have been able to write a Wild Horses in my mid 20s.

rolling stones studio

Yer actual Mick n Keef, 1969 Muscle Shoals Sessions

In 1969, Keith Richards wrote the music and the “wild horses couldn’t drag me away” lyric as a lament to his young son Marlon who he frequently had to leave as he embarked on tour after tour. Jagger re-interpreted the lyric as a paeon to lost love. Marianne Faithful later claimed the first words Jagger said to her after an operdose were “wild horses couldn’t drag me away“. So. Lots of interpretations. You can make of it what you will. What is fact is that regular Stones keyboardist Ian Stewart didn’t actually play on the Stones version. He refused to play on the session because he hated playing minor chords on the piano! Numpty. Famous sessioneer Jim Dickinson (Aretha, Big Star, Rod Stewart to name but a few) played on the track instead.

What is also fact is that Keith gave the track to Gram Parsons and the first commercially available version of Wild Horses was by the Flying Burrito Brothers.  Since then, there’s been a zillion different cover versions. Here’s a few of the better, more interesting ones.

The Sundays Wild Horses (superb soul baring bedroom indie version)

LaBelle Wild Horses (smooth discosoultastic version from 1971)

Leon Russell Wild Horses (former Spector sessioneer’s southern fried piano-led version)

*Bonus tracks

Rolling Stones Wild Horses acoustic version. Taken from the Muscle Shoals ‘Sticky Fingers’ sessions bootleg.

Rolling Stones Wild Horses alternate version. Reverb-heavy outtake featured by mistake on some Dutch Rolling Stones compilation album before bveing hastily withdrawn. This version sounds wonky – the tape is running at the wrong speed for half of it.

rolling stones wild horses 2

Cover Versions, demo

Brass In Pocket double whammy

Craig McAllister

With a mountain of ironing to do and house-husband status unwillingly thrust upon me, I’ve been watching a lot of crap telly recently, all the while putting more creases into my shirts than what were there to begin with. The thought of another David Dickinson repeat was an orange glowed step too far yesterday afternoon, so I found myself watching Lost In Translation for the umpteenth time. There’s a bit in it where Scarlett Johansson sings a wee bit of Brass In Pocket to Bill Murray and this had me thinking back to the days when buying a 7″ single was a big deal. I remember standing for ages in John Menzies deciding between Brass In Pocket and The Police’s Walking On The Moon, not quite with brass in pocket, but with a pound note burning a hole in my 11 year old hands. The Pretenders won out because Brass In Pocket was a newer single and my purchase helped take it all the way to the toppermost of the poppermost for 2 weeks.

pretenders brass sleeve

Brass in Pocket would be The Pretenders only number 1 single. In true artist fashion, Chrissie Hynde didnae like it. “Listen to that woman’s voice,” she told NME.  “I hate it.” You can decide for yourself – here‘s the demo version. A bit slower than you’ll be familiar with, but nonetheless not a million miles away from the polished Telecaster-and-chorus pedal sheen of the smash hit.

pretenders stage

As a young vinyl freak, I often wondered what Chrissie Hynde meant when she sang about ‘Detroit Leaning’. Thanks to the wonders of the internet I have discovered that the Detroit Lean is a style of driving where the slouched driver has one hand on the wheel and the other hand over the window sill and onto the door. Being America, the right hand would be steering and the left arm would be leaning. The driver may also use the left hand to tap the bodywork gently in time to whatever music happens to be coming over the FM airwaves. Think Snoop Dogg in his pimp mobile, although I’m sure you were thinking that already. If you’ve ever watched the wee boys race their souped up Corsas and Clios up and down Ayr shore front you’ll know what I mean. Although they listen to shitty, bass-heavy happy hardcore CDs. And drive Corsas and Clios. Although I’m sure you were thinking that already too.

Someone who is probably fonder of his own voice than Chrissie Hynde is Brett Anderson (or Bert from Suede, as I recall Norman Blake saying in one the music papers back at the start of the 90s). Suede had a go at covering Brass In Pocket for Ruby Trax, an NME compiled triple CD released to celebrate 40 years of the charts where the artists du jour covered some of their favourite tracks of the past 4 decades. Warning! The Suede version is very quiet and even slower than The Pretenders demo but, (whisper it), I quite like it. Even if Bert does take himself a wee bit too seriously. Just listen to the way he sings the “I’m special, so special” line.

brett

A portrait of the artist as the young man.

Cover Versions, Double Nugget, Hard-to-find

Sounds like Bowie? Oh Yeah!

Craig McAllister

The Shadows Of Knight were a genre-straddling garage punk band from mid 60s Chicago. Taking their cue from The Yardbirds, The Who, The Stones, The etcs etcs blah blah blah, they are as well known on the northern soul scene for ‘Shake‘ as they are on the garage circuit for their feedback soaked version of Them’s ‘Gloria‘. Lenny Kaye’s Nuggets album included this, their version of Bo Diddley’s ‘Oh Yeah’.

shadows-of-knight

A garage stomper of a track, guitars drop in and out of the mix. The rhythm section takes it down. The singer whispers. The rhythm section section takes it up again. The singer screams. The guitars scream. The girls in the audience probably screamed as well. David Bowie was clealry taking notes. The similarity between Oh Yeah and Jean Genie is bordering on the criminal. But you knew that already.

“Has anybody seen Kosher Pickle Harry?” ask The Premiers at the start of Farmer John, their 1964 universally accepted garage classic. Welding the rhyhtms of Louie Louie and Wild Thing (of course) onto a standard 1950s croon-fest proved a success, given that this track reached the giddy heights of number 19 on the charts before the group disappeared from view forever.

the premiers

Farmer John is seemingly recorded live at some Animal House type frat house party. Girls whoop and cheer, everyone sings the backing vocals and a rocking good time is seemingly had by all. In fact, the track was recorded to 3 tracks in the studio before the band invited their pals in to hear the record for the first time. The engineer at the desk used the 4th track to record the sounds of the studio party and mixed it across the top.

Neil Young liked this track so much he took to covering it live in concert at the start of the 90s. He turned it into a bucketful of grunge and sucked the life out of it, but, hey hey my my, if he hadn’t covered it, I’d never have gone out of my way to dig out the original. So a backhanded ‘thanks‘ to him for that. And remember folks, as the saying goes, “If you dug it, it’s a nugget!”

Cover Versions, demo, Double Nugget, Hard-to-find

Them was rotten days

Craig McAllister

Going to see a band these days is far too expensive. Yer enormodome megastars like U2, Springsteen, AC/DC etc etc charge a small fortune. Yer second string enormodomers like Coldplay, Oasis, (insert your own choice here) etc etc can get away with charging similar fortunes. Even relatively minor league acts are asking you to stump up anything upwards of £15 to hear their one album’s worth of whining nonsense. And why? Cos in this day and age, when folk (like me) illegally share music, the artist has realised that the only way to make money is on the road. That’s why live music has never been so bouyant.  Even Madonna is out and about playing a football stadium near you. You can’t download the live experience. Aye, you can download a Dylan concert the minute he’s off stage. And you can watch umpteen YouTube shaky camera phone videos of Paul McCartney on stage with Neil Young even before the last bit of feedback has fizzled out. What you can’t do is download the actual in-yer-face gig. And until you can, your favourite artists will continue getting away with charging you the price of feeding a family of four for a week. But you knew that already.

blur ticket

It wasn’t always like this. I saw Blur for £1! (see above). I paid £4 on the door the first time I saw the Stone Roses. Even their famous Alexandra Palace gig was only £8.50. And they were massive by this point. I’ve tons of tickets for concerts I’ve been to where I’ve paid a fiver or less. Sure, that first Stone Roses concert was 20 years ago. Blur was 18. I’m no economist, but surely the price of gig tickets these days outstrips the rate of inflation?

ticket

I saw the Inspiral Carpets loads of times. So named after one band member commented on his fellow band member’s mum’s orange and brown 70s living room carpet, the first time I saw them they were supporting the Wedding Present in the Barrowlands. I thought they sounded like the Teardrop Explodes; swirly organ, 60s references, bowl cuts and all that. Every song sounded like ‘Reward‘. I was hooked. I kept my fingers poised over the pause button of my tape recorder during John Peel shows and I kept my eyes peeled on the gig pages of NME. I went to see them all the time. I paid £3.50 to see them in the bar at Glasgow Tech. A quick visit to their merchandise stall to purchase 2 ‘Cool As Fuck’ badges (lost on the way home) and a demo tape called Dung 4 cost me a further £3.60. Add a couple of student-bar-priced watery pints  and you can see that I had a great night out for a tenner.

Inspiral Carpets - DUNG 4

Keep the Circle Around

Seeds Of Doubt

Joe

Causeway

Inside My Head

Sun Don’t Shine

Theme From Cow

Butterfly

26

Garage Full Of Flowers

96 Tears

A couple of weeks ago I dug out that old demo tape and converted it into mp3 files. It’s very much of it’s time, but still sounds pretty good. If you’re in anyway into Farfisa-led 60s influenced tunes sung by a shouty guy called Steve (these songs are pre Tom Hingley fame era) then it’s for you. Some of the tracks appeared polished and shiny down the line on the Rare As Fuck Plane Crash ep.  Others crept onto 7″ b sides or re-appeared in future Peel Sessions. If you’re a fan of Inspiral Carpets you’ll know most of them. If not, it’s as good a place to start as any. This tape was the one thing that convinced me I had seen the future of rock n roll. And it wasn’t called Bruce Springsteen.  

Inlay

The Inspiral Carpets occasionally gave out a newsletter. By issue 4 it had become known as the moos-letter. Here’s the one I got round about the time I saw them in Glasgow Tech and bought the tape that you’re just about to download.

find out why 1

find out why 2 3

find out why 4

Footnote:

I meant to write in my original post that about a year after the Glasgow Tech gig, I saw the Inspiral Carpets again at Strathclyde University. This was round about the time Noel Gallagher was roadying for them. The band were outside unloading their van and I took the chance to get them to sign the inside of my Levis denim jacket. They all signed it (apart from the singer who was, to quote the roadie (Noel?), “away shaggin'”). Clint Boon drew the cow logo and wrote “Inspirals ’89” underneath it. I think my sister nicked the jacket about a year later. Pre-eBay, I don’t know where it ended up…

Cover Versions, Hard-to-find

Flip Yer Whig

Craig McAllister

Being the totally shallow person that I am, one of the cooler records in my collections is the Afghan Whigs‘ Uptown Avondale 7″ single. On the Sub Pop label. On red vinyl.

Released in 1992, Uptown Avondale was the perfect distilation of the Afghan Whigs’ blend of Sabbath-heavy riffs fighting it out for centre stage with Stax and Motown soul tinges. Was it grunge/soul? Was it soul/grunge? It doesn’t really matter because to these ears it sounded fantastic.

AfghanWhigsUptownAvondale

The 7″ features 2 tracks. On the one side, a feedback-soaked minor key version of Freda Payne’s perennial disco classic Band Of Gold. Where the original is heartbreak sung euphorically, this version is half the tempo, half the euphoria but twice the heartbreak. I dug out my single last night and fired up the old Dansette. The single is one of those jukebox singles that’s missing the centre piece. I used to have one of those bits, but somewhere down the line it’s disappeared. I put it on anyway, thinking that the rubber mat on the turntable would keep it in place. Woah! “Noooowwwww ttttthhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaattttt yooooouuuuuu’vvvvveeee gggggaaaaaawwwwwwwnnnnnn aaaaaaallllll ttttttthhhhhhaaaaaaaaaattttt iiiiiiissssss llllllleeeeeeeeffffffftttttt iiiiissss aaaa bbbbbaaaaaannnnnddddd  ooooooffff gggggggoooooollllllldddddd.” I had to take it off. It sounded even more downbeat, depressing and deranged than ever. Thankfully, the mp3 sounds the way the Whigs intended.

afghan whigs

The flip side is even better. Here, they do a version of The Supreme’s Come See About Me. Whereas the original is all finger-clickin’ hip-shakin’ innocent teenage joy, the Whigs’ version sounds totally dangerous. The drums at the start don’t have the pistol crack that you’ll be familiar with, you’ll need to add your own handclaps, guitar riffs replace the rinky-dink piano trills and backing vocals are whispered with an air of menace rather than sung with innocent joy. “Come see about me” they implore. Eh, I’d rather not, thank you very much. It’s still soul music Jim, but not as we know it. It also happens to be in my Top 10 favourite tracks ever.

afghan whigs live

If you bought the 12″, you’d also find 2 extra tracks. This, their excellent though downbeat (of course) version of Al Green’s Beware and this, their faithful reworking of yer actual Elvis’ True Love Travels On A Gravel Road. Spooky keyboards. Descending bassline. Heartfelt vocals. All in a minor key. Again.

And if you bought the CD single, there’s a hidden track right at the end, a remix of the band’s own Milez Is Dead. Renamed Rebirth Of The Cool (see what they did there?) it’s apparent they’ve been listening to no less than Fools Gold. Aye! Funkier than a mosquito’s tweeter, some might say.  With added heroin.

Cover Versions, Hard-to-find, studio outtakes

There’s a riot goin’ on…

Craig McAllister

..and you might not even know it. The most prolific* band in showbiz, legendary Scottish band (C) The Trashcan Sinatras are currently burning up the highways and byways of the United States of America. I know many visitors here are from that big part of the globe and I thought I’d post this to let you know.

us09_tour_flyer_02

Relax girls. Some of them are even married.

Most fans of the Trashcans tend to be of the obsessive kind and will know all about the tour already. They’ll have their tickets, their accomodation sorted out and they’ll already have chosen which tracks from Cake they’re going to heckle for thoroughout the show. But you couldn’t be blamed for drifting off and seeing other bands during the Trashcan’s over-long hiatus. You might not be aware the band are still going strong. If so, this is a public service broadcast aimed at you, dear American reader. If they’re playing near you, get to the show. Go! Go! Go!

Listen out for the new stuff from the In The Music album – Prisons sounds like The Byrds doing Sugar Sugar, lead single I Wish You’d Met Her sounds like The Faces with the Bee Gees on backing vocals and Oranges and Apples is a 9 minute wig out (by Trashcans standards at any rate.) Watch the recent wig-out free acoustic in-store acoustic version here…

Here’s a couple of TCS rarities. First, Snow. Penned by Randy Newman, covered by Harpers Bazaar, this track was only ever released in Japan. At the tail end of the last century.

Next, Hammertime. Recorded for Weightlifting but left off at the sequencing stage, this track saw the light of day on the b-side of the highly collectable All The Dark Horses 10″ single. It was also briefly available as a download.

Lastly, Duty Free. A track so willfully obscure the band never even put their own name to it. Recorded as the Cat Protection League for a college project CD, Duty Free is classic Trashcans – melodic, melancholic and uplifting at the same time. It deserves a wider audience than it reached on the CD. Hence it’s appearance here at Plain Or Pan? Download then go and see the band live. Get to the show! Go! Go! Go!

Remember to check trashcansinatras.com for regular updates and video clips etc

You should really also visit Five Hungry Joes. Clearly a labour of love, it features an excellent array of all things Trashcansesque.

*Prolific. For our American readers, that was, like, irony, dude.

Cover Versions, entire show, Hard-to-find, Peel Sessions

Tres Bon Ivers

Craig McAllister

That story from the other day (here) about the boy who swapped his iPod for a Walkman for a week had me thinking back to all my old compilation tapes I’ve still got in a box. I used to listen to the John Peel show religiously and sit with my finger poised over the pause button of the cassette deck on my music centre (as they were called, in my house at least, between 1983 and 1990, until CD first came into my life) waiting for something good to pop up inbetween the anarcho-punk, dub reggae, Ivor Cutler and Fall tracks. Nowadays I can appreciate that for the most part, John Peel’s show was all good, but to a 13 year old mad about Adam and The Ants, Crass, Culture and Captain Beefheart were a step too far.

By the end of the 80s I was a dab hand at recording entire Peel Sessions. If I was lucky I’d pause it just before Peel started talking. In hindsight, that was a stupid thing to do. I’d love to know what he said about some of the sessions I taped, but his comments have floated off into the ethers of time. I still have those tapes though…

cassette

The House of Love (“Hey man, the bongos are too loud” – I managed to capture Peel that night!), numerous Wedding Presents, a great Inspiral Carpets session with their original singer that sounded like The Doors and The Teardrop Explodes slugging it out after 17 microdots. And some fantastic Pixies stuff, including their first Peel Session.

pixies bw

You can find out all you need to know about any John Peel session at this indispensable site here. This Pixies one was recorded at Maida Vale 4 on 3rd May 1988 (21 years ago!!!) and broadcast about a week later, the session was notable for a couple of things. Firstly, it sounded fantastic. Pristine recording. Short, short songs. Frank Black screaming his big fat head off. Listening to it now, I can vouch that it still sounds fantastic today. Secondly, the choice of songs the band played was interesting. Two tracks from their recently released ‘Come On Pilgrim’ ep, two cover versions and a track that wouldn’t see the light of day until the ‘Doolittle‘ album.

pixies bar

About 10 years ago, long before file sharing had reached the West of Scotland I bought a Pixies bootleg called ‘Rough Diamonds’. This album has 5 tracks credited to the May 88 session, but my old tape has 4 songs from the session. I either missed their pre-Doolittle version of ‘Hey‘, or that song wasn’t broadcast in the first place. The 5 tracks are:

Hey

Levitate Me

Wild Honey Pie

Caribou

In Heaven (Lady In The Radiator Song) 

In contrast to the rather daft and throwaway Beatles original, Wild Honey Pie is a full-on Frank Black scream-fest that wouldn’t sound out of place in any Pixies set of original material. In Heaven.. is a cover of a song from David Lynch’s ‘Eraserhead’. But you knew that already. Have you ever heard Peter Ivers original? Creeeeeeepy. High pitched voice, churchy keyboard and a wind effect at the end. The Pixies do a pretty good job of replicating it, but I think the Flaming Lips would really make this one soar. I’m now off to illegally seek out some Peter Ivers recordings.  Enjoy the session!

peter ivers

I heart Peter Ivers

 

Cover Versions, Hard-to-find

I like it, I like it, I la la la like it.

Craig McAllister

Watching Glastonbury from the comfort of my armchair, one band stuck out like a sore thumb. But a good sore thumb. A really good sore thumb. Springsteen? Hmmm. Sure, he’s got the knack of making a hundred thousand people feel like he’s serenading them on a one-to-one basis in the dressing room of King Tuts. Neil Young? Hmmm, yeah, but he does go on a wee bit too long. Just a tiny bit, but a wee bit nonetheless. Long may you run and all that, but c’mon Neil. Blur? Punkpoppogoagogo. Damon All Bran shadow boxing and jogging on the spot. Graham Coxon rolling around on the floor whilst soloing. Yeah, it’s all very 1992. I liked them a lot. But nope. The band that really did it for me were Status Quo. Yep. You read that right first time. Status Quo.

If only for their opening 5 minute salvo, I’d have been delighted to stand in a crowded field full of B.O. and pollen. Had I been there, my fingers would’ve been firmly in my belt loops and I’d’ve been heabanging away like some of those hopelessly embarrasing bald-on-top, long at the back tour t-shirt-wearing accountants-by-day oldies. Status Quo’s opening song sounded so good, I thought it was 1973 again. There’s a slow build up of feedback that Kevin Shield’s would’ve been proud of. Parfitt’s fingers are barred and poised to start chugging out the F-Shape at the 13th fret. As he finds the rhythm and locks the groove, Rossi fades himself in with that instantly recognisable counter riff on his green Tele. The rest of the band get on with the no-nonsense heads-down boogie and we’re off. Come on Sweet Caroline! Take my hand, together we can rock and roll! As that other rock ‘n roller who clearly stole Parfitt n’ Rossi’s patented denim-with-white-trainers look might say, Sen. Say. Shee. Oh. Nal. Aye Liam. You’ve been out rocked and out rolled by a couple of old men in waistcoats and bad hair.

quo

Of course, twas not always thus. Sure, they’ve mostly always had bad hair and often had a penchant for sporting the garishly coloured waistcoat, but back in the 60s, Status Quo were fresh from the Butlins holiday camp circuit and had a ‘The’ at the start of their name. If you’ve ever seen Spinal Tap (and of course you have) The Status Quo were a psychedelic beat combo in much the same vein as that film’s The Thamesmen. Paisley shirts? Check! Wah-wah? Oh yes! Multi-coloured guitars? Absolutely man!

status quo thamesmen

The Status Quo                        The Thamesmen

The Status Quo are amazing. They’re probably best known for Pictures of Matchstick Men, covered by many including most recently Kasabian for a Radio 2 session with Dermot O’Leary. Christ. I hate that band. They’d love to be Primal Scream, wouldn’t they? Anyway, back to The Status Quo. Not ‘The Quo’. That means ‘In The Army Now’ and best-forgotten collaborations with Manchester United. The Status Quo. Ice In The Sun. Another slice of 60s psychedelia. A coupla years later and they’d be slaves to the boogie. Here‘s their version of The Doors ‘Roadhouse Blues’. Guilty as charged, m’lud. For years I never knew this was a cover. When I was 10 I got ‘From the Makers Of…‘ a triple LP Status Quo Box Set from Santa. It’s still in my collection, as is  ‘Picturesque Matchstickabale Memories From The Status Quo’. If you only buy one Status Quo album this year, etc etc….You’ll not find it in Tesco but it’s worth seeking out.

status quo matchstick

Cover Versions, Hard-to-find

Ripping off Johnny? Off with their heads!

Craig McAllister

Can’t get that new Yeah Yeah Yeahs single out of my head at the moment. ‘Heads Will Roll’ is cracking; hysterical vocals, electro rush and an outrageously shame-faced borrowing of the guitar riff from PIL‘s ‘This Is Not A Love Song’. Where John Lydon sneers, Karen O breathes. Where PIL throbs, Yeah Yeah Yeahs soar. But there’s no denying both are terrific songs, even if one borrows heavily from the other.

pil

The original version of ‘This Is Not A Love Song’ was PIL‘s biggest hit single, reaching number 5 in 1983. A remixed version featuring brass, keyboards and noticeably less guitar was released as a 12″. It was this version that prompted guitarist Keith Levene to leave the band. I don’t know what he’d have made of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs (cough) ‘reworking’ of the track – it too is fairly keyboard heavy. But for want of a better phrase, it rocks!

yeahyeahyeahs

I like Karen O, even if she looks like she’s going out as Joey Ramone for Halloween. She’s got the attitude, style and ballsy presence that all my favourite female singers have. I’d never tire of punching those other 2 though. Wimpy poseurs in skinny jeans. Grow up ya couple of fannys. Still. ‘Heads Will Roll’. Great single. In a gazillion different mixes too…

Heads Will Roll (original)

Heads Will Roll (LA Boxers Dub Remix)

Heads Will Roll (Johnny Roxx Remixx)

Heads Will Roll (Foulhouse Remix)

Heads Will Roll (Weird Tapes version)

Heads Will Roll (Emre B remix)

*BONUS TRACK! French artist singing in English cocktail jazz re-working of ‘This Is Not A Love Song’. Covered by Nouvelle Vague. Fact 1. Pete Doherty would give his trilby-hatted skanky head to get this sound on one of his records. Fact 2. Nouvelle Vague’s version of  Love Will Tear Us Apart is one of the most downloaded tracks on Plain Or Pan. Seek and ye shall find.