Category: Cover Versions

Cover Versions, Hard-to-find

I don’t think I wanna dance just now.

Craig McAllister

Welcome to request corner! His name is Prince and he is funky. What follows are 3 decidedly unfunky covers of Prince tracks. If you were being cruel you might say they’re workmanlike in their approach. Sloppy, too slow (hello My Morning Jacket) and devoid of any soul at all. If you were being a bit more generous, you’d say they were trying to do the tracks in their own style (howdy Foo Fighters). If you were a bit less cynical, you might even say The Jesus And Mary Chain‘s version of ‘Alphabet Street’ was pretty good. Cos it is. Thanks to Gerald for the suggestion.

My JAMC version of ‘Alphabet Street’ comes from one of the CD single versions of ‘Come On’ (it’s also got a Pogues and a Cramps cover on it), but it’s available from round about now on the sexy looking box set above. What I like about this version is that the JAMC have gone out of their way to make it as easy as possible to play. Stripped it back to 3 simple chords, added some fuzz bass, some doo-wop vocals, some feedback (naturally) and made it sound like any other of their records. Prince’s Alphabet Street sounds like the kind of place where supermodels are handing out free E’s and sex on tap, but The JAMC make Alphabet Street sound like the kind of place where even Lou Reed would be scared of going to score. I think Glasvegas could do a really good version of The JAMC covering Prince. Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!

The Foo Fighters track comes from the B-Side of their ‘Have It All’ single, and in the best traditions of the radio, many DJs started playing the ‘Darling Nikki’ cover instead of the rather obvious and plodding A-Side. The Foo Fighters version reached number 15 in the American charts, much to Prince’s disgust. He wouldn’t let them release it as a single, they stuck it on the b-side instead, and voila, the rest is filthy-lyriced history.

First things first now. I like My Morning Jacket. As far as blue-collar rocking guitar bands go I think they’re possibly my favourite. I prefer them to the Hold Steady, if that means anything. I really liked the ‘Z’ album. I’m sure they’re a decent live proposition. They’re famed for long and loud live sets, and they often do covers during encores, which is where their version of ‘I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man’ comes from. I found this version whilst poking about the blogosphere, but I can’t find any info on where it was recorded. It’s live and sounds like it’s from the mixing desk but other than that I can’t tell you much else about it. Except that it must’ve been one hell of a long show that night, cos MMJ have stripped all the bounce, all the fun and all the soul out of a great wee song. Compare and contrast with this Prince ‘Sign O’ The Times’ tour soundcheck rehearsal. Even allowing for a cheesy brass section near the end, the funk is back. Listen to Prince’s guitar playing during the solo! Jeez-oh! I think I wanna dance now!

*More Prince ‘SOTT‘ soundcheck stuff is available here. And Prince doing Radiohead‘s ‘Creep‘ is still available via this link!

Cover Versions, Gone but not forgotten, Hard-to-find, Studio master tapes

Psssst! I heard through the grapevine that…..

Craig McAllister

…there were some Motown studio master tapes floating around on the internet. It took me by surprise, I must say. I mean, who’d have thought these things would ever surface? And guess what? After a bit of poking about in all the right places I found them. I have right here in my sweaty wee hands the master tapes for Marvin Gaye‘s ‘I Heard It Through The Grapevine’. That’s right. The master tapes for Marvin Gaye‘s ‘I Heard It Through The Grapevine’. 10 tracks of pure 60s soul. It’s no wonder the musicians who played on the track were known as the Funk Brothers, as the funk drips from every bit of bassline, every hiss of the hi-hat and every falsetto’d note from Marvin’s sweet voice. “Drums in my ear….just what I need!” he says, and off he goes….

Marvin at the BBC

As usual, download the tracks as one big file, open them up, insert them into Audacity and play God. Although how you can possibly improve on the finished article is beyond me. But you can have loads of fun trying. I particularly like the harmonising female backing singers track. Woop woop a shobeedowop! Here‘s Marvin’s vocal-only track for starters. Now get the whole lot.

Not many people know, but Marvin Gaye’s version was actually the 2nd time the song was a hit. Written by Motown staffers Norman Whittfield and Barrett Strong (‘Money’, ‘Papa Was a Rolling Stone’ amongst a ton of other big smash hits), it was first a hit in 1967 for Gladys Knight and the Pips. This version sounds nothing like Marvin Gaye’s. Faster and jazzier, it’s a call and response gospel-tinged belter. Think Aretha Franklin. I bet she does a great version of it somewhere. Anybody know?

Gladys and her Pips

Before Gladys and co recorded it, the writers had tried out Smokey Robinson and The Miracles doing a version. Their’s never made it outside the studio until 10 or so years ago, when an album called ‘Motown Sings Motown Treasures’ appeared. The album featured various Motown acts covering one another’s songs, with mixed results. Smokey’s version is more in keeping with Marvin’s, but is a touch faster. To be accurate, I suppose we should say that Marvin’s is more in keeping with Smokey’s, but a bit slower. It took Marvin 2 months to record his version, which is a marathon compared to how quickly records were knocked out in those days. The song was written in a key slightly too high for Gaye, a trick the producers used to ensure his voice achieved that rasp and pained sound in the high notes. The trick obviously worked – Marvin’s is of course the definitive version. Brooding, menacing and ideal music to sell jeans by. It was his first number 1 record, and Motown’s most sold single of the 60’s. It doesn’t get better than that. 

More recently, Paul Weller and Amy Winehouse had a go at it. October 25th 2006, BBC Electric Proms to be more precise. It’s not bad. But not a touch on Marvin Gaye’s.

I like to think I know tons about music. Useless facts that come in handy when writing stuff like this. After finishing this post I did a search for some information about ‘I Heard It Through The Grapevine’ and discovered this really indepth Wikipedia article about the song here. It repeats some of what you’ve just read but tells you way more. Have a look. And have fun with the remix, but remember, it can’t be bettered.

Cover Versions, Dylanish, Gone but not forgotten, Hard-to-find, Most downloaded tracks

Plain Or Pan-Global

Craig McAllister

A wise old man once sang “Reissue, revalue, repackage, reassess the song,” and that’s what this post aims to do. The number of people clicking on this site on a daily basis is quite astounding. In the past week alone I’ve had vistors from Brazil, China, Germany, Japan, Finland and New Zealand. I think all corners of the globe have found me. I never expected Plain Or Pan? to be as popular or as relevant as it is. I never thought people would bookmark it or that the casual browser could find it via a click or two on Google, and then want to come back again and again. Never in my mind did I imagine getting mentioned in proper music publications (see above left). In all honesty, I didn’t expect to still be here a year and a half down the line. But I am. Thanks to you. And you. And you. And you. And you. Yes, even you. And you. And…  

I know when I visit a blog I don’t read every page. I read a wee bit (or more, maybe even all of it, if it’s interesting) then scroll through to see what the downloads are. I don’t have time to read every page of every blog. No doubt I’ve missed some good stuff. And that got me thinking. If I don’t read every bit of every blog, then why should I expect anyone to read every bit of this one. Of course they don’t. So it’s logical to think that a lot of people visiting this site will have missed some of the more interesting posts. Not the ones that show up on a google click, but the ones that are buried deep inside the vaults of Plain Or Pan? Buried deep inside until now. Reissue, revalue, repackage? I’d say it’s more like recycling. Here’s some of what you may have missed (all links to the music are in the posts)…..

1. The Coca Cola advert music. Here , here and here. And here‘s an mp3 of The Carpenters 1971 easy listening Coke jingle.

2. Morrissey doing ‘Moon River’. It’s magic.

3. ‘You Really Got A Hold On Me’  by The Jackson 5 and The Zombies. Oh, and look what I’ve found. It’s only The Small Faces doing the same track. Here. Equal measures distortion + soulful vocals = a belter.

4. Norman Blake from Teenage Fanclub does Dennis Wilson from the Beach Boys ‘Only with You’. Right here. There’s tons of Teenage Fanclub stuff scattered throughout Plain Or Pan? Go and find it, lazy bones!

5. The Raconteurs BBC Sessions. Here.

6. Lee Hazlewood‘s demo of ‘These Boots Are Made For Walking‘ here. Along with some kitsch Nancy Sinatra stuff.

6. Some Super Furry Animals hard-to-find stuff. Here.

7. What goes around comes around. Elliott Smith rips off Bob Dylan, who had previoulsy ripped off someone himself. Here. There’s a similar Led Zeppelin post here. And if you don’t know any Elliott Smith, shame on you! You could do worse than click here. Demos, acoustic, rare! Wooo!

8. A potted history of The Primitives. Fantastic guitar pop from a band named after Lou Reed’s first band. Everything you need to know (and 3 of their best records) here.

9. Ronnie Spector and The Ronettes singing accapella in the studio. This is astonishing.

10. Even more astonishing, Sandie Shaw‘s breasts. And some great cover versions too. Here.

Finally, you can never have enough Trashcan Sinatras in your life. it’s a crying shame that not enough people know about them. Here‘s their version of Randy Newman‘s ‘Snow‘. Released only in Japan, it’s a hard-to-find gem.

All links should be working. Don’t hesitate to let me know if anything’s broken. Cheers.

Cover Versions, Hard-to-find

Retro thrift shop fashion transvestites

Craig McAllister

Jellyfish were great. Power pop for the pre-Nirvana teeny boppers. Tunes by The Beatles. Backing vocals and guitar solos by Queen. Clothes by Hanna Barbera. Modern day insipid retro tunesmiths like The Feeling would give their stripey trousers and kerrrrazzzeee facial hair to be able to write half a tune as masterful as ‘Now She Knows She’s Wrong’. They must listen in jaw-dropping awe to ‘Bellybutton’ or cry over their copy of ‘Spilt Milk’ at least once a week.

Jellyfish-eye lens

Jellyfish only made the aforementioned 2 albums before splitting. I never got to see them live although I think they once played King Tuts. My pal’s band played a few shows with them in America and told me that for all the day-glo Californian sunshine and love image they projected, they were really a right grumpy bunch of selfish unfriendly bastards. Especially Andy Sturmer, the singing drummer. Fans of the Trashcan Sinatras may recognise the line, “There’s an anecdote about an argument with the singer from Jellyfish.” It’s a good anecdote too…

Baby’s Coming Back video shoot

Nowadays, the various musicians that made up the band can be heard on a multitude of off-shoots and side projects (including, but not exclusively Imperial Drag, The Moog Cookbook, Umajets, TV Eyes) all on a MySpace site near you. There’s actually too much music to investigate beyond Jellyfish, and I’ve never tried to (!) The 2 albums plus the 4CD Australian box set ‘Fan Club’ are all I need. The demos and live cuts below are taken from the long-deleted and hard-to-get box set. 

The Man I Used To Be

Calling Sarah (with ‘She Loves You’ “Yeah Yeah Yeah“‘s)

All I Want Is Everything

Baby’s Coming Back

Now She Knows She’s Wrong

interview on 91X, San Diego

No Matter What (Badfinger cover, live)

Jet (Wings cover, live)

(Flower) power chords

Still needing more? Can’t get enough of Jellyfish? How about this? Right click on the picture below, ‘save as…’ and print it off. Voila! Your very own official Jellyfish colouring-in page, taken from the promo coloring-in book (note American spelling) from 1990. Make them as sunny day-glo Californian or as grumpy as you want.

Cover Versions, entire show, Hard-to-find

Tan By Your Man

Craig McAllister

Man-bag wearing, perma-tanned soul/folk/rock crooning all round pie, mash ‘n’ jellied eels geezer Paul Weller played a ‘God’s Jukebox’ session recently on Mark Lamarr‘s Radio 2 show. And it was a belter.

Extremely well played (is that a mellotron?) and captured perfectly in the high quality files below, Weller and his “boys” run through a selection of tracks from his new album ’22 Dreams’, as well as a track from ‘As Is Now’ and a cover of Manfred Mann’s ‘Pretty Flamingo’. All in all a good days work at the office and a nice session to own. You could be impatient and download just the music from the links below, or you could download the entire session, interview included in high quality flac files. I’d go for the latter.

All I Wanna Do Is Be With You

Cold Moments

Push It Along

Pretty Flamingo

Misty Morning

The interview is informative, but fairly light hearted. It pokes fun at Sting, compares chord sequences to Abba’s ‘Take A Chance On Me’ and alludes to the band playing standing back-to-back à la Thin Lizzy. Which doesn’t really work on the radio, but would have you thinking that Paul Weller isn’t the next gurmudgeon due on the new series of Grumpy Old Men after all. He sounds like he’s having fun, both in his playing and his chat. Enjoy the session. (Recorded on July 5th, if you need to know these kind of things)

 Soul, man!

Cover Versions, Hard-to-find

They tried to make him go to rehab…

Craig McAllister

…and he went. Poor Ronnie Wood. Making Pete Doherty look like a total lightweight, he’s been on a bit of a bender recently, going off without his wife of 23 years, instead taking with him a 20 year old Russian ‘cocktail waitress’ (and escort) to Ireland for a massive drink, drugs and how’s yer father session. And now he’s in rehab trying to save both his vital organs and his marriage. Being a Rolling Stone, surely that’s all part of the job? Just ask Keith Richards or Bill Wyman. At least Ronnie’s girlfriend was above the legal age of consent. To paraphrase Rod Stewart in his MTV Unplugged concert, “This song was written before some of you were born……….mind you, me wife was only 1!” Until he recovers, let’s remember Ronnie Wood for what he’s good at – making rock ‘n roll records (and painting – all the pictures here are his work).

Here’s a couple of lesser-known tracks from his extensive pre-Stones back catalogue. ‘You’re On My Mind’ by The Birds (with an ‘i’ not a ‘y’) was the first song he ever wrote. Released by Decca in 1964, it was apparently inspired by The Yardbirds. The b-side to the above track was a cover of Bo Diddley‘s ‘You Don’t Love Me’, a staple for many a blues-inspired garage band in the early 60s. Ronnie also played with The Creation (‘Midway Down’) before going on to play bass in the Jeff Beck Group, where he played with Rod Stewart for the first time.

‘Plynth (Water Down The Drain)’  from the ‘Beck-Ola’ album sounds like a blueprint for everything Ron ‘n’ Rod did in The Faces. It’s loose, bluesy, funky and has a great slide guitar riff and a fantastic bassline from Ronnie. You know his other work – ‘Stay With Me’, ‘Miss Judy’s Farm’, ‘Cindy Incidentally’, Gasoline Alley, ‘Maggie May’, the list is endless. Any decent Rod Stewart 70s compilation has the lot. Of course, he’s not really allowed to write for the Stones, even if he has the best haircut out the lot of them, but that surely is Mick ‘n Keith’s loss. Get well soon Ronnie!

Hard-to-find rarity alert!!! Here‘s the full-length version of ‘Maggie May’, complete with the neatly picked acoustic guitar intro that’s missing from just about every version of the song that’s ever been released. As Frank Carson used to say, it’s a cracker.

Cover Versions, Hard-to-find

Skunk, Skank ‘n’ Short, Short Skirts? It must be Amy Winehouse!

Craig McAllister

It’s great to see her actually making news for all the right reasons this week. Well, she would be making the news if anyone had picked up on this, but I’m sure you get my point…Released under the radar to absolutely no fanfare whatsoever this week was a rather fetching 2 Tone-inspired 7″ ep by Amy Winehouse. The ‘Ska ep’ does exactly what it says on the tin. 4 tracks, 2 on each side, of Amy interpreting Ska classics that you may or may not have heard first from listening to The Specials. I love these versions, pointless as they ultimately are. And I love the sleeve, even if Amy hasn’t looked that voluptuous since 2006. Diana Dors in a wig…

A1. Monkey Man (Toots & The Maytals)
A2. Hey Little Rich Girl (THe Specials)
B1. You’re Wondering Now (Andy & Joe)
B2. Cupid (Sam Cooke)

The vinyl ep is currently going for funny money on eBay, but the above mp3’s are a good alternative for those of us suffering from the credit crunch. As a bonus track, here‘s the Arctic Monkeys version of Amy‘s ‘You Know I’m No Good’. It also does exactly what it says on the tin. Flat singing, wrong words, half-arsed delivery. Yep. You know it’s no good. But don’t take my word for it….

Cover Versions, Hard-to-find

My Bloody Frustrating Valentine

Craig McAllister

My Bloody Valentine are back on a brief tour and the reviews have been a wee bit mixed. Some people claim they can’t hear the vocals. Some people say the show they’ve attended is the best thing ever. Some people say the noisy bit in ‘You Made Me Realise’ isn’t noisy enough. Some people say the shows are too loud. Too loud! It’s My Bloody Valentine not James Blunt. Jeez. Lets hope they get some sort of new material together soon. It’s been too long. Anyway, until then…

In anticipation of their Barrowlands shows this Wednesday and Thursday I thought I’d post these obscurities and curios. First up, My Bloody Valentine do their version of Louis Armstrong’s ‘We Have All The Time In The World’. This is taken from a 1993 Island Records charity CD called ‘Peace Together’ which set out to get young people from both sides of the religious divide in Northern Ireland working together. There’s a fair amount of Irish artists on there (U2, Fatima Mansions, Therapy?, Sinead O’Connor etc etc, you know the rest) but the My Bloody Valentine track is easily the best thing on it. Hear for yourself.

In 1998, Kevin Shields produced a one-off, released-for-a-day-then-deleted Primal Scream single. ‘If They Move Kill ‘Em’ was taken from the ‘Vanishing Point’ album, but Shields buckled and bent and twisted and distorted it inside out. It sounds backwards in places, it sounds under water in other places, it sounds other-wordly in the rest of the places. It sounds as good as the cover (below) looks. It. Is. Fantastic. Even better, there are two mixes! The My Bloody Valentine Arkestra mix and the 12″ Disco MIx (my favourite – it has a bit in it that sounds an awful lot like Jimi Hendrix‘s ‘Crosstown Traffic’). The ep also featured 2 mixes of Primal Scream covering the Jesus & Mary Chain‘s ‘Darklands‘. What the hell – here’s Darklands and here’s Badlands. Happy listening.

‘If They Move Kill ‘Em’ sleeve

*Bonus Track. Andrew Weatherall‘s seminal, yes, seminal remix of MBV‘s ‘Soon‘. It’s My Bloody Valentine, but you can dance to it! It’s a belter! If you’re reading Mr Shields, many of us would like a new album or single or chord or anything.

Kevin Shields – bloody frustrating

Cover Versions, entire show, Hard-to-find

Hang On! Acoustic Fanclub!

Craig McAllister

Last weekend was Teenage Fanclub weekend. A triple treat, a trio of tip-top turns, a heroes welcome for a hatrick of homecoming shows. And any other number of alliterative delights. Each show was different and each show was great for any number of reasons. I’ve mentioned the ‘Electric Chestnuts’ show below, so we’ll focus on the other 2 for now.

Sunday night’s setlist

Sunday night was the ‘Acoustic Chestnuts’ night and it was fantastic. Instruments were swapped, harmonies were finely honed (especially Francis- who knew drummers could sing?) and there were big smiles all round. In contrast to the sound problems of Saturday night, at some points the vocals were so good it was like listening to the Everly Brothers. Personal highlights were the songs from the Grand Prix era- ‘Don’t Look Back’, ‘Going Places’ and ‘Some People Try To Fuck With You’, which sounded like Astrud Gilberto on Buckfast.

Monday night’s setlist

Monday night was the one I was looking most forward to – the b-sides and hardly-ever-played night. Teenage Fanclub did not disappoint. The show was heavy on ‘A Catholic Education’ -era Fanclub (‘Heavy Metal’! ”Every Picture I Paint’! Eternal Light’!) and the much-neglected ‘Thirteen’ album – ‘Escher‘! ‘Gene Clark’!, ‘Ret Live Dead’!, which meant lots of distortion pedals, fewer backing vocals and the odd cocked-up start (poke about on YouTube for Norman 3). It was like a Fannies gig from way back in the day and it was extra magic, the best of the three without a doubt. Brendan O’Hare got plucked Springsteen-style from the crowd to sing ‘The Ballad Of John & Yoko’ and no-one’s mentioned this yet, but Norman’s McCartney backing vocals were pretty immense. Raymond’s frazzled playing on ‘Born Under A Good Sign’ made it sound like Love, circa 1967. They even played ‘Broken’, before coming back on for the genuinely not-planned double-whammy of ‘Sparky’s Dream’ and ‘Alcoholiday’, although had they also played ‘God Knows It’s True’ and/or ‘Everybody’s Fool’ (and given the albums they were drawing from I think they could’ve) and maybe even ‘I Heard You Looking’, if that’s not being too greedy, this gig would have been gig of the decade. Still, Best Gig of 2008 is good enough for now.  

Norman 3 (nights)

Anyway, lots of talk over at the Teenage Fanclub Message Boards about how the band should release an acoustic album, or a b-sides album, or a live album, or indeed, any kind of album at all. But an Acoustic Fanclub album would be an excellent idea. In the meantime, you could do worse than make do with these wee beauties. Firstly, recorded for ‘The White Sessions’ on French radio on the 11th April 1995….

Don’t Look Back
Say No
Star Sign
I’ll Make It Clear
Sparky’s Dream
Have You Ever Seen The Rain
Mellow Doubt

(click here to download as one complete session)

‘The White Sessions’ is a long running French radio show where bands go in and record acoustic sessions. Teenage Fanclub used their time to promote Grand Prix. The same radio station also do ‘The Black Sessions’ where the band play a longer, usually electric set in front of a small invited audience. Teenage Fanclub also did a Black Session in 1993 but I’ve never heard it. It may be that some of the tracks below are taken from it, I don’t know. An official-looking CD from the show was on sale up until yesterday on eBay and I was quite excited. But when the bidding started approaching £30 I got scared off. I couldn’t justify that sort of money for something which will probably turn up online soon. Fingers crossed. If you were the lucky bidder, how about sending me a copy?!

Also taken from my personal vaults (!) of badly-labelled Teenage Fanclub radio sessions, curios and oddities, here’s a random selection of acoustic-based Teenage Fanclub. I’m unclear as to where most of these came from. Radio sessions? I don’t know. But not b-sides. No siree. Rare Fanclub. Cos the Teenage Fanclub are a rare band, a rare band indeed. Download and enjoy!

a piano-led Hang On

Four Strong Winds

He’d Be A Diamond

Sparky’s Dream

Tears Are Cool

The Shadows (Mark Radcliffe session)

Cover Versions, Hard-to-find

A right couple of Fannies

Craig McAllister

You might know this already, but I don’t follow a very successful football team, so whilst many of my friends have recently been shelling out literally thousands of pounds to follow either half of Glasgow’s Ugly Sisters on their European exploits, I justified my decision to buy tickets for 3 nights of Teenage Fanclub shows as my equivalent of the Champions League. Three nights at Oran Mor in the West End of Glasgow. ‘Electric Chestnuts’, ‘Acoustic Chestnuts’ and the one I’m looking forward to most, the ‘B-Sides and Rarities’ night.

Last night was the first of the 3 and we were treated to what was essentially a Teenage Fanclub Greatest Hits set. With Norman as Bill Gates on vocals. No kiddin’. He looks like Bill Gates these days! The sound was a bit muddy. I hope it’s sorted out for tonight, but anyway, it was of course a cracker of a show.

Where’s my axe?

You can find the setlist for last night’s ‘Electric Chestnuts’ below (muchos gracias, John S.) As they always do, the band finished with ‘Everything Flows’, their first single. No thanks to the couple of Fannys stood next to me who talked about going to ‘the Sellic gemmes’ with Brendan and Pat and Big Mick all the way through it. I bought ‘Everything Flows’  on 7″ the day after I saw Teenage Fanclub for the first time. They were supporting the Soup Dragons in the Garage. Anyway, I digress.

Setlist, Oran Mor Saturday 14.6.08

Many other musicians love ‘Everything Flows’. I have a Velvet Crush version on 7″ that’s no’ bad, but I don’t have the means to convert it at present. Until then…

Redd Kross ‘Everything Flows’

(Rockin’! – from tribute album ‘What A Concept’)

Gallygows ‘Everything Flows’

(Mellow! – Duglas T Stewart likes this one)

Teenage Fanclub ‘Everything Flows’

(Live! – Malmo, 5th July 2005)