Category: demo

demo, Hard-to-find, studio outtakes

Bums, Punks and Old Sluts On Junk

Craig McAllister

This time last year I read an article in one of Mrs Plain Or Pan’s magazines about Christmas. The article asked a carefully selected sample of celebrities to describe their perfect Christmas Day. “A long walk in the woods with my fiancé,” cooed Kathryn Jenkins, “before curling up in front of the log fire with a glass of mulled wine.” “We always start the day with a champagne breakfast,” revealed Maureen Lipman. “Traditionally, we open presents after dinner, then the whole family settles down to watch The Snowman.” Christmas Day seems just peachy round at her’s, eh? I don’t know about your house, but mine on Christmas Day is nothing like that at all. “Those carrots are mushy…and the sprouts are still raw! You useless wanker!”(whispered of course,  so the relatives can’t hear us arguing, 3 feet away on the other side of the wall). “You told me when to put them on!” “Could you not tell the carrots were ready? Couldn’t you use your fucking brains for once?” etc etc etc. Like I said, I don’t know about your house, but I’m inclined to think it’ll be more like mine than Kathryn Jenkins’ or Maureen Lipman’s come a week on Sunday.

Still Alive! Todd Marrone did this, the talented so-and-so.

You know this already, but just for the record, Fairytale Of New York is the best Christmas song of all-time. It doesn’t matter what’s gone before (the Phil Spector album, Bowie ‘n Bing’s Little Drummer Boy, the glam slam of Slade and Wizzard) or what came after (East 17? Cliff Richard? Kylie Minogue panting her way through Santa Baby with all the sex appeal of an asthma attack?) Some of these records are better than others, but none of them come close to capturing the essence of Christmas (raw sprouts, useless husbands and all) quite like The Pogues.

A Fairytale Of New York is almost unique amongst Christmas songs in that it tackles the ‘C’ word with none of the blind enthusiasm or misty-eyed schlock normally reserved for such events. Slade set their stall out before a bell has even been clanged in excitement. “It’s Christmaaaaas!!” yells Noddy, and you know from then on in you’re in for a rollicking yuletide ride. Wham drown that thinly-disguised same-sex love song of theirs in a gazillion sleigh bells and suddenly everything in George Michael’s garden is rosy.  “All I Want For Christmas,” enthuses Mariah Carey, “is yooouuuuooooouuu!” Yeah, and an X-Box, an iPod and a flat screen TV, Mariah. We’re all materialistic over here. And while you’re at it, could you get me a job too? And maybe find someone who’ll give us a mortgage? Aye, bah humbug ‘n all that jazz. The Pogues have gone for none of that. Fairytale Of New York is still romantic, but it’s also raw, real and ragged, full of remorse for past misdemeanours while hoping for a better future. Nicely gift wrapped of course in a Pogues-punk waltz-time, with added BBC ban-defying swearing.

It’s a terrific arrangement, put together quite masterfully by Steve Lillywhite. Initially written as a duet between Shane MacGowan and Pogues bass player Cait O’Riordan, then scrapped when she left the band, it was Steve Lillywhite who suggested getting the missus in to duet with MacGowan instead. Listen to the demos below and hear how he transformed The Pogues’ half-finished ideas into the final record, with its peaks and troughs and instrumental breaks. Hear too how he gets the best out of Shane, who at this point in his life was eating tabs of acid the way the Fonz eats gum (all the time, if you didn’t know), whilst washing them down with enough brandy to drown a whale. Lillywhite somehow coaxes him out of the famous fluent Macgowanese mumble and into that raucous final take.

The Music:

  • One of the first takes. Fluffed lines, missed cues….and the band played on.
  • Shane ‘n Cait almost full-length run-through duet with alt. lyrics, missed cues, forgotten words………and the band played on.
  • The ‘blueprint version‘ – Starts with Shane ‘n James Fearnley on accordion. Different lyrics again. Shane struggles with the concept of singing in tune. Band in top form as usual. After listening to this you can begin to appreciate the contribution Kirsty MacColl made to the finished record.

demo, studio outtakes

Swayed? Swoyed? Swede?

Craig McAllister

Oh no! It was always said swed. To rhyme with head. The posh folk rhymed it with played. “Swayed.” Showing off their general sophistication or something. London-centric media types such as yer Lamacqs rhymed it with played as well, but spoken like a yoof TV presenter it always came out as swoyed, innit? I am of course referring to Brett ‘n Bernard ‘n co’s Suede, hip young gunslingers (1992) who, with slinky, snake-thin Ziggy guitars and target-market grabbing daft quotes about being bisexuals who’ve never had homosexual experiences, were all the rage in those early 90s.

You’ll know the story. Justine from Elastica. Damon from Blur. Lovebites on the arse. In the olden days, middle class twats would have a duel, a stand-off with pistols at dawn. May the best man win and all that. Brett and Damon swung punches via well-chosen quotes in the NME and Melody Maker. Tough as nails I don’t think. A heavy air of pretentiousness hung over Suede with everything they did. Bernard seemed alright. So did the drummer. But that big, lanky, girly-looking dude, preening himself on the bass got me all annoyed just looking at him. And Brett thought he was intellectual. Cultured. Arty. Russian literature and Haydn concertos. Above you and me. Punchable is the word I’m looking for. Brendan from Teenage Fanclub used to call him Bert.

Despite the high level of wankiness in half the band, there weren’t half some decent tunes there. Metal Mickey. The Drowners. So Young. Animal Nitrate. All singles from the first album. The accompanying gigs (especially at King Tuts) were a right froth of excitement too. Indie rock classics for those in the know, fireworks on the fretboards, Bernard’s the new Johnny ‘n all that. But it’s the second album I like best. Dog Man Star is (aye) arty, pretentious and preposterously overblown. Recorded while the singer spent most of his time fried on acid, it’s the album where Bernard realised he couldn’t work with the rest of the band and chose to leave them half way through recording. Butler favoured a loose, experimental approach to his songwriting. 10 minute guitar solos. Tracks that could ebb and flow for 15 minutes. The rest of the band baulked at this idea. They saw themselves as a classic rock group, 3 minute singles ‘n all that.  Butler would eventually be replaced in classic Jim’ll Fix It style by a 17 year old fanboy who could play all his parts note for note.  But despite all the background chaos, Dog Man Star is very much the band’s meisterwerk.

Why? It’s got the fuggy, druggy thunk of Introducing The Band on it. It’s got The Asphalt World. All 9+ minutes of it, ridiculous ‘ecstasy and arse-felt world‘ lyrics ‘n all. It’s got the glam-stomp ‘n whammy-barred pomp of This Hollywood Life on it. It’s got We Are The Pigs, the closest cousin to any of those fizzing singles from the first LP. It’s also got The Wild Ones, the best Suede tune bar none. Even Bert would agree with me on that one. It’s a classic mix of Butlerisms on the guitar – simple pull-on, pull-of chords joined together by as many notes as can be fitted in the space allowed and Anderson’s understated, almost crooned baritone. It starts simple enough then rises and rises to epic proportions, finishing in a fade out of despair (and judging by the demo, it was always meant to be. It arrived fully formed and everything). It’s soul music, Jim, but not as we know it. It doesn’t matter what you think of Suede as people, if you don’t like The Wild Ones there’s simply no hope for you. Away and listen to Pearl Jam instead.

Have a listen:

The Wild Ones (album version)

Ken (The Wild Ones four track demo)

The Wild Ones (unedited version)

*Bonus Track!

Standalone widescreen epic Stay Together was released betwixt and between those first 2 albums. The band instantly hated it. For what it’s worth, I’ve always liked the ridiculous grandeur of it all, as did apparently many others who helped make Stay Together Suede’s highest ever chart placing (number 3, pop pickers).

Back together, it seems.

Cover Versions, demo, Get This!, Gone but not forgotten, Hard-to-find, Most downloaded tracks, Studio master tapes, studio outtakes

Olaf, You’re Playing Catch-Up!

Craig McAllister

Going For Gold was a quiz show that ran for about 10 years between the mid 80s and mid 90s, broadcast usually after the lunchtime episode of Neighbours. Contestants came from all corners of the European Community to be asked general knowledge questions (in English) by genial Irishman Henry Kelly – “Who am I? I am an inventor. I was born in Scotland in 1869.” etc etc. What always amazed me about the show was that all contestants could understand and answer the questions in English. Indeed, Olaf from Finland and Gretchen from Germany always, always had a better grasp of the English language than Sue from Sussex and Karen from Coatbridge. In the final round, one contestant had control of the board and Kelly would always say to their opponent, “You’re playing catch-up!”

Once a year I like to round up some of the best music on Plain Or Pan and put it centre-stage for a second time. I like to think all the music I put on here is fantastic in it’s own way, but there are some things that are downloaded/searched for/requested far more regularly than others. The search facility about half-way down on the right there works fairly well (try it!), but I appreciate that sometimes it’s nice to have things put on a plate for you. If you’re a relative newcomer to this blog and you’re not sure what you may have missed out on, this post is for people like you. As Henry Kelly would say, “Olaf, you’re playing catch-up…”

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Who am I? I am a singer-songwriter. I started out my career singing doo-wop with a vocal group known as The Moonglows. When they broke up I began playing as a session drummer at Motown Records before stepping out from behind the kit and standing in front of the microphone. In my time at Motown I added an ‘e‘ to the end of my name, recorded many memorable solo tracks and duets, changed the way the record company viewed the merits of albums and married and divorced the boss’s daughter, resulting in one of the bitterest break-up albums of all time. Who am I? I am Marvin Gaye. And these are the unedited studio master tracks for I Heard it Through The Grapevine. Original article here.

How about some more Motown vocal-only tracks? Get them via here. Want more of this sort of stuff? Search ‘studio master tapes‘ in the ‘whityeherefur?‘ box over there on the right…

What am I? I am another studio outtake. I am a famous song by a famous band, some say that band’s best track (although you could easily argue the case for many of their other records.) Rolling Stone magazine (there’s a clue right there) put me at #38 in their list of Greatest Songs Ever in 2004, which makes me just better than Buddy Holly’s That’ll Be The Day but not quite as good as No Woman, No Cry by Bob Marley. My lyrics predict rape and murder and are a fitting epitaph on the death of the 60s which is just a shot away.  What am I? I am Gimme  Shelter by The  Rolling Stones. Here is the astonishing Mick ‘n Merry vocal-only track. And here is Keith’s rather groovy lead guitar track. Original article here. Sit down before listening, you may just be blown away.

There’s some terrific Curtis Mayfield stuff via here and here. And there’s some excellent Sly Stone stuff here and here. There’s a whole lotta soul on Plain Or Pan. Whiteyeherefur? Use it!

It’s well documented that Led Zeppelin didn’t so much re-write the blues as nick it riff by riff. Rape and murder, indeed. Compare Jimmy Page’s Dazed and Confused to the relatively-unknown Jake Holmes’ version here. I often contrast and compare the merits of originals v covers v blatantly plagiarised words and music. Type ‘double whammy’ or ‘triple whammy‘ into ‘Whiteyeherefur?‘ and see what you can find…

I could go on and on. Or you could use the ‘Whityeherefur?’ facility. Or you could just go through month-by-month, year-by-year. It’ll take you a while. But then, it’s taken me a while too. Last year’s round-up of all things good about Plain Or Pan can be found here, including links to Johnny Marr’s Dansette Delights, The Ronettes vocal-only version of Be My Baby and the now-legendary Plain Or Pan Compilation CDs. So much to choose from, so much to grab. Go! Go! Go!

Cover Versions, demo, Hard-to-find

Gott Mott?

Craig McAllister

Of all the music biographies I’ve got, the one I go back to time and again is Ian Hunter’s Diary Of A Rock ‘n Roll Star. Hunter was/is/was the lead singer of Mott The Hoople, and his book charts Mott’s 1972 trek across the USA, with all the squalid poverty and crappy hotels it entails, not to mention the non-stop merry-go-round of city-hopping aeroplanes, record company limousines and the band’s endeavours to spend any penny they earn on ridiculously cheap classic guitars. It’s a totally unpretentious read and blows apart any theory I ever had that touring America with a  rock and roll band in the 70s would be the most glamorous job on the planet. If you haven’t already, I’d recommend you read it. I actually first read it without knowing any of Mott’s material beyond the most obvious (ie. All the Young Dudes), but that didn’t matter. After reading it, I borrowed a Greatest Hits compilation from the library and got myself acquainted.

Mott filled the void between the end of the 60s and the first discordant clangs of punk in the mid 70s. Unfairly lumped in with the novelty Glam Rock scene (what they lacked in make-up, they more than made up for in tunes), in time all yer cool (and not so cool) musicians referenced them, as if associating themselves with the Hoople somehow made their music all the more valid. In his pre-Clash days, Mick Jones was a huge fan;

“I followed Mott the Hoople up and down the country. I’d go to Liverpool or Newcastle or somewhere – sleep on the Town Hall steps, bunk the fares on the trains, hide in the toilet when the ticket inspector came around. I’d jump off just before the train got to the station and climb over the fence. It was great times, and I always knew I wanted to be in a band and play guitar. That was it for me.”

Bobby Gillespie (of course!);

“I was into Mott The Hoople, and then The Clash came and I got into them … because one’s prepared you for the other.”

Well, we can take that quote with a big old pinch of salt, Bob. Whatever you say, but you’re only 7 years older than me. There’s no way on earth you were into Mott the Hoople before the Clash came along. You’d have been 8 or 9 years old. Maybe 11 or 12 at a push, depending on which Mott era you’re referring to. At that age, you’d still have been playing in a sand pit with yer Action Man. But it’s OK! We can’t be first to every party. Don’t kid yerself on that you were.

Mott The Hoople released 4 albums for Island between 1969 and 1971. Four albums! In three years!  Their first LP, Mott The Hoople, was recorded in a week and was heavily reliant on hip covers (Dog Sahm, Sonny Bono), with the odd self-penned original added on for good measure. Much of the band’s original material at this point was clearly under the heavyweight influence of Bob Dylan – the rasping already 30 year-old Ian Hunter singing of ‘kings‘, ‘rogues‘, ‘pawns‘, ‘the minds of fools’ and every other Bob cliche you care to mention. Have a listen to Road To Birmingham (listen too how Hunter pronounces Birmingham!) and Backsliding Fearlessly (The Times They are A-Changin’ by any other name). Critically well-received, it was the first release in what was a series of ever-diminishing returns sales wise, for Island Records. On the brink of break-up, Mott fan David Bowie came to their rescue. Offering them Suffragette City from his yet-to-be released Ziggy Stardust… album, Mott said “No Thanks….but we like the sound of that All The Young Dudes song you’ve written.” And the rest is history, but you knew that already.

Here’s a few more Mott the Hoople tracks that would soundtrack Diary Of a Rock ‘n Roll Star quite nicely.

Walking With a Mountain (from 2nd album Mad Shadows. with it’s frantic twin guitar attack, Jerry Lee Lewis rattling piano in the background and ‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash it’s a gas‘ refrain, it sounds more Ziggy than anything Bowie did, a full 2 years before Bowie did it!)

Trudi’s Song (Hunter’s love song to his wide. Bobby Gillespie included this on a compilation tape he made for Select magazine in 1992, trivia fans!)

Roll Away The Stone (Number 8 in 1973, possibly the only other Mott track you may have heard until now.)

Angel of Eighth Avenue (lighters in the air stadium balld. Weeping pedal steel all over it.)

Ballad of Mott The Hoople (self-referencing ‘how we made it’ ballad. A cracker.)

Golden Age of Rock ‘n Roll (misty eyed doo-wop and piano paen to days gone by.)

 

*Bonus Track!

David Bowie‘s version of All The Young Dudes. But of course!


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

Marr’s Barres

Craig McAllister

….or how Johnny cooked up How Soon Is Now?

How Soon Is Now? – don’t forget the question mark! – is the song that people who dislike The Smiths like. Those same people who would lazily decree The Smiths as ‘miserable‘ whilst frantically waving a 12″ of Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now right under your nose (“Exhibit A, M’Lud!”) embraced How Soon Is Now? as if it were the returning of The Messiah himself.  It’s true! As well as being a dancefloor filler from Dublin to Dundee and Humberside, it was the song that truly broke The Smiths on the American touring circuit, from out of the colleges and into the (relatively) cavernous venues required to house the hordes who packed in expecting to hear more of the same rockist thunk. Ironically, it was the one song in The Smiths’  impressive arsenal that the band never quite managed to pull off live and in more recent times, Morrissey and his ham-fisted group of plodders have failed miserably to do it justice too. It’s a unique track, made in unique circumstances and although others have tried, no-one, NO-ONE! has managed to get it sounding quite as majestic as the band what wrote it. So how did they do it?

Ingredients:

  • One copy of Hey Bo Diddley. The first track Bo Diddley will do.
  • One copy of Run Through The Jungle. Must be The Gun Club version, NOT the Creedence Clearwater Revival original. If you don’t have an actual version, a crappy lo-fi mp3 will have to do. Sorry.
  • One copy of Can‘s I Want More from 1976’s Flow Motion LP.
  • One copy of Hamilton Bohannon‘s Disco Stomp.
  • One copy of Lovebug Starski‘s pioneering hip-hop single You’ve Gotta Believe from 1982.

Method:

Listen closely to Bo Diddley’s guitar playing. D’you hear that juddering tremeloed effect? File it away for use at a later date. Now take The Gun Club track. Oh! It has almost the same rhythm as Bo Diddley’s! And only one chord by the sounds of it! Keep that in mind for the moment. Now. Think. D’you remember driving back from Wales on a really hot day, sitting in the back of your parents’ car, listening to the radio? Hamilton Bohannon’s disco stomp was all the rage in 1975. Great rhythm guitar playing, I’m sure you’ll agree. You’ll want to use that too – throw it all in.

It’s time to cool it down now. Don’t worry, it can’t ever be too cool. In 1976 as the world went disco, even pioneering German prog-rockers were getting in on the act. Take your copy of I Want More by Can and give it a good listen to. Juddering? Repetitive? Keyboard motifs? Just as I thought! Make a mental note to do something about them later.

Weapons of Marr’s Construction

Now for the tricky part. Take all these wonderful ingredients and splice them together. Make a rough demo, call it ‘Swamp‘ then pop it through Morrissey’s letter box – he’ll sort out the lyrics, just you worry about the tune. Book a studio – Jam Studios in North London will be just fine. Ask John Porter if he’d mind coming along to twiddle a few knobs on the old Fender Twins. Change the light bulbs to red, spark up a generous spliff and start the tapes a-rollin’. Woah! Something’s cookin’ alright!

Cook for about 7 minutes. Take out the oven. Garnish with liberal sprinklings of Lovebug Starski (Morrissey would be horrified at the thought, but don’t worry, he’ll be too busy working up to a whistle later on, he’ll never notice – have a listen around the 3.11 mark – oh aye!) If you can, add some fantastic slide guitar, make it sound like a distressed cat miaowing into infinity ét voila! A masterpiece!

It’s worth noting that the first time you attempt this recipe, you may assume the vocalist is singing about the elements, “the sun and the air” and all that jazz. Listen again. Very clever guy, that singer. A bit too clever for the record company, who failed to spot the potential of How Soon Is Now? and were initially happy for The Smiths to stick it on as the extra track on the 12″ of William, It Was Really Nothing. I suppose it’s a measure of Morrissey and Marr’s confidence and unrivalled song writing skills that they could knock out such high quality songs between albums seemingly at will. For us mere mortals who aren’t blessed with the genius songwriting skills required to make such great records, perhaps this recipe of unlikely (though entirely obvious) influences will serve as some sort of cold comfort.

*BONUS TRACK!

Here‘s the Italian 12″ version of How Soon Is Now? With a different vocal and different mix it’s rarer than a steak pie in Morrissey’s house.

You can also still get my Mojo magazine-inspired Johnny Marr’s Dansette Delights compilation. Words here. Music here. 1000+ downloaders can’t be wrong!

There’s a fantastic Smiths bootleg that recently crept out, around Christmas time, featuring alternative mixes, scrapped demos, the whole shooting match, a Holy Grail for Smiths collectors. You can download it via here. Although, you knew that already, didn’t you?

There’s also a website linked over there on the right called Extra Track And a Tacky Badge. This is a right labour of love for those involved. They’re tweaking the band’s 17 singles to make them sound as magnificent as possible. If you’ve heard the work they did to the Joy Division and New Order catalogues, you’ll know what I mean. if not, get over there sharpish…

Just so you know, Simon Goddard‘s excellently trainspotterish Mozipedia was a constant source of reference for this piece. No fan of The Smiths and/or Morrissey should be without it.

A man of wealth and taste.

demo, Hard-to-find, Live!

Viva Glasvegas

Craig McAllister

Troon on a rainy Wednesday night. Not the sort of place you expect to find bona fide uber-hip, pointy-booted, squeezed head-to-toe into super-skinny black leather ‘n denim pop stars. This sleepy seaside town is more au fait with the golf swing rather than the swing of rock ‘n roll, yet 24 hours ago it was shaken from it’s slumber to the cries of “1! 2! 3! 4!” instead of plain old “fore!”

Georgia took the photo. I stole it.

Glasvegas were in town and, having had the carrot of an AAA Guest Pass dangled before my eyes, I made the short 15 minute trip from North Ayrshire into the beautiful South, with it’s posh wheelie bins and faint reek of the good life. Pass in hand and plonked in the rattle-yer-jewellery good seats of the town’s Concert Hall, we had the perfect view to enable us to take in the new sights ‘n sounds of the ‘vegas. New sights #1? That would be James all in white, not black, no longer playing guitar, “cos you didnae see Sinatra janglin’ away oan wan while he crooned.” New sights #2? That would be recently-recruited Swedish drummer Jonna/Joanna (?), who just like Moe T and Bobby G before her, prefers to stand and bash away at the kit. Actually, that’s a complete disservice to her. She’s far more of a drummer than those other 2 hamfisted clobberers combined. She’s added a fresh new dimension to the band’s wall of sound AND she’s quite capable of adjusting her specs mid-beat as they slide off her beautiful, sweaty Swedish face. A multi-talented, multi-tasking vision in auburn hair. And I’m not the only one who thought that, eh birthday boy?

Georgia took the photo. I stole it. Again.

New sounds? That’ll be the 3 new tracks, being played live for only the 3rd or 4th time ahead of this Spring’s 2nd album. Underneath the gazillion effect pedals turned up to 10 there’s the faint echo of John McGeoch in some of the guitar riffs, post-punk and spidery-thin against the Killing Joke slab of bass. Nothing played tonight hints at the major-to-minor melodrama of the Ronettes-do-Dion dying in a car-crash first album material, but then James says later on that he didn’t think the songs played tonight are representative of it at all.

“What’s it like then, the new album?” Back at the hotel, and the seemingly stuck like Superglue Orbison Raybans have been swapped for an over-sized set of blue-tinted Lennon lenses. Yer man sits down next to us and I start firing questions at him. The first one’s a simple enough question which he’s no doubt been asked a fair few times already this week on a tour of Scottish gig backwaters that has taken them to places more used to ceilidhs and beetle drives. “Eh, ah dunno. It’s kinda hard tae describe. D’you know wance ye’ve shaved an’ ye look at yersel’ in the mirror? How dis it look?”

“Smooth,” I deadpan. “Smooth. So the new album’s like Luther Vandross?” He doesn’t get it, I think, and I’m not sure what to say next. Fear not, though, for James is a non-stop anecdotal motormouth. He’s off and running, waxing lyrical about Alan McGee and his Creation Records film, Bono and Noel Gallagher soundchecks, the merits of Phil Spector’s Christmas Album v’s James Brown’s Funky Christmas, playing festivals in Spain, Freddie Mercury’s shoes; you name it, he’ll have a soundbite prepared. On this week’s gigs, there’s lots of talk about ‘the vibe‘ and ‘the feelin” and ‘y’know?’ He’s a walkin’, talkin’ rock ‘n roll cliche and he’s ridiculously hilarious. He just doesn’t know it yet. Paranoid about having to live up to McGee’s proclamation of him as some sort of genius, yet perfectly willing to accept that he is indeed some sort of genius, James Allan could well be the next Bobby Gillespie. Now there’s a thought.

I also took the chance to chastise him for not playing tonight the best song in the Glasvegas catalogue, the wonderful Prettiest Girl On Saltcoats Beach. I’ve written about it before, here. You can fill yer (pointy) boots here:

The Prettiest Girl On Saltcoats Beach (full length version)

The Prettiest Girl On Saltcoats Beach (demo)

 

Cover Versions, demo, Double Nugget, elliott smith, Get This!, Gone but not forgotten, Hard-to-find, Kraut-y, Most downloaded tracks, Peel Sessions, Sampled, Studio master tapes, studio outtakes

Four Play

Craig McAllister

Amazingly or not, ye olde Plain Or Pan is now 4 years young. This year saw the double-whammy milestones of reaching one million visitors and, on a personal level, having my writing recognised to the extent that I was invited to interview Sandie Shaw in advance of her appearing at the summer’s Vintage At Goodwood festival. My interview was subsequently published in the hardback Annual that festival goers could buy at the event. Which was nice.

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As has been something of a tradition at the start of a year, I’ve put together a compilation of the most downloaded tracks over the past year – 2 CDs worth of covers, curios and hard-to-find classics. I like to think of it as a potted representation of what Plain Or Pan is about.

Tracklist Disc 1:

Jackson 5 I Want You Back acapella

Dean Carter Jailhouse Rock

Frankie Valli Queen Jane Approximately

Chris Bell I Am The Cosmos

Pete Yorn & Scarlett Johansson I Am The Cosmos

Scott Walker Black Sheep Boy

Tim Buckley Dolphins

Sandie Shaw I Don’t Owe You Anything

Big Maybelle 96 Tears

Patti Jo Make Me Believe In You

Curtis Mayfield (Don’t Worry) If There’s Hell Below We’re all Gonna Go (takes 1& 2)

Brinkley & Parker.  Don’t Get Fooled By The Pander Man

Sly Stone Time For Livin’ (early version)

Maggie Thrett Soupy

Sheila and B. Devotion Spacer

Happy Mondays Staying Alive

Aretha Franklin / Duane Allman The Weight

Funkadelic Maggot Brain (alt mix)

 

 

Tracklist Disc 2:

Spiritualized Can’t Help Falling In Love

Serge Gainsbourg Melody

Stone Roses Something’s Burning (demo)

Can I’m So Green

Alex Chilton My Baby Just Cares For Me

Elliott Smith I’ll Be Back

The Czars Where the Boys Are

Peter Fonda November Night

Beach Boys Never Learn Not To Love

Charles Manson Cease To Exist

Wedding Present Happy Birthday (Peel Session)

Penny Peeps Model Village

The Stairs Woman Gone And Say Goodbye

Kinks Sittin’ On My Sofa

Ramones Judy Is A Punk (1975 demo)

Capsula Run Run Run

White Stripes Party Of Special Things To Do

13th Floor Elevators Slip Inside This House

Jake Holmes Dazed & Confused

White Antelope Silver Dagger

Arcade Fire Poupee de Cire, Poupee de Son

The Velvelettes Needle In A Haystack acapella

Each disc comes packaged as one big downloadable .rar file, complete with artwork.

If you’re new here, welcome and happy downloading! If you’re a regular here, you may have some or all of these tracks already, so why not download anyway and burn a CD for someone who might appreciate it?

demo, Gone but not forgotten, Hard-to-find, Live!

Legs & Co.

Craig McAllister

1! 2! 3! 4! See wee kids in Ramones t-shirts? Or young 20-something lassies wearing them as some sort of hip fashion statement? What’s all that about? I bet it does your head in as well. You knew this already, but looooong before The Ramones were a brand, they were a band. And quite possibly the most spine-tinglingly perfect four piece group there’s ever been. Feral and full-on, they were effortlessly chewin’ out the rhthym on a bubblegum while their contemporaries agonised over such grandiosities as lit-referencing lyrics and guitar solos.

1! 2! 3! 4! Or so we’re led to believe. It wasn’t that effortless, apparently. The stage routine was a strictly choreographed affair more in keeping with a Pans People Top Of The Pops routine. First verse – step forward. Jump. Chorus – head down, guitar up, left leg back. Second verse – walk back towards the drum kit . And so on and so on. Watch them on YouTube if you don’t believe me. And those dumb songs with the dumb chords and the dumb delivery? It’s hard being dumb in music, trust me. If you’ve ever played in bands you’ll know what I mean. Even the crappiest of bands can’t sound dumb. There’s always one flash bastard in the group who wants to be heard that wee bit longer, that wee bit louder than the others – the guitar intro, the guitar solo, the guitar outro. That was me. I couldn’t have played in The Ramones. No-one could. Any guitarist knows their way round a couple of barre chords, but no guitarist is happy churning out barre chords on stage for half an hour. They all want to fling in a teeny tiny wee widdly bit somewhere, even if it’s only them that notices. Or a minor chord. The Ramones were genius. Bass plays this part, guitar plays the same. The exact same. They came at you like a tank. Brutal and unforgiving. For every song. On every album. At every gig.

1! 2! 3! 4! And the lyrics – Who would ever dare write a song where the hook line between the chorus and second verse goes;

“Second verse, same as the first”

That’s genius, that is. In fact, nearly as genius as the next hook;

“Third verse, different from the first”

In any other band, the other members of the group would’ve clobbered the singer if he’d tried to get away with that. In its entire 1 and a half minutes, Judy Is A Punk also references the Berlin Ice Capades and the SLA (70s terrorist organisation dontchaknow), not so much finishing as self-imploding. Live, the songs came at you one after the other after the other after the other, punctuated by the odd “Wunchewfreefo!” and up the road.

1! 2! 3! 4! Oh to have been 17 in 77! I only caught The Ramones live once, at the Barrowlands in either 88 or 89 (I can’t be bothered looking for the ticket to check, but it’s there somewhere). I took my wee brother. It was his first gig and, carried away by the occassion, he managed to crowd surf for about 3 seconds before being manhandled by the bouncers onto (!) the stage, dragged past Joey “Hey! Looks like we got da fanclub in tanight!” and flung down a trapdoor on the stage (!), only to somehow reappear in the bar area downstairs where they sell t-shirts and stuff at gigs. I have a very vivid memory of being as close to the front as possible and looking up at Joey Ramone, a 9 foot high 2-legged giraffe, hanging onto the microphone stand like a hairy angle-poise lamp, legs akimbo and the drummer (Marky? Tommy? Who knows) flailing away in the background, somewhere between Joey’s kneecaps and beneath that ubiquitous Ramones logo. Magic.

1! 2! 3! 4! Da music:

Judy Is A Punk (1975 demo)

Judy Is A Punk (from the first Ramones album)

Judy Is A Punk (from It’s Alive, essential Ramones live anthology)

Pretty cool

demo, Hard-to-find, Studio master tapes, studio outtakes

Rolling Stones Jigsaw Puzzle

Craig McAllister

This is a re-post of sorts – the original files were long ago deleted, but it’s still one of the most Googled bits of music I’ve put on here. Now and again I get the odd email asking me to re-upload the tracks. Normally I never get round to it. But on this occassion I’ve relented…(not the complete mastertapes, mind, that’d take ages. Just the juicy bits)…

Original words ‘n pictures…

Gimme Shelter? Gimme, Gimme, Gimme!

July 8, 2008

Yes! It’s yet another of those fantastic studio master tapes that are all over the internet! It’s hard to top The Beatles Master Tapes. You might say they’ll never be topped. But this is a close second. Very close. This time it’s only THE STONES! THE ROLLING STONES! The master tapes of ‘Gimme Shelter’! Oh yes! No kidding! You may have these tracks already, cos they have appeared almost everywhere online, but I am aware that many visitors to this site come specifically to find studio gems such as these, so if you don’t have it, prepare to be dazzled. Daaaaaaaa-zzled!

A dazzled Mick. Camp? Moi?

Part 1. The History. ‘Gimme Shelter’ appeared on ‘Let It Bleed’ (the cake on the cover was made by Delia Smith, fact #1) and released in 1969. As you all know the song was the soundtrack to the end of the 60s. Rape, murder, it’s just a shot away, and all that. The Hells Angels murdered someone in the crowd at Altamont and the whole of the 60s went tits up and finished. Just like that. The decade that had started so brightly and full of hope ended (musically) on a sour note. But like I said, you all knew that.

Everyone waves bye bye to the end of the 60s

The song was written by Jagger and Richards. Jagger was getting lyrics together between takes of the film ‘Performance‘ that he was making at the time. Richards was playing about with the distinctive intro looking for a song to fit it. Et voila. Recording took place at Olympic Studios in London around February and March 1969 with Jimmy Miller producing. In one of those magical moments that occur now and again, Miller suggested getting a female vocalist to duet with Jagger. Cue Merry Clayton (incorrectly credited as Mary Clayton on the album, fact #2). Clayton’s high pitched, powerful vocal performance made the song. Her vocals are absolutely astounding.

Merry Mary Clayton

If you don’t believe me, here‘s the double tracked vocal-only performance. Just Jagger and Clayton battling it out. Listen out around the 3 minute mark as her voice cracks under the pressure and Jagger whoops a celebratory “Oh yeah!”. It. Is. Astonishing. Jagger later said of the finished track, “That’s a kind of end-of-the-world song, really. It’s apocalypse.” And the vocal track certainly backs this up. And if you liked that part enough….

Keith. 27th November 1969. 15 days after I was born. Fact #3

Part 2. The Bit You Came For.

The Rolling Stones astonishing vocal-only track of Gimme Shelter

The Rolling Stones – Keith’s guitar track of Gimme Shelter

(high quality wav file)

The Rolling Stones – Keith’s guitar track of Gimme Shelter

(bog standard mp3)

PLAYALONGAJAGGER/RICHARDS FOR 4 MINUTES!!!

Me. Yesterday.

Footnote. There have been many, many covers of ‘Gimme Shelter’. Merry Clayton did one herself. I don’t have my copy handy at present or I would’ve included it in this post. Suffice to say, a future ‘Gimme Shelter Covers‘ post is almost guaranteed. From the sublime to the ridiculous, they’ve all done it. Inspiral Carpets, Hawkwind with Sam Fox, Patti Smith, Voice Of The Beehive…..prepare to be irked.

Cover Versions, demo, Double Nugget, Gone but not forgotten, Hard-to-find

I Got 96 Tears and 96 Eyes*

Craig McAllister

Right from the off, with its rinky dink 2 note Vox Continental organ riff and garage backbeat, 96 Tears is just about the perfect record. Released in 1966 by ? & the Mysterians, it was one of those songs like Louie Louie or Wild Thing that went on to be recorded by everyone and anyone with a fuzz guitar and a hip ear to the underground. It has in its time gone on to sell over a million copies and had over 3 million airplays.


Not bad for a band of Mex-Americans from Michigan with a love of surf music and a well thought out marketing ploy – have an unusual name and an even more unusual singer. It might’ve helped record sales when their lead singer claimed to be a martian who had lived with dinosaurs in a past life. Yep. Or when he claimed to have visited other planets and periods in time. Uh huh. I once had a drama teacher who would say to the class, “I‘m going to turn my back and when I turn around again, I’ll be in character….(….pause….)…Beowulf!!!” Rudy Martinez must’ve been a bit liked this.  He never went out without his sunglasses and only answered to his chosen moniker ‘?’, rather than his given ‘Rudy’, the name his mother preferred to shout when he was listening to his Van Morrison and Them records too loudly. If you’ve ever heard a ? and the Mysterians album, you’ll know how much a debt they owe to wee Van. If not, the ‘96 Tears‘ or ‘The Action‘ albums are good places to start.

96 Tears features regularly when my iPod is on shuffle. Most days will see an appearance of one version or another pop up. I’ve got what seems like 96 versions of it, most fairly pointless faithful recreations of the garage stomping original (Hello, Stranglers! Hello Music Explosion! I’m looking at you, Inspiral Carpets! You built an entire (early) career out of its Nuggety groove.) There’s one or two that take the original and mess with it so much, it just seems like the’d recorded a few minutes of pointless FM static and looped it ad infinitum (Hey there Primal Scream! Stop hiding at the back Suicide – how apt a name.)  Favourites?  Todd Rundgren‘s lo-fi fuzz-bassed studio demo is right up there, Aretha Franklin‘s soulful and (at first unrecognisable) version from Aretha Arrives is classic Aretha, with an almost Respect-like backing. Big Maybelle‘s a-whoopin’ and a-hollerin’ version, all Stax-inspired southern soul groove, underpinned by clipped guitars and a (bold as) brass section first came to my attention on 6 Music’s excellent Craig Charles’ Funk & Soul Show and has been on constant rotation ever since. Then there’s Gerardo Manuel & El Humo‘s super-heavy epic prog rock take. Think Iron Butterfly on jellies. It’s a grower, trust me!

Go fill yer boots…

96 Tears – ? & the Mysterians

96 Tears – Big Maybelle

96 Tears – Aretha Franklin

96 Tears – Gerardo Manuel & El Humo

96 Tears – Primal Scream

96 Tears – Inspiral Carpets

96 Tears – Music Explosion

96 Tears – Todd Rundgren

*…and I can’t believe I don’t have/can’t find a version by The Cramps, so here‘s Human Fly, featuring the line in the title at the top.