Category: Gone but not forgotten

Gone but not forgotten, Hard-to-find

Big fat dead guy in a bath tub.

Craig McAllister

So I’m on the lookout yesterday for a decent Sunday paper. A big thick one with lots of magazines, a decent sports section, a challenging sudoku and a crossword that’s impossibly hard. Perhaps even with something free in it. And I find The Sunday Times. The Sunday Times is the Sunday papers, they say. It’s big and thick, has lots of magazines, a decent sudoku, and I can’t do the crossword. And there’s a free Doors album with it. Even though I have ‘Strange Days’ (on vinyl and CD) this sways me and I buy it.

After reading the paper it’s clear they’ve done some sort of deal with Elektra/Rhino, because for the rest of the week they’re giving away a classic album every day. Today was Love‘s ‘Forever Changes’. Tomorrow is ‘Unknown Pleasures’ by Joy Divison. Later on you’ll get some Jesus and Mary Chain, New Order and Echo & the Bunnymen. There appears to be no rhyme or reason to these freebies, but if you haven’t got them, get yerself down to WH Smiths in the morning and nab yourself a classic album. Strange Days indeed.

Listening again to Strange Days had me scurryng for a bootleg I have called ‘Television Bleeding’, which features 7 studio tracks and some live TV stuff. The live stuff can wait for another day, but for now, here’s the studio tracks.

1. Hello I Love You (no drums, no second vocal overdub)
2. People Are Strange (no drums, no guitar solo, no second vocal overdub)
3. Love Her Madly (no reverb, no drums, no echo on voice)
4. Love Me Two Times (no tambourine, no guitars)
5. Riders On The Storm (no second vocal overdub, no echo, no drums)
6. Touch Me (no drums)
7. Soul Kitchen (different bass sound)

The blurb on the cover says,  “Tracks 1-7 are alternate studio mixes, done by Paul Rothchild during the production of “The Best of the Doors” Quadrodisc. I find it very interesting to listen to these, sometimes you have the feeling of listening to totally new recordings. But they are absolutely the same as on the albums but in different mixes. Anyway, have you ever heard Riders On The Storm without the whispering and without drums? And People Are Strange without drums and guitar solo? Both open whole new categories of listening experiences. All songs with Morrison are in excellent stereo. You won’t believe your ears!”

Jim Morrison. A wanker.

The above poster also reminds me of Denis Leary’s biting quote about Jim Morrison. “Let me tell you something. We need a two and a half hour movie about the Doors? Folks, no we don’t. I can sum it up for you in five seconds, ok. I’m drunk. I’m nobody. I’m drunk. I’m famous. I’m drunk. I’m fucking dead. There’s the whole movie, ok!? Big fat dead guy in a bath tub, there’s your title for you.”

Big fat dead guy who’s band made some fairly decent psychedelic organ-based music. I love them! Julian Cope loves them too! Happy listening!

Gone but not forgotten, Hard-to-find

If you see Syd, tell him.

Craig McAllister

If he’s not too busy in the middle of a cosmic reunion jam with Rick Wright you could do worse than let Syd Barrett know there’s a fantastic new single coming out very soon in his honour. Sonically, it’s nothing like his blend of off-kilter psychedelia, but the Trashcan Sinatras have created a luscious and bluesy 6 and a half minutes plus track that’s a worthy contendor for Single of the Year.

If you’re in any way a fan of Syd you’ll be able to spot a few knowing nods in his direction – mentions of ‘Emily’, ‘bicycles’, ‘English skies’, and the fact that it’s called ‘Oranges & Apples’. It was written after his possessions were sold off when he died, so you also get mentions to ‘green wheelbarrows’, ‘drawers’ and references to the colours he used in his painting. It’s the perfect soundtrack for the Indian summer that’s supposed to be coming our way in October, which is when it’s released. You can hear some of the track here, and also get details of how to download it.

Back in the days when high streets still had record shops, I used to work in one. I learned quickly that there are 2 types of Pink Floyd. There’s The Pink Floyd, late 60s psychedelic pioneers and creators of arguably the best album of 1967, ‘A Saucerful Of Secrets’ (move over Sgt Pepper). This is the Syd-era Pink Floyd that yer serious music fan enjoys. Then there’s The Floyd Man, as in “you goat oany Floyd, man?” This group was the Syd-less creators of such rock behemoths as ‘Dark Side of the Moon’, ‘The Wall’ and all that jazz, and the reason John Lydon wore an ‘I Hate Pink Floyd’ t-shirt. This is the Pink Floyd that weekend stoners, neds and shoplifters would be looking for. None of the Pink Floyd albums could be displayed with their covers in them cos they all got nicked. What’s so interesting about the covers for ‘Meddle‘ or ‘Animals‘ or ‘A Momentary Lapse of Reason‘ is anyone’s guess, but they could never be displayed. Same thing with The Doors back catalogue. And Metallica. Even The Eagles back catalogue cover art was pillaged in my shop. Nae taste, they neds.

In the meantime, here’s a few Syd Barrett outtakes, all from the ‘Crazy Diamond’ Box Set. I think the tracks also appear on the Japanese issues of his solo albums, but you’ll find some choice cuts below.

Octopus (Takes 1 & 2)

Golden Hair (Take 5)

Baby Lemonade (Take 1)

It Is Obvious (Take 2)

Gigolo Aunt (Take 9)

Clowns & Jugglers (Take 1)

Effervescing Elephant (Take 2)

a nice wee Syd outtakes compilation! 

Interestingly, ‘Golden Hair (Take 5)’ is credited as being produced by Pete Jenner. He later went on to manage the Trashcans for a wee while. Now, get over to The City Wakes website and order ‘Oranges & Apples’. Woah! Wait! It’s not out til the 13th of October. Do it then! Make sure you do!

*Bonus track. The Pink Floyd‘s 1967 single ‘Apples & Oranges’

entire show, Gone but not forgotten

Back In Black

Craig McAllister

Currently going through a major reappraisal in the house of Plain Or Pan? at the moment is Elliott Smith. I’ve been playing all my outtakes stuff and gone a-diggin’ in the deepest corners of the fabulous internet. Not surprisingly, my wee treasure hunt has turned up some good stuff, not least the following concert….

Some of you may be familiar with the Black Sessions. Effectively the French equivalent of a John Peel session they go out live over the radio. Usually there’s also 2500 promo CDs pressed up and distributed to the lucky few. The Teenage Fanclub one recently went for funny money on eBay (get it here). Perhaps not surprisingly I’ve never seen the Elliot Smith one, but I now have the next best thing – a badly edited mp3 version of the concert.

Elliott gets ready to rock out

Recorded at la Maison de Radio France on November 6th 1998, it was eventually broadcast on the 30th December at the end of the same year. It’s an ‘XO’-heavy show, complete with backing from the band Quasi and it’s rockingly good. Not quite AC/DC rocking, but for Elliott it’s pretty full-on. The set was…

Speed trials

Bled white

XO (Waltz #2)

Bottle up & Explode

Sweet Adeline 

Baby Britain

Happiness

Division Day

I didn’t Understand

Between the Bars

Say Yes.

No individual tracks, the whole show is here as a .rar file.

Bonus track: Here‘s a nice wee alternate version of Bled White from the ‘XO’ album, complete with false start.

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.

entire show, Gone but not forgotten, Hard-to-find

Liz luvs Jeff (IDT INDT)

Craig McAllister

* Broken link for ‘Grace’ fixed!!!

On the 12th May 1995, Jeff Buckley was playing at Prince‘s club, ‘First Avenue’, in Minneapolis. On the same night, a session he recorded in Atlanta a couple of weeks earlier (probably) on the 22nd April was broadcast on the radio. It was later released on a bootleg CD simply titled ‘Sessions‘. I paid about £15 for my CD at the Barrowlands market one Sunday, way back before the internet was freely available and file sharing was all the rage. Of all the Jeff Buckley bootlegs and odds ‘n’ sods I have, the ‘Sessions‘ CD is probably the one I go back to the most, so in the spirit of the internet and Plain Or Pan’s ‘Hard To Find’ policy, the whole session is available for download below.

Played in front of a small studio audience, this is a mostly acoustic session even though Buckley plays with his band. It sounds intense, focussed and crystal clear. The one minor gripe I have with the session though is the way he bends, twists and strangles his voice into different sounds. I know that’s supposed to be part of the appeal, but sometimes during this session it can all get a bit much. He growls, yelps, warbles and yodels, and makes sounds that probably only dogs can hear. Round about this time he was shagging Liz Fraser (Cocteau Twins). There was a documentary on the telly when she said so and admitted her undying love for him. Who knew?!?!? Whereas some unfortunates get STD’s for their troubles, it seems Ms Fraser passed on some of her annoying vocal tendencies to lucky Buckley instead.

I am now ducking…

Of course, he also sings. And that’s what I always focus on when I listen to him. Well, that and his fantastic guitar playing. I still don’t know how he does it both at the same time.

Last Goodbye
So Real
Mojo Pin
Grace
Lover, You Should Have Come Over

Reduce! Reuse! Recycle! For those of you who are relatively new to Plain Or Pan?, you’ll find various Jeff Buckley stuff scattered around the site. You could look here, or here, or just click on a month on the sidebar and see what turns up. You won’t be disappointed. You could also do worse than check out Buckleyesque, a decent wee blog that has loads of Jeff rarities (although it could do with a bit of an update).

voice of an angel, wings of an angel

  

Gone but not forgotten, Hard-to-find

Funky Lee Hooker

Craig McAllister

I was looking for my gardening gloves (!) yesterday and way at the back of my garage I found a box of half a dozen or so compilation CDs I had made up a few years ago. They’ve been in the garage since I moved house 2 years ago and I had forgotten all about them. Needless to say I was delighted with my wee find and I spent yesterday afternoon rooting through my weeds and rooting through my CDs in search of ‘new’ music.

So….here’s 2 tracks by the mighty John Lee Hooker. Both called ‘Homework’, both different in their own way. They may even be 2 versions of the same song, but I’m not sure! The first comes on like Sly & The Family Stone, with a great swampy bassline and a lyric possibly about cheatin’ on his woman, the second sounds more like James Brown, with a clipped Jimmy Nolen-esque guitar riff and a lyric this time about coming home and finding someone else teaching his old lady a thing or two about the finer things in life. The first version comes with added vinyl crackles and pops from 1971’s ‘Free Beer And Chicken’ album. The second I have from a 1992 Point Blank promo CD, although I think it was released around this time as a b-side to a re-released version of ‘Boom Boom’.

Cool

And that’s really all I know about these tracks except to say that they make me dance on my tiptoes. Up until now, Stevie Wonder‘s ‘Superstition’ and ‘Upside Down’ by Diana Ross have been the only 2 records capable of making me do this. John Lee Hooker has an incredible back catalogue, but it’s a bit of a mine field. What’s good? What’s bad? What’s essential? Many compilations feature re-recorded versions of older tracks – by 1960 he had released over 100 singles! It’s not surprising that many of these tracks were re-cut as movers ‘n shakers like John Hammond, Bob Dylan, Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, etc etc blah blah blah worshipped at his impeccably dressed feet. If you’d like to get deeper into him, you could do worse than visit this site. It has everything you need and probably a whole lot more.

 

 

Football, Gone but not forgotten, Hard-to-find

Burns’ Immortal Memory

Craig McAllister

Tommy Burns died today. He always seemed like a decent man to me. All the cliches are out – “football man“, “family man” etc etc, and for once they’re all true. I never met him, but I often cheered him on/cursed him from the sidelines when he was playing/managing for Kilmarnock. He was a majestic midfielder before taking the hot seat in the dugout, and he worked a miracle by dragging us from the despairs of the lower leagues to the dizzy heights of the Premier League. He also played over half a thousand times for some other provincial team, but we’ll gloss over that part.

Trash Can Sinatras ‘Worked A Miracle’ (1991 demo from Shabby Road, Kilmarnock)

Trash Can Sinatras ‘I’m Immortal’ (1991 demo from Shabby Road, Kilmarnock)

entire show, Gone but not forgotten, Hard-to-find

Jeff Kicks Out The Jams

Craig McAllister

Apart from not going to see The Smiths play my hometown during their 1985 tour of off-the-beaten-track backwaters and one horse towns, my main musical regret is not going to see Jeff Buckley when I had 2 chances. In February 1995 he played the Garage in Glasgow. Two of my pals went. I played football instead. Then on the 20th of June he played Edinburgh Queens Hall. I was working in Edinburgh that whole week. Somehow I only found out about the concert the next day….

jeff-glastonbury.jpg

D’oh. And d’oh. Four days after the Queens Hall show Jeff Buckley played Glastonbury. Sandwiched somewhere between Sleeper, Heavy Stereo and a million other Adidas-clad no-marks he put on a performance of such magnitude that ‘Glastonbury Live’ would have made a great official live Jeff Buckley long player. Especially as the BBC were recording it. The tracks below are taken straight from a BBC transcription disc. That means crystal clear sound, about as far removed from that 5th generation D90 recorded outside the venue sound that you often associate with bootlegs. Unfortunately, history shows that Jeff’s performance was somewhat overshadowed that weekend by 2 monobrowed brothers from Burnage. Yep. 1995 was the year of Oasis and the record buying public in the UK didn’t have time for fookin’ sensitive singer-songwriters who were the missing link between the Smiths and Led Zeppelin. Indeed, many people had yet to actually hear Jeff Buckley. ‘Grace’ is now regarded as a stone cold classic album, but you need to bear in mind that it sold slowly while Jeff was alive. It’s hard to explain to any Buckley haters just why he’s so brilliant, especially as he’s partly responsible for awful bands like Starsailor, Scott Matthews or even Muse, but if like me you are a fan, the tracks below from the Glastonbury show are absolutely essential.

Starting with a fantastic 9 minutes + version of ‘Dream Brother’ before going into ‘Lover, You Should’ve Come Over’, Jeff and his band are on sizzling form. In amongst a mixture of released and unreleased songs they do theee heaviest version of ‘Eternal Life‘ you might ever hear. These 3 tracks are all here in crystal clear straight-off-the-mixing-desk quality. If you like them, any requests for the full show in the comments section will be dealt with ASAP. In the meantime, if you’re new to Plain Or Pan? you may not have discovered the other Jeff Buckley downloads here and here.

jeff-glast-front.jpg

front cover artwork for the complete show

Cover Versions, Gone but not forgotten, Hard-to-find

50 Million Elliott Smith Fans Can’t Be Wrong

Craig McAllister

Well. Not quite 50 million. More like 50. I liked the Elvis-style photo below, hence the title. But in an ideal world more people would know about the music of Elliott Smith. He’s been dead for 3 and a half years, so if this post helps you get into him, great, but don’t expect him to be visiting your local open mic night anytime soon. Just make sure you get over to the Domino Records website for his earlier and later releases and Amazon or Play for his mid-period major label stuff. If you’re new to Elliott Smith I’d go for ‘XO’. That’s the album I discovered him through.

 elliot-smith-multiple.jpg

He is a truly great artist. A songwriter’s songwriter for sure. I bet Elton John loves him (though that’s no indication of what Elliott’s records sound like). His singing and guitar playing is absolutely fantastic. He plays all the weird chords, all the fanciest picking arrangements and if you’ve ever tried to learn any of his songs you’ll know how quickly they tie your fingers in knots. I’ve looked at all his press shots. I’ve yet to determine if he has 6 fingers on each hand, but it sure sounds like it. His vocals always sound brilliant. Like his hero John Lennon, they tend to be double-tracked. But whereas Lennon was a shouter (‘Help!’, ‘Revolution’ etc etc, take your pick), Elliot is more introverted. His ‘whispered, spider-web thin delivery’ (as one early reviewer referred to it) is understated melancholoy at its best. Elliott’s frequent battles with depression, drug addiction and alcoholism means that the subject matter can sometimes be dark, but the overall sound is just brilliant. In 1996, his song ‘Miss Misery’ was nominated for an Oscar, and Elliott performed it at the Academy Awards ceremony (it seems to have disappeared from YouTube). Unfortunately or otherwise, 1996 was the year of ‘Titanic‘ and Elliot was pipped at the post by Celine Dion.

elliot-smth-hat.jpg

When he died he was working on the the songs that would form ‘From A Basement On The Hill’. It was released after his death to no fanfares, fireworks or frenzied reviews. But those of us in the know lapped it up. Last year, ‘New Moon’, an album of demos and outtakes recorded around the time of his 3rd album (‘Either Or’) was released. You can hear one of the tracks here. Below, you’ll find a selection of demos, outtakes and b-sides from throughout his career. This is as good an introduction to Elliott Smith as you need. Happy downloading!

Say Yes (studio version)

Bottle Up & Explode (‘Either Or’-era demo, released on ‘XO’)

Punch & Judy (‘Either Or’-era demo)

Alameda (‘Either Or’-era demo)

Miss Misery (piano version)

Bled White (Jackpot Studios demo. Original version on ‘XO’)

Happiness (acoustic version. Original version on ‘Figure 8’)

Son Of Sam (acoustic version. Original version on ‘Figure 8’)

Figure 8 (title track, dropped from album)

Concrete Jungle (Bob Marley cover)

elliot-smith-2.jpg

This is an excellent site where some of my recordings came from.