Category: Hard-to-find

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

Just Like Jeff Buckley

Craig McAllister

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Elsewhere on these pages you’ll find Jeff Buckley’s rather excellent version of Dylan’s ‘Mama You Been On My Mind’. That track remains the most downloaded song from Plain Or Pan?, and helped catapult my blog into the dizzy heights of ‘3rd fastest growing music blog on the ‘net for January’. So, thanks!

Today, I’m posting Jeff Buckley‘s version of ‘Just like A Woman’. Like ‘Mama You Been On My Mind’, it was recorded at Bearsville Studios, New York State (?) in September 1993 at the sessions for the Grace album. It features just Jeff and his Telecaster-played-through-Fender-twin-reverb and sounds beautiful. He kinda makes this his own song, which of course is the mark of a good cover.

Just a quick note – the vocals are slightly distorted in places, but I guess that as this was a recorded-in-progress demo, the engineer had little or no time to adjust the levels accordingly. But that shouldn’t spoil your enjoyment of what is an excellent performance.

For all you trainspotters, I have also included a shorter version that fades out here.

Coming soon – If You See Her, Say Hello and another couple of Mama You Been On My Mind outtakes! Drop by again!

Hard-to-find, Sampled

Moonlighting with the Noonday Underground

Craig McAllister

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Noonday Underground is the nom de plume of Simon Dine. As well as being A&R man at Go! Discs and producer of Paul Weller’s ‘Illumination’ album, he found the time to release a couple of albums.  ‘Surface Noise’ is the second of these albums and came to my attention as it featured 2 tracks with vocals by Frank Reader of the Trashcan Sinatras. It is still available, but seems quite hard to get these days, which is why I’m posting 2 tracks from it.

Windmills is based around a sample of some forgotten 60’s film soundtrack. It’s got weird instrumentation, some plucked strings and lazy, almost spoken vocals. It is magic.

Barcelona sounds quite similar to the above and is probably  my favourite of the 2 tracks – looped, sampled strings, some plucked acoustics, some vinyl crackles and some weird film noir noises in the background. Complete with a whispered lead vocal track and falsetto backing vocals, it sounds like an eerie music box, and would be great as the background music to a Twin Peaks-style movie.

If you’re a fan of the Trashcan’s and prefer their more introspective stuff like ‘Orange Fell’, these tracks are for you.

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Hard-to-find

Northern Soul, with added Snap!Crackle! and Pop!

Craig McAllister

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No, not M People’s (shudder) Northern Soul, or even the Verve’s barefooted poncifications of the big music, but real northern soul. Finger clickin’, hip swayin’, cuttin’ a rug Northern Soul. Transferred from an ancient compilation tape that a friend from work made for me around 1992 these 2 tracks are magic, and I’m not ashamed to say I know next to nothing about them, as neither does Mr Google. What I can tell you is this…..

Diane Newby‘s ‘What Your Puttin’ (or Putting depending on where you look) Me Through came out on the Kapp label in 1965 and has long been a favourite on the northern soul scene. As soon as the piano and tambourine lead things off, you know you’re in for a rollicking 2 minutes of northern soul nirvana. To these ears, it sounds a bit like Marvin Gaye’s ‘Can I Get A Witness?’ if sung by Dusty Springfield. Sadly, it doesn’t appear to crop up on any CD compilations. The version you have here was transferred from 7″ to cassette (now 15 years old) and converted to mp3 via my trusty 4 track portastudio. If anyone has a nice clean copy that they can sort out for me, please let me know.

Likewise, Mr Google knows even less about The Playthings than I do. The Playthings do tend to crop up on compilations from time to time, most notably for the excellent ‘Stop What you’re Doing’. That track almost qualifies them as one-hit wonders, but since it wasn’t a hit…..

‘Surrounded By A Ray Of Sunshine’ was also recorded by Samantha Jones, a name familiar to most connoisseurs of the northern soul circuit, but for what it’s worth, The Playthings version beats it hands down. Sadly, this also rarely appears anywhere on digital format, so I’ve had to do it myself using the same method as above. Likewise, if anyone has a nice clean digital copy clogging up their harddrive, please let me know. In the meantime, here is my vinyl>cassette>mp3 conversion, just for you.

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Now. When I think of snap, crackle and pop, I don’t only think about vinyl. I also need to rush to the kitchen and get myself a bowl of Rice Krispies. As an added bonus for today, I’ve posted an odd obscurity, an obscure oddity of a Rolling Stones track from 1964. As befits many of the bands of the era, they recorded an ad jingle. Here are the Stones doing the Rice Krispies jingle. It’s a belter!

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Cover Versions, Hard-to-find

Mike Love, Not War

Craig McAllister

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Norman Blake does Dennis Wilson’s ‘Only With You’ here.

In years to come I like to think that people will be discussing whether they’re a Norman, Gerry or Raymond fan in much the same way that nerdy trainspotting males argue over Lennon and McCartney. “Yeah, but Lennon never did the Frog Chorus!”. “Only ‘cos he was shot first!”. I don’t imagine it’ll ever be a national debate but if it was I would sit firmly in the Norman camp.

‘Only With You’ is a cover of a Dennis Wilson song that first appeared on a tribute album called ‘Caroline Now!’ The Beach Boys version is on their 1973 album ‘Holland’ if you’re interested. And you bloody should be. But anyway. Norman’s version is amazing. The harmonies and 12 string electric guitar means it is 1000% Byrds, and by the time the string section slides in you’ll find yourself wishing you were getting married so that you could have this as your first dance. Or maybe not. You might prefer ‘Love Is All around’ or that Bryan Adams one from a few years ago. But anyway, this track is the real deal.

Girls. Download it. Play it to your fella, and if he’s half the man he says he is, he’ll be off to the diamond ring section of JH Samuel’s. If he’s half the man you know he is, he’ll probably be half way out of your life forever. But, hey, give it a try. 

Boys. Download it, play it to your special someone, and if your not doin’ the do by the time the string section has kicked in, you need to ask yourself “Is it really worth the hassle?”

Cover Versions, Hard-to-find

The Bunnymen Connection

Craig McAllister

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What we have here is 2 bands at polar opposites, yet united by a crappy tenuous connection.  Firstly, we have Pavement. Shambolic college rock from the U. S. of A. with a neat line in whiny vocals and spidery guitar lines.

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Then we have the La’s. Perfectionists to the nth degree, they were desperate to create the perfect album that sounded like Merseybeat mixed with Captain Beefheart and the Delta Blues – the sound of the Merseyssippi as Lee Mavers  was keen on saying in every interview he did between 1987 and 1990.

The link? Echo and the Bunnymen. Pavement covered ‘The Killing Moon’ in 1997 for a BBC session. It’s a pretty straightforward version, a bit slower and trippy than the original, with added whoops that make it sound a bit like New Order in places. Get it here. 

In 1987, in their quest for the Mersyssippi, the La’s turned to Pete de Freitas, the Bunnymen’s drummer and fellow Scouser to help produce some sessions. Did you know that ‘Echo’ of Echo and the Bunymen was the name of their drum machine before Pete joined? I digress…. Anyway, the sessions did not produce anything classic though all La’s songs you know and love were tried. The sessions are often referred to as the ‘Echo’ sessions, given that de Freitas chucked a big bucket of reverb and echo over the vocal tracks. In some ways it adds to the tracks, in other ways it kind of spoils them. Anyway, here you’ll find a version of ‘Callin’ All’ that sounds like Love or ‘We Love You’-era Rolling Stones and clatters along in a vaguely psychedelic fashion. ‘Callin’ All’ was meant to be the name of the La’s debut until they dropped this song at the last minute.  I can tell you loads of La’s stories and useless information, and I have a treasure trove full of La’s stuff which will see the light of day at some point. In the meantime, enjoy ‘Callin’ All’ and keep coming back. Cheers!

Cover Versions, Dylanish, Hard-to-find

Mama, You Been On My Mind Triple-Whammy

Craig McAllister

OK. Special triple-bill tonight. 3 versions of the same song, all widely different, each unique and worth owning in it’s own right. But first things first. This blog was set up with the intention of sharing deleted or very hard to get records. Two of these tracks are widely available at your local music emporium. However, as one is by Bob Dylan and the other is by Rod Stewart I figured they’re not going to chase me for any publishing money. And Jeff Buckley’s deid, so he won’t mind me sharing his version either. So I’m breaking my own rules, and probably not for the last time. But on with the show…

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Bob Dylan wrote ‘Mama You Been On My Mind’ in September 1964. He occasionally sang it in concert as a duet with Joan Baez. As a collector of all things Dylan, I always reach for the skip button any time I hear her shitty voice ruin what is a perfectly good song. The version here is his demo recorded around about the same time as the ‘Another Side of Bob Dylan’ sessions. It would have made for an even better album had it been included. Instead it languished in obscurity until his ‘Bootleg Sessions 1-3’ box set came out in 1991.

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Rod Stewart knows a good song when he hears it. You can say what you like about old Rod, God knows nowadays he deserves it, but back in the 70’s he was a fairly decent interpreter of other people’s songs and covered a few Dylan tunes including ‘Girl From The North Country’ as well as this one. He could also sing a fair bit, had a cracking backing band to accompany him and thought he was Scottish. Nothing wrong with that. In his version, he turns Dylan’s downbeat demo into a Maggie Mae-esque 12 string and pedal steel classic. It’s available on 1972’s ‘Never A Dull Moment’. Your Dad won’t know it, cos he’ll only have the Greatest Hits. Do him a favour and download it for him here.

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Jeff Buckley has one of the greatest voices ever. But you knew that already. He’s also a bloody magic guitar player. But you knew that too, if you’ve ever tied your fingers in knots trying to learn anything from ‘Grace’. The fact that he can sing AND play like no-one else before or after makes me very jealous. And, he was also quite a looker, they tell me. Bastard. This version of ‘Mama…’ was recorded during the sessions for ‘Grace’ and is given the full ‘Hallelujah’ treatment. If it had been recorded properly it would have blah blah blah-de blah etc etc. Just download it, OK?

Cover Versions, Hard-to-find

You wait ages for one fanny and 2 come along at once

Craig McAllister

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I’m striking while the iron’s hot here. Thanks to all my new visitors from the Teenage Fanclub website for boosting my numbers on these pages. As a one-off, never to be repeated treat, please find attached a link to Teenage Fanclub’s version of Nirvana’s ‘About A Girl’.

I taped it from BBC Radio Scotland’s Beat Patrol show years ago, and a few months ago I got around to transferring it from tape to mp3. For what it’s worth, I think this version’s better than the original. It features some laid back vocals and some pretty rudimentary slide guitar that sounds as if (Raymond? Norman?) just learned how to play slide guitar about 10 minutes beforehand. Of course, half of the appeal of TFC is that at any minute it sounds like it could all fall apart. At least it was in the early days, maybe not so much nowadays. But this track holds well together, right up until the final demented slide guitar riff wheezes off into the ether. Here you go.

Cover Versions, Hard-to-find

Teenage Fanclub ‘I Saw The Light’

Craig McAllister

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For as long as I can remember, at least since I first heard it and perhaps even longer, I’ve always loved Todd Rundgren’s ‘I Saw The Light’. To many people this would appear to be one of those guilty pleasures, but for me, there’s nothing guilty about it. It’s simply a great wee pop song, all soaring harmonies and 70’s guitar.

Then I read that Teenage Fanclub had recorded a version of it. Recorded in 1991 for the Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie or TV show (can’t quite remember) but never released. I. Had. To. Have. It. I had everything by Teenage Fanclub up to that point (and still do). 7″ of ‘Everything Flows’? Check! 7″ of ‘Ballad Of John & Yoko’? Check! Australian Promo video for Star Sign? Check! You name it, I’ve got it. So I had to have Teenage Fanclub, my favourite band, doing my favourite song. But could I find it? Could I hell. I thought the internet was invented for this sort of thing, but clearly not. I turned up many an interesting Teenage Fanclub oddity along the way. Live American Radio shows, old BBC Scotland sessions I had taped off the radio way back in the day, the Clydesmen doing ‘Kylie’s Got a Crush On Us’ that I had on a Select magazine tape. Even the hard-to-get joint 7″ with Alex Chilton that was sold throught the NME in around 1991/1992. Now I could listen to them all on my iPod! Great! But nowhere could I find ‘I Saw The Light’. I had given up all hope of ever hearing it until…….2005. Then the Scotland On Sunday gave away a free 6 Track Teenage Fanclub CD, and there, hiding at number 5, not even the lead track, was ‘I Saw the Light’. On first hearing it I was somewhat underwhelmed. “It sounds just like Todd’s,” I thought. And it did. And it still does. But it’s magic. See the light for yourself here.

Hard-to-find

Dennis Wilson ‘Pacific Ocean Blue’

Craig McAllister

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Review by Julian Cope

Firstly, I take no credit for writing the following words. I was going to write about how great ‘Pacific Ocean Blue’ is. If you’ve never heard it…blah, blah, blah. And I was googling for some background info on the album, so that I would appear more knowledgeable about it than I actually am. But what I know about it would fit on the back of one of those new Royal Mail Beatles stamps. Luckily for me, Julian Cope likes it a lot as well, and knows more about it than I do….

‘Pacific Ocean Blue’ is a definite contender for the greatest album of all time, one of those albums that I just find utterly captivating. Gnomes like Richard Ashcroft cite it – not that he could get anywhere close – though its 1991 re-issue has now become highly collectable & I’ve only heard this on bootleg. I find it a bit sad that this album isn’t available, while a lot of dire/patchy Beach Boys albums are.With Brian returning to play Pet Sounds and then Smile, the view of the Beach Boys centres around Brian. This looks over the fact that Dennis became the most interesting member of the Beach Boys – blossoming into a great songwriter himself. Dennis became increasingly ambitious with arrangements and strings. ‘Pacific Ocean Blue’ was pretty much the ultimate statement and as great as Pet Sounds as far as I’m concerned. ‘Pacific Ocean Blue’ is verging on the mystical and looking beyong the messy life of Dennis and surrounding casualties. It is one of the great ’70’s albums, made amid a cloud of hedonism, attempting to grasp onto a sense of the spiritual. The song ‘Time’ is easily up there with the song of the same name by Sly Stone. Most of Dennis’ peers were absent (Brian, Lennon), had imploded (The Band, The Byrds, The Beatles), or otherwise lost it (The Rolling Stones, Gene Clark, Dylan). ‘Pacific Ocean Blue’ has the same fucked-up quality as late 70’s Steely Dan and shares the same authentic fuckedupness apparent in MOR bestsellers like The Eagles ‘Hotel California’ and Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Tusk’.

Used copies of this are going for $189 on Amazon USA. How can such a key album remain deleted? (The same can be said of Tim Buckley’s ‘Star Sailor’ or Neil Young’s ‘Time Fades Away’). Dennis Wilson seems unsung as a whole – both the great film and great album he was associated with are unavailable! The messy Beach Boys (Love vs Jardine) thing gets in the way – but why reissue all of The Beach Boys albums from the same era, but not ‘Pacific Ocean Blue’? The emphasis has been on Brian’s genius, which is unarguable, but ignores the fact that Dennis peaked in the 70’s while Brian was largely absent. The tape I have of this is not good enough, neither would be an anonymous download (‘Time’) – this needs remastering & reissuing, a perhaps some of ‘Bamboo’ could see the light also. Give the guy a box-set. Dennis Wilson is an unsung artist and ‘Pacific Ocean Blue’ is was one of the greatest albums of all time. A few critics and Beach Boys-heads praise it, but it’s not enough. How can such a great record be unavailable & its 1991 CD reissue be so overpriced? It’s probably worth paying those overinflated prices though….

Phew. Sit back and listen to ‘Time’. If you like it, leave me a comment and I can maybe post some other tracks….

Hard-to-find

Tapes ‘n Tapes ‘Beach Girls’

Craig McAllister

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Tapes ‘n Tapes. What can I say? The best band I saw play live in 2006? The best album of 2006? The most anticipated follow-up of 2007? All of that and more more more. Give us a new album ‘n’ a new single ‘n’ a new song ‘n’ a new chord ‘n’ a new anything at all. I want it all and I want it NOW! I discovered Tapes ‘n Tapes through a combination of word of mouth, myspace and some dubious file sharing sites. I urge you to discover ‘The Loon’ for yourself. It’s easy to find. You might even want to buy it. Jeez, it was so good, I did. What we have here is not from the album, but the first track from a self-financed ep the band released in 2005. According to the band’s website (which is backed up by the scarcity of the ep anywhere online) it has been deleted. Hence, I’m posting the track ‘Beach Girls’ from it. I only heard it recently, but this track stuck out as I remembered them playing it when I saw them live. 2nd song. Nice ‘n Sleazy’s, Glasgow. End of May. Not quite the Sex Pistols at the Lesser Free Trade Hall, or the Beatles at the Cavern, but it was bloody brilliant all the same. Find ‘Beach Girls’ here .