Category: Hard-to-find

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….

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 .

The original Manic Street Preachers. 4 of them. White jeans. Sloganeering. Fur coats. Mascara. Johnny Thunders haircuts. I saw them in King Tuts around the time this single was released and they were fantastic and hilarious in equal parts. Part Clash. Part Spinal Tap. Anyway, the Heavenly version of You Love Us features the Iggy Pop ‘Lust For Life’ ending. It was  re-recorded for their debut album and they binned the Iggy ending in favour of an ‘Appetite For Destruction’ Guns ‘n Roses ending. Sounded glossier and more rawk, but I’ve always preferred the original version. Cos I’m a  snob. And I bought it first time round. CD single and 7″ from a bargain bin in a Glasgow record shop. The Manics couldn’t give their records away in those days, but within a few months this record was highly sought after and still goes for a tidy sum on eBay. Listen here.

For some reason, the CD database incorrectly labels this single as the ‘New Art Riot’ ep, so when you download it, it won’t say ‘You Love Us’ in the file name.

I find this hard to believe, but 2007 sees the 20th anniversary of the release of the Happy Mondays’ debut album. It originally came out to widespread indifference in April 1987 and was snappily titled  ‘Squirrel And G-Man Twenty Four Hour Party People Plastic Face Carnt Smile (White Out)’. I remember asking for it in Our Price, but they didn’t have it. I eventually got it about a year later in a second hand shop and was won over by the band’s scuzzy funk and stream-of-conscience nonsensical lyrics. Many of the songs borrowed heavily from other records and the track ‘Desmond’ was withdrawn quicker than Michael Jackson’s lawyers could say “beat it.” Michael Jackson owned the rights to the Beatles catalogue by this time, and he didn’t like the similarities between ‘Desmond’ and ‘Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da’. Plastic face carnt smile indeed. You can listen to it here. Like all good record trainspotters, I noticed that the album was produced by John Cale of the Velvet Underground. I read years later that despite being no stranger to chemical abuse himself, he was shocked by the band’s unruly behaviour and drug intake. Shaun Ryder slagged him off at the time for being high on nothing more than tangerines. After ‘Desmond’ was withdrawn from the album it was replaced by ’24 Hour Party People’ and that single took the band onto bigger and better things, but you probably know that.