Category: Most downloaded tracks

Dylanish, Hard-to-find, Most downloaded tracks

Bin there, done that

Craig McAllister

Bonjour tout le monde. My muse has deserted me recently, leading to a slowing down of me posting new stuff. I cannae even be arsed writing a proper review of last night’s Bob Dylan show in the big red shed at the SECC. But it was a belter. Visions of Johanna and everything. Way better than the last time I saw him (2 years ago) when his band pulled out 4 and a half minute guitar solos every chance they got. My review of that show even caused a minor stir in the Dylan community at the time. How dare you slag off Bob, and all that. It’s here if you have a spare couple of minutes.

I’d like to welcome anyone who’s visiting for the first time after reading the bit I did for the Vinyl Villain. I’d also like to take this opportunity to encourage any regulars on here to pay a visit to the Vinyl Villain. His blog is regularly updated and consistently excellent, which is something I can’t really say for Plain Or Pan these days.

tcs-bw

Special band, Special Needs.

I wrote a piece on the Trashcan Sinatras for the Vinyl Villain. He’s off on holiday and asked for some ‘guest’ contributors for the whole of May. My piece was posted yesterday and the traffic I’ve received due to it is very welcome. As a thank you, here‘s another hard-to-find Trashcan’s obscurity – the download-only studio version of Hammertime. Originally released electronically via the band’s very short-lived Picnic Records website a couple of years ago, it is now unavailable. Unless you shell out £40+ for the All The Dark Horses limited edition 10″. Or unless you click the link above, of course. Given the right setting (an official album of rarities or the b-side of a hit record) Hammertime would shine. However it has been relegated to a footnote in the Trashcan’s wonderful discography. It deserves a second chance. Go on. Give it a listen.  

New visitors to Plain Or Pan may be interested to learn that in November and December last year I was raided by the internet police. All music files dating from Nov 08 right back to Jan 07 were deleted. So the only music you can download from here is essentially anything since the start of 2009. Here’s some stuff you may have missed…

The first Plain Or Pan compilation album, compiling all the best bits of the now- deleted stuff. CD1 and CD2. Comes with artwork.

Over 20 versions of The La’s ‘There She Goes’. It’ll give you a sore head after a while, but, reallly, you need this.

The La’s legendary Kitchen Session. Listen to it here. Read about it elsewhere on Plain Or Pan. Take the time to find it and read about it, will you? Cheers!

The Beatles ‘Sgt Peppers..’ Master tape. Audio gold. A music fan’s wet dream. Call it what you will, but if you’re new to this, then prepare yourself!

The Beatles newly unearthed Revolution Take 20. Fake? Genuine? You decide!

Mojo magazine’s Johnny Marr compiled (by me) CD. With artwork. Here.

A rare mix of Marvin Gaye‘s ‘What’s Going On’.

The Arctic Monkeys do Van McCoy’s ‘Baby I’m Yours’. It’s a belter!

There’s tons of stuff on Plain Or Pan. I take time to ensure only the choicest, juciest most hard-to-come-by tracks are included. I’d be grateful if you could take the time to unearth some of it. A good compilation CD awaits those with patience and a good download speed.

demo, Most downloaded tracks, studio outtakes

Well, flip your wig!

Craig McAllister

So Phil Spector is finally found guilty. Six years to reach the only obvious conclusion, although, most music fans could tell you he’d committed murder as soon as he got his tiny little hands on the master tapes to ‘Let It Be’. But it’s official – it’s moiduh and Phil Spector will probably spend the rest of his life in a cushy corner of some state penitentiary or other, bald and friendless.

phil-wig

Murder 1

Of course, as you know, the music he worked on is mostly sublime. Timeless, not set by generation. You could be 5 or 95. There’s something there for all of us. Some of those tracks are practically folk songs. I’m going to remember him this way. And you should too. Listen to The Ronettes in the studio doing ‘My One And Only Baby’ as it was called before becoming ‘Be My Baby’. Here‘s an amalgamation of takes 21-25, mostly instrumental, with the odd backing vocal and studio chatter flung in for good measure. A Wall of Sound production in production.

phil-wig-2

Murder 2

Here‘s an unrecorded take of the same track, complete with  lead and backing vocals and that ricketty-ticketty percussion at the end of every line. The wee tape rewind at the beginning makes me think this is Spector’s first play back of the completed track, but that’s only my thoughts. I guess we’ll never know now.

Finally, here‘s that Ronettes ‘Baby I Love You’ isolated vocal track that everybody still emails me about. *Note. I incorrectly labelled this as Be My Baby Vocals. But before you get yer knickers in a twist I just checked, and it’s definitely the vocal track of Baby I love You. OK!

Last time I posted tracks of this ilk, they were removed tout de suite by the DMCA. Make like Phil with a .45 and act fast!

Later everyone, gotta shoot…….!

phil-wig-3

Murder 3

Most downloaded tracks, Sampled

Full Of Eastern Promise

Craig McAllister

A month or so ago I told you I’d been listening non-stop to the Amorphous Androgynous compiled ‘A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Exploding In Your Mind Volume 1 – Cosmic Space Music’. You can listen to some tracks and read about it here. Mind duly exploded, I went online and like thousands of you do, I bought some music from iTunes. I’ve always had my own unwritten rule that if the music was physically available, I’d always buy it. Who wants a digital file? Not me, I thought, until Oasis (yes, you read correctly) decided to release the 22 and a half minute Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble mix of current single ‘Falling Down‘ . I had to hear it ASAP and coupled with the only physically-available commercial release being on 2 sides of solid 33rpm 12″ vinyl and a severe lack of decent record shops anywhere near where I live, I opted for the easy option.


falling-down


I once had a letter published in Uncut, where I put the boot into Oasis calling them a ‘brand, not  a band’. I was quite pleased with myself when I wrote that line and even more pleased when they published the letter in the December issue of that year under the headline ‘The Last Noel’. I can’t remember when Oasis were last any good, but never has a band fallen so spectacularly from grace and ended up sounding like a dog’s dinner. They used to be terrific. There. Said it. No shame in that. I saw them live a couple of times between the first and second albums and they were sen-say-sheee-on-alllll. Suddenly, between second and third albums, they stopped being good, and at an alarming rate, their musical quality continues to drop.  ‘Falling Down’ is no different. It’s another Noel-led clunker with lots of fannying about with capos on the second fret, minor chords and open strings…

Em                         G6
the summer sun that blows my mind
Cmaj7                Asus2
Is falling down on all that I’ve ever known
Em             G6
Time to kiss the world goodbye
Cmaj7              Asus2
Falling down on all that I’ve ever known
Cmaj7   Dsus2
Is all that I’ve ever known. etc etc etc….

Yep, just like Wonderwall. But not as good. (No Liam on lead vocals, that’s why). It goes nowhere fast. Actually, not that fast. It takes about 10 minutes to go nowhere. Tedious on a grand scale. I don’t even think Liam and his Sex Beatles sneer could save it. Thankfully, Amorphous Androgynous have.


psychedelic-falling-down


It’s got sitars, flutes, mellotrons and the whole psychedlic shebang going on. Noel’s vocals are looped, sampled and buried deep beneath a drumbeat that sounds like ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ clattering down four flights of stairs. There’s a fuzz bass solo that John Entwistle would’ve been suing over were he still alive. There’s a female backing singer that comes in sounding like Natasha Atlas being stung by a wasp. Or is that the fuzz bass again?  At one point a child speaks the lyrics as the whole thing blisses out like some sort of post-hallicinogenic comedown. Strangely, Chris Martin seems to be playing some sort of half-arsed piano at the same time and the track goes off into a whole new territory. I’d imagine this would be side 2 of the vinyl. The whole thing now sounds like The Orb or an Andrew Weatherall remix of some early ’90s guitar band. Yes. It’s that good. You don’t even mind the violin solo, cos those whoosing effects in the background remind you of the intro music the Stone Roses used at Glasgow Green. Natasha Atlas makes a re-appearance and her and Noel duet for a bit. The whole thing begins to pick up again. By the time the electric guitars and drums have crashed back into it and the whole track has lifted off into outer space you realise 15 or so minutes have passed, and there’s still another 7 to go! I won’t spoil it anymore, but do yourself a favour and download this now!


noel-gallagher


Noel Gallagher falling down.


Songwriters get their inspiration in the strangest of places.

Cover Versions, demo, elliott smith, Gone but not forgotten, Hard-to-find, Most downloaded tracks, Peel Sessions, Studio master tapes, studio outtakes

Aye! Tunes! iCompiled for you

Craig McAllister

‘Don’t Look Back’ sang Bob Dylan. And indeed Teenage Fanclub. But sometimes you’ve got to look back before you can move forwards again. 2009 starts with a bang! Plain Or Pan? is almost 2 years old and to celebrate I’ve compiled a selection of the most-loved and downloaded tracks from the blog. This is your very last chance to grab some of those nuggets of pop goodness that you may have missed first time around.

plain-or-pan-first-2-years

Tracklisting:

Disc 1

1. Sgt Peppers’ vocal track – The Beatles

2. Coca Cola – Jerry Lee Lewis

3. Son Of Sam acoustic – Elliott Smith

4. There She Goes promo – The La’s

5. All The Way Down  beat version – The Primitives

6. Boots – Lee Hazelwood

7. Just Dropped In – The Dap Kings

8. Baby I Love You vocal track – Ronettes

9. Hey Hey What Can I Do – Led Zeppelin

10. You Really Got A Hold On Me – Small Faces

11. Your Time Is Gonna Come – Sandie Shaw

12. Mama You Been On My Mind – Rod Stewart

13. In The Heat Of The Morning – Last Shadow Puppets

14. The Loner – Supergrass

15. Down By The River – Joey Gregorash

16. Southern Man – Sylvester and the Hot Band

17. Freaky Dancin’ – Happy Mondays

18. Filthy – St Etienne

19. Gimme Shelter  vocal track – Rolling Stones

20. Flume live MOKB/WEEM – Bon Iver

21. Grace – King Creosote

22. Just Like a Woman live in the studio– Jeff Buckley

 

Disc 2

1. Monkey Gone To Heaven vocal track – The Pixies

2. Handy Man Peel Session – Frank Black & Teenage Fanclub

3. About A Girl BBC session – Teenage Fanclub

4. Dead Leaves And Tne Dirty Ground – Nina Persson

5. Hanging On The Telephone – The Nerves

6. Down On The Street take 2 – The Stooges

7. Tradewinds – Super Furry Animals

8. Riders On The Storm outtake – The Doors

9. I Heard It Through The Grapevine vocal track – Marvin Gaye

10. Coca Cola – Ray Charles & Aretha Franklin

11. Homework – John Lee Hooker

12. Stickman version 1 – Elliott Smith

13. Snow – Trashcan Sinatras

14. Moon River full-length version – Morrissey

15. Autumn Almanac BBC session – The Kinks

16. Everybody Drop It Like It’s Hot – DJ Prince

17. 99 Problems – Jay Z/The Beatles

18. Over  live in a stable– The La’s

19. Music When The Lights Go Out Legs 11 demo – The Libertines

You’ll find CD1 here, CD2 here and you’ll find the artwork here. Easy-peasy!

   

 

 

Hard-to-find, Most downloaded tracks

Nit-picking internet fascists

Craig McAllister

Looks like someone’s out to get me. The internet police are spying on me and coming over all Big Brother again. Received this email…

“Thanks for using DivShare. Unfortunately, our staff has had to remove one or more of your files for violation of our content standards.

This action is usually taken because a file contains adult content or copyrighted material, such as music, movies or software. We apologize for the incovenience, and ask that you not upload any similar files in the future.”

It was the Ronnie Spector vocal track. Sorry folks. Grab the rest while you can. Again. Grrr.

peter_sellers_inspector_clouseau_pi

Click here for Rockwell ‘Somebody’s Watching Me’

Click here for U2 ‘Don’t Let The Bastards Grind You Down’ (demo)

Click here for Trashcan Sinatras ‘Leave Me Alone’

 

 

Only joking. Hee hee.

Most downloaded tracks

Reduce Reuse Recycle

Craig McAllister

No Halloween post this year. But last year’s was a belter….

In the best Ringo traditions, “With peace and love, NO MORE HALLOWEEN GUISERS. Please. I hate you all. Peace and love.”

Pass me the Haribo!

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.

Most downloaded tracks

My fvrt nw bnd

Craig McAllister

mgmt.jpg

“Let’s make some music, make some money, find some models for wives.”

I’ve been getting myself all in a lather over MGMT (pronounced as it reads – as in ‘Booker T & the MGMTs’, not ‘Management’ – thanks to Wino.) Shitty name. A pain in the you know what to google, but what great music! Like a Californian Super Furry Animals or the long lost Siamese twin of the Flaming Lips, guitars are just on the right side of fuzzy, the keyboards are set to wonky, but not too wonky and everything’s wrapped up in a half decent melody. In short, weird tunes you can whistle. The album ‘Oracular Spectacular’ is released on 10th March and is only £6.99 from Play. The first track is called ‘Time To Pretend’ and I have played it about 43 times over the course of this weekend. Try before you buy here.

Hard-to-find, Most downloaded tracks

Tonight Matthew I’m going to be Pete Docherty

Craig McAllister

toothpaste-kisses.gifLibertines copyists. Dontcha just love ’em? I do! With 2008 only 9 days old it’s way too early for any ‘Best Of The Year’ lists, but I am almost certain that ‘Toothpaste Kisses’ by The Maccabees will still be on heavy rotation on my jukebox come December. I have been playing this wee song constantly for the past week and my enthusiasm for it shows no signs of stoppng. For me, The Maccabees have come from nowhere and somehow sneaked under my ‘Good Music Radar’. For a while now I have been of the mindset that ‘all new music is rubbish’, when of course it’s only rubbish if you don’t look out for it. Or should that be listen out for it? Anyway, by chance I was channel hopping over the festive period and caught the video for ‘Toothpaste Kisses’ on E4 or somewhere like that, and my love affair with The Maccabees began.

maccabees.jpg

The singer clearly has the same Libertines bootlegs I’ve got. He has the sardonic vocals down to a tee and the combination of Spanish and electric guitars gives it the same feeling as ‘Music When The Lights Go Out’-era Pete ‘n’ Carl. Along with the scrubbed barre chords there’s a nifty understated solo that sticks in your head like all the best Paul McCartney songs and some wolf whistling behind the opening lines…..

Cradle me, cradle you

I’ll win your heart with a woo-hoo

It’s bloody magic. Go to The Maccabees website and you can even play the Toothpaste Kisses game. It’s nearly cost me my marriage I’ve been playing it that much. Who needs a Wii when there’s games like this out there for free? You can find the video on YouTube too although I’m not linking it here. I hate blogs that are full of YouTube videos and nothing else. (Lazy fuckers.)

Contrast & Compare!

Heres’s some Libertines demos from various sessions. Sardonic vocals? Check! Spanish/electric guitar combination? Check! Whistling? Sometimes! Check! Pete gets a lot of flak, but he cannae half write a half-finished song. I love him.

Albion (version 1)

The Good Old Days (A Carl Barat song)

Music When The Lights Go Out (Legs 11 demo session – the best version of this song that exists, I think)

pete-carl.jpg

 

 

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

The toppermost of the poppermost

Craig McAllister

Here you go……the Top 10 Plain Or Pan downloads to date.

A cover-heavy Top 10, with a combined total of

4326 downloads!

saville1.jpg

 

My computer is playing funny buggers. Hence the wonky spacing and no numbers 2-10. It’s taken up enough of my time for the night so this is as good as it gets.

You can find out more about these recordings by scrolling through the pages. Or you could just be lazy and download them from here.