Plain Or Pan

Cover Versions, Football, Hard-to-find, Peel Sessions

It’s great being Scottish

October 13, 2007May 25, 2012 Craig McAllister

We’re top of our group, we’ve dumped the French twice and today we beat the Ukrainians 3-1. We are Scotland. We are magic. We are going to Euro 2008.

Get your flat caps and clumpy shoes on and celebrate by dancing along to The Ukrainians folk-punk-polka versions of 4 Smiths tunes. The Ukrainians (the group not the football team) were formed as a side project to the Wedding Present. Guitarist Pete Solowka was of Ukrainian descent and when John Peel asked the Wedding Present if they’d like to do a session, the band recorded some traditional Eastern European folk music at the expense of their usual 100 mile an hour D-G-A strumalong. Truth be told, were it not for the Wedding Present connection, few people would have been all that interested. But thanks to this interest, Peel played the session over and over and the Ukranians went on tour. I saw them in Edinburgh (April 16th 1991) where the real Wedding Present played support and did an hours worth of brand new material. Then the Ukrainians came on and did their shouty punk-polka stuff.

In 1993 the band released the Pizni ep, which featured 4 Smiths covers. They’re probably not everyone’s cup of tea, but if you like unusual cover versions or are one of those mental Smiths completists, these are for you. I like how the melodies still come through, even though I have no idea what they’re singing. Except I do really, cos I know every Smiths song back to front. And now I know how to say “when her Walkman started to melt” in Polish. Useful that.

Batyar (Bigmouth Strikes Again)

Koroleva Ne Polerma (The Queen Is Dead)

M’yaso-Ubivstvo (Meat Is Murder)

Spivaye Solovey (What Difference Does It Make)

Roll on Wednesday night and another 3 points. Surely every Scottish football fan has Georgia On My Mind. The Band‘s version is fucking sublime. A bit like oor fitba’ team.

Hard-to-find, Peel Sessions

Dry run-through

October 11, 2007October 27, 2007 Craig McAllister

For whatever reason, most of the casual hits on this site come from people Googling for PJ Harvey. So this post is for all of you. I could have posted the new album. But that’s not what this blog was intended for. I could post the complete Peel Sessions, not just the ones you can buy. But they’re fairly easy to find elsewhere. Instead I’m putting up a few tracks from the first PJ Harvey album, ‘Dry‘, in demo form.

‘Dry’ is by far my favourite PJ album. It sounds garagey, bluesy and down right dirty. Plus it’s got great cello all over it. And ‘Sheela-Na-Gig’ is kinda saucy and has a John Cale-esque violin (or is it viola?) scraping away over the top of it. I wore the 12″ out playing it to death. Polly was only 22. She sounded great and looked even better. I always had a feeling that one day she’d go out with me, till she met that bastard Nick Cave. Oh well, her loss.

Anyway. The music. When Dry was released way back in 1991, initial copies came with a free CD, ‘Dry Demonstration’, which had the album in demo form. Here are 3 demos from that disc.

‘O Stella’ sounds a wee bit less intense than the album version. More acousticy but no less frantic. She hits all the high notes, plays all the bent string blues notes and the whole thing sounds majestic. And the way she says, “Stella Marie you’re my star” in her West Country accent at the start is quite amusing. ‘Dress’ was one of the singles from the album. On ‘Dry’ it was a cello led rant against leering boys who stare at girls in tight dresses. This version’s got some cello on it too, but not that high in the mix. An electric guitar is double tracked with an acoustic. By the end, the cello’s all over it, the backing vocals have kicked in, the blues riffs have taken over and it sounds like something Kurt Cobain might have demoed for Nevermind. Seriously. The demo version of ‘Sheela-Na-Gig’ is a straight run through of the single version that I wore out. Acoustic guitar (again), the high notes (again), the mangled blues riff (again), the “you exhibitionist!” vocal, the whole shebang. In lo-fi.

Extra! Extra! Recorded 29th September 1991, ‘Sheela-Na-Gig’ Peel Session version here. By the way, if you don’t know what a Sheela-Na-Gig is, try here.

Tonight Matthew I’m going to be Joan Baez.

Cover Versions, Hard-to-find, Peel Sessions

Whole Lotta Love

October 7, 2007October 27, 2007 Craig McAllister

Gerry Love that is. Eight tracks to be exact. As promised to all you good people on the Teenage Fanclub forums, here are the two Teenage Fanclub Peel Sessions. The first was recorded almost exactly 17 (!!!) years ago, on the 28th August and was first broadcast on the 30th September. The 4 tracks feature the classic TFC line-up of Norman, Raymond, Gerry and Brendan.

As with many Peel Sessions, the band used it to try out some new stuff. As well as a run through of their second single ‘God Knows It’s True’ and a couple of b-sides, they play an early version of ‘Alcoholiday’. This song eventually appeared on Bandwagonesque, with added swearing and turned up to 10 Dinosaur Jr guitars, but the Peel version has a work-in-progress quality that I quite like. And the drums sound great.

God Knows It’s True

So Far Gone

Alcoholiday

Long Hair

The second Peel session was recorded with Frank Black. It doesn’t sound so much like TFC, more like the Pixies. But that’s no bad thing. First track ‘Handyman’ is a cover of an Otis Blackwell track. Every time I hear it I want to sing ‘Karma Karma Karma Karma Chameleon!’ (spot the themed picture above.) Listen first and you will too. The last track, ‘Sister Isabel’ is a Del Shannon song. The other two tracks are Frank Black originals. This session was recorded on the 14th May 1994 and broadcast soon after. As Frank Black says, “In the spring of 1994 I was in England and once again John Peel was kind enough to offer me a session. I was alone with the acoustic guitar, and so I called my old friend Chas Banks, who manages Teenage Fanclub, to see if they would record a session with me. The Fanclubs and I had previously only socialized backstage at some lovely gin mill or sitting around in an exhaust-filled tour bus, so to actually “cram jam” (rehearse very quickly) for a Peel Session seemed a step up.” And what a step up….

Handyman

The Man Who Was Too Loud

The Jacques Tati

Sister Isabel

2 Bonus tracks added……..copy and compare!

Del Shannon’s versions of ‘Handyman‘ and ‘Sister Isabel’. I can’t find Otis Blackwell’s ‘Handyman’ anywhere, but Del Shannon’s is pretty good for now.

If you only know Del Shannon for ‘Runaway’, you should really investigate more. An alcoholic with serious mental health problems, he worked on many well known tracks in the 60s – ‘Baby It’s You’ (The Shirelles) for example. He was being lined up as a replacement for Roy Orbison in the Travelling Wilburys when he committed suicide in 1990. There’s probably a great book on him somewhere. Let me know if you’ve read it.

Cover Versions, Hard-to-find

Come on down(load)……the price is right.

October 1, 2007May 25, 2012 Craig McAllister

As you probably know by now, Radiohead have surprised everyone by making their new album (In Rainbows? Hmmmm, sounds like a Mariah Carey record) available for download from next Wednesday, 10th October. In a move meant to scupper the illegal downloaders and leechers, they’ll let you order the whole album as a download for whatever price you fancy paying. You can pay a pound for it if you like. I bought the super-sexy box set version that gets delivered in December. There’s nothing better than holding a real copy of a real album. Especially when the box set also includes 2×12″ vinyl records and a second CD of new stuff. Until then, next Wednesday’s download will do very nicely, thank you. To celebrate, here‘s the 1997 version of Radiohead wearing their prog influences proudly on their skinny fit sleeves by doing Pink Floyd’s ‘Wish You Were Here’ sometime around 1997. I think it’s from a charity album or something. It’s very good. Some cello, some backwards guitar and a whole load of tortured artist vocals that don’t really sound like Thom Yorke. If anyone knows any more about this track, cos I clearly don’t, please let me know. If you’ve never heard it, it’s worth the download.

If you’re a guitar geek, here’s how Thom set up his gear in 1997…….

Of course, these days he plays a bit of piano, some Apple Mac and a smattering of Fair Trade wooden spoon. But you can’t have it all.

Edit. What price did you pay for yours? A survey.

Hard-to-find

Free music DVDs? It’s a sign o’ the times!

September 29, 2007September 29, 2007 Craig McAllister

Prince has gone and done it again. Hot on the heels of giving away his new album with the Mail on Sunday, he’s only gone and let this Sunday’s Observer give away the brilliant 1987 concert movie of ‘Sign O’ The Times’. I for one will be rushing out to buy one of the only 2 or 3 copies of the Observer from the local Spar.

I’ve been going through a wee Prince phase recently, as about a month or so ago I downloaded a 4CD bootleg of the Sign O The Times Tour Rehearsals from Dimeadozen. Some of it is absolutely fantastic and some of it is jazz shit/shit jazz. Here are some of the best bits.

Sign O The Times. Extended intro. Instructions to the band. Guitar wah-wah’d to death. As the man himself says, Oh Yeah!

1999. Stay with the drums. Make it tight and funky. Boom Boom! Sounds a bit like James Brown. Also sounds like a rehearsal. It would’ve been alright on the night, no doubt.

Kiss. Uh! Gimme the horns ‘gain. This veers close to jazz shit/shit jazz. Not a patch on the single version, but kicks the arse out of Tom Jones’ version. Of course.

U Got The Look. 2, 3, huh! No Sheena Easton on this one. I assume it’s Sheila E who sings her part here.

Starfish & Coffee. My favourite track from the original album. Complete with bum note at the start (“Nice goin’! – Sorry ’bout that!”) Great vocal on this one. And great backwards-sounding drums.

Let’s Go Crazy. Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to get through this thing called…shows. Listen out for the blank bits. Those ‘spontaneous’ audience participation bits are actually well-rehearsed. Who’d’ve thought it?! Listen too for Prince’s guitar. Bloody brilliant. Distorted and rocked out. His Boss Digital delay pedal must’ve gone through an awful lot of batteries. Great ending.

* Next week’s Observer on Sunday is giving away Talking Heads ‘Stop Making sense’ concert movie. Holy moly!

Cover Versions

Weller Weller Weller oooh!

September 20, 2007September 29, 2007 Craig McAllister

Tell me more, tell me more, like did he play guitar? Paul Weller divides people into 2 camps – Godlike Genius or crap revivalist. I’m in the first camp. While I don’t worship at his Patrick Cox-clad feet, I’ve bought all his records (yes, even the Style Council box set), been to see him live loads of times and look forward to his next album, ep, single, song, chorus, verse, chord, anything. To yer average Weller fan (those who bought Stanley Road 12 years ago, or those beer bellied fatties who saw the Jam once in 1980 and chant ‘We Are The Mods’ at Ocean Colour Scene concerts), it would appear that this year has been quiet for him, but nothing could be further from the truth.

In the summer, Regal Records released his collaboration with Blur guitarist Graham Coxon. ‘This Old Town’ has Coxon on lead vocals. Weller takes a back seat, singing on the chorus and playing his usual blistering lead guitar. It sounds like one of those 70s power pop records. I’ve got it on super-heavy 7″ vinyl and it’s great. In fact, it’s one of my singles of the year. Here it is.

Weller met Andy Lewis when Lewis was working as a backline tech for the band Dogs, who supported Weller a couple of years ago. Lewis seized his moment, gave Weller a CD of some demos he was working on, and voila, ‘Are You Trying To Be Lonely?’ was born. It’s your classic brass-driven Northern Soul stomper, complete with key changes and all the rest of it. It’s just been released by Acid Jazz. Underlining the versatility of Paul Weller’s ouvre, it sounds nothing like his Graham Coxon single. This mp3 isn’t the best quality, but if you like it you’d probably want to buy it anyway.

Last October, the BBC ran its first Electric Proms. Weller played the Camden Roundhouse and had a few guests on stage with him – Richard Archer from the none-more-dull Hard-Fi, Carl Barat (who did a brilliant ‘Peacock Suit’) and Amy Winehouse, who came on and sang ‘I Heard It Through The Grapevine’ and this, ‘Don’t Go To Strangers’, a brilliant piece of Stax-inspired southern soul that if recorded in the studio wouldn’t sound out of place on a mid-90s Weller ep. I think Etta James did the most well known version of the song, but it’s one of those soul/blues standards that everyone’s done at one point. Mr Weller. Do yourself a favour. Get yourself into the studio with Amy Winehole (as Pamela Anderson calls her) and record this properly.

Football

One James McFadden, there’s only one James McFadden

September 12, 2007September 29, 2007 Craig McAllister

Napoleon Bonaparte, Louis Pasteur, Claude Monet, Victor Hugo, Joan of Arc, Marie Curie, Gustave Eiffel, Thierry Henry, Jacques Chirac, Gerard Depardieu, Inspector Clousseau and Joe le Taxi. Your boys took one hell of a beating!

* (29.9.07) Boooooo! The legal people at YouTube have only gone and deleted the best-ever Scottish goal. Cochon!

Sonic Youth do Plastic Bertrand’s ‘Ca Plane Pour Moi’

‘Mon the Scotland!

Cover Versions

(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction triple-whammy +1

September 8, 2007September 29, 2007 Craig McAllister

Devo ‘Satisfaction’. Quirky, jerky, punky and funky. Jeez, I’ve waited ages to use the phrase that best describes this track. Nothing like the Stones original at all. For all you young folk out there, imagine Franz Ferdinand doing the twist with Scary Monsters-era Bowie. Played on elastic band guitar strings.

The Residents ‘Satisfaction’ sounds nothing like the Stones or Devo’s versions, or indeed anything on earth. Bits of it sound like an aeroplane taking off, bits of it sound like those folk you hear playing solos in guitar shops, bits of it sound like the Butthole Surfers. It might as well be called something else, cos it’s almost totally unrecognisable from the tune you expect to hear. It’s uneasy listening and I don’t like it, but you might.

Bjork & PJ Harvey ‘Satisfaction’ at the 1994 Brit Awards. PJ comes on like an out of tune ice queen doing Siouxsie Sioux for Stars In Their Eyes. Bjork gradually fades in with her out-in-the-stratosphere backing vocals, and the whole thing turns into a tense claustrophobic work out. Bjork’s singing is magic, and even PJ is in tune by the end. A hey-hey-hey!

Otis Redding ‘Satisfaction’. Otis turned Woodstock (or was it Monterey?) onto soul. White men can’t dance, but even Keith Richards acknowledges this version as being better than the Stones original. Stax horns replace the fuzztone guitar riff, the vocals are, well, blacker, and the whole thing packs a punch that only the cloth eared couldn’t appreciate.

Uncategorized

What does Snoop Doggy Dogg use to dye his hair?

September 7, 2007September 7, 2007 Craig McAllister

Bleeeeeeaaaaaaccccccccchhhhh!

I’ve never been a fan of mash ups. They’re all over the internet like a bad rash and apart from 2 Many DJs, most of them are rotten. Stars On 45 for the iPod generation. Except…

I heard this the other night and loved it. Eddie Cochran‘s ‘Come On Everybody’ mixed with Snoop Dogg‘s ‘Drop It Like It’s Hot’. It was done by DJ Prince (from Norway) in 2005. It isn’t current. It has nothing to do with anything topical. But it’s worth the time to download.

Eddie Cochran, Glasgow Empire, date unknown

Proper blogging will resume in the next couple of days.

Cover Versions

Under The Covers With Sandie Shaw

August 18, 2007September 29, 2007 Craig McAllister

Sandie Shaw is best known as being the bare-footed, bowl-cut headed Eurovision winner in 1967. The rest of the music world may have been happily psyching out to Syd Barrett, Hendrix and Woodstock but Sandie found success with her inoffensive brand of pop music.

Some of you may be aware that this work enjoyed a critical reappraisal in the mid 80s, thanks to the patronage of Morrissey. Indeed, the Smiths ‘Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now’ was a direct steal (in title if not music) from Sandie’s ‘Heaven Knows I’m Missing Him Now’. She went on to return the favour by recording her version of 3 Smiths tracks (a later post for sure) as well as covering other stuff of the day like Lloyd Cole’s ‘Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken?’ What many people don’t know is that toward the end of 1969 she had a go at producing her own album.

The resulting album, ‘Reviewing The Situation’ was unlike anything she had done so far. The album contained covers of the more alternative acts of the day. In fact, she was the first person to cover a Led Zeppelin song. ‘Your Time Is Gonna’ Come’ (originally on the first Led Zeppelin album) is a belter. It’s fairly faithfull to the original. Starting out on a 12 string guitar, it comes on all heavy organ through the verses and features some brilliant double tracked vocals in the chorus. Better than Led Zeppelin’s? It’s not far off.

It also features a flute-happy, organ heavy version of Bob Dylan‘s ‘Lay Lady Lay’, Sandie’s whispered vocals to the fore. Not a patch on Dylan’s, but it’s always good to hear his songs done by other folk.

The last track on the album is her version of the Rolling Stones ‘Sympathy For The Devil’. Some frantic brushed drumming, piano riffing and bass playing, coupled with the slightly helium approach on the vocals make this sound a wee bit too fast. You’ll need to insert your own “woo-hoo’s” though. Points off for missing them out Sandie.

Following her success at Eurovison and beyond, Sandie was fed up at being treated like a conveyor belt pop star and saw this album as her chance of making it as a credible artist. But sadly for Sandie, Pye Records hated the album and did nothing to promote it. You can still get it, but enjoy these tracks while you can…

Bonus track not on the album. Sandie Shaw’s version of Paul McCartney‘s ‘Maybe I’m Amazed’. You will be amazed…(apologies if you are offended)…..