Month: December 2025

#14: Pale Blue Eyes : Paul Quinn & Edwyn Collins (Swamplands, SWP1, 1984)

I mentioned last time out that Edwyn Collins likely knew the contract with Polydor wouldn’t be renewed, and I speculated that he was likely to receive offers from elsewhere.  My speculation was, based on events in 1984, fairly well-founded as Alan Horne, the man behind Postcard Records was very much back on the scene.

The first suggestion of them working together again can be gleaned from the sleeve of the Orange Juice single What Presence?!, released in March 1984, as the images of Edwyn and Zeke which adorned the sleeve are credited to Alan Horne.  Around the same time, Horne had been approached by London Records to ‘come out of retirement’ and run a new independent style label as an offshoot, with no strings attached as to who he could sign.  His first move was to name his label Swamplands and his second was to approach Paul Quinn, the vocalist who had quit Bourgie Bourgie just as that band were preparing to begin work on a debut album for MCA Records.

It has often been said, but I’m not sure if it’s true or not, that Alan Horne’s favourite song of all time was Pale Blue Eyes by The Velvet Underground.  If so, the fact that he was able to have a cover version released as the very first single on Swamplands, and that the two musicians involved were, in August 1984, technically, still the property of two other major record labels, is something of a coup.  Indeed, the credits on the single indicate that Paul Quinn appears courtesy of MCA Records and Edwyn Collins appears courtesy of Polydor Records.

mp3: Paul Quinn & Edwyn Collins – Pale Blue Eyes (7″ edit)

The single was produced by Edwyn but there is also a line within the centre labels stating ‘Original Sound Recording by Alan Horne from the soundtrack of Punk Rock Hotel’.  Said soundtrack was, more than likely, the intended debut album from the duo.

mp3: Paul Quinn & Edwyn Collins – Burro

This was the b-side. It’s less than a minute and a half in length, and is an instrumental credited solely to Edwyn Collins, and again it has been lifted from the soundtrack to the Punk Rock Hotel.

The 12″ version of the single included Burro as well as a fuller-length take on Pale Blue Eyes along with an alternative mix.

mp3: Paul Quinn & Edwyn Collins – Pale Blue Eyes
mp3: Paul Quinn & Edwyn Collins – Pale Blue Eyes (Western)

It’s a stunning cover version that should have been a huge hit.  But 1984 was a year when Lou Reed‘s stock was low and the ‘rediscovery’ of The Velvet Underground was still a few years away. It reached #72.  Just typing those three words make me want to weep.

JC

#13: Lean Period : Orange Juice (Polydor, OJ7, 1984)

The summer of 1984 saw the recording of what would be the third and final Orange Juice album, The Orange Juice, seemingly named that way as a nod to The Velvet Underground whose third album was an eponymous release.

Edwyn knew, in his heart of hearts, that the end was nigh and that Polydor wouldn’t be extending any contracts.  I don’t know if he was quite content with his lot knowing he was likely to receive offers from elsewhere, or extremely hacked off with how Polydor had mishandled things on so many occasions.  There were quite a few barbed quips in many of the new song titles and lyrics, but listening to the tunes, it kind of felt they were being sung by someone who felt he was going to have the last laugh.

What Presence?! was included on the album, but the remaining nine tracks were worked on with two different producers – Will Gosling and Dennis Bovell  – while Claire Kenny continued her studio involvement with the band, playing bass on all but one of the songs, with five other musicians, one of whom was Bovell, being credited in some shape or form.

Lean Period was chosen as the advance single, released in the first week of October, with the album scheduled for a month later.  In an ideal world, the single would have gone into the charts and still been there when the album hit the shops.  The packaging for Lean Period is one example of Edwyn still calling the shots, arranging to have it released in a brown paper bag rather than a normal sleeve…and this was the case for the 7″ and 12″ versions.

I want to testify, my love is bona-fide
This is the real thing, not just a casual fling
But please don’t expect consistency from me
I’ve been maimed and I’ve been chained before you see

But right now I’m
Going through a lean period
A decidedly mean period

Let’s talk things over in the ‘Old Rover’
Let’s drown our sorrows like there’s no more tomorrows
All those words that I have wasted in haste
Have left such a bitter aftertaste

The reason being I’m
Going through a lean period
A decidedly mean period

This joke I’ve made at my own expense
Has long since worn thin
And yet by way of recompense
You respond with a wink and a knowing grin

Going through a lean period
A decidedly mean period

The lyrics might look quite acidic, but the tune is upbeat and joyful, with Dennis Bovell bringing some keyboards on board to sound as if there’s a horn section involved, as well as adding his booming voice alongside Edwyn’s as the chorus is sung.

mp3: Orange Juice – Lean Period

A real toe-tapper and radio friendly as fuck!  #74 was a travesty…….but then again, the same could be said for almost all the OJ singles over the years.

The b-side was a track that had been recorded during the sessions with Will Gosling:-

mp3: Orange Juice – Bury My Head In My Hands

It feels as if it is still in the demo stages of development, and given it is quite different sounding from the other tracks, it is no real surprise that it didn’t make the cut for the album.

As usual, there was an extended version put on the 12″ vinyl:-

mp3: Orange Juice – Lean Period (12″ dub version)

The use of the keyboards to make it sound as if a steel drum band were playing is one of the big differences, along with the extra minute or so of music.  There’s a fair bit of studio gimmickry which ends up making it quite different from the 7″ version while many of the lyrics are omitted.

But wait……there’s one final thing to offer up before the series switches to the collaborative and solo years.

Some copies of the 7″ single came with a flexi disc offering up two live tracks that were, according to the info provided, were taken from ‘Soundtrack of the forthcoming Polygram video Orange Juice – dAdA With Juice’.  This turned out to be a VHS tape featuring 45 minutes worth of live footage that had been recorded at the Hammersmith Palais in June 1984.  Edwyn and Zeke were joined by Johnny Britton (guitar) and Paul Heard (bass), both of whom had been involved at different stages in the recording of The Orange Juice.

mp3: Orange Juice – Rip It Up (Live)
mp3: Orange Juice – What Presence?! (Live)

And that, brings an end to the first chapter of the Singular Adventures of Edwyn Collins.  The next chapter begins in seven days time.

JC

#12: What Presence?! : Orange Juice (Polydor, OJ6, 1984)

The one thing that has really hit me in pulling the first part of this series together is just how hard Edwyn Collins was working back in the early-mid 80s.

The Texas Fever mini-album had come out on in March 1984, recorded by a line-up that was no more.  Less than two months later, a new single was released, with the personnel consisting of Edwyn, Zeke Manyika, and a guest bass player in Claire Kenny, who was part of the reggae/ska band, Amazulu.

mp3: Orange Juice – What Presence?!

A personal favourite of mine – far removed from the sound of the Postcard era, but which felt totally different to what anyone else was doing in 1984.  It also seemed that Edwyn, at long last, had found a sound to best suit his voice, one in which louder guitars were to the fore and the solos were more than just the two-finger style that had been his calling card for much of his career – maybe the time spent hanging around with Malcolm Ross had seen things rub off on him in a very positive way.  The studio wizardry on the single was deftly handled by Phil Thornally, who at the time was producing The Cure as well as being part of their touring band.

Lyrically, Edwyn was going down a different road again, confident enough in his own abilities to share his wordsmith skills with the listening public, as the postcard which came with the 7″ copy of the single was able to demonstrate:-

There was some airplay, but most radio stations simply wanted a retread of Rip It Up and not this new, harder edged version of the band, and criminally, What Prescence?! only reached #47 in what was a four-week stay in the singles chart.

The b-side dated from the Texas Fever sessions, but this particular take saw Dennis Bovell bring his particular talents to the party:-

mp3: Orange Juice – A Place In My Heart (dub version)

There was also a 12″ release, on which there was an extended version of the A-side:-

mp3: Orange Juice – What Presence?! (extended version)

The thing is, it is only some eight seconds longer than the 7″, but the mix has a significant difference in that the section with the harmonica on the standard version which comes in around the 2:10 mark is replaced an extended guitar solo…and that’s precisely what accounts for the extra eight seconds!

The 12″ extra track is this:-

mp3: Orange Juice – What Presence?! (BBC session)

As recorded for the David Jensen show on 22 February 1984.  The producer was John Porter who, just two days previously, would have enjoyed the fact that an album he had worked on the previous year had finally reached the shops and had been well received in most of the music press…and that being the eponymous debut by The Smiths.

There is one final Orange Juice single left to cover, and as I’m not closing the blog down over this upcoming Festive period, it’ll be posted next Sunday.

JC