THE TESTIMONIAL TOUR OF 45s (aka The Singular Adventures of Edwyn Collins)

#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