Category: #edwyncollins45s

#29: Johnny Teardrop : Edwyn Collins (Setanta Records, SETCD 112, 2002)

Edwyn Collins‘ fifth studio album, Doctor Syntax, hit the shops at the end of April 2002.  It was a very low-key release, coming out on CD only, and with no advance single to help with the marketing and promotion, albeit The Beatle$, which had come out in the autumn of 2001, was one of its eleven tracks.

It’s an album that I have always found quite difficult to appreciate.  It’s self-produced, with some assistance from Sebastian Lewsley, and other than some drums from Paul Cook (on two of the tracks), all the instruments are played by Edwyn.  It therefore suffers a bit from nobody really being around to offer second opinions or guidance, and with all the songs being over four minutes in length, it does tend to drift and meander a bit too much.  None of the songs have made it onto the two ICAs that have previously been compiled….but the one that came closest to making its way into the second of the ICAs was this:-

mp3: Edwyn Collins – Johnny Teardrop (single mix)

I’m not sure when this remixed and edited version of Johnny Teardrop was issued as a single (it’s about 20 seconds shorter than the album version).  I’ve seen a photo of a promo which gives a date of 30 September 2002, and if this is accurate, then it was fully five months after the album had been released.  There was certainly a bit of an effort made to promote the single in that a fabulous video was made, one which is full of the sort of pithy humour with which many associate Edwyn with him cast as a pop show presenter while others get to perform the song:-

I’m really not sure if the video was ever aired anywhere….I certainly only saw it decades later via YouTube.  The single didn’t come anywhere near the charts. There were two other tracks on the CD:-

mp3: Edwyn Collins – Never Felt Like This
mp3: Edwyn Collins – The Popstar

The first of these was the opening track on Doctor Syntax.  The second was a previously unreleased song.  It has a sound quite similar to those on Doctor Syntax, albeit the temp was a bit faster than most.  And you can probably tell by the title alone, it’s another of Edwyn’s lyrics that question why anyone would want to consider making a living as a musician.

It would take another five years before Edwyn was able to release his next single.

 

 

JC

#28: The Beatle$ : Edwyn Collins (Setanta Records, SET 093, 2001)

The collaboration with Bernard Butler which featured last week had been the first single in four years on which Edwyn had been credited as a performer. It’s not that he had been quiet, but it was a period in which he concentrated largely on his production work, although there were also two other projects to which he had contributed cover songs.

The first of these had been in 1997, when he was one of a number of contemporary Scottish artists to feature on the soundtrack of the 1997 film The Slab Boys, itself an adaptation of a John Byrne play that had been written in 1978, with its narrative set in a carpet factory in Paisley in 1957.  The play has long been very popular in Scptland, having been revived on a number of occasions over the past almost 50 years.  The film, however, wasn’t all that well received and its soundtrack, unsurprisingly, features songs from the era in which it is set, with Edwyn’s two offerings being his take on some of the best-loved and best-known songs by Bobby Darin and Fats Domino:-

mp3: Edwyn Collins – Dream Lover
mp3: Edwyn Collins – Ain’t That A Shame

The following year, he was to be found contributing to A Song For Eurotrash, an album issued by EMI Records to cash-in on what was a cult TV programme on Channel 4 and the staging of the 1998 Eurovision Song Contest which was taking place in the UK for the first time in 16 years.  It’s a peculiar release with the likes of Bananarama, Dubstar, 808 State, Kenickie, Terry Hall & Sinead O’Connor (performing a duet), and Saint Étienne covering songs that had previously won an edition of Eurovision.

mp3: Edwyn Collins – Ding A Dong

The original had won in 1975, performed by the Dutch pop group Teach-In (it reached #13 in the UK charts).

It was the autumn of 2001 when Edwyn finally released a single that he had written himself. It was another that took him in a new direction:-

mp3: Edwyn Collins – The Beatle$

Five minutes in which there is more than a hint of him being influenced by trip-hop, with a lyric which I have long felt was aiming a punch in the direction of the fag-end of Britpop just as much as it poses questions about the music press’s obsession with the Fab Four.

It was released only on 7″, which went totally against the grain of most singles with the preferred format normally always being CD.  There was next to no info on the sleeve or the label other than both sides of the single were written and performed by Edwyn Collins. Oh, and the b-side wasn’t a new song, as Welwyn Garden City had originally been released on the b-side of the 12″ of The Magic Piper of Love back in 1997.

Which is partly why this post has been padded out with the three cover versions….none of which could ever be described as highlights in EC’s career.

 

 

JC

#27: Message For Jojo : Bernard Butler & Edwyn Collins (Setanta Records, SET 084, 2001)

This is the part of the series where I build in something of a natural break for myself, as today’s offering is just an edited version of a previous post from 25 February 2021.

As far as I can work out, it was as far back as 1995 that Bernard Butler and Edwyn Collins started collaborating, with the initial fruits being the co-writing of some songs which would find their way onto Edwyn’s singles as extra tracks, together with Bernard taking on production duties. This would be just a year or so after he had left Suede and immediately after work had been completed on promoting the McAlmont & Butler early singles and debut album.

Fast-forward to June 2001. And the release of this single on Setanta Records, the label which to which Edwyn had been signed since the early 90s:-

mp3: Bernard & Edwyn – Message For Jojo

It didn’t get anywhere near the pop chart, although it does seem it reached #20 on the Indie Singles chart.  I’m not sure what that translates to in terms of sales, but I can’t imagine too many folk in addition to myself bought it (the sticker on the front of the CD case tells me I paid £2.99 from Tower Records). It’s a pleasant enough offereing without being ground-breaking…..the lead vocal is taken by Bernard when it undoubtedly would have been better handled by Edwyn. But believe me, it is a song that gets better with repeated listens…..and the chorus does become quite infectious after a while.

There were two other tracks on the CD single:-

mp3 : Bernard & Edwyn – Can’t Do That (The Hoover)
mp3 : Bernard & Edwyn – Clean

The former is a very bizarre but immensely likeable five and a bit minutes. There’s a hint of the sort of dance music played by Air about it. I reckon if it was played to you for the first time with no hint who was involved, you would have got long odds on guessing it was a collaboration between the former guitarist in Suede and the former frontman of Orange Juice.

The latter is a bit disappointing after what has gone before. It’s a bit of a nondescript ballad if truth be told…..but you may have a different viewpoint. Again, I feel it might have benefited from Edwyn taking lead vocal…….

Turns out there was also a 12″ vinyl release, on which there were three tracks.

A:  Barry, Garry & Larry’s Message For Jojo (Intercepted By Trevor Jackson)
B1: Who Said The Victorian Spaceman Can’t Do That (Remix)
B2: Message For Jojo (Radio Edit)

I don’t have this single, and other than what appears to be a cheapish battered and tatty copy from a UK seller on Discogs, I’d need to fork out about £50 when you add in postage and customs charges if I went to the handful of overseas sellers.

And this post will be the evidence I offer in my defence if I’m ever accused of being a completist when it comes to the vinyl collection.

 

JC

#26: I Hear A New World : Edwyn Collins (Setanta Records, ZOP PR005, 1997)

Edwyn Collins‘ discography section on wiki lists this as an EP released in November 1997.  It is also listed on Discogs under the singles/EPs section.  I’ve a copy, picked up second-hand many years ago. I didn’t pay too much money for it, and judging by a reasonable level of availability on Discogs, it’s not all that rare.

I Hear A New World consists of 2 slabs on vinyl, both of which rotate at 33 ⅓ rpm, and have plain white labels.  The only info about the music comes on a sticker on what is an otherwise plain white sleeve.  The release offers up seven remixes of songs on I’m Not Following You.  Not all the remixes were new, as the Adidas World offering is one which appeared on CD2 of that very single.  But here’s the rest of them…..some of the artists who delivered the remixes will be well known to those with a degree of knowledge about the club scene.

mp3: Edwyn Collins – Superficial Cat (Red Snapper Mix)
mp3: Edwyn Collins – Seventies Night (Deadly Avenger Supershine Mix)
mp3: Edwyn Collins – Superficial Cat (Red Snapper Vocal Mix)
mp3: Edwyn Collins – Downer (James Lavelle mix)
mp3: Edwyn Collins – The Magic Piper (Of Love) (The Wiseguys Sniper Mix)
mp3: Edwyn Collins – Downer (James Lavelle Vocal Mix)

Next week’s post will again be a tad different.

 

JC

#25: Adidas World : Edwyn Collins (Setanta Records, SET 045, 1997)

The new album, I’m Not Following You, was released in early September 1997.  Twelve songs, two of which had previously been released as singles, and a number of guest musicians, one of whom, Mark E Smith had co-written one of the songs, a glam stomper called Seventies Night, with a playfully nostalgic lyric to match.   The reviews were mixed, with critics falling into two camps of love or loath.  Edwyn was either praised for another record in which he had shifted direction from last time out, steering away from the commercially obvious or being accused of taking an arrogant and self-indulgent approach to his art.

The truth is probably somewhere in-between, for there are some tremendous moments on the album alongside a couple of difficult, almost experimental tunes that seem to go on forever, including the title track, which closes proceedings and lasts the best part of eight minutes.  It’s a CD for which I was, and remain, grateful to have a skip button on a remote control.

By the time a third single was lifted for release, the album had completed what proved to be a two-week stay in the charts, doing no better than #55.  It was probably as well that Edwyn had such a great relationship with Setanta, as other labels, as had been the case in the past, might have called it a day.  Instead, one of what was a number of agit-pop efforts on the album was issued as a single, on 2 x CD and 7″ vinyl, in mid-October

mp3: Edwyn Collins – Adidas World (7″ Extended Radio Remix)

Yup….the album version was remixed and extended by over a minute!

I’m not sure if this attack on consumerism, and swipe at Britpop, was given much radio play.  I’m certain, for instance, it would have fallen foul of broadcasting rules at the BBC aimed at preventing brand awareness.  But somehow, it sold enough copies to make a very minor dent in the charts at #71.

There were three songs on CD1, with one of them also being the sole b-side on the 7″

mp3: Edwyn Collins – Mr Bojangles
mp3: Edwyn Collins – Talkin’ About The Times
mp3: Edwyn Collins – High Fashion

The first is a cover of the song written in the late 60s by American country/folk singer, Jerry Jeff Walker, and which subsequently became a staple among many popular entertainers. The other two are very much in keeping with the sort of songs that could be found on I’m Not Following You, and they may well have been under consideration for inclusion on it.  Or maybe it was always the intention to lift another single and some songs were held back to be used as b-sides.

CD2, if listened to by those who had accused Edwyn of self-indulgence with the album, would surely have led to loud choruses of ‘TOLD YOU!!!!!!’

mp3: Edwyn Collins – Episode 3
mp3: Edwyn Collins – Episode 5
mp3: Edwyn Collins – Episode 10 (No, No, No, Adidas World)

The first two are attributed to Edwyn Collins/Sebastian Lewsley.  Those of you who have paid attention to whenever Mr Lewsley’s name has come up in previous offerings in this series will be aware that these tracks will be highly experimental offerings.  (that’s my way of saying unlistenable nonsense).

The third is written solely by Edwyn, but the liner notes state ‘Adileted by the Victorian Spaceman’.   The pun doesn’t make sense, but then again, neither does the music.

There would be one more release to close out 1997 before Edwyn considered it time to draw a line under the promotional activities around his latest album.

 

JC

#24: The Magic Piper (Of Love) : Edwyn Collins (Setanta Records, SET 041, 1997)

Many thanks for the particularly lovely comments last Sunday, and if you are one of those readers who settles down to read/listen with a coffee in hand, then I hope you enjoy today’s instalment.

One of the biggest movies in 1997 was Austin Powers : International Man Of Mystery, starring the Canadian comic actor Mike Myers, a parody mainly of the James Bond spy films, but also of the entire hip/swinging/hippy 60s pop culture.  The film opened in May, and anyone going along on the back of the rave reviews (and myself and Rachel will admit to being two such paying customers) would probably have been very surprised to hear, if you paid close attention, a familiar voice singing an entirely new song over the closing credits, albeit it was one of those times when the song plays as out takes from the film are played on screen, and the music is kind of incidental.

The credits continued to roll and eventually reach the part where the music is listed. The Magic Piper (Of Love). Written by Edwyn Collins. Performed by Edwyn Collins. Courtesy of Setanta Records.

Well, well, well.

The soundtrack album to the film was released around the same time, and The Magic Piper (Of Love) is its opening track.   I resisted the temptation to buy the soundtrack in the hope that the song would either get a single release and/or appear on Edwyn’s next solo album, a hope that, happily was soon realised, being released at the end of July 1997 on 2 x CDs and 12″ vinyl.

CD1

mp3: Edwyn Collins – The Magic Piper (Of Love)
mp3: Edwyn Collins – More Than You Bargained For
mp3: Edwyn Collins – Red Menace
mp3: Edwyn Collins – It Takes A Little Time

CD2

mp3: Edwyn Collins – The Magic Piper (Of Love)
mp3: Edwyn Collins – Who Is It?
mp3: Edwyn Collins – Who Is It? (Halterbacked By The Victorian Spaceman)
mp3: Edwyn Collins – Welwyn Garden City

Six new songs plus a remix, so it kind of felt as if Xmas had arrived in the middle of summer.

The Magic Piper (Of Love) is a fun number, maybe a wee bit silly to some, given that it does have that 60s lounge music feel, complete with a flute (and it is a real flute, not one whose sound was created in the studio using a keyboard and technology).  I’m not going to claim it is anything close to being Edwyn’s best single, but it has a soft spot among fans, given it did provide him with just the second Top 40 hit of his career, coming in at #32 before falling away.

More Than You Bargained For is a fairly straightforward pop song, one which seems to rely solely on the classic vocals, guitars, bass and drums. It’s actually one of those songs, when you realise a few years later it hasn’t ever appeared on an album, you come to think of it as being wasted purely as a b-side.

Red Menace is a curious one.  It has a retro feel to it, and it reminds me of the sort of music that accompanied American cop shows from the 70s, complete with sound effects such as wailing sirens.

It Takes A Little Time is another that has a bit of a throwback sound, particularly across its chorus. The lyric is the sort which Edwyn has churned out a few times over the decades – it might sound as if it is about personal relationships, but it could just as easily be his reflections on a career in the music industry, during which he has taken more than his share of hard knocks.

There’s two versions of Who Is It?  The first is a minimalist sort of song, heavily reliant on synths to set the mood and tempo. It acts as a fine reminder that it has always been impossible to pigeon-hole Edwyn Collins.  The second version sees the reappearance of The Victorian Spaceman, aka Sebastian Lewsley, last given a specific credit for his radical remix of A Girl Like You as one of the b-sides on If You Could Love Me back in 1995.  As you’d expect, it’s full of studio gimmickry, and includes a number of uncredited dialogue samples along the way.  Very much something to be hidden away on a b-side.

Finally, we have Welwyn Garden City.  I have no idea why Edwyn chose to use the name of a smallish town in the south-east of England, some 20 miles from London, as the three-word chorus of this funky, spaced-out piece of electronica, co-written with Sean Reed, someone who has long been involved with Edwyn and is still very much part of the support network in the studio and out on the road.

Oh, and I almost forgot that there was a slightly extended version of the single included on the 12″ vinyl. It’s roughly a minute longer thanks to its outro:-

mp3: Edwyn Collins – The Magic Piper (Of Love) (extended version)

The 12″ b-sides consisted of the Macrame Mix by Youth take on A Girl Like You (as featured a couple of weeks back as a previous extra track on a CD) along Welwyn Garden City.

A couple of weeks after The Magic Piper (Of Love) had enjoyed its very brief stay in the singles chart, Edwyn’s fourth studio LP was released, from which another single was lifted.  And if you think the b-sides this week were a bit on the strange side……..

 

JC

#23: Keep On Burning : Edwyn Collins (Setanta Records, ZOP 004, 1996)

There was no attempt to cash-in on the belated success of A Girl Like You.  There had been a renewed amount of media interest in Edwyn Collins and he modestly accepted things for the way they were, happy that the money earned from the big single could be re-invested in expanding and improving his own studio as well as enabling a larger recording budget for his next album for Setanta Records.

Said album would take until late 1997 to reach the shops, and when it did, what could have been a stand-alone single from the previous year was included on it.

Keep on Burning is another glorious piece of pop music, Edwyn’s one-man tribute to the Northern Soul scene, and in particular the all-night events that had been the mainstay of the Wigan Casino, the legendary nightclub which existed between 1965 and 1981, as particularly evidenced by the promo video:-

It was released at the end of February 1996 on 2 x CDs and 7″ vinyl.

CD1

mp3: Edwyn Collins – Keep On Burning
mp3: Edwyn Collins – Won’t Turn Back
mp3: Edwyn Collins – You’ve Grown A Beard
mp3: Edwyn Collins and Bernard Butler – A Girl Like You (live)

CD2

mp3: Edwyn Collins – Keep On Burning
mp3: Edwyn Collins – If You Could Love Me (In Time and In Space)
mp3: Edwyn Collins – Lava Lamp
mp3: Edwyn Collins – The Campaign For Real Rock (Battle Of Brazil Mix)

Seven songs all told, of which one was a cover and three were part of the Gorgeous George album.

Of the two new bits of music, You’ve Grown A Beard is a fast folksy-type song with a lyrical dig at the way some contemporary musicians were re-inventing themselves (it’s important to note that Edwyn has always been clean-shaven!!) while Lava Lamp is a strange two-minute electronic instrumental on which Edwyn had collaborated with Sebastian Lewsley.  The latter truly is only one for the completists.

A Girl Like You was recorded for the Channel 4 TV show The White Room, broadcast on 31 March 1995, which is when Edwyn and Bernard had been working together in a studio, and shortly before Edwyn was the special guest as the opening act to some live shows by McAlmont and Butler.

By my reckoning, this is the third time If You Could Love Me has appeared in some shape or form on a single.  In this instance it has been remixed by Jackson Gold’s Disco Demand, and given that there is no other known recording by said mixer, I think it’s fair to say its Edwyn himself just having a bit of fun with a version that is speeded-up and given a few disco-style noises, including the electronic tom-tom drum sound.

The Campaign For Real Rock was the six-minutes-plus opener on Gorgeous George, and is a caustic attack on the grunge scene and American rock music in the wider sense.  This remix is the work of Hidetsugo Ito, a sometimes musician/producer and sometimes music journalist who worked closely with Edwyn on various releases for the Japanese market. As someone who is a big fan of the original version, this remix gets on my nerves.

Which leaves us with the cover version, which was the track selected as the b-side to the 7″ single.  It’s a Vic Godard song, a musician with whom Edwyn had a long link, going back to the Orange Juice days when the band covered Holiday Hymn.  Vic had been away from the music industry for the best part of a decade, but then was persuaded to sign to Postcard Records after Alan Horne had resuscitated the label in 1993, primarily as a way to give a home to Paul Quinn & The Independent Group.

Vic’s comeback album, The End of The Surrey People, had been produced by Edwyn Collins.  Its lead single had been Won’t Turn Back, a song Edwyn was particularly taken by, and so he recorded his own version, with Vic offering himself as a backing vocalist.  It’s a wonderful piece of music, and with Edwyn mentioning in interviews that Vic was going to be involved with his next album, it kind of got the pulses raising.

Keep On Burning should have been a hit, but instead it came in at #45 and that was as good as it got.

JC

#22: A Girl Like You : Edwyn Collins (Setanta Records, ZOP 003, 1995)

A Girl Like You had been a hit all over Europe in late 94/early 95, but as was mentioned two weeks ago in this series, it had stalled at #42 in the UK in November 1994.

Sometimes, a bit of good fortune can make all the difference, and for Edwyn Collins it came, unwittingly, in the shape of Chris Evans, a UK TV presenter who, in April 1995, returned to his first love, being a Radio DJ, when he was given the job of helming the UK’s most listened to programme, the BBC Radio 1 Breakfast Show.

There’s a lot of people who severely dislike Evans, and with good reason.  But one of the things he did on his return to radio was insist that he be given a free rein on the show, including playing songs that were among his favourites and weren’t necessarily chart hits.  He loved A Girl Like You, and it was played on his show a few times from the outset.  It created a new level of interest but some six months after its initial release via the Expressly Yours EP, it wasn’t all that easy to find as the EP had already gone through the bargain bucket stage and was now, almost literally, indie landfill.

Setanta did what any sensible record company would, and reissued it, this time on one CD and as a 7″ single.  On 11 June 1995, A Girl Like You entered the UK singles charts at #13.  It would remain in the Top 75 for 17 weeks, all the way through to late September, peaking at #4 in mid-July.  It was, without question, one of the defining songs of the summer and seemed to be blaring out of radios on a constant basis. Out of the blue, Edwyn had become an overnight star, with many of those who were buying the single quite, if not totally, unaware of his past career as a member of Orange Juice.

Remember that so-called ban from Top of The Pops that had seemingly been imposed after the second Rip It Up performance in 1985?  Ha, ha……

Even better was that Setanta gave a second push to its parent album, and on 22 July 1995, as A Girl Like You was sitting in the Top 5, Gorgeous George came in at #8, and went on to steadily sell enough copies to hang around the album chart for nine weeks.

The only thing is that all the available songs for b-sides had been used up on the EP back in November 1994, and with the 2 x CDs that had formed If You Could Love Me.  The only ‘new’ bit of music came via track two on the CD:-

mp3: Edwyn Collins – If You Could Love Me (acoustic version)

Quite a bit shorter than the studio version, it is very much the Unplugged version.  Or a busker’s version if you prefer.  Edwyn and his acoustic guitar…and it’s rather lovely.

JC

#21: If You Could Love Me : Edwyn Collins (Setanta Records, ZOP 002, 1995)

“The thing is.  If this had been released as a single by someone like Robbie Williams, it would have been a huge hit and made Edwyn a lot of money.”

The thoughts of my old friend Jacques the Kipper as we chatted about and rued the fact that If You Could Love Me had been a total flop.  It hit the shops in March 1996, once again on 2 x CDs and 12″ vinyl

CD1

mp3: Edwyn Collins – If You Could Love Me (radio edit)
mp3: Edwyn Collins – In A Broken Dream
mp3: Edwyn Collins – Hope and Despair
mp3: Edwyn Collins – Insider Dealing

CD2

mp3: Edwyn Collins – If You Could Love Me (radio edit)
mp3: Edwyn Collins – If Ever You’re Ready
mp3: Edwyn Collins – Come To Your Senses
mp3: Edwyn Collins – A Girl Like You (Victorian Spaceman Mix)

JtK was bang on the money.  If You Could Love Me is an unashamedly pop song, and if any of the pop world’s male vocalists had taken into the studios with no expense spared (just imagine it having an orchestral backing!!), then it would by now be a ballad that we would be utterly sick of hearing all these years later!  But #98 in the expanded Top 100 was all that it managed with Edwyn’s vocal. Incidentally, the radio edit is just six seconds shorter than the album version, with a slightly different opening which doesn’t fade-in.

The two CDs offered up b-sides, mostly from the post-Gorgeous George period.  Edwyn had become good friends with Bernard Butler, who, in a move that had stunned the world of indie music, quit Suede in 1994 with the band seemingly at their creative peak, not to mention enjoying substantial commercial success.  Edwyn liked to self-produce his songs, but he took up Bernard’s offer to come into a studio to work together, with Bernard taking on production duties.  The results can be heard on some of the tracks which came out on these two CDs.

In A Broken Dream was a cover version, one recorded in the late 60s by Australian rock band Python Lee Jackson,  but only became a hit in 1972 thanks to the fact that the unknown session singer they had used, Rod Stewart, was riding very high both as a solo star and the frontman of The Faces.

Hope and Despair is a new recording of the title track of Edwyn’s 1989 album – very much a case of duelling guitars, acoustic and electric.

Insider Dealing is the curveball, extending to more than 8 minutes and being a song co-written by Collins/Butler. It’s a very understated ballad, possibly a little bit self-indulgent at times, as it feels as if Bernard is trying different production techniques as they could best apply to a very slow song.  But as bonus songs on CD singles so, it was more than fine.

If Ever You’re Ready was one of Edwyn’s oldest songs, appearing initially as a b-side to debut single Don’t Shilly Shally and then being re-recorded for his debut album Hope and Despair.  Five years on and the duo’s take on it is rather sublime, one that feels as if it should run over the credits of a film where the hero has met an unexpected end and the fade to black out has seen his wife/girlfriend/partner in tears.

Come To Your Senses gives a production credit to Dave Anderson, and with Discogs indicating that he often worked at Power Plant studios, where Edwyn had recorded his 1990 album Hellbent on Compromise, I’m wondering if this was a song dating back to those sessions. There’s no info within the liner notes and it is pure speculation on my part.

The Victorian Spaceman Remix of A Girl Like You had actually been included on the 12″ vinyl of the Expressly Yours EP (see last week).  It was the work of a then mostly unheralded producer/engineer named Sebastian Lewsley who would, over the next 20 years, become one of Edwyn’s most trusted collaborators. This remix is over six minutes long and contains all sorts of elements of studio trickery, turning it into a near instrumental that I suspect will delight or annoy in equal measures.

The 12″ vinyl release of the single also contained an otherwise unavailable mix:-

mp3: Edwyn Collins – If You Could Love Me (M.C. Esher Mix)

A different mix altogether, with the fabulous guitar riffs to the fore.  I’ve no idea who M.C. Esher is, but I’m guessing it might be a pseudonym used by Edwyn.

JC

#20: Expressly EP : Edwyn Collins (Setanta Records, ZOP 001, 1994)

I’ll need to ask for your patience over the next three Sundays as the series goes back and forth, thanks to a series of releases and re-releases just a matter of months apart.  There will also be loads of music to take on board as it was the era of the CD single across multi-formats.

But firstly, we need to take a quick step back in time.

The commercial failure of Hope and Despair in 1989 hadn’t put Demon Records off Edwyn Collins, and they provided funding for his second solo album, which was released as Hellbent on Compromise in October 1990.  It was a more expensive production, recorded at the Power Plant studios in London, with a cast of no fewer than 14 other musicians credited across its eleven songs, two of which were covers.  It proved to be a mis-step, and while there are some decent moments on the album, it suffers from overly-fussy production and a lack of cohesion to make it a fully enjoyable listen.  Nor did it have, certainly in the minds of those at the record label, any potential singles on it.  It sold very poorly, and not long afterwards, Demon told Edwyn he was being dropped.

It would be another four years before he released any new music.  Between 1990 and 1994, he found work as a producer, and in particular for a number of bands from Ireland such as A House and The Frank and Walters who were on Setanta Records, a London-based independent label.  He also used this enforced period of absence from making his own records to build a studio in his London home.

The latest set of demos, allied to him just more or less being the label’s in-house producer, led Setanta to offer a deal for a new album.  Gorgeous George was self-produced by Edwyn and utilised the talents of Paul Cook, formerly with the Sex Pistols on drums and Claire Kenny, formerly with Amazulu, as the bassist.  The album was released on 5 September 1994, with little fanfare and consequently met with a number of really poor reviews.  Sian Pattenden in giving it 2/5 in Select  wrote ‘inimitable note-battling singing….all that engages is the hit! hit! hit! that is ‘If You Could Love Me which is more Orange Juice than Orange Juice.’   The Guardian newspaper was worse – 1 star and the advice to Edwyn that he should give up music.    The album did not make the Top 100 in 1994.

A couple of months later, Setanta decided to issue the Expressly EP, largely on the basis that its lead track had been picking up a fair amount of airtime on radio stations across mainland Europe.  The EP was issued on 2 x CDs, and on 12″ vinyl (copies of which now go for silly money on the second hand market).

CD1

mp3: Edwyn Collins – A Girl Like You
mp3: Edwyn Collins – A Girl Like You (Macramé Remix By Youth)
mp3: Edwyn Collins – Out Of This World (I Hear A New World) (remixed by St.Etienne)
mp3: Edwyn Collins – Occupy Your Mind

CD2

mp3: Edwyn Collins – A Girl Like You
mp3: Edwyn Collins – Don’t Shilly Shally (Spotter’s ’86 Demo Version)
mp3: Edwyn Collins – Something’s Brewing
mp3: Edwyn Collins – Bring It On Back

The EP entered the UK charts at #42 on 13 November 1994, dropping to #48 and then #64 before disappearing.  It was a different story on the continent, with A Girl Like You hitting many Top 10s and being #1 in Belgium.

I’ll return to A Girl Like You in due course, as it’s no secret it became a massive hit second time around.  The additional tracks across the 2 CDs actually made them worthwhile purchases, albeit not everything works, not least Youth‘s take on the lead song which drops Edwyn’s vocal a long way back in the mix and gives it a sort of electronic feel.

The St Etienne mix of one of the Gorgeous George album tracks is rather lovely to begin with as there’s a very extended instrumental opening of 1:45 during which it wouldn’t have been a surprise if Sarah Cracknell had started singing. The latter half of the tune contains a lot of studio trickery which takes the tune in all sorts of strange directions, and Edwyn’s vocal often seems to be on the verge of breaking.  But as remixes go, it’s a decent listen.

It was also an enjoyable experience to hear the studio demo of Don’t Shilly Shally, the debut solo single from back in 1986. This, if you recall, was one in which the final mix came via a Robin Guthrie (Cocteau Twins) production, and as you might expect the demo version is very much simpler and very much the way Edwyn would play it in the live setting.

Occupy Your Mind, Something’s Brewing and Bring It On Back were three new songs.  There’s no info offered within the liner notes of either CD, but it can be assumed these were worked up at the same time as the tracks that eventually made the cut for the Gorgeous George album.  They are decent enough to satisfy the completists among us without being essential.

#42 might not have been all that great, but it was the first time Edwyn had made the Top 50 since What Presence?! more than ten years previously.  The time soon beckoned to offer the public an opportunity to offer its opinion on the song that Sian Pattenden had described as ‘hit!, hit!, hit!’.

JC

#19: 50 Shades of Blue : Edwyn Collins (Demon Records, D1064 T, 1989)

There’s not much background to add, as it was mostly offered up last week with the look at Coffee Table Song and the release of the album, Hope and Despair.

In October 1989, a few months after the album had hit the shops, a second single was lifted from it.  Last week, I included the Record Mirror review of the album, but I deliberately left out one key sentence, in which the author suggested that 50 Shades of Blue was ‘probably the most blatantly poppy record Edwyn has ever made’.

It offered one last try at drawing attention to the album some six months after it had been released, as well the opportunity to make available other songs that had been recorded in Köln but hadn’t yet seen the light of day.

mp3: Edwyn Collins – 50 Shades of Blue

Phil Thornalley gave the album version a slight remix, adding even more poptastic fairy dust to the production, but ultimately to no avail.

It was released on Demon Records, on 7″ and 12″ vinyl, and in a sign of the times, became the first CD single to which Edwyn’s name was attached.

Some of you may have picked up from an earlier part of this series that 50 Shades of Blue was actually a song from a few years back, with an acoustic version appearing as a b-side to My Beloved Girl, the second of the two singles that had been released on Elevation Records back in 1987.

The 7″, as well as being a remix, is also about 20 seconds shorter than the album version.  The 12″, thanks to an extended outro, was about 40 seconds longer than the album version:-

mp3: Edwyn Collins – 50 Shades of Blue (extended version)

The 7″ carried an exclusive b-side, which turned out to be the song’s second appearance in such a guise:-

mp3: Edwyn Collins – If Ever You’re Ready

The original version had been the b-side to Don’t Shilly Shally, the debut solo single on Elevation Records.  It had been revisited and re-recorded in Köln with the new version featuring Roddy Frame and Dennis Bovell on backing vocals. It was, however, not included on the vinyl edition of Hope and Despair, although it could be found on the CD edition.

Three more previously unreleased tracks were on the 12″ release:-

mp3: Edwyn Collins – Kindred Spirit
mp3: Edwyn Collins – Just Call Her Name
mp3: Edwyn Collins – Ain’t That Always The Way

The first is a country rock sort of song that must have just missed the cut for Hope and Despair.  The second, to be quite frank, is not very good and was surely always going to exist only as a b-side, at best.  The third is Edwyn’s own take on the song he had written a few years previously that had been Paul Quinn‘s ‘solo’ single on Swamplands Records; it’s a take I really like, but unsurprisingly, it doesn’t match the majesty of Paul’s version….and I’m sure Edwyn knew this from the outset, or he’d likely have included it on his debut album.

As for the CD single, it included Kindred Spirit and Just Call Her Name, but not Ain’t That Always The Way.  In its place was Judas In Blue Jeans, but it was the very same version as had been the extra song on the b-side of the 12″ of Coffee Table Song.  To quote the tagline of the late 70s comedy show Soap,

‘Confused? You Will Be’

And that brings an end to the 80s output of Edwyn Collins.  With either his band or as a solo artist, eighteen singles and five albums all told, and more than likely most people could only have named Rip It Up in response to his name being mentioned.

The 90s would, eventually, change all that.  Stay tuned.

JC

#18: Coffee Table Song : Edwyn Collins (Demon Records, D1064 T, 1989)

The collapse of Elevation Records saw Alan McGee retreat back to Creation, and in doing so he provided a new home for two out of the three acts, Primal Scream and The Weather Prophets.  It’s been suggested in some quarters that the reason Edwyn Collins wasn’t offered a similar deal by McGee was that the two had a serious falling-out. Whatever the reason, it meant our hero was in a state of purgatory, with no label and no sign of interest in the UK.

Enter Tom Dokoupil, a Czech-born artist and musician who had been part of the German new wave scene in the early 80s and who later opened Whitehouse Studios in Köln and founded the record label Werk.  A long-time fan of Orange Juice, he invited Edwyn to his studio to record some songs, which is why he, and a number of his closest acquaintances including Roddy Frame and Dennis Bovell (among others), could be found in Germany at different times between February and April 1989.

There was more than enough material for an album as well as b-sides for any potential singles.   Tom Dokopuil had always been happy to have Werk Records become Edwyn’s new label, but was pragmatic enough when those who were running Demon Records, the London-based label founded back in 1980 by Jake Riviera, Elvis Costello and Nick Lowe, got in touch to say they were also interested, to come to a mutually beneficial arrangement.

It meant that Edwyn’s debut album, Hope and Despair, was released at the end of May 1989 in Germany on Werk and in the UK, under license, on Demon.  It was largely ignored, but that wasn’t too big a surprise given that, in the eyes of almost all the music media, be that the print press or those running radio stations, Edwyn was already the day before yesterday’s man.

The exception was Tim Nicholson, writing in Record Mirror, (the smallest of the four weekly UK music papers in the late 80s), who was happy to give it a four-star review:-

“Ridiculous as it may seem, Hope and Despair is Edwyn’s first solo album. More than four years after Orange Juice dried up, the shakiest voice in pop has done a few stretching exercises.  

Seven of the 14 songs on show have been sitting around for three years waiting recorded, but they sound no less fresh for their long shelf life. 

Country rock is the home base for the majority of the LP, Edwyn’s preoccupation for the melancholy tales of the hopeless male having difficulty in winning back the indifferent female suiting the style perfectly. The tunes (which is exactly what these are; real tunes) go immediately for familiarity, grabbing a catchy hook and tugging at it constantly.

More important than anything is that Edwyn makes a fab pop star and nothing could be nicer than seeing his sardonic comments back in the pages of Record Mirror. ‘Hope And Despair’ is a much better LP than could have been expected and will, in one fell swoop, put ‘Corny’ Collins back on the map.  All hope and no despair.”

The album didn’t make it into the Top 100 in the UK or Germany.  A couple of months later, the two labels decided to issue a single, but surprisingly went for a downbeat number, almost five minutes in length and with a waltz-like tempo.

mp3: Edwyn Collins – Coffee Table Song

Werk issued it as a 7″ in Germany, while Demon went for a 12″ only release.

Coffee Table Song was the opening track on the album, so perhaps that was part of the logic.  Or maybe it was the one song Edwyn really wanted out there given that the lyric captures him in a reflective mood, perhaps pondering the events of the past couple of years and his continued misfortunes with the record industry:-

What is your number? My number is zero
And what is your colour? My colour is blue
What is your secret? Why that would be telling
Well what is your problem? My problem is you

I’ll turn my back on it all
I’ll stand, and I’ll face
My living room wall
Well that’s really something, that’s really something

What is your star sign? You’ve got to be kidding
Well what is the answer? I wish I knew
What is the time? It’s time I was leaving
Why what is your problem? My problem is you

I’ll turn my back on it all
I’ll stand, and I’ll face
My living room wall
Well that’s really something, that’s really something

Tell me something that I don’t know
Make it brief, to the point, like a fatal blow
Since time out of mind I have loved you so
There’s a place I know where we both could go
I would swim the seven seas
I would crawl upon my knees
Just to get there
I would swim the seven seas
I would crawl upon my knees
Just to get there or be there, somewhere out there
Like a fatal blow, like an open sore
Like a heart that’s torn in two
That’s really something

There were two bits of music on the b-side of the 12″

mp3: Edwyn Collins – Judas In Blue Jeans
mp3: Edwyn Collins – Out There

The first of them, which was also on the 7″, is a very upbeat number.  I think the few loyal fans who were buying things at this time, would have been surprised to hear a song that really should have made the cut for the album.  The latter is just 57 seconds in length, and it’s Edwyn just playing his guitar. I’ve never regarded it as a song, more a possible idea for working up into something else.

No shock that Coffee Table Song didn’t chart.

 

JC

#17: My Beloved Girl : Edwyn Collins (Elevation Records, ACID 6/WEA 248 138-7, 1987)

The second and what proved to be the final single for Elevation Records was released in the last week of October 1987.

Although not similar in sound, it was a single on which the team involved in What Presence?! were reunited as Phil Thornalley was brought in as producer.  There’s also other musicians credited, including Dave Ruffy (ex Aztec Camera) on drums, Tim Holmes on sax and Dave Clayton (who much later in 2003 would join Simply Red) on synth.

mp3: Edwyn Collins – My Beloved Girl

My Beloved Girl is an out-and-out pop song, very much of its time and place, as evidenced by the use of backing singers George Chandler, Jimmy Chambers and Lee Vanderbilt. It’s all a bit ‘meh’ in the wider context of what had come before and what would come in later years, but given that WEA were, by now, desperate for Elevation Record to deliver some sort of big hit single, it’s no real surprise this was the road which everyone chose to go down.

The b-side is another which has a real 80s feel in terms of production, but with it never being remotely considered as a possible single, there’s a little more of Edwyn’s vocal being straightforward, and he gets to play his guitar solo in the style to what we had become accustomed.

mp3: Edwyn Collins – Clouds (Fogging Up My Mind)

As usual, there was a 12″ release as well as a 7″.  The larger disc offered the same version of My Beloved Girl along with extended versions of both sides of the 7″:-

mp3: Edwyn Collins – My (Long Time) Beloved Girl
mp3: Edwyn Collins – Clouds (Fogging Up My Mind) – Cumulonimbus Version

Years ago, I had to look up ‘Cumulonimbus’ as I had no idea how it fitted into this single – turns out they are the types of clouds that can lead to thunderstorms and tornadoes.  Every day is a school day……

The extended version of My Beloved Girl is a bit of a chore while the extended version of Clouds, which stretches to over seven minutes in length, feels as if Edwyn and Phil just wanted to experiment a bit in the studio, and given WEA were bankrolling it, why not?

There was a bit of a marketing push on this one, and a week or so after the initial release, a box version was issued.  This contained a 7″ EP, with the two sides of the single alongside two previously unreleased songs, and three postcards, all of which had a photo of Edwyn on one side while the other sides had the lyrics or the forthcoming dates for a UK tour in November/December 1987 dates or was left blank.

mp3: Edwyn Collins – 50 Shades of Blue (acoustic version)
mp3: Edwyn Collins – What’s The Big Idea?

The former is a guitar/harmonica/bass guitar rendition of a tune that would later get a full band treatment and be released as a single in 1989, and also included on the album Hope and Despair (watch this space).  The latter would be re-recorded a few years later and included on the 1990 album, Hellbent on Compromise…..you can see that Edwyn has long had an interesting way of naming his albums to reflect his differing states of mind.

My Beloved Girl did a bit better than Don’t Shilly Shally, in that it charted (as such) for three weeks at #87, #84 and #99.

 

JC

#16:Don’t Shilly Shally : Edwyn Collins (Elevation Records, ACID 4/WEA 248273-7, 1987)

Alan McGee had co-founded Creation Records in 1983.  As indie-labels go, it had been a relative success, but there was an element of frustration that the limitations of the typical set-up of indies, particularly around distribution and finance, prevented singers and bands crossing over into at least part of the mainstream and enjoying greater rewards from their endeavours.

McGee approached WEA records, the biggest of them all, and suggested a joint venture whereby some Creation acts would benefit from the way the major label operated in the market.  This new hybrid label was called Elevation Records, and it was set to go from March 1987. McGee brought Creation signings The Weather Prophets and Primal Scream to the label, along with Edwyn Collins who, at long last, would be recording as a solo artist, with his debut single enjoying a release in July 1987.

It proved to be a song that wasn’t a million miles away from the sort which appeared on The Orange Juice LP back in 1984.  There are no musicians credited on the single, but there’s a very interesting producer on board – Robin Guthrie of the Cocteau Twins.  He was responsible for all three songs which appeared on the single, but there was possibly a hint of dissatisfaction with the production as Edwyn’s old friend and trusted ally, Dennis Bovell, was later brought into to remix the A-side

mp3: Edwyn Collins – Don’t Shilly Shally

Here’s the two other songs from the session:-

mp3: Edwyn Collins – If Ever You’re Ready
mp3: Edwyn Collins – Queer Fish

The first of these was included on the 7″and 12″ releases, and makes for an interesting listen as there’s the occasional hint of the sort of guitar playing you’d pick up listening very closely to the Cocteau Twins.  It’s proved to be a song that Edwyn is very fond of it, as he would later re-record it on two occasions, the first being for his 1989 album Hope and Despair, and the second being as a b-side to a single in 1995 (watch this space!!!).

The second of the songs was only on the 12″, and in terms of what Edwyn had released up to this point, was quite experimental with a more electronic sound rather than relying on guitars.  It’s not one I go back to all that often.

None of the early singles on Elevation had been hits.  Don’t Shilly Shally was no different.  In an era when the singles chart went all the way to a Top 100, it came in, for one week, at #93.

JC

#15:Ain’t That Always The Way : Paul Quinn (Swamplands, SWP6, 1985)

March 1985.  The latest single to come out on Swamplands Records.

mp3: Paul Quinn – Ain’t That Always The Way

It’s a song written by Edwyn Collins.  It’s a song co-produced by Edwyn Collins.  It’s a song on which Edwyn Collins definitely plays guitar, but isn’t credited as doing so.  It should be a song attributed to Paul Quinn & Edwyn Collins but couldn’t be for contractual reasons.

Last time out, I mentioned that the sleeve notes attached to Pale Blue Eyes advised that Paul Quinn appeared courtesy of MCA Records and Edwyn Collins appeared courtesy of Polydor Records. This time round, MCA isn’t mentioned at all, which would suggest Paul had extricated himself from the contract.  Edwyn was still attached to Polydor, and while there was no indication that funding was going to be given for any new recordings, there was an insistence that he couldn’t be on anything Alan Horne was issuing via Swamplands.

But let’s not worry too much about the legalities – this may well be a 45 on which Edwyn Collins’ name might not appear, but I’m firmly of the view that it belongs in this particular series. Besides, it’s again an ‘Original Sound Recording by Alan Horne from the soundtrack of Punk Rock Hotel’ which really does give the game away, as does the b-side:-

mp3: Paul Quinn – Punk Rock Hotel (closing time)

An instrumental on which Paul Quinn doesn’t appear. An instrumental written by Edwyn Collins and Paul Heard, who you may recall was part of the final live line-up of Orange Juice.

There was a 12″ version issued, but in this instance there is no difference in the length or mixes of the A-side and b-side of the 7″.  The bonus track was this:-

mp3: Paul Quinn – Corrina Corinna

A song first recorded in 1928 by Bo Carter, an American blues musician, but had earlier roots going back to 1918.  Like so many songs of that era, no writer is given clear acknowledgement, and so the credit on this single goes to ‘Trad’, just as it did when Bob Dylan recorded it in 1963 for The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan LP.

Ain’t That Always The Way failed to chart.  Indeed, none of the six of the singles released on Swamplands became hits, and unsurprisingly, in the cut-throat music industry, London Records stopped its funding and closed it down.  It’s more than likely that Edwyn thought he might end up on Swamplands after eventually freeing himself from Polydor, but kind of ironically, he instead would end up on a label whose arrangements weren’t too dissimilar to the way Swamplands had been set up.

 

JC

#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

#11: Bridge : Orange Juice (Polydor, OJ5, 1984)

Before we get onto the next Orange Juice single, here’s some TV footage which is needed as part of the backstory.

It’s taken from a show called Switch, which aired on Channel 4 on Friday evenings between 25 March and 2 September 1983, filling in the gap between the first two series of The Tube. I can’t give you the precise date of the Orange Juice appearance, but you can see it is the Collins/McClymont/Ross/Manyika line-up playing the big hit and a new song, albeit it had been made available on flexidisc to readers of Melody Maker earlier in the year.

All appears well in the clip, but this masked reality

The band were working again with Dennis Bovell in the studio on the third album.  Plans were in hand to release A Place In My Heart as its lead single in October 1983, with the album to come out the following month, positioning itself well for the pre-Xmas market.  Out of the blue, David McClymont and Malcolm Ross decided to leave the band, citing ‘musical differences’.  The album was only half-finished……

A salvage job was put into operation.   A six-track mini-LP, Texas Fever was scheduled for release in March 1984, with things rounded off, appropriately given the circumstances, with the inclusion of A Sad Lament, the b-side a year earlier to Rip It Up.   The advance single was changed from A Place In My Heart to this:-

mp3: Orange Juice – Bridge

Given the band were somewhat at odds with one another during the recording process, it really is quite something that they delivered such a great sounding single, albeit Bridge was a song that had been part of their live sets for a while, with Malcolm Ross playing keyboards.  It was something new and different from what had come before, and I’ll happily admit that I really enjoyed this harder-sounding version of Orange Juice, and Bridge had a groove and rhythm that was infectious, not least the handclaps that made listeners (well, me at least) want to replicate if it ever got played on the disco floor. Not that the chance ever came, as DJs and indeed radio stations shunned it, leading to an undeserved #67 flop.

The b-side was another new, frantically paced number, one that wasn’t included on Texas Fever (but would subsequently be recorded in a much slower form and slotted into the final OJ album almost a year later).

mp3: Orange Juice – Out For The Count (single version)

Polydor‘s marketing people did their best.  A 12″ version was released, as was a limited edition 7″ version which came with an additional flexi disc.  The 12″ didn’t feature an extended version of Bridge, but it did add in a band-produced take on things, one that in effect was the demo provided to Dennis Bovell; please don’t be fooled by the crowd noise at the beginning and the end…this is a decades-old version of ‘Fake News’ as these were added to give the impression it was a concert recording….the rapturous applause at the end clearly gives the game away as Orange Juice gigs never got that sort of reaction!.

mp3: Orange Juice – Bridge (Summer 83 version)

The flexi disc claimed to be a live recording of a Postcard-era single when in fact it was a new studio recording, produced by Dennis Bovell.

mp3: Orange Juice – Poor Old Soul (flexidisc version)

The Polydor contract had been signed when the band consisted of Edwyn Collins, James Kirk, David McClymont and Steven Daly.  Only Edwyn remained, and there was just one other official band member in Zeke Manyika.  There was still belief that hit singles would come along, and rather than cutting their losses, funding was made available to have the duo, with guest musicians, go back into the studio.  The songs to emerge from those sessions proved to be among the best of Edwyn’s entire career…..

JC

#10: Flesh Of My Flesh : Orange Juice (Polydor, OJ4, 1983)

Let me begin this week by trying to explain why the first single under which Orange Juice has its own specific catalogue number, offered up by Polydor, carries OJ4.

OJ1 had been a 12″ promo featuring two non-singles, A Million Pleading Faces and Breakfast Time, given to DJs as a way of further plugging the Rip It Up LP.  OJ2 had been the number attached to the bonus disc included as part of the 2 x 7″ release of Rip It Up, while OJ3 had been a flexidisc of a previously unreleased song, The Day I Went Down To Texas, that was given away with copies of Melody Maker, one of the four weekly UK music papers, in March 1983.

OJ4 was released in June 1983.  A full eight months after Flesh of My Flesh had first been heard as an album track, the decision was taken to issue it as a single.  In order to tempt fans to buy it, a completely new mix was issued on 7″ (and also available as a picture disc), with production duties handled by legendary reggae and dub musician/producer, Dennis Bovell.

mp3: Orange Juice – Flesh of My Flesh (7″ version)

A decent enough pop effort, but it wasn’t one to get the sort of attention of the big hit a few months earlier, and despite a six-week stay in the singles chart, it peaked at #41 which, going by history, seemed to be the natural position for Orange Juice singles.

The fact that the band was struggling a bit for material can be seen from the b-side offering:-

mp3: Orange Juice – Lord John White and The Bottleneck Train

The writing credits are attributed to Manyika/McClymont/Ross.  It is a rollicking but strange almost surreal sort of tune in which Zeke tells the story of a train journey in Zimbabwe, but if you pay close attention, you can also make out a sort of wailing sound courtesy of Edwyn which turns out to be the vocal to Flesh of My Flesh played backwards.  Quite clearly, the band and Dennis Bovell were intent on having a bit of fun in the studio.

The 12″ version of the single added various studio effects to Flesh of My Flesh.  It is, in my view, a bit on the self-indulgent side, and does the song no favours at all.

mp3: Orange Juice – Flesh of My Flesh (12″ version)

One other thing to add…the picture disc version of the single for some reason had an edited version, by about 90 seconds, of Lord John White. So, for completeness:-

mp3: Orange Juice – Lord John White and The Bottleneck Train (edit)

What we didn’t know was that the band were already back in the studio, working on new material for a third album, and that the next single was at an advanced stage of planning.  But those of you who have been following the story of Orange Juice via this series will be well aware that things rarely go smoothly or as planned.

 

JC