R.E.M.

THE SINGULAR ADVENTURES OF R.E.M. (Parts 49 – 51)

While touring throughout 2008, R.E.M. knew they had a decision to make. Their contract was up with Warners and the question was ‘what happens next?’. Stipe remarked that: “I need to be away from this for a long time.” Buck suggested: “How about forever?”

“Oddly enough,” said Mills later, “I think that independently we all arrived at the conclusion that this was such a great opportunity to walk away on our own terms, that we thought why not take advantage of it?” So it was that in the spring of 2009, the band went into a local studio in Athens, GA. to start recording demos for the songs that would form their 15th and final studio album. Over the next 18 months, they would record in Portland, Nashville and New Orleans in the States, before decamping to Berlin for the final sessions. It was there, in the grand Meister Halle in the world-famous Hansa Studios, that reality set in.

“We tried to enjoy it and make it as fun as possible,” recalled Mills, “But we’re not super-sentimental people in that sense. The only time we got really poignant was when we were in Berlin where we recorded seven or eight songs. There was no one there really except some friends, family, and significant others, and we knew that was probably the last time we would ever play together as R.E.M. That was a pretty fraught day. But it was fun.”

Collapse Into Now is a deliberately more varied and expansive record than its immediate predecessor. It included special guest appearances by Peaches, Eddie Vedder, Patti Smith and Lenny Kaye, and referenced their past at numerous points while also showing their comfort with where they were at the time, ready to draw a line under a stellar 30 year career. It’s not a particularly consistent record – it doesn’t really hang together terribly well to me – but it has some very fine moments.

Of its five – FIVE – digital singles, three were given a physical release in the UK in the form of a triple-pack of 7” singles for Record Store Day. Collectively titled ‘Three’, it kind of displays the various moods and reference points the album gives us.

The curiously-titled Mine Smell Like Honey is a rocker that wouldn’t have been out of place on Accelerate. Its understated verses give way to a rousing chorus that has R.E.M. written all over it. Überlin sounds like Drive, a song that 20 years earlier opened the band’s biggest-selling and best-known album, the one that made them global megastars. It’s probably the most intriguing song on the record. Stipe explained: “I wanted to picture an almost blunt outsider’s perspective – the experience of a guy who is walking through a city that is completely new to him and still very unfamiliar. I just tried to figure out the mind of this outsider. The city could as well be New York. In each of these big, great cities, you can be completely alone. This is the guy up to the last verse, when he finds somebody and says: ‘Let’s try to make something happen. Tonight. Right now.’”

Oh My Heart has another protagonist going to a city, only this time s/he is returning home to New Orleans post-Hurricane Katrina. The brass instruments lend an almost funereal feel to the song, while Buck’s trusty mandolin returns to lend another air of Automatic For The People to the proceedings.

mp3: R.E.M. – Mine Smell Like Honey
mp3: R.E.M. – Überlin [edit]
mp3: R.E.M. – Oh My Heart

The b-sides were all recorded live during their last ever tour in 2008, featuring songs from very different points in the band’s career. Supernatural Superserious, from their then-current album, was captured in North Carolina; Harborcoat, from 1984’s Reckoning, is from a show in Riga, Latvia; and What’s The Frequency, Kenneth? comes from Oslo in Norway. All three presented here were ripped by yours truly from the 7” singles.

mp3: R.E.M. – Supernatural Superserious [live]
mp3: R.E.M. – Harborcoat [live]
mp3: R.E.M. – What’s The Frequency, Kenneth? [live]

I always felt Collapse Into Now was a slightly underwhelming way for the band to bow out, mainly due to its inconsistency. Nevertheless, it’s still very listenable and does contain a few songs I’d still put on a highlights playlist.

Next week, we bring this whole shebang to a close as we tie up some loose ends and bring you R.E.M.’s swansong. I’ll also have some news for those of you who still need an R.E.M. fix every Sunday morning…

The Robster

 

Proclaimers

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #259: THE PROCLAIMERS

From wiki:-

The Proclaimers are a Scottish rock duo formed in 1983 by twin brothers Craig and Charlie Reid, who were born on 5 March 1962.

They came to attention with their 1987 single “Letter from America”, which reached No. 3 in the United Kingdom, and the 1988 single “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)”, which topped charts in Australia, Iceland and New Zealand. The Proclaimers have sold over 5 million albums worldwide.

First active from 1983 as an acoustic duo, the Proclaimers moved toward band-oriented rock in later works. The Proclaimers’ style draws from a diversity of influences, including country, folk, and punk rock. Their playing range has included roots rock, alternative rock and folk rock, and their music is typified by their Scottish accents. The Proclaimers often tour internationally, and have released 11 studio albums since 1987, the most recent being 2018’s Angry Cyclist, as well as three compilation albums and a DVD.

I thought The Proclaimers were a breath of fresh air when they burst on to the scene.  Debut album, This Is The Story, released in 1987, is a fine collection of songs, although I’ve always felt that the later version of Letter To America, on which the duo were joined by a band, was far too like Runrig to be listenable…..but then again, it was that version which took them to near the top of the charts, so what do I know?

Sunshine on Leith, the follow-up released in 1988, has some decent tunes on it, not least the title track which has become the terrace song of the fans of Hibernian Football Club, which indeed is the team followed by the Reid Brothers.  The mass sing-a-long after the Scottish Cup win of 2016, ending a run of 114 years without lifting the trophy, was quite exceptional.  But, with it being more band orientated than the largely acoustic debut, I didn’t take to it nearly as much.

I haven’t bought a Proclaimers record since then, and can’t really say I’m all that bothered about it.

mp3: The Proclaimers – Throw The ‘R’ Away

This just happened to be their debut single.  I suppose it’s fair to say that they blazed a trail for quite a lot of the music that’s come out of Scotland in the 21st Century given nobody is worried about singing in their natural accent any longer.

JC

Malcolm Middleton

I’M A MAN OF MY WORD

Yesterday, I posted up 43 minutes of music from Soft Cell, and in doing so made apologies to those of you who aren’t fans and suggesting that you come back today for a happy medium.

mp3: Malcolm Middleton – A Happy Medium

One of the tracks to be found and enjoyed on Out Of The Woods, his second solo album, released in the summer of 2005, and, for my money, one of the best Scottish albums of the 21st Century.

JC

Soft Cell

IN CONTRAST TO YESTERDAY

I was quite mean with the music yesterday, with the offer of just 81 seconds worth to listen to.

I’ll make it up for today, with all five tracks taken from the Canadian release, on Vertigo Records, of a 12″ EP by Soft Cell back in 1984:-

mp3: Soft Cell – Soul Inside (11:58)
mp3: Soft Cell – You Only Live Twice (6:59)
mp3: Soft Cell – Hendrix Melody (10:22)
mp3: Soft Cell – Torch (8:29)
mp3: Soft Cell – Her Imagination (4:25)

It all adds up to the best part of 43 minutes…..and apologies if you’re not a Soft Cell fan, but you can skip all this and come back tomorrow for a happy medium.

Soul Inside was the first single taken from the duo’s third studio album, This Last Night In Sodom, and in the UK it reached #16, with it being released, as usual, on the Some Bizarre label. The Canadian EP, which I picked up on a visit a few years ago, differs quite a bit from the UK release in offering up a couple of tracks from olden days; Hendrix Melody, which consists of Hey Joe/Purple Haze/Voodoo Chile, was originally made available in 1983 as one side of a bonus 12″ single with initial copies of the album The Art of Falling Apart, while Torch was a stand-alone single from 1982.

As I previously wrote, back in 2008 when referring to Bedsitter as being one of my all-time favourite singles, I thought Soft Cell were incredible. I loved that the fact that Marc Almond, being far from a classical singer in the true sense of the word, irritated so many folk, as too did his sidekick Dave Ball whose unconventional appearances on the telly seemed to disturb a lot of folk.

And while the parent album is a wee bit on the patchy side, no surprise given it was recorded by the duo knowing it would be their break-up effort, Soul Inside is a fantastic celebration of what the success of the previous four or so years had brought them, an upbeat and joyous anthem of wild celebration which seems to acknowledge that everything, including the downers after the huge highs, really had been worth it.

JC

Otoboke Beaver

AKIMAHENKA

I’ve mentioned before that Otoboke Beaver, an all-female punk band from Kyoto, Japan, provided my favourite live music experience of all the gigs I attended in 2019.  As things turned out, they achieved similar in 2020, albeit there were only around five live shows taken in prior to COVID leading to everything being closed down fourteen months ago…..

The band came together as far back as 2009, but releases have been, until recently, quite sporadic as nobody was a full-time musician.  The UK-based indie label, Damnably Records signed the band in 2016, quickly issuing a compilation album that brought together the material released over the years on various Japanese labels along with a new song, released as a single-sided 7″ vinyl in Japan for Record Store Day 2016:-

mp3: Otoboke Beaver – Akimahenka

It’s 81 glorious seconds and a total earworm of a tune.

Believe it or not, an even faster version, lasting just 74 seconds, was re-recorded in 2019 and issued on the album Itekoma Hits, itself a magnificent bundle of noise and energy which offers up 14 songs in less than 27 minutes.

Here it is live, as performed in Kyoto in late 2015:-

I do hope it’s not too long before we all get the chance to enjoy live shows again, and that Otoboke Beaver are back on these shores in due course.

JC

Paris Angels

IT REALLY WAS A CRACKING DEBUT SINGLE (56)

Paris Angels were a seven-piece band, formed in 1989, who set about trying to blend indie guitar music with the fresh explosion in electronica dance and acid house music.  You won’t be surprised to hear that they were from Manchester and were known to frequent the Hacienda and other nightclubs across the city.

They were picked up by the locally based Sheer Joy Records and this was the first single to be issued by the label, recorded in Peter Hook‘s Suite 16 Studio, previously known as Cargo Studios, Rochdale, where Joy Division recorded much of their early material:-

mp3: Paris Angels – All On You (Perfume)

It’s an absolute classic but was, however, more of a success in the clubs than on the radio, failing to crack the Top 75 despite being named as single of the week by the NME on 3 June 1990.   John Peel took a shine to it, or at least his listeners did, voting it in at #6 in the Festive 50 of 1990, with only The Fall, My Bloody Valentine, Ride and Sonic Youth having entries above Paris Angels (Ride had two songs in the Top 4).

Here’s the two tracks to be found on the b-side of the 12″ version of the single:-

mp3: Paris Angels – Muffin 2
mp3: Paris Angels – Perfume (version)

The former, to my ears, is very reminiscent of the dance music from other Manchester bands on Factory such as A Certain Ratio and 52nd Street. The latter has a real Brotherhood-era New Order influence about it.

The buzz around the band led to Virgin Records dangling a contract in front of them in early 1991 and so, after just three singles for Sheer Joy, they signed to the bigger label and went into the studio to make an album.   Virgin, knowing a good thing when they hear it, reissued All On You and second time around it proved to be a minor hit, reaching #55 in July 1991

The following year saw Virgin Records sold in its entirety to EMI, the outcome of which saw something of a cull across many of its singers and bands.  Paris Angels were one of those who didn’t receive the call-up to the major leagues, and they called it a day shortly afterwards, despite the fact a second album had already been recorded. One of the band’s members, Paul Wagstaff, would find a bit of fame as a member of Black Grape before becoming part of the reformed and touring Happy Mondays.

The afore-mentioned second album is out there for free, if you want it. It turns out that in 2013 the band reformed to play live, and signed a deal  to finally issue that second album. The deal, however, fell through, and they decided instead to make the record available as a free download on Bandcamp. Click here if you’re interested.

JC

Teardrop Explodes

THE MONDAY MORNING HI-QUALITY VINYL RIP : Part Fifteen : REWARD

Today’s song is a request from Mark French.

mp3: The Teardrop Explodes – Reward

Aside from the fact that it’s a shout for a great piece of music, it also allows me to demonstrate that I don’t need to have a copy of a single to come up with a 320kpbs rip.  Yes, I did once own a copy of Reward by The Teardrop Explodes, but it was one of hundreds of 7″ singles that were left behind in an old flat in Edinburgh.  Regular readers from the olden days will be all too familiar with the sad tale, and it’s just too painful to recall it one more time for those who don’t know.  Let’s just say, it’s cost me a fair bit of money trying to put things right since 1986.

The vinyl rip instead comes from my copy of the album Kilimanjaro, itself the re-released version from 1981 with the zebras on the cover rather than the original from October 1980 which has a portrait of the band.  The reason for this being that the original release of Kilimanjaro didn’t include Reward which was initially released as a stand-alone single in January 1981, and going on to be the biggest hit single by the band, or indeed across the subsequent solo career of Julian Cope, by reaching #6.

The Guardian newspaper, in March 2015, had a feature on Reward in which Julian Cope and keyboardist Dave Balfe explained how they came up with and went about making the song.  It turns out it was written in the main by guitarist Alan Gill, with him coming up initially with the bassline. Cope wanted it to sound like a northern soul classic and their first stab at it came via an effort for a BBC radio session but when they later got into the actual recording studio, the frontman decided to remove the drum intro so that the first and last thing you heard were trumpets, which, to be fair, was a stroke of genius as this is the instrument which really drives the song forward at pace. Balfe, in confirming that the band had problems coming up initially with a satisfactory recording and mix, heaps praise on the frontman for the end result, describing it as “…a mad awesome record unlike anything else in pop. We sounded like Vikings on acid fronted by a lunatic.”

Here’s the version the band recorded for the BBC – it was for the Mike Read show on 16 October 1980, which went out in the slot immediately before that of John Peel:-

mp3: The Teardrop Explodes – Reward (BBC session version)

Anyone who followed The Teardrop Explodes closely will know that Reward was very much a one-off with them not recording anything similar ever again.  Indeed, much more typical of their output was the b-side of the 45, which I’ve lifted from its inclusion on the CD Everybody Wants to Shag…The Teardrop Explodes, their third and final album which was recorded in 1982 but not given a release until 1990, for the simple reason that Cope basically sacked everyone in the middle of the sessions.  Let’s just say a high intake of drugs was a factor, as indeed they were when this song was recorded:-

mp3: The Teardrop Explodes – Strange House In The Snow

I’m guessing the pop kids who loved the single didn’t play it more than once, that’s assuming they got to its end on the first spin they gave it.

As always with this blog, I’m very much open to guest contributions and/or suggestions for inclusion in this weekly series. Feel free to get in touch by email : thevinylvillain@hotmail.co.uk

JC

R.E.M.

THE SINGULAR ADVENTURES OF R.E.M. (Parts 47 & 48)

Accelerate is a very good album, a real blast. Each time I listen to it I get really into it. Just when R.E.M. had singlehandedly killed their career, they pulled off what was undoubtedly their best record in a dozen years. It’s the sound of a band who suddenly remembered where they came from, why they started a band in the first place and why people took to them from the get-go.

After the uplifting introductory track Supernatural Superserious, Hollow Man was released as the album’s second single on 2nd June 2008. It was the fourth track on Accelerate and starts as a bit of a come down after the high intensity of the opening triptych of songs, opening with Mike Mills at piano and Michael Stipe’s plaintive opening lines: “I’ve been lost inside my head / Echoes fall on me.”

Those last three words can’t be lost on you. Just like Lifes Rich Pageant, Accelerate is a short record and its opening tracks come at you with a ferocity you can’t escape from. Then they bring things down a notch. On LRP, the slower track is… well, you know.

Thing is, Hollow Man doesn’t stay down for long. It comes to life in the chorus in which Stipe pleads with us to reassure him that he’s not quite the lost soul he thinks he is:

“Believe in me, believe in nothing
Corner me and make me something
I’ve become the hollow man
Have I become the hollow man I see?”

mp3: R.E.M. – Hollow Man

For a mournful ballad, it’s a loud one! Another example of what Accelerate stood for – a band going back to its roots, eager to show they still cared and could produce the goods when required.

Hollow Man was the last time R.E.M. graced the UK singles charts. Well, that is if you count reaching number 200 as gracing the charts. And I don’t, actually. But it’s not important. There was just the one CD single. It included a live-in-the-studio track recorded in Vancouver. Horse To Water is one of Accelerate’s shortest, noisiest, fastest songs and this version rocks like the proverbial bastard. This could very well be the angriest, punk-sounding song R.E.M. ever made.

mp3: R.E.M. – Horse To Water [live]

Apparently a second CD was planned for release in Europe (which as per previous releases usually included the UK), but for some reason it was cancelled. It would have included another Beat Happening cover, this time a track from their second album Jamboree. The original was sampled by Massive Attack for Teardrop and is rather Velvet Underground-esque in its minimalism and simplicity. R.E.M. turn it into a hazy, hypnotic trip, a sun-drenched psychedelic jam that sounds even more like the Velvets, especially during their extended coda. One of their best covers, one of their best b-sides. Such a shame it was never released.

mp3: R.E.M. – Indian Summer

JC interjects……The Robster supplied the mp3s when he fired over the words he’s written for today. This was the first time I ever heard the various songs not on the album.  Indian Summer is already barging its way high up into my list of all-time favourite R.E.M. recordings.  It’s really a relief that they stayed together for Accelerate and beyond as it would have been a tragedy to have bowed out after Around The Sun.

The third single from Accelerate, released on 11th August 2008, was another stormer. You know, they might finally have gotten the hang of this releasing decent singles malarkey. Man-Sized Wreath takes aim at the shallowness and the “pageantry of empty gestures” that permeate 21st century culture, politics and business. That’s how I hear it anyway. It’s got a quite brilliant couplet in the second verse that even for a songwriter of Michael Stipe’s ridiculously high calibre is quite a magnificent feat:

“Nature abhors dystopia but what’s between your ears?
Your judgement clouded with fearful thoughts, headlights and a deer. Ow!”

I love that lyric. No, I’m not being ironic, I really LOVE that lyric!

mp3: R.E.M. – Man-Sized Wreath

I mentioned last week the ‘working rehearsal’ concerts R.E.M. played in Dublin prior to recording Accelerate. As can be heard on the subsequent live album, Stipe had his doubts about Man-Sized Wreath.

“This next, new song will not be on our next record,” he tells the audience. “

Really?” queries a rather perplexed Peter Buck.

“It’s a little early to make that call.” Stipe concedes that point before suggesting it could be a b-side, to which Mike Mills retorts: “There are no b-sides anymore, it’s all MP3s.” Well, that wasn’t strictly true…

Man-Sized Wreath was track two on Accelerate and made up a third of the frenetic opening to the album. It was followed by Supernatural Superserious, but it was preceded by what could very well be the best opening track on an R.E.M. album. And yes, I did write that even after considering Radio Free Europe, Harborcoat, Begin The Begin and Finest Worksong.

Living Well Is The Best Revenge was not a single, and for that alone we should be in mourning, but a live-in-the-studio version was included on the B-SIDE of a 7” single (the only physical format released in the UK), albeit with a different title owing to a daft question posed by Peter Buck at the start which results in much mirth from his bandmates.

mp3: R.E.M. -Living Well Jesus Dog

There. That certainly blew away the cobwebs, didn’t it? WHAT. A. SONG! I mean, jeez – was this really the same band who recorded fucking Wanderlust???

Final proof that Mike Mills was wrong comes in the form of another live track released as the ‘b-side’ to the three-track digital download of the single. Another excellent version of a track from Accelerate.

mp3: R.E.M. – Mr. Richards [live]

It seemed R.E.M. were back at the races. Accelerate had the sound of a band with a new lease of life and many fruitful years ahead of them…

The Robster

 

Primevals

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #259: THE PRIMEVALS


From the Big Gold Dreams booklet:-

The Primevals raucous brand of garage band trash was more reminiscent of The Cramps and The Gun Club than the increasingly smooth sounds emanating from their Glasgow doorstep. Based around the wild vocals of Michael Rooney and driven by Tom Rafferty’s guitar, the original line-up released their Where Are You? before being picked up by French label New Rose, who released three albums and several singles, including Living in Hell. While the band reformed first in 1990, then more substantially in 1997, Honeyman and Rafferty formed instrumental surf-beat combo The Beat Poets. With early New Rose material collected on he On the Red Eye compilation, new material appeared on the There is no Other Life and This is It album in 2007, with (Disinhibitor) following in 2010 and Heavy War in 2012.

As you’ve likely guessed, today’s track can be found on one of the five discs which make up the BGD boxset:-

mp3: The Primevals – Living In Hell

It’s not the sort of thing that I was listening to on its release back in 1985, but I’m reasonably partial to it now all these years later, although not quite enough to go and seek out the back catalogue.

JC

Jonathan Fire*Eater

A SECOND GO AT GRABBING YOUR INTEREST/SOME SONGS MAKE GREAT SHORT STORIES (Chapter 47)

It was away back in October 2013 that I tried to get folk interested in Jonathan Fire*Eater with the posting of three tracks from Tremble Under Boomlights, the one CD of theirs that I had at the time.  The effort attracted one comment….thanks Charity Chic….and it was to say that he had enjoyed one of the songs, which funnily enough just happens to be the subject of today’s posting.

Jonathan Fire*Eater was a New York City-based indie rock band originally from Washington DC. The line-up was Stewart Lupton (vocals), Tom Frank (bass), Paul Maroon (guitar and pedal steel), Matt Barrick (drums), and Walter Martin (keyboards).

In 1995, they released their eponymous debut on Third World Underground Records, an indie label based in Arizona, and later in the year there was a three-track EP on PCP Records, which is described as an experimental/noise-rock label from NYC.

The following year, they began to get a bit of attention in the UK, thanks to them signing for Deceptive Records which had been founded by BBC Radio 1 DJ Steve Lamacq, a man who many felt was a worthy 90s successor to John Peel, as well as touring as the support acts for both Blur and Pulp.

Before too long, they were snared by Dreamworks, the major sort of masquerading as an indie label newly established by David Geffen. The album Wolf Song For Lambs appeared in 1997, but the big money move was a disaster in terms of the creative edges being smoothed off and the band members falling out constantly over things.

The inevitable split came in 1998 with Paul Maroon, Matt Barrick and Walter Martin becoming three-fifths of The Walkmen while Stuart Lupton pursued his own path with The Childballads and later The Beatin’s. Bassist Tom Frank left music and has established himself as a reasonably successful journalist, writing under the name T.A. Frank, primarily for Vanity Fair and the Washington Monthly.

There were occasional murmurings of Jonathan Fire*Eater re-forming to play gigs, but they always turned out to be unfounded rumours. It’s a moot point nowadays as Stewart Lupton died on May 27, 2018 at the age of 43. No cause was given, but his family did say it stemmed from a “desperate attempt to escape the voices that so tormented him.”

I recently picked up the band’s first 45 for Deceptive, a double-A effort, both sides of which can be found on the CD mentioned earlier. It’s a bit crackly and hissy which would indicate that the previous owner really liked it and played it a fair bit. I also think the lyric for what I think is the main track makes for a great short story, of the horror variety or perhaps and episode of the X-Files which was so popular at the time:-

In every car that passes me on the street
I search for the particular face
The lipstick trembles under boomlights
The lipstick my only brothers only trace

Was the birthday birthday ashtray
Carried all along this way now
It was a gift from my little sister
On the very same day they took her away

And it’s painted cherry red, cherry red now
All your dreams are cherry red inside of your head
And it’s painted cherry red, cherry red now
All your dreams are cherry red inside

In Hollywood I got the phone call
That made my heart and my limousine stall
Falling down in the hotel hall again
Little drunk from the Warners’ Christmas ball

Cut by love and cut by switchblade
He’s been gone nearly half a decade
Cut by love then carved by switchblade
He’s been gone nearly half a decade

I still remember my brother
I see his face on the billboards
And the Polaroids that
Stayed on my pillow ’til they faded

So, lock yourself in your hotel room
I’ll take the next flight and be there by noon
Lock yourself in your hotel room

Now picture him now, sittin’ by the pool
Wearin’ a pink rubber swimming cap
Eating ice cream with the girl
With the silver curls
Sittin’ in his lap

I can still still remember my brother
I see his face on the billboards and the
Polaroids that stayed on my pillow
‘Til they faded some sad grey grey day

Yes, you are still my brother
Even when you change over so
Lock yourself in your hotel room
I’ll take the next flight and be there by noon

I pictured it all, the fangs and claws
Coarse short hair right then and there
I pictured it all now
Hey!
The fangs
The fangs and the claws now

So, lock yourself in your hotel room
I’ll take the next flight and be there by noon
Lock yourself in your hotel room

And so all things will secretly begin
To live underground after the death of a friend
Ohohhhhhh
Oh oh oh
Oh oh ohohhhh

mp3: Jonathan Fire*Eater – The Search For Cherry Red

The other side of the 45 is also worth a listen:-

mp3: Jonathan Fire*Eater – Give Me Daughters

I’m not sure what the Blur and Pulp crowds would have made of things, but they sound as if they would have gone down a storm with a Bad Seeds audience.

JC

PS : Links now sorted.  Apologies for earlier mix-up.

Buddy Holly

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #285 : BUDDY HOLLY

This is a total cheat of a post.  This ICA has 14 tracks, and the running order is exactly the same as can be found on a budget-priced album The Best of Buddy Holly, released on Hallmark Records back in 1986.  I’ve long had a cassette copy of the album, which I think I paid £1.99 for back in the day, and just the other week I picked up a vinyl copy for the exact same price.

Here’s what’s written on the back of the sleeve:-

Charles Hardin ‘Buddy’ Holly was born on September 7th 1936 in Lubbock, Texas, the youngest of four children of Laurence and Ella Holley. At the age of 12 Buddy developed a strong interest in music and singing, so he bought a guitar, and before long was playing and singing a few tunes with a natural talent. Soon he and a schoolfriend, another aspiring guitarist, Bob Montgomery, began playing regularly together. They landed a spot on Radio KDAV and with the addition of bassist Larry Welborne, Buddy and Bob went on to make a number of demo discs in 1954.

Just over a year later, Buddy and Bob appeared as one of the many junior acts supporting Bill Haley and The Comets at a concert in Lubbock, where they were spotted by a Nashville talent scout. Soon afterwards Buddy landed a contract with a major record company. During 1956 Buddy attended several recording sessions in Nashville, cutting a number of tracks. Although a couple of singles were released none were particularly successful. Dissatisfied with the company and producers, Holly travelled to Clovis, New Mexico and to the studio of Norman Petty – that’s when things really started to happen.

With a new group called The Crickets and producer Norman Petty, Holly re-recorded ‘That’ll Be The Day’ in a more contemporary and upbeat style from the earlier Nashville sessions. This is what Buddy wanted all along. The recording shot to the Number 1 position on both sides of the Atlantic. Like all Buddy’s early hits, the songs were simply credited to The Crickets. Seeing commercial possibilities Petty continued to record The Crickets, with Holly singing lead, and the singing/playing group providing back-up harmonies, while he also recorded Holly solo for another label.  The result was a string of hits, including million-sellers, Maybe Baby, Peggy Sue and It Doesn’t Matter Anymore to name but a few.

In 1958 Holly toured Britain and on returning to the States married Maria Elena, a Puerto Rican girl and moved to Greenwich Village, New York. In January the following year Buddy Holly accompanied by Tommy Allsup, Waylon Jennings and Charlie Bunch embarked on The Winter Dance Party tour which also starred Ritchie Valens, The Big Bopper, along with Dion and The Belmonts.  On February 2nd the artistes appeared at The Surf Ballroom, Clear Lake, Iowa – it was to be Buddy’s last public appearance. In the hope of avoiding the discomfort of a long uncomfortable trip by road, he had chartered a plane to fly Jennings, himself and Allsup from Mason City Airport to Fargo, Dakota for a show at nearby Moorhead.  In the event, Jennings and Allsup gave their seats to Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper. Shortly after take off, in the early hours of February 3rd, the plane crashed, killing pilot Roger Peterson and his 3 passengers.

Despite his death Buddy Holly’s recordings continued to sell in vast quantities, particularly in Britain, where over the next two years he chalked up a further 19 entries in the best selling charts.  In just two years Buddy Holly and The Crickets had created one of the most important chapters in the history of rock – a legend that lives today.

SIDE ONE

1. That’ll Be The Day
2. Maybe Baby
3. Peggy Sue Got Married
4. Rave On
5. True Love Ways
6. Bo Diddley
7. Oh Boy!

SIDE TWO

1. Peggy Sue
2. Everyday
3. Think It Over
4. Brown Eyed Handsome Man
5. Heartbeat
6. Raining In My Heart
7. It Doesn’t Matter Anymore

14 songs, but all told, it has a running time of less than 31 minutes.

It’s widely accepted that Buddy Holly was the artist who best established the ‘classic’ set-up of two guitars, bass, and drums. He was among the first to write and record his own material, albeit many of his best known songs were covers or had been written by others for him. His final recording session, in NYC in October 1958, saw him work with an 18-piece ensemble composed of former members of the NBC Symphony Orchestra, one of America’s foremost radio orchestras until it disbanded in 1954. The half-day session proved to be truly groundbreaking, and of the fours songs completed on the day, True Love Ways, Raining In My Heart, and It Doesn’t Matter Anymore are included in this ICA.

It’s frightening that he was only 22 years old when that plane crashed.

JC

Servants

A VERY BELATED POSTSCRIPT TO AN OLD POST

Back in 2015 I offered up a series, in 48 instalments, that looked at the tracks on the CD86 boxset been compiled by Cherry Red Records.  The post on 22 March featured this wonderful 45:-

mp3: The Servants – The Sun, A Small Star

The post went on, at length, to talk about The Servants, mentioning how they broke up not long after the release of this single.  Singer and main songwriter David Westlake then recorded a mini-LP for Creation Records before deciding to get the band back together again, except he didn’t make the call to any of the three musicians who had been with him at the outset.

The new line up would go on to consist of Luke Haines, Alice Readman and Hugh Whittaker, with, at this point in time, only that latter being well-known given a previous stint as the drummer with The Housemartins.

I ended the piece by mentioning that much of The Servants long-deleted back catalogue was hard to track down at reasonable prices and mentioned that I’d be very happy if anyone could find their way to help me out with some tracks.  To my great delight, Anthony got in touch soon after, asking for my postal address to which he sent a CD containing a copy of Disinterest, their lone LP which was released on Paperhouse Records in 1990, and another with a copy of Reserved, a 21-track compilation released on Cherry Red back in 2010.

And it’s thanks to Anthony’s generosity that I’m able to return to The Servants and the one single that was released on Glass Records in 1990, on 7″ and 12″ vinyl.  The lead track was also highlighted in that March 2015 post and seemed to be very well-received by all concerned:-

mp3: The Servants – It’s My Turn
mp3: The Servants – Afterglow
mp3: The Servants – Faithful To 3 Lovers
mp3: The Servants – Do Or Be Done

I still can’t get my head around the fact that I missed out on The Servants back in the day. It’s inexplicable.

JC

Late Of The Pier

RIPPING BADGERS CDs (Part 7): LATE OF THE PIER

Ripping Badger CDs – #7 – ‘Fantasy Black Channel’ by Late of The Pier (Parlophone Records, 2008)

As a special treat, here is KT. Don’t get use to it, this is very much a one off. Probably.

KT writes………

My daughter is currently obsessed with trains, one of her favourite trips is to be pushed in her buggy to the local park, where she will demand to be let out and then she will run to the wooden train thing in the park. There she will sit and pretend to drive the train to places such as “Catland” and “Dog Park”. I will then pretend to be a passenger on the train and revel in the delights of the journey. I will “ooh” with pleasure as I pretend that I am not looking at some badly worded graffiti by the next Oscar Wilde about a girl named Tia Spinks and her ‘tiny titties’, but some marvellous scenery that she is pointing out to me.

Then after that we will wander over to the nearby train station and if we are lucky, we will see the 12.25 from Axminster trundle into the station where one of two things generally happens. If the train is driven by Driver A, my daughter will get a toot of the train horn and a huge cheery wave from a huge walrus moustached fella, she will wave back enthusiastically and happily climb into her buggy, and fall asleep deliriously happy, no doubt dreaming about trains for the duration of the journey home.

If it is Driver B my daughter will not get a toot of the horn nor a cheery wave. Instead, she and I will get a frown because Driver B appears to be miserable child hating bastard who has a heart made of rock. I have realised that Driver B is destined to be single for the rest of his days, and as I gently cuddle my crying daughter, devastated by the lack of a ‘toot toot’, I like to picture Driver B sadly sitting in a knackered armchair with his microwaved lasagne for one as the wallpaper slowly peels itself off the walls because even inanimate objects like wallpaper can’t stand to be in the same room as him.

Luckily for you guys it is Driver A today because this means that my daughter is exhausted with delirious happiness at the length of the toot and the cheeriness of the wave. It also means I can sit down and write this little article about a band I have, until about twenty minutes ago, never heard of and certainly never heard. A band called Late of the Pier.

Late of the Pier, Wikipedia tells me, before I have listened to the six or seven tracks sent to me by SWC, are a dance punk foursome from Castle Donington.

I have no idea what dance punk is but I do know where Castle Donington is, having refused to go to ‘Monsters of Rock’ with my ex-husband and his mate ‘Nuggz’ about fifteen years ago. Wikipedia also tells me that ‘the nicest man in rock, Dave Grohl’ rates Late of the Pier as ‘amazing’. None of this fills me with huge swathes of anticipation. I message Dom and ask him if he has heard of them – he sends me back a GIF of Alan Partridge shrugging and holding a cheese on a fork. Helpful chap my husband.

So I press play – or rather I double-click on the first track a song called ‘Space and the Woods’. I’m not sure what to expect, because I have no idea what dance punk is supposed to sound like, but I’m fairly sure this isn’t it. This sounds more like the sort of noise your dad and uncle would come up with if they had six pints before lunch and decided to busk in the high street in order to get the cab fare home. Strangely compelling but really not that great.

mp3: Late of The Pier – Space and The Woods

Let’s try another track….

The second track is ‘The Bears are Coming’ which is a complete mishmash of noises. It bleeps, it bounces, it squelches, it screeches the singer yelps and yowls. I think it works but really folks I am probably way too uncool to understand what is going on here. It sounds like a one-man band has thrown himself down the stairs and landed inside a video game. Which, might actually be what they intended, in which case, bravo.

mp3: Late of The Pier – The Bears Are Coming

It does get better. These two tracks for instance:-

mp3: Late of The Pier – Focker
mp3: Late of The Pier – Bathroom Gurgle

‘Focker’ is better not because it has a brilliant title but because it is an actual pop song. A pop song that could have been written about forty years ago and could have featured in any film involving American High School shenanigans. It’s great.

‘Bathroom Gurgle’ is even better than ‘Focker’ because it is a glam rock disco stomp belter of a tune. Kind of like what you would get if Muse recorded ‘The Timewarp’ only without the obvious Queen rip-offs halfway through – actually Muse doing ‘The Timewarp’ would be better than this. I can’t think of another band that it sounds like though – when I email this SWC, I’ll let him think of one….

(SWC writes – Ok – ‘Bathroom Gurgle’ sounds like The Rapture torturing the life out of Disco Stu from the Simpsons. This is a good thing, its easiest the finest moment by Late of the Pier.)

So what have we learnt today.

Well firstly, we should all try and be more like Driver A.

Secondly, I still have no idea what dance punk is, and thirdly you can’t really trust anything that Dave Grohl says.

Thanks for reading.

KT

 

Close Lobsters

THE MONDAY MORNING HI-QUALITY VINYL RIP : Part Fourteen : LET’S MAKE SOME PLANS

I was recently on a Zoom call with Jonny The Friendly Lawyer – it’s my hope that, if the COVID situation improves and travel restrictions begin to get lifted, then a trip to visit him in LA, postponed from last year, will go ahead in a few months time.

The call, as it inevitably does, got onto the subject of music and I made mention of Close Lobsters and how they were one of the most underrated of all the Scottish bands to emerge in the 80s. Jonny expressed a bit of surprise that the band were from around these parts – he knew they were British but hadn’t quite paid attention to exactly where from.  In turn, he surprised me by mentioning that Close Lobsters had enjoyed a fair amount of college radio exposure in the US back in the day – I had always assumed they hadn’t done much, initially, beyond these shores.

The band formed in 1985 in Paisley, a sizable town in Scottish terms, located immediately to the south-west of Glasgow, first coming to prominence the following year via a song being included on the C86 compilation put together by the NME.  They lasted around four years, releasing two albums and a handful of singles on Fire Records, the London-based indie label.  As Jonny informed me, they got a fair bit of attention in the States, helped by a review of the debut album in Rolling Stone Magazine which described it as:-

“first-rate guitar pop from a top-shelf band. Close Lobsters could have been just another jangle group, but they have a lot more going for them than just chiming Rickenbackers.

The band reformed in 2012, and I was lucky enough to get to see one of the comeback gigs at a small and very sticky basement venue in Glasgow where they put on an outstanding show.  A few singles and EPs were then released sporadically and finally, in 2020, there was a new album, released by the excellent team behind the Last Night in Glasgow label.  All being well, there’s a live show or two planned for later in the year, including at a small Glasgow venue quite close to Villain Towers, for which tickets have been bought.

The band have released a lot of great songs over the years, but if you want my opinion, they never bettered their third single, which got to #17 in the UK indie charts in 1987:-

mp3: Close Lobsters – Let’s Make Some Plans

I picked up a second hand copy on 12″ vinyl a good while back, and have just again, using the new(ish) turntable, made a fresh rip at 320kpbs, well above the normal quality on offer at the blog.  And here’s your b-sides:-

mp3: Close Lobsters – In Spite Of These Times
mp3: Close Lobsters – Get What They Deserve

Two tracks that many of their contemporaries would love to have written and released as singles….there really was a plethora of riches from Close Lobsters back in the day.

JC

R.E.M.

THE SINGULAR ADVENTURES OF R.E.M. (Part 46)

As has been duly noted over the past month or so, R.E.M.’s career was experiencing something it hadn’t done in the first 20 years of their existence. Following the abominable Reveal and Around The Sun albums, long-term, devoted fans like myself were beginning to walk away. It seemed R.E.M. had, against all the odds, become a middle-aged, middle of the road band who were just going through the motions. The energy, the drive and the emotion that once upon a time made them the greatest and most exciting band in the world was seemingly gone, something the band themselves would later acknowledge.

“[Around The Sun] just wasn’t really listenable, because it sounds like what it is, a bunch of people that are so bored with the material that they can’t stand it anymore.” (Peter Buck, 2008)

By 2008, four years after Around The Sun was inflicted upon us, I was at a musical crossroads. The White Stripes had broken up and there didn’t seem to be much that was terribly exciting going on in the pop universe. At least, nothing I could hang my hat on. I saw that R.E.M. were about to release a new album, so when the lead single Supernatural Superserious was released, I downloaded it mainly out of curiosity. What I heard was unexpected.

Some history first. In 2007, R.E.M. took up residency at the Olympia in Dublin. The plan was to rehearse new material in readiness for a new album. They decided to sell tickets so the fans could give their reactions, although as Michael Stipe insisted during each performance: “This is not a show!” (They preferred the term ‘working rehearsals’.)

Among the new songs was one entitled Disguised. It wasn’t finished, but it had promise. Before going into the studio, a new chorus was written, the old chorus became the bridge and the title was changed (on the advice of a certain Chris Martin). On 11th February, 2008, it became the first single released from R.E.M.’s 14th album Accelerate.

mp3: R.E.M. – Supernatural Superserious

Could it be? R.E.M. sounding like they still had something left to give? I mean, it wasn’t their best song by a long chalk, but it was way better than anything their previous two albums had yielded, and (Animal aside) was their best song of the decade so far. Supernatural Serious had that energy, that drive, that verve. It also had an infectious tune that hung around in my head for hours after hearing it. This was the sound of a band who actually sounded like they were enjoying themselves again.

But was it to be a false dawn? I approached Accelerate with caution, downloading it (for *ahem* free) rather than rushing out to buy it. But as it turned out, this really was a return to form. For starters, all the electronic mush that plagued their previous two albums was gone – it was a stripped-down, back-to-basics rock & roll record with few embellishments. It was also recorded faster than any album the band had worked on since Green. Most of the songs retained the single’s energy, all aggressive guitars and swagger – the antithesis of Around The Sun. At a mere 34 minutes, it was R.E.M.’s shortest album since Lifes Rich Pageant, their loudest and rockiest since New Adventures in Hi Fi, and their best post-Bill Berry album by a country mile.

As for the single, well the charts in the UK were becoming increasingly irrelevant to proper bands. Albums were now the more important format for serious artists and physical singles were no longer regarded as anything of real importance. Supernatural Superserious charted at #54 in the UK singles charts in its first week on downloads alone. CD singles were released the following week but that didn’t improve the chart position. It was their last significant chart entry in the UK.

Both CDs included a surfy-instrumental track (yes, even 27 years after White Tornado appeared on the band’s first demo tape, they were still churning these silly little pieces out). Airliner is most notable for its writing credits, being the first of only two R.E.M. songs to credit Scott McCaughey as co-writer alongside Buck, Mills and Stipe. The other one? We’ll get to that in a couple weeks…

mp3: R.E.M – Airliner

CD 2 added a cover version of Beat Happening’s Red Head Walking, the closing track from their 1991 album Dreamy. I’m not a fan of the original, so it’s great to hear R.E.M. transform it into a swampy, bluesy, psyche-fused beast of a song. Kind of like how The Cramps would have done it. I love Michael’s scream at the end and his subsequent regret…

mp3: R.E.M. – Red Head Walking

It had been a long time since anyone had put the words ‘R.E.M.’ and ‘fun’ together in a sentence, but this was a sign that maybe, just maybe, they could still pull it off and regain some of the credibility they’d lost in recent years.

By the way, those ‘working rehearsals’ in Dublin were recorded and the highlights released as a 39-track album in 2009 as Live At The Olympia. Nine of the songs that ended up on Accelerate were included along with another two new songs that were never released in any other form. As a bonus for you, here’s the version of Supernatural Superserious that was played, still in its unfinished form with its original title.

mp3: R.E.M. – Disguised [live at the Olympia, Dublin, 2007]

The Robster

JC adds…..I agree 100% with all that The Robster has written for today.  I still give Accelerate a listen every now and again, especially when I was out doing the lockdown walks.  At just 34 minutes in length, and with not really a duff track on it, it very much helped to pass the time in fine fashion.

Primary 5

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #258: THE PRIMARY 5

I’ve one song by The Primary 5 on the hard drive, courtesy of its inclusion on the CD compilation Ave Marina – 10 Years of Marina Records, released in 2004 by the Hamburg-based label which has always had a very strong and varied Scottish presence.

I didn’t know that first thing about the band and this was pleasantly surprised to discover that the mainstay is Paul Quinn….no, not the one I’m always banging on about on this blog…..but the musician of the same name best known for his spells as drummer with Soup Dragons and Teenage Fanclub.

The Primary 5 formed in 2003, with the name referring to it being the fifth band that Paul Quinn had played in. Debut album North Pole was released in 2004 with one of its tracks also finding its way onto the aforementioned Marina compilation:-

mp3: The Primary 5 – Mailman

The group would stay together for the remainder of the decade, releasing two more studio albums, Go! (2006) and High Five (2008)

JC

Cocteau Twins

WHO CARES WHAT SHE’S SINGING?

This might well be the most extraordinary piece of music to have ever come out of Scotland and become a hit single:-

mp3: Cocteau Twins – Pearly-Dewdrops’ Drops

It reached #29 in May 1984, spending four weeks in the Top 40. Sadly, the producers at Top of The Pops didn’t see fit to invite the band to the studios for a performance.  It truly would have been incredible television to see Liz, Robin and Simon miming away as the balloons were bounced around among the surely bewildered pop fans who were there to catch sight of Duran Duran, Nik Kershaw or The Thompson Twins, all of whom were riding high in the charts that week.

To be fair, the first week of June 1984 had a decent looking Top 30 –  OMD, Blancmange, New Order, Human League, Depeche Mode, The Special AKA, Scritti Politti, The Cure, Sandie Shaw/The Smiths, and Echo & The Bunnymen could be found alongside Cocteau Twins.

There was always something ethereal or even abstract about the music the trio made, but the fact they enjoyed some degree of commercial success would indicate there was much more love for them out there in the mid 80s than perhaps they ever anticipated or indeed were prepared for.

Pearly-Dewdrops’ Drops is not a lyric that would ever qualify for the great short stories series – indeed, it is nigh on impossible to know what precisely is being sung with different sites offering up different interpretations.  But it really doesn’t matter when the voice is as wonderfully expressive as this – at times it sounds as if Liz is undergoing some sort of exorcism – with a musical accompaniment which is singularly unique but somehow offers reminders of a number of the other above-named bands who were also in the Top 30 that week, as well as the guitar work of John McGeogh.

The b-side wasn’t too shabby either:-

mp3: Cocteau Twins – Pepper-Tree

One of the strangest things about the release of this single was that the 12″ version not only featured an extended version, but that it was stuck on the b-side, with a completely different lead track as the a-side:-

mp3: Cocteau Twins – The Spangle Maker

Here’s the thing……The Spangle Maker has even more of a ‘wow’ factor. For the full sonic experience, turn it up loud and put on a decent set of headphones.

JC

Robert Forster

DANGER IN THE PAST

It was sometime last year that I picked up the vinyl re-issues of the first two solo albums recorded and released by Robert Forster.  They are each things of beauty, coming finely packaged, complete with a bonus 7″ single and Robert’s newly supplied liner notes to help put things into context.

The debut album was Danger In The Past, recorded over just 14 days in June/July 1990, some six months after the Go-Betweens had broken up.  By this time, Robert was living with his new wife, Karin Baumler, in a Bavarian farmhouse which is where most of its nine songs were written.  A combination of good luck and knowing the right people enabled the album to be recorded in the famous Hansa Studios in Berlin.  His old friend, Mick Harvey, had taken on the task of producing the record, and in doing so had persuded Thomas Wydler and Hugo Race to join him in the studio.  In effect, it was Robert Forster and the Bad Seeds who convened for those two weeks with the end result being very much to everyone’s satisfaction.  Robert has since said it was one of his most treasured recording experiences, finally getting into the type of  studio hadn’t ever really had the resources to book, armed with songs which saw him move in different directions from before.  He has described the title songs as being….‘ like a folk song, and none of my songs on any Go-Betweens record were like that or had six verses. It had a classic folk chord sequence that Neil Young could’ve written, that Gordon Lightfoot could’ve written’

mp3: Robert Forster – Danger in The Past

I should also mention that Karin Baumler supplied vocals to the title track, he first of what would be many contributions to Robert’s wongs and live shows ever since.

I don’t want to go overboard with the music from the album, given the fact it contains just the nine tracks.  The album came out on Beggars Banquet, the label which the Go-Betweens had been signed to for the final few years, and while there wasn’t a single officially lifted from it, a promotional 45 featuring the jaunty, magnificent and poppy album opener, Baby Stones, (with its piano lines eerily similar to Don’t Go Back To Rockville) had been pressed up and sent to radio stations. A promo video was also shot:-

It’s b-side wasn’t on the album and when Needle Mythology issued the 2020 re-pressing they made it available on the bonus 7″:-

mp3: Robert Forster – The Land That Time Forgot

I’ll get round soon enough to posting something from Calling From a Country Phone, the follow-up album originally released in 1993.

JC

Divine Comedy

IN WHICH THROWING THE KITCHEN SINK AT THE SONG WORKED A TREAT

The Divine Comedy had been on the go for about seven years before the first whiff of success.  It came via a fabulous single and the opening track from their fourth album, Casanova, which was released in 1996

mp3: The Divine Comedy – Something For The Weekend

It’s got the sort of plot that would make for a great short story.  The reason I’ve not included it within that particular series is that too many of the lyrics get repeated throughout the song, but this is actually one of its strengths as it really is quite a simple premise.

Man tries to woo an attractive woman but isn’t quite sure how to really go about it.  Woman convinces man that she is very interested in him but before it goes any further she needs him to go to an outbuilding in the garden as she’s convinced there’s something strange afoot.  Man goes into the outbuilding whereupon he gets beaten up and robbed, discovering when he comes back into a state of consciousness that his wallet and car keys are gone….as is the teasing and alluring woman.

There’s a superb arrangement on the track, with violins, violas, cellos, flutes, a clarinet, an oboe, a bassoon, a saxophone, a trumpet, a flugelhorn and a trombone all in the mix, alongside the guitars, bass, drums, piano and Hammond organ.

You can actually thank, indirectly, Edwyn Collins for it all.  The unexpected world-wide success of A Girl Like You had brought immense riches to Setanta Records, which meant that all other singers and bands on the label could enjoy bigger budgets for recording their next singles and albums.  The sounds that had been going around inside Neil Hannon‘s head over the previous years could now be fully realised.

Something For The Weekend reached #14 in the UK singles chart, the first of what would prove to be twelve Top 40 singles for The Divine Comedy over the next eight years.

Here’s the three tracks which accompanied the CD single:-

mp3: The Divine Comedy – Birds of Paradise Farm
mp3: The Divine Comedy – Love Is Lighter Than Air
mp3: The Divine Comedy – Songs Of Love (Theme from ‘Father Ted’)

The second of the above songs is a cover of a Magnetic Fields song, from the previous year’s album Get Lost. The third of the above songs will, I’m sure, put a smile on many faces, recalling one of the funniest and most original TV sitcoms with 25 peerless episodes all told. Any overseas readers not familiar with Father Ted should click here.

JC

White Stripes

IT REALLY WAS A CRACKING DEBUT SINGLE (55)

March 1998.

The third release on Italy Records, a relatively new indie-label based in Detroit is by a relatively new indie/garage punk calling themselves The White Stripes.  The duo, consisting of Jack White (vocals/guitar) and Meg White (drums/vocals), are siblings – well that’s their story at this point in time, and they’re sticking to it.

The single has come about as Dave Buick, the founder/owner of Italy Records, sees a great deal of potential in The White Stripes based on watching them perform in various bars in Detroit.  Jack White had been reluctant to do so on the basis of not being able to meet the costs involved, but relented when it became clear that the label would pick up the tab.

The decision is taken to go with an energetic number, a little over two minutes in length:-

mp3 : The White Stripes – Let’s Shake Hands

A cover version was chosen for the b-side:-

mp3: The White Stripes – Look Me Over Closely

This song had originally been recorded by Marlene Dietrich in 1953.  The composer was Terry Gilkyson, who would later end up at Disney Studios where a number of his subsequent songs would become hugely famous from their use in cartoon films, including the Oscar-nominated Bare Necessities from The Jungle Book in 1968.

Only 1,000 copies of Let’s Shake Hands/Look Over Me Closely were pressed, on 7″ red vinyl.  As you can imagine, it’s incredibly difficult to get a hold of, with copies fetching several hundred pounds on the second-hand market.  There was a second pressing in 2002, just after The White Stripes had become internationally famous, which is more readily available and affordable, despite again having a limited run of just 1,000 copies, followed by a third pressing in 2008, again with a limited number. (And no, I don’t have a copy of any of the pressings….the mp3s were villaniously acquired…..)

The White Stripes would record a second single, Lafayette Blues, for Italy Records thatwhich was released in October 1998 before they moved to the long-established Sympathy for the Record Industry label, based in California. Over a three-year period, there would be three albums and a number of singles, and enjoying the commercial breakthrough in White Blood Cells in 2001.

I think it’s fair to say that The White Stripes debut single demonstrates clearly the sort of sounds that would propel them to superstardom and widespread acclaim.

JC