Side 1 of a cassette compilation recorded by my friend Stuart in late August 1991.
This was the closing paragraph when I posted Side 2 in January 2022:
Junk
Collage (do you see what I did there?) by me, ripped from various
magazines and adverts. I can easily spot Buddy Holly and Christian
Slater in there. I think the main picture was a toilet wall backdrop to a
photo of a music artist, but I've forgotten who.
A glance below and a few seconds into today's selection and you'll see and hear that I decided to keep Dumpy's Rusty Nuts in. It's now so ingrained after three decades of listening to this mixtape that it's almost impossible for me to hear Over & Over by Neil Young & Crazy Horse without it.
Many years later, I repaid the 'favour' by including the Dumpy's Rusty Nuts intro on a birthday CD that I compiled for Stuart. One for a future post.
I'd returned to Bristol after a year travelling, so this cassette served as a kind of 'this is what you missed whilst you were away' round up of music in 1991. In addition to a tremendous comeback albums from Julian Cope and Throwing Muses, Teenage Fanclub released the Star Sign EP, a precursor to the mighty Bandwagonesque album later that year.
The Fat Lady Sings made two appearances on this compilation, having blown Stuart away when we saw them supporting The Psychedelic Furs in 1990. They didn't - and have never - quite had the same impact on me but I like the B-side featured here, a good example of the quality and quantity of their music at the time.
Stuart had also been delving into some rock classics, this tape probably being my first introduction to Horses by Patti Smith and Exile On Main Street by The Rolling Stones. I'd taken the Neil Young & Crazy Horse and Mazzy Star albums with me on my travels, so these were already classics, in my opinion.
It's another much-loved and much-played cassette, containing songs that have stayed with me over the last thirty-odd years and sound every bit as good now as they did then.
1) Intro / Over & Over (Album Version): Dumpy's Rusty Nuts vs. Neil Young & Crazy Horse (1990)
2) Fall On Me (Album Version): R.E.M. (1986)
3) Free Money: Patti Smith (1975)
4) To Reach Me: The Go-Betweens (1986)
5) Be My Angel: Mazzy Star (1990)
6) Happy: The Rolling Stones (1972)
7) Safesurfer (Album Version): Julian Cope (1991)
8) Momento Mori: The Fat Lady Sings (1991)
9) Counting Backwards: Throwing Muses (1991)
10) Like A Virgin (Cover of Madonna): Teenage Fanclub (1991)
1972: Exile On Main Street: 6
1975: Horses: 3
1986: Liberty Belle And The Black Diamond Express: 4
1986: Life's Rich Pageant: 2
1990: bootleg live cassette / Ragged Glory: 1
1990: She Hangs Brightly: 5
1991: Arclight EP: 8
1991: Counting Backwards EP: 9
1991: Peggy Suicide: 7
1991: Star Sign EP: 10
Big fan of Cope and REM and feel that the two songs on here might not be known by most of the music buying public but are both genius. Safesurfer is just brilliant and anybody who doesn't believe so is a cad in my book ;)
ReplyDeleteAn earlier version of Safesurfer appeared on Droolian but hearing the Peggy Suicide album version on the radio was a jaw-dropping moment. Fall On Me is one of R.E.M.'s finest.
DeleteThat's a great compilation, and very reminiscent of the time, even with the oldies included.
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean, Rol. For Stuart and I, our early 20's was about a deep dive into artists that you're told you're supposed to like and making up our own minds - The Stones, Dylan, The Byrds, Van Morrison, Patti Smith. But you're right, they were also a good fit with the then-contemporary artists, given that so many cited them as an influence.
DeleteA real time capsule. I'd forgotten about Counting Backwards, a welcome retrieval from the past today.
ReplyDeleteCounting Backwards was a guaranteed floor filler at the indie discos I frequented, but is just a fabulous song. I don't play it nearly as often as I should.
DeleteGreat compilation. I was well into Throwing Muses around this time and Counting Backwards is one of their absolute corkers. I've got a couple of boxes of old cassette compilations of my own, but lack the technical knowhow to digitise them.
ReplyDeleteMe too, Swede. Whilst I was hoovering up pretty much anything on 4AD at the time, Throwing Muses were something special. The dynamic between Kristin Hersh and Tanya Donnelly edged it for me.
DeleteRe: the compilations, all of the Dubhed selections are generally recreations using CD rips or MP3s that I've bought/acquired over the years. The only one is this selection that I converted from the original cassette several years ago is the intro by Dumpy's Rusty Nuts. I still have a (double) tape deck, a lead connecting my amp to the computer and the free Audacity music software and I was good to go. I welded the intro to a CD rip of Over And Over from my CD of Ragged Glory to match the version on Junk Garage.
Unfortunately, since then, the tape deck's currently sitting in the loft, my turntable and amp are in a separate room from the computer, which itself has been upgraded and no longer has mic ports. I just haven't got around to identifying and buying new leads and moving the hifi around which has halted my slow efforts to digitise my vinyl and cassettes.
I'm still using Audacity to create each selection, though. I lack the technical knowhow to do anything remotely resembling a 'proper' DJ mix!