Bass Changes Everything

Celebrating Andy Rourke, 17th January 1964 to 19th May 2023.

 

A career that spanned so much more but Andy's place in history was cemented with The Smiths. I had a strange relationship with the band in as much as my first purchase was the Hatful Of Hollow compilation on cassette, which I became obsessed with and played to death, eventually replacing the worn out tape with a vinyl copy and later still with CD. For me, the definitive versions of many of The Smiths' well-known songs are to be found on Hatful Of Hollow.

Part of the reason for that however is that, during the band's lifetime, I never bought another album by The Smiths. I got a few 7" and 12" singles but not their self-titled debut or Meat Is Murder, neither The Queen Is Dead nor Strangeways, Here We Come. And certainly not live album Rank. I caught up in the 1990s.

 

Actually, I tell a lie: I bought another compilation, Louder Than Bombs, on double vinyl sometime in 1987; the album was released in April 1987 and The Smiths had spilt by September of that year so I might just have snuck that one in before the end. 

Much is made of the partnership between The Manchester Racist and Johnny Marr but as a band, The Smiths were incredible, Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce's rhythm section something out of this world.

So, much as I wanted to pay tribute to Andy by focusing on The Smiths, I debated how to do that without effectively diverting attention to their lyricist and singer, whose increasingly repugnant views do not have a place here.

 

Today's selection therefore is a bit of a fudge and almost entirely Mozza free. As a starting point, there are three bonafide songs intentionally recorded as instrumentals: Money Changes Everything, The Draize Train (the 'Rank' rather than single version here) plus one of my favourite of their songs, the wonderful Oscillate Wildly. I've also obtained a couple of instrumentals from the unofficial and inspiringly-titled 2010 compilation, Unreleased Demos & Instrumentals. 

 

I'm less sure about the provenance of the rest, having sourced them in various places online, but the quality of several suggest that it's been run through filtering software to remove the vocals. I can't stake my life on it, but I'm hoping I haven't fallen into the trap of including one or more instrumentals that have been recorded by a 'soundalike' tribute/cover/pub rock artist. I'm already feeling mortified, just in case...

The idea though was to highlight just how bloody good a bassist Andy Rourke was and how special The Smiths' songs were because of his contribution. I hope this forty-odd minute selection goes some way to conveying this.

 

You'll find lots of superbly written and expressive tributes to Andy online, not least The Vinyl Villain, New Amusements and Bagging Area. 

Thanks, Andy, you were brilliant.

 

1) Barbarism Begins At Home (Instrumental) (1985)

2) This Charming Man (Instrumental) (1983)

3) Money Changes Everything (Single Version) (1986)

4) Hand In Glove (Instrumental) (1984)

5) Still Ill (Instrumental) (1984)

6) Vicar In A Tutu (Instrumental Demo) (1985)

7) Untitled Two (Marr Instrumental) aka Heavy Track (1987)

8) There Is A Light That Never Goes Out (Instrumental) (1986)

9) The Draize Train (Live @ National Ballroom, Kilburn, London) (1986)

10) Untitled One aka I Misses You (Marr Instrumental) (1984)

11) Oscillate Wildly (Single Version) (1985)

 

Bass Changes Everything (42:13) (Box) (Mega)