It's Easter, it's Sunday, it's time for a themed Dubhed Selection that doesn't include Easter by Patti Smith Group..
Ten songs, three quarters of an hour. This one's dedicated to Jez over at the excellent A History Of Dubious Taste for championing Kris Kristofferson via his Sunday Morning Coming Down series. Jez provided my proper introduction to Kris' music, without which I'd be missing the rather wonderful opening song for today's selection.
In one of those happy coincidences, the song's synth outro segues perfectly with the intro to Easter by Repeat, despite being separated by over twenty years and several genres.
An Easter compilation would be incomplete without Easter Song by A Man Called Adam, with some lovely flute by Eddie Parker, who gets a co-writing credit on the song.
Scotland is well represented, with four - count 'em, four - bands. The first pair are Simple Minds and The Blue Nile, both from the early 80s. Simple Minds were in that transitional phase between avant garde, angular pop and overblown anthemic rock. The Blue Nile had just released their debut album, and it would be another six years before the follow up. An eternity then, a blink in the eye these days.
Psychedelic pop has managed to sustain in each decade since the 1960s. Julian Cope makes an inevitable appearance with Easter Everywhere, named after the 13th Floor Elevators' second album. Later, XTC deliver another slice of end of the millennium gorgeousness from their Apple Venus Volume 1 album.
Anderson (Matt to his friends and folks, Anderson (26) to Discogs) is new to me, but delivers a jolly slice of electronica that bounces along nicely. I must investigate further.
The final brace of Scottish legends are Eugenius and Associates.Eugenius were initially called Captain America, until Marvel Comics knocked on their door. A forced change of name had no impact whatsoever on the quality of their music.
Associates (sometime prefixed by 'The' sometimes not) faced a different set of challenges, internal and external, but the impact of the music that Alan Rankine and Billy MacKenzie produced in their brief time together has sustained.
After a glut of Easter today, something completely different on Monday.
1) Easter Island: Kris Kristofferson (1978)
2) Easter: Repeat (2001)
3) Easter Song (Radio Edit): A Man Called Adam (1999)
Somehow, I'm not quite sure how, Dubhed is three years old today. Not something I imagined writing when I first started this blog in 2020.
A piffling amount of time if you visit any of the blogs linked to this site and see what dedication and long-term commitment really looks like, but it's without a doubt the most sustained period of activity for any 'creative venture' that I've ever been wholly responsible for.
Will it change your life? No, of course not. But it has helped mine in some subtle and more obvious ways. Especially since moving to the discipline of a daily post, it's given me a structured mindfulness activity that's been more of a help with my mental health that I can fully appreciate, both as a preventative and a curative exercise.
The best bit though, and the inspiration for doing it in the first place, is the lovely blogging community that I discovered and have since felt a part of, a reminder when you are surrounded by news and stories to the contrary that there are many, many wonderful human beings out there. And we all share a passion for music. Not necessarily the same music all of the time, but an appreciation and respect for the sheer love of it regardless.
It's not just about the music, though, this sense of community. Whenever I can, I try to make some time on a Saturday morning to drop by at My Top Ten to join in with Rol's excellent - and teasingly, pleasingly difficult - Saturday Snapshots quiz. Every month in 2023, John's Are We There Yet? blog has hosted a gallery of themed photos, which I started contributing to (albeit generally always just under the deadline wire - sorry, John!) and enjoy a lot. SWC at No Badger Required has run regular countdowns, based on votes from a musical jury and I'm privileged to have been a member on quite a few of these. And it all started for me with guest contributions to The Vinyl Villain, specifically JC's epic and ongoing An Imaginary Compilation album series, which has pretty much been the template for the Dubhed selections that have regularly featured here.
That's just scratching the surface: there are so many fantastic music blogs out there, all saying something different, all opening up my mind (and ears) to new experiences and not just music, of course. Every single one of the blogs in the "Other Head Music" roll call on your right (in web view, that is) are a continual inspiration.
I recently commented that Swiss Adam's Bagging Area "has always been more than a blog for music lovers, it’s a lesson in humanity." It's a humbling experience reading other people's raw and vulnerable thoughts and expressions - painful and inspiring often at the same time - and it's wonderful to see how people rally round, offer support and encouragement and just care.
Thank you all, you know who you are. Whether you have visited once or lots of times, left plenty of comments or none at all, have downloaded a Dubhed selection or had a glance through and moved on, thank you.
Anyhoo, before you start to wonder if you've stumbled on a Grammy award acceptance speech by accident, let's have some music.
If I've got my numbers right, today is my 970th post and my 654th Dubhed selection (if you count individual sides of a mixtape, which I am). No wonder my back up drive is looking full...!
I thought I'd struggle to find enough songs in my collection with 'three' in the title. No such trouble, as it happens, to the extent that I've left out some really obvious ones (apologies, De La Soul) and mix it up a little.
So, the name of this mix. Three multiplied by three three times is 81 so this selection is of course 81 minutes long (or as near as dammit). Each song contains 3 or three in the title. There are 20 tracks in total, which as you'll know is...not divisible by three. Well, you can overwork a theme sometimes, can't you?
Today's cover art is photo of Lagos - Resistance, Lagos Roads, a 1992 work by Otobong Nkanga, born in Nigeria, based in Belgium and whose exhibition was viewed and enjoyed by Clan K in Spain a few weeks ago. And yes, there's the 'three' theme again.
If you made it to the end of this post, an extra thank you. Rest assured, a return to the usual nonsense tomorrow.
1) 3 a.m. Eternal (Rankin' Club Version By Moody Boys & The Mad Professor): The KLF (1991)
2) Yeah x 3 (X-Press 2 Remix): David Holmes ft. Raven Violet (2023)
3) Three Card Trick: The Clash (1985)
4) #3 (In The Corn Belt) (Album Version By Arthur Russell): Dinosaur L (1981)
4.1) The Three Sneezes (Original Story by Roger Duvoisin) (Part 1): Martin Wallace (2006)
5) Three (Album Version By Massive Attack & Nellee Hooper): Massive Attack ft. Nicolette (1994)
6) Three MC's And One DJ (Album Version By Beastie Boys & Mario Caldato Jr.): Beastie Boys (1998)
7) Three Minute Hero: The Selecter (1980)
8) Three And Nine: Roxy Music (1974)
9) The Three Sisters: The Cure (1994)
9.1) The Three Sneezes (Original Story by Roger Duvoisin) (Part 2): Martin Wallace (2006)
10) 3 Gypsies In A Restaurant: Billy MacKenzie (1996)
11) Three Monkey Tango: Marc Almond (2006)
12) Spit Three Times (Album Version By Kieran Hebden): Neneh Cherry (2014)
13) Jltf 3 (Ambient): Moby ft. Melody Zimmer (2009)
14) 3 Of Us (4 Your Club Mix By Steve Thompson & Michael Barbiero): Humpe Humpe (1985)
15) Three Wishes: Let It Come Down (Kramer & Xan Tyler) (2020)
16) The Three Shadows Pt.1: Bauhaus (1982)
16.1) The Three Sneezes (Original Story by Roger Duvoisin) (Part 3): Martin Wallace (2006)
17) We Three Kings Of Orient Aren't: Jamie Wednesday (1986)
18) Three Girl Rhumba (Cover of Wire): Bark Psychosis (1996)
19) 3 a.m. Eternal (Almighty Radio Edit): People Of 'K' ft. Crystal (2014)
20) The Three Sneezes (Original Story by Roger Duvoisin) (Part 4): Martin Wallace (2006)
Billy MacKenzie introduces today's long song selection, down on the tempo, up on the electronic emotional dial.
Recorded and released with Loom in 1996, the opening song actually dates back to the aborted Associates reunion with Alan Rankine in 1993, the song initially demo'd as Edge Of The World and appearing on the Double Hipness compilation in 2000. Billy would revisit the song several times, with versions titled Anacostia Bay or At The Edge Of The World appearing on various posthumous solo compilations, including last year's essential Satellite Life: Recordings 1994-1996
Despite the mix title, this is the only version of Eagle to appear on Banco De Gaia's 1995 Last Train To Lhasa, which is still a satisfying, immersive ambient experience, nearly three decades on.
Blue Pearl were good but never quite as good as I wished/hoped they would be. Youth aka Martin Glover at the controls and Durga McBroom's vocals which, to be honest, were an acquired taste. However, the trio of remixes by The Orb on the Mother Dawn 12" single are pretty great; this is the first, clocking in at 12 minutes and 45 seconds and still not the longest of the three!
Today's loose theme easily presented an excuse to post yet another version/remix of Smokebelch by The Sabres Of Paradise. Is there a bad version of this song? I've yet to hear one.
As a coda to this selection, a brief burst from Justin Warfield, vocal free and hinting at another party about to kick off next door.
Five songs, fifty minutes, play through headphones for the maximum experience.
1) Anacostia Bay (At The Edge Of The World) (Original Version): Loom ft. Billy MacKenzie (1996)
2) Eagle (Small Steppa Mix): Banco De Gaia (1995)
3) Mother Dawn (Buckateer Mix 1 By The Orb): Blue Pearl (1992)
4) Smokebelch II (Exit) (Remix By Andrew Weatherall, Jagz Kooner & Gary Burns): The Sabres Of Paradise (1993)
5) Tequila Flats (Ghosts Of Laurel Canyon): Justin Warfield (1994)
In A Season Of Light We Can See Forever (50:00) (Box) (Mega)
Side 1 of a 1980s 12" mix cassette compilation, recorded 24th April 2000. According to my sleevenotes on the reverse, "these 12" singles kept me going even when my hairstyle just couldn't keep pace". It's fair to say that in the mid to late 1980s, I went through an environmentally unfriendly amount of hairspray and gel, rarely to impressive effect.
The selection starts off with Act, who featured here in their own right last year. A short-lived but oh-so-wonderful collaboration between Claudia Brücken and Thomas Leer. Unfortunately for them, Act was launched just as label ZTT experienced a dip in popularity, post-Frankie Goes to Hollywood and pre-808 State and Seal. A shame as Brücken and Leer looked and sounded great, with satirical lyrics and none-more-80s production.
Snobbery & Decay was Act's opening statement and deserved a far better UK chart placing than #60, which would sadly prove to be their biggest 'hit'. As with most ZTT releases, there were multiple formats and remixes. As this mix title suggests, this limited edition 12" was housed in a beautiful sleeve with a photo of Quentin Crisp by Anton Corbijn on the reverse. What's less obvious is that the remix heavily samples Cybil Shepherd and Bruce Willis from US TV series Moonlighting, which was hugely popular at the time. In fact, the song proper doesn't kick in until five and a half minutes into a remix just shy of nine minutes. All good fun, but you had to buy the other formats to get more Claudia and Thomas.
Visage arguably made one good album (their debut) and it was all downhill from there. Personally, I also have a lot of love for second album The Anvil and, singles-wise, everything up to Pleasure Boys. Night Train is one of their best and the record-buying public seemed largely to agree as it proved to be their fourth UK Top 20 hit, pipping Mind Of A Toy by one place to peak at #12. I first got the dance mix of Night Train on vinyl courtesy of the Old Gold series, which would usually slap two extended mixes on a 12" single in a hideously generic sleeve for a bargain price. I tracked down the original 12" single years later in Replay Records in Bristol. I still love it.
What can I say about Associates? Well, other than whether to use the definite article in their name or not. Billy MacKenzie and Alan Rankine created some of the finest pop music of the 1980s, managing both perfect and off-kilter often in the same song. Club Country had a tough gig, being the follow up to Party Fears Two, but it managed #13 in the UK and matched it's predecessor's 10-week run in the charts. I love the song, whether the 7" single, slightly longer album cut or here in it's extended version. And, for my money, the best phrasing of the word 'pseudonym' in a song, ever.
It's only occurred to me whilst writing this that there's a Scottish theme running though this selection: Thomas Leer, Midge Ure, Billy MacKenzie and Alan Rankine. Zeke Manyika was born in Zimbabwe, but moved to (and I think still lives in) Scotland, joining Orange Juice in 1982, so that's good enough for me.
Runaway Freedom Train was released in 1989 as the follow up to Bible Belt and sadly also seems to have had little impact on the charts. It carries a similar political heft to Bible Belt, albeit with a slightly more oblique comment on apartheid in South Africa:
"No matter how hard you try
To break this motion,
It's a one way ticket,
Only one destination,
You can't break the wheels of history"
I still have the 12" single of Runaway Freedom Train, but I haven't digitised the songs or currently have the means to do so. The original 12" version is about eight minutes long and a fairly straightforward extended mix by Keith Cohen. The only version available online is the "U.S.A. Extended Club Version", which appears to be a re-edit of the Cohen mix, initially by The Latin Rascals and re-edited in 2009 by Mixmaster DJ Heavy M aka Malik Jefferson. The tracks runs to nearly ten minutes and is a veritable frenzy of scratches and edits. I tried cutting it down for use in this selection, but it just sounded way out of place with the rest of the tracks. I also didn't want to use different mixes of any of the other tracks to maintain the original running time.
So, what you've got here is my own re-edit of the re-edit of the, er, re-edit. Largely the album version from Zeke's second album Mastercrime, I've spliced a chunk of edits a little way into the intro and dropped in a further slab of edits at the end. It still runs a little short at just over seven and a half minutes, but (I think) it just about works. As ever, you'll be the judge of that. The mix title says it all.
Grace Jones next, with Living My Life. I first heard the song in 1983 on The Master Tape, a freebie compilation with Record Mirror which I think was a sampler of forthcoming releases. The irony with Living My Life was that it didn't appear on either her album of the same name or as a single in the UK, although a limited 12" was released in Portugal. I could have used the Long Version from the latter to solve the issue with Runaway Freedom Train, but true to the original mixtape, I've stuck with the 1986 remix by Steven Stanley, which is much closer to the version that I originally heard on the Record Mirror compilation. Neither Grace Jones nor Steven Stanley were born in Scotland and regretfully, I can't find any evidence that either have lived there, so my Scottish theme ends there.
But only briefly, as Aberdeen's own Annie Lennox leaps to the rescue with, er, Sunderland native David A. Stewart as Eurythmics. Would I lie to you? No, siree. This was the lead mix (of two) from the 12" single, with Eric 'ET' Thorngren bringing his customary BIG drums in and pushing everything bar Annie's vocals back in the mix. He likes his drums, does ET. I did buy the accompanying album, Be Yourself Tonight, but this was pretty much the point that I started checking out on Eurythmics. I like this single but it was all getting a bit slick and aimed squarely at global domination for my liking. Fair play to Eurythmics, they achieved it, but it's the first three albums that I return to time and again.
And blowing the Scottish theme once and for all (well, it was good while it lasted), Side 1 ends with Scarlet Fantastic, who both hail from the West Midlands, and are remixed here by Australian Karen Hewitt. The wonderfully named Maggie De Monde and Rick Phylip-Jones were previously in Swans Way, who had a Top 20 hit with the avant-garde pop of Soul Train. Scarlet Fantastic were more out-and-out pop and No Memory is a fantastic example, although it sadly didn't quite find an audience, reaching #24 in 1987. The pick of the bunch is the Extra Sensory Mix but the Ecstacy Mix is also a corker. The version here was ripped several years ago from my copy of the limited edition 12" single in - what else? - "scarlet fantastic" red vinyl.
Have a fun Saturday, everyone!
1) (The Naked Civil) Snobbery & Decay (Remix By Stephen Lipson): Act (1987)
2) Night Train (Dance Mix By Visage & John Luongo): Visage (1982)
3) Club Country (Extended Version By Associates & Mike Hedges): Associates (1982)
4) Runaway Freedom Train ('All This Scratching Is Making Me Itch' Re-Edit By Khayem): Zeke Manyika (1989/2022)
5) Living My Life (Remix By Steven Stanley): Grace Jones (1986)
6) Would I Lie To You? (An Eric 'ET' Thorngren Mix): Eurythmics (1985)
7) No Memory (Ecstacy Mix By Karen Hewitt): Scarlet Fantastic (1987)
I've been floored by the horrendous cold bug that seems to be sweeping the island at the moment. What better way to distract myself than with a generous dose of Associates / Billy Mackenzie?
Fever was the spectacular single that pronounced the return of Associates in 1990. Criminally, it managed two weeks on the chart and a peak of #81. Wrong on so many levels.
This is a similarly spectacular and extended live performance of the song from (I think) The Big Day concert at George Square in Glasgow on 3rd June 1990. Texas and Wet Wet Wet may have been the bigger names with longer sets that day but honestly, how do you follow this?
Last but not least, Fever In The Shadows was originally a bonus track on the 12" and CD of the Fever single, then a CD bonus track on the Wild And Lonely album. Some similarities with the single, but a different groove, completely different lyrics and up there with the best Associates songs.
Fever
Cruel, was the first time
Cruel, still I remember
I never ever saw you again, contain me
Fever when I call out your name
Can you blame me?
Something in the night, making me feel electrified
Something in the night, tell me about you
Something in the night, throw me shadows of your life
And let me take this night closer until you fall
Cruel, was the first time
Cruel, still I remember
Let me see you get out of this
I want you with or without tenderness
I'll haunt you
Something in the night, making me feel electrified
Something in the night, tell me about you
Something in the night, throw me shadows of your life
And let me take this night closer until you fall
I knew you were waiting for something better to come along
C'mon, you won't forget me honey
Am I weak because I'm strong?
Something in the night, making me feel electrified
Something in the night, tell me about you
Something in the night, throw me the shadows of your life
It's been a long week, so here are some songs with Friday in the title or artist name. Welcome to the weekend!
1) Friday On My Mind: The Easybeats (1966) 2) I (Friday Night): Dubstar (2000) 3) Ghostrider (Cover of Suicide): Gavin Friday & Dave Ball (2009) 4) Friday Night, Saturday Morning (Live @ Brixton Academy): The Specials (2009) 5) Window Shopping (Single Version By Jerry Dammers): The Friday Club (1985) 6) Tell Me Easter's On Friday: Associates (1981) 7) Fridays (Up-Person Mix): Vini Reilly (1991) 8) Friday's Child (Cover of Lee Hazlewood): Goodbye Mr. Mackenzie (1991) 9) Last Friday Night (Live Lounge Session, BBC Radio 1) (Cover of Katy Perry): The Vaccines (2011) 10) Friday I'm In Love (Cover of The Cure): Yo La Tengo (2015)
First upload to Mixcloud, May 2020, lockdown in full effect. Seventeen tunes in an hour and a bit, boldly claiming to be "taking you out there whilst staying in". Second appearance this week for the Rickie Lee Jones sample, originally used in The Orb's Little Fluffy Clouds, and revisited in Rickie's Alibi by Andres Y Xavi, featured in Sunday's Raindrops Keep Falling mix.
1) Silence, Sea & Sky: The Chameleons (1985)
2) Papua New Guinea (Monsoon Mix): The Future Sound Of London (1991) 3) Om Namah Shiva (Transformation Of The Heart Mix By Bill Laswell): Jah Wobble’s Invaders Of The Heart ft. Najma Akhtar (1994) 4) Little Fluffy Clouds (Ambient Mix Mk I): The Orb (1990) 5) AKA... What A Life! (The Amorphous Androgynous Remix): Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds (2012) 6) Planetary Sit-In (Radio Sit-In Remix): Julian Cope (1996) 7) If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next (The Class Reunion Of The Sunset Marquis Mix By David Holmes): Manic Street Preachers (1998) 8) “lord of the flies” (1963) 9) Cherry Coloured Funk (Re-cycled By Mark Clifford): Cocteau Twins (1995) 10) Elon Musk On Mars: Ergo Phizmiz (2019) 11) Das Modell (Album Version): Kraftwerk (1978) 12) With My Eyes Wide Open I'm Dreaming: Virginia Astley (1983) 13) I Specialize In Loneliness: Jesus Loves You (1990) 14) L'Estasi Dell'Oro (Bandini Remix): Ennio Morricone (2003) 15) Achieved In The Valley Of The Dolls: Barry Adamson ft. Billy Mackenzie (1996) 16) The Rainbow: Talk Talk (1988) 17) The Spoils: Massive Attack ft. Hope Sandoval (2016)
