The Long Good Friday

If you're expecting a Bob Hoskins inspired compilation of crime fuelled carnage, then I'm sorry to disappoint you. 

If you're looking for an eclectic clutch of long songs on the Good Friday public holiday, then you're come to the right place!

What better way to start than the original version of Stairway To Heaven by Led Zeppelin? My introduction to the song didn't come via the radio: way too long for Tony Blackburn to play it on his Radio 1 request show. No, it unexpectedly came in my final year at secondary school, watching my bemulleted Biology teacher strumming and strainig to emulate both Page and Plant in one fell swoop. He had two erstwhile accomplices, both also on guitar as I recall and both PE teachers, who also stepped in to teach a science class when the regular was off sick or on hols. A memorable performance, for all the wrong reasons.

Idiot Wind - and Blood On The Tracks as a whole - is something that I came to relatively recently, after years of subconsciously avoiding a deep dive into Bob Dylan's catalogue. I don't regret the long wait - I plenty of other good (and bad) music to discover in the meantime - but I'm glad I got there in the end. A great song, and a great album.  

From Dylan to disco and I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor, a song that for a long time was diminished by its ubiquity: a UK #1 for four weeks in 1979, twelve weeks in the Top 30; a staple of wedding parties (which always seemed odd to me!), themed discos and karaoke ever since. I've since come to appreciate it again for the fantastic song and vocal, though I'm a sucker for the version featured here. Not only the full length disco mix, but sung in Spanish! What's not to love?

My musical education and enlightenment has grown exponentially since joining the blogging community, with particular thanks to the roll call of other head music listed to the right (if you're viewing the web version). Shaving Is Boring by Hatfield & The North is one such treasure, which I was introduced to by The Swede on his excellent blog Unthought of, though, somehow on 30th May 2022. You can find the original post (and link) here but if it's your first visit there, stick around and treat yourself to some fabulous words, music and wonderful photos from The Swede's own collection. Hatfield & The North's inclusion here is not just a thank you but a belated happy birthday to The Swede, who is currently celebrating in New York. Here's to you, sir!

A brace of reggae greats next, with Jimmy Lindsay and Horace Andy, the latter making his second appearance here this week. Jimmy is a legend of Black British music, not least with Cymande and as a solo artist with a cover of The Commodores' Easy, but also not without trials and tribulations. Jimmy's website hasn't been updated for many years, but there's an entire page dedicated to "the people who have ripped [him] off". Where Is Your Love is the title track of his debut solo album, released in 1979.

Horace Andy needs no further introduction, and the song featured here is one that wasn't included in Wednesday's selection. Both sides of a Prince Jammy-produced Jamaican 7" from 1977, which were joined together for inclusion on an excellent 1997 compilation of A-sides and dubs called Good Vibes. Not to be confused with the similarly-titled Musical Youth song ("Dennis, come back with my apple pie!") a few years later.

Back to the disco for the final two tracks. This is the second appearance of Do You Wanna Go Party by KC & The Sunshine Band in a Dubhed selection. The first was as the opener of an all-disco compilation called Someone Taught Me How To Dance Last Night that I created and posted in September 2023. I figure a nineteen month gap is reasonable enough, so here it is again. When KC & The Sunshine Band were hot, they were hot!

In a similar vein to the Gloria Gaynor pick, Moskow Diskow by Telex is another ubiquitous song that I've chosen to present here in a foreign language variation, this time French. This 12" version has also featured in a previous Dubhed selection, by sheer coincidence posted in 2023 the day after the one featuring KC & The Sunshine Band. Spooky!

I hope you have an excellent (or should that be eggs-cellent?) Easter weekend, whatever it means to you and whatever you plan to do. More music here tomorrow and every day, as usual.

1) Stairway To Heaven (Album Version): Led Zeppelin (1971)

2) Idiot Wind (Album Version): Bob Dylan (1975)

3) Yo Viviré (I Will Survive) (Spanish 12" Disco Version): Gloria Gaynor (1979)

4) Shaving Is Boring (Album Version): Hatfield & The North (1974)

5) Where Is Your Love (Album Version): Jimmy Lindsay (1979)

6) Youths Of Today / Jah Youths (Dub): Horace Andy (1977)

7) Do You Wanna Go Party (Album Version): KC & The Sunshine Band (1979)

8) Moskow Diskow (French 12" Version): Telex (1979)

1971: untitled aka Led Zeppelin IV: 1

1974: Hatfield And The North: 4

1975: Blood On The Tracks: 2

1979: Do You Wanna Go Party: 7

1979: I Will Survive / Yo Viviré EP (US promo 12"): 3

1979: Moskow Diskow EP: 8

1979: Where Is Your Love: 5

1997: Good Vibes: 6

The Long Good Friday (1:00:25) (KF) (Mega)

When I'm By Myself...

Side 1 of a cassette compilation, recorded May 1992.

 

A bit of an oddity in my collection, this one, as it was never recorded by me or for me, but by my brother's then-fiancée. Both the relationship and the cassette were subsequently discarded and, if memory serves, I rescued this and a few other tapes that my brother had binned and intended for landfill.

I think I was curious about this collection in particular because it contains lots of singer/songwriter heavyweights that I recognised by name but was largely ignorant of. So, it was a good opportunity to dip my toe into the waters.

I'd like to say that this was my springboard into the worlds of Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell and Jackson Browne. It wasn't, but it opened my eyes and ears and eventually I started dipping into Bob, Joni and Jackson's respective back catalogues. Although I've yet to own a Sting album and I'm in no particular rush to do so.

 

The collection opens with 80s Dylan, but it's okay, it's one of the good ones. I'm not familiar enough with Joni Mitchell's vast body of work to know if there are similarly certain periods and/or album that should come with their own "enter at your own risk" warning, but Hejira presents no such threat.

On paper, The Cure's debut B-side seems the errant choice, nestled between Sting and Sinéad, but it fits right in and still hits the same sweet spot as it did when I first heard on the double play greatest hits cassette, Standing On A Beach: The Singles (And Unavailable B-Sides), in 1986.

 

My Special Child was a standalone single by Sinéad O'Connor, peaking at #42 in the UK in June 1991. I was still travelling around Australia at the time, which probably explains why I had no recollection of the song. It's an okay song, though with that voice, Sinéad's 'okay' is still way above many other artist's 'excellent'.

The original compilation featured the album version of Airwaves by Thomas Dolby from his 1982 debut, The Golden Age Of Wireless. I've swapped it out here for the earlier demo version, which appeared on the 1980 cassette From Brussels With Love, on the now-legendary label Les Disques Du Crépuscule. I love this pared down, less tech-y version, which sits better with the warmer, organic sounds infusing this collection.

I know The Beautiful South were big back in the day, and had lots of hit records. Even so, I still don't think Paul Heaton gets the level of recognition and appreciation he should, as one of the finest singers and songwriters to emerge in the 1980s. I don't listen to his music as often as I should. Hearing a song like Let Love Speak Up Itself makes me question why.

I heard Cowboy Junkies' cover of Powderfinger before I heard the song as written and recorded by Neil Young. it followed the achingly slow template of the Trinity Sessions album and remains the definitive version for me. 

 

The same month that my brother's girlfriend put I'd Rather Go Blind by Chicken Shack, I also acquired the song via Vox magazine's cover mounted cassette freebie, Radio Daze (The John Peel Sessions). The fact that the opening song was 10.15 Saturday Night makes me think that she included both songs from the very same compilation. 

 

I'd Rather Go Blind is another example where I was deeply immersed in the cover long before I heard the original version, in this case Etta James in 1967. The song has been covered many, many times since by the likes of Rod Stewart, Ruby Turner, Janet Kay, Paul Weller, Beyoncé and Dua Lipa. Chicken Shack's version is hard to beat, not least for the sublime vocals by Christine Perfect aka the much-missed Christine McVie.

The Road by Jackson Browne is a bit of an oddity. Taken from his 1977 album Running On Empty, according to Iffypedia, "the entire album was recorded on tour, either live on stage, or in locations associated with touring, such as backstage, on tour buses, or in hotel rooms".

The song itself is a prime example. The first half was recorded in room 301 of the Cross Keys Inn in Columbia, Maryland on 27th August 1977. The second half switches to a live recording at the Garden State Arts Center in Holmdel, New Jersey on 7th September 1977. The latter pretty much sounds like an entirely different song to the sparse acoustic section that preceded it.

Rounding off the collection is The Manish Boys featuring one David Jones who, like Christine Perfect, changed their name and enjoyed slightly more success as... David Bowie. The session guitar player also went on to greater things, a young whippersnapper by the name of Jimmy Page.

Today's headline photo, nicked from t'internet, is a contemporary photo (April 1992) of the Redcliffe flyover and the George Railway Hotel near Temple Meads station in Bristol. The flyover was a narrow, single-track curved bridge opened as a temporary measure in 1968...which ended up staying there until 1998. As a kid sitting in the back seat of my parents' car, a journey into the city centre via the flyover was the equivalent of a free rollercoaster. Without seat belts. Fearless times, eh?

1) Man In The Long Black Coat: Bob Dylan (1989)  

2) Mad About You: Sting (1991) 

3) 10:15 Saturday Night (Single Version): The Cure (1978)

4) My Special Child: Sinéad O'Connor (1991)

5) Airwaves (Demo): Thomas Dolby (1980)

6) Let Love Speak Up Itself (Album Version): The Beautiful South (1990)

7) Powderfinger (Cover of Neil Young): Cowboy Junkies (1990)

8) Coyote: Joni Mitchell (1976)

9) I'd Rather Go Blind (Cover of Etta James): Chicken Shack (1969)

10) The Road (Cover of Danny O'Keefe): Jackson Browne (1977)

11) I Pity The Fool (Cover of Bobby 'Blue' Bland): The Manish Boys (1965)

1965: I Pity The Fool EP: 11

1969: I'd Rather Go Blind EP: 9

1976: Hejira: 8

1977: Running On Empty: 10

1978: Killing An Arab EP: 3

1980: From Brussels With Love (Les Disques Du Crépuscule): 5

1989: Oh Mercy: 1

1990: Choke: 6 

1990: The Caution Horses: 7

1991: My Special Child EP: 4

1991: The Soul Cages: 2

Side 1 (46:56) (KF) (Mega)

Woke Up This Morning, Feeling Blue

An hour-long Bob Dylan selection? Either a really great idea... or a really bad one. Still, when have I ever let a bad idea hold me back?

I'll be honest: Dylan failed to move me in my teens, my twenties, arguably a chunk of my thirties. He was just "that guy" that everyone held up as one of the greatest songwriters of all time. Oh, and for a brief period, a Travelling Wilbury.

But the slow creep began, way back with a cassette compilation from my friend, featuring Desolation Row in all it's 11-minute glory. I got into The Byrds in the 1990s, which meant absorbing Dylan's music by an osmosis-like process (Bobmosis?) Buying music magazines inevitably meant even more Bobness via countless cover mount CDs and cover versions.

When I finally relented, I think Highway 61 Revisited was the first Bob Dylan album that I acquired. And of course it's brilliant. Over the years, I've sporadically added to the collection, even cheated by getting the 2007 Dylan 3CD anthology for something like eight quid brand new from Fopp in Bristol.

For all that though, I still know next to nothing about Bob Dylan and his music. So, there was a degree of trepidation in approaching a Dylan Dubhed selection, not least because I also had the grand ambition of wanting to include at least one of his songs from the past 7 decades. 

The 1960s and 1970s choices were the hardest, mainly as that's the greatest density of Dylan songs that I own. Into the 21st Century and approaching the present day, it became slightly easier as I usually had either one album or a handful of songs to pick from.

The end result spans 1964 to 2020, taking in singles, outtakes, cover versions, album deep cuts, but mainly ploughing a downtempo, bluesy groove. 

Earlier this week, Swiss Adam wrote a fascinating piece on 1984's Jokerman (which you can find here), with the brilliant line about parent album Infidels, "it's 80s Dylan and must be approached with caution". 

I've heeded that advice, so just a couple of appearances here from the Eighties: Everything Is Broken from Oh Mercy (1989) and Emotionally Yours, which appeared on 1985's Empire Burlesque. The lovely alternate take of the song featured in this selection came from a Mojo magazine freebie last year, entitled 14 Hidden Gems From The Bootleg Series 1963-1997.

The 14-song selection is mostly half-and-half, 8 from the 20th Century, 6 from the 21st. Many of Dylan's greatest albums are criminally missed off, but I like this whirlwind tour of the outskirts. A fool's errand perhaps, but I'm okay with that.

Enjoy!

1) Forever Young ('Slow' Album Version ft. The Band) (1974)

2) Meet Me In The Morning (1975)

3) Positively 4th Street (1965)

4) Long And Wasted Years (2012)

5) All I Really Want To Do (1964)

6) Blood In My Eyes (1993)

7) Crossing The Rubicon (2020)

8) 900 Miles From My Home (Cover of traditional song) (ft. The Band) (1967)

9) Not Dark Yet (1997)

10) Let It Be Me (Cover of Gilbert Bécaud / The Everly Brothers) (1970)

11) Everything Is Broken (1989)

12) When The Deal Goes Down (2006)

13) Emotionally Yours (Alternate Take) (1985)

14) Po' Boy (2001)

1964: Another Side Of Bob Dylan: 5

1965: Positively 4th Street EP: 3

1970: Self Portrait: 10

1974: Planet Waves: 1

1975: Blood On The Tracks: 2

1989: Oh Mercy: 11

1993: World Gone Wrong: 6

1997: Time Out Of Mind: 9

2001: "Love And Theft": 14

2006: Modern Times: 12

2012: Tempest: 4

2014: The Basement Tapes Complete: The Bootleg Series Vol. 11: 8

2020: Rough And Rowdy Ways: 7

2021: Springtime In New York: The Bootleg Series Vol. 16: 1980-1985: 13

Woke Up This Morning, Feeling Blue (59:19) (KF) (Mega)

What Are These Strange Enchantments That Start Whenever You're Near?

Going way back to 1964 for today's eclectic selection of 15 songs, designed to energise your Easter.

Some stone cold classics from The Kinks, The Temptations, The Beatles and Bob Dylan and not much I can add to the millions of words that have been written about them in the last six decades, other than...the songwriters would deserve legendary status if these were the only songs that they had written. And yet, they went on to write even better songs. Boggles the mind, sometimes.

In March 1964, my folks had barely been married a year and the hopes and dreams that my brother and I would subsequently crush were some years away. Back then, they were working hard and saving money to buy a house and start a family, so buying records was a luxury they couldn't afford. So, compilations have been an essential doorway into the past for me. And there are some cracking ones to be found.

 

Nuggets: Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era 1965-1968 (the 1998 4CD not the original 1972 double vinyl) offers up The Beau Brummels. In the early 2000s, a series of CDs curated by Saint Etienne caught my attention. I think Songs For Mario's Cafe (2004) might have been the first and introduced me to many artists, including Philadelphia trio The Sapphires. Let's Break Up For A While was written by Jerry Ross and Kenneth Gamble, the latter going on to enshrine the sound of Philadelphia in partnership with Leon Huff. Beryl Marsden was revealed to me via the essential Love Hit Me! compilation in 2016. The subtitle Decca Beat Girls 1962-1970 tells you all you need to know other than it's 24 tracks of pure pop gold.

Film and TV tie-ins were also a big thing and this selection features a 4-song sequence of music that became a staple of my gogglebox experience as a kid in the 1970s. Still a year away from the big-screen adaptation in 1965, Doctor Who was nevertheless proving to be something of a phenomenon, largely thanks to those psychotic pepperpots the Daleks. The unforgettable theme tune was also subject to numerous cover versions, mostly an attempt to 'normalise' the out-there music of Delia Derbyshire and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Eric Winstone & His Orchestra being one such culprit.

The Munsters were another must-watch for me, though I'm pretty sure I didn't get to see it until the Channel 4 repeats in the early 80s and, if I'm honest, The Addams Family were my favourite if forced to choose. What I didn't know until a few years ago is that, cashing in on the TV show's success, 1964 saw "the newest teen-age singing group" The Munsters appear with a 12-song eponymous album. Sadly, despite some of the promo photos, not the actors themselves but a quartet of musicians who performed wearing rubber masks of their respective characters. It's derivative, but not as bad as it sounds.

Stingray was one of Gerry Anderson's Supermarionation successes, high action, big budget puppet TV with all strings visible, oversized heads (didn't I do this already?) and lips that predicted the botox revolution of the 21st century. Aqua Marina was the closing theme song by The Barry Gray Orchestra, a paean to the amphibian beauty that captured the heart of lead character Troy Tempest. I always felt for Lt. Atlanta Shore, gazing wistfully at a photo of Troy. Yep, as a toddler I was already emotionally invested in TV characters!

Elvis Presley films were constantly on TV during my childhood, so I was familiar with the songs, even if the plots themselves were almost instantly forgettable. In recent years, the promo poster for Viva Las Vegas also adorns one of my tote shopping bags. 

Rounding out the selection are another quartet of legends, The Pretty Things, Simon & Garfunkel and The Rolling Stones covering Chuck Berry, with The Queen Of Motown Mary Wells response to The Temptations' My Girl. 

Perhaps not the selection or sequence that you might have expected from a 1964 collection but somehow, it all makes perfect sense. Must be those strange enchantments that Gary Miller was singing of...

 

1) Laugh, Laugh: The Beau Brummels

2) All Day And All Of The Night: The Kinks 

3) The Way You Do The Things You Do: The Temptations

4) Let's Break Up For A While: The Sapphires

5) Don't Bring Me Down: The Pretty Things

6) My Guy: Mary Wells

7) Dr. Who (Cover of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop): Eric Winstone & His Orchestra

8) Eerie Beach: The Munsters

9) Aqua Marina: The Barry Gray Orchestra ft. Gary Miller & Joan Brown

10) Viva Las Vegas: Elvis Presley

11) Bleecker Street: Simon & Garfunkel

12) Eight Days A Week: The Beatles

13) Carol (Cover of Chuck Berry): The Rolling Stones

14) The Times They Are A-Changin': Bob Dylan

15) Love Is Going To Happen To Me: Beryl Marsden

Strange Enchantments (38:22) (KF) (Mega)

Have The Strength To Stand Alone

Guess Things Happen That Way by Johnny Cash featuring The Tennessee Two aka Luther Perkins & Marshall Grant was released as a single in 1958, on Sun Records in the US and London Records in the UK. Cash's fourth #1 Stateside, but banned here as Canon Roy McKay, the BBC's Head of Religious Broadcasting, found the lyrics - about a man struggling after the love of his life has died - objectionable.

 

The above video is a clip from The Best Of The Johnny Cash TV Show in 1970, which is a delight from start to finish. Spinning to face the camera and proclaiming, "Hello, I'm John Carter Cash's daddy!" with a grin, Cash is on top form throughout, his throat clear at 0:57 barely breaking his stride. Less than a minute later, the guitar is slung to his side, the grin is back on display and the audience applause drowns out all else.

 

Here's a contemporary performance recorded 8th August 1959 from Los Angeles-based country music programme Town Hall Party (sponsored by Hadley's furniture store). A grainy. muddy recording but Johnny's (and band's) brilliance shining through.  

 

Guess Things Happen That Way was the first of a 13-song, 35-minute set which you can find here. The picture and sound quality are better than the above clip, though sound and visuals are slightly out of synch and there's a whacking great headline logo watermark all the way through. Still worth a visit, though. This set was also released as a vinyl album, Live At Town Hall Party 1959, in 2003 with copies readily available on Discogs and other retailers.

The song has been covered many, many times and even revisited by The Man In Black himself with a little help from His Bobness. This 1969 version (Take 3, natch) didn't officially see the light of day for half a century, with the release in 2019 of Volume 15 in Bob Dylan's Bootleg Series. It's great, of course.

My pick of the covers is by Jonboy Langford & The Pine Valley Cosmonauts aka Jon Langford of Mekons with Jane Miller (vocals), Tom Ray (bass), Tracy Dear (mondolin), Steve Goulding (drums) and Guy Lawrence (squeezebox). This version from 1994 album Misery Loves Company: Jonboy Langford & The Pine Valley Cosmonauts Explore The Dark And Lonely World Of Johnny Cash, is slowed down and stretched out and gives a whole perspective on the song. Wonderful.

Well, you asked me if I'll forget my baby
I guess I will, someday
I don't like it, but I guess things happen that way
You asked me if I'll get along
I guess I will, some way
I don't like it, but I guess things happen that way

 

God gave me that girl to lean on
Then He put me on my own
Heaven, help me be a man and
Have the strength to stand alone
I don't like it, but I guess things happen that way

 

You asked me if I'll miss her kisses
I guess I will, everyday
I don't like it, but I guess things happen that way
You asked me if I'll find another
I don't know, I can't say
I don't like it, but I guess things happen that way

 

God gave me that girl to lean on
Then He put me on my own
Heaven, help me be a man and
Have the strength to stand alone
I don't like it, but I guess things happen that way

Lay Lady Lay (Ten Times)

In a second nod to Bob Dylan this week, following Desolation Row's inclusion in Sunday's selection, recently the shuffle option on my iPhone has been relentless in offering up Lay Lady Lady, in various incarnations. 

 

To be honest, I had no idea I had so many versions of the song but why be selfish? Here's ten of them, stitched together in one 40-odd minute sequence for your aural pleasure or sonic torture, depending on your opinion of the song to begin with.

The selection starts off with Magnet (aka Norwegian singer-songwriter Even Johansen and not to be confused with this Magnet) joined by Irish singer-songwriter Gemma Hayes on a lush, orchestral version. 

 

Along the way, you get Byrdsian gospel, Ministry's grubby come hither, a soulful take from The Isley Brothers, Melanie's rousing folk and headphone indie from David Kitt, The Flaming Lips and The Dandy Warhols. Oh, and Duran Duran's offering from their frequently teeth-grinding mid-90s tribute album.

The only way to finish of course is with Bob Dylan's original from 1969's Nashville Skyline, a #5 hit in the UK and #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the USA.

1) Lay Lady Lay (Album Version): Magnet ft. Gemma Hayes (2004)

2) Lay Lady Lay: The Byrds (1969)

3) Lay Lady Lay: David Kitt (2007)

4) Lay Lady Lay (Album Version): Ministry (1996)

5) Lay Lady Lay: Duran Duran (1995)

6) Lay Lady Lay (Album Edit): The Isley Brothers (1971)

7) Lay Lady Lay: The Flaming Lips (2021)

8) Lay Lady Lay: Melanie (1972)

9) Lay Lady Lay: The Dandy Warhols (2008)

10) Lay Lady Lay: Bob Dylan (1969)

1969: Lay Lady Lay (7"): 2 

1969: Nashville Skyline: 10

1972: Garden In The City: 8

1976: The Best... Isley Brothers: 6

1995: Thank You: 5

1996: Filth Pig: 4

2004: On Your Side: 1

2007: Misfits Vol. 1: 3

2008: ...Earth To The Dandy Warhols... (Japan bonus tracks edition): 9

2021: Dylan Revisited (Uncut magazine promo CD): 7

Lay Lady Lay (Ten Times) (43:31) (GD) (M)

 

...and if you're a glutton for punishment, I did the same thing with Dylan's Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands last summer.

Junk Garage

Side 2 of a mixtape recorded by my friend Stuart, circa August 1991.

There was an excellent post from JC (could it be anything else?) at The Vinyl Villain on Thursday, titled State Of The Blogging Nation, which provoked a great response from readers and fellow bloggers alike. Whether we read and comment, or write and post, it's the passion for music and the tangible sense of community that keeps bringing us back. I regularly read dozens of music blogs, some of which are updated daily, others weekly, others considerably less so. I try to comment as much as possible, but it's increasingly hard to keep up, especially since committing last year to posting on Dubhed every day for as long as I can keep being inspired.

A guaranteed daily visit is Charity Chic Music as I read with awe about Stevie's latest find for mere pennies in his never' ending search for charity shop gems. Friday's post featured Pere Ubu's 1990 album Worlds In Collision and one of the two songs he showcased was I Hear They Smoke The Barbecue. This was almost certainly the second Pere Ubu song I ever heard (after Waiting For Mary) and came courtesy of another trusty tape from my friend Stuart. We'd been apart for a year whilst I was working and travelling Australia, so this was a kind of "welcome home" mixtape, summing up what he had been listening to recently.

 

Renegade Soundwave are hugely underappreciated, in my opinion. Actually, I've just realised that this is their first appearance on this blog, so clearly by me too! Soundclash and RSW In Dub were incredible sonic slabs that demanded repeat listening and whilst it was a few years before their respective follow ups, they maintained a singular sound before their premature end. Murder Music is a great example and a perfect opener to Side 2.

 

Tracks 2 & 3 were lifted directly as the opening two songs on The Island Tape, a Select magazine freebie cassette, but Julian Cope's magnum opus Peggy Suicide was an immediate purchase on my return whilst - bizarrely, in retropect - it was a couple of years later with Bone Machine that I finally bought a Tom Waits album. I borrowed and taped Stuart's copy of Out Of Time but, of course, R.E.M. achieved global domination with this, so I was already familiar with most of the songs from constant radio and MTV rotation.

 

I was largely ignorant of Bob Dylan at this time (dismissive even, given his association with The Travelling Wilburys), so it was a bold move to an 11-minute epic on, but it paid off. Desolation Row remains one of my favourite Dylan songs. Despite being 3 decades older than most of the other songs, fits perfectly , sandwiched between one of This Mortal Coil's (& Kim Deal's) and R.E.M.'s finest moments.

 

We saw The Fat Lady Sings supporting The Psychedelic Furs in 1990 and in Stuart's opinion, they were the highlight of the night. He's followed them and subsequently singer/songwriter Nick Kelly's solo exploits ever since.

 

I've tweaked the playlist slightly, for practical reasons: I don't have the original album version of Aeroplane Blues, only the "LA Mix" from the Volume CD/magazine series. It sounds like a rougher, earlier mix to these untrained ears, but my box of Volume is buried in the attic somewhere so I can't check the detail.

 

I've also swapped the album version of Hang On St. Christopher from The Island Tape for the USA-only 12" version as (a) you may be less familiar with this one and (b) it bolsters the running time, which was running a bit short on the original tape.

Junk Garage (American pronunciation of the latter) is a phrase taken from R.E.M.'s Country Feedback. 

 

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.

Some of the typeface has worn away, but you get a sneak preview of what will eventually pop up when I post Side 1. The reason I didn't go with that one today is that the tape opens with an expletive-ridden intro, but one which segues perfectly into a Neil Young & Crazy Horse track. I'm debating whether it stays, goes or is edited in some way before posting. Watch this space...it might be a while.

 

1) Murder Music (Album Version): Renegade Soundwave (1989)

2) Hang On St. Christopher (Extended Remixed Version By Tchad Blake): Tom Waits (1987)

3) Double Vegetation (Album Version): Julian Cope (1991)

4) You And Your Sister (Cover of Chris Bell): This Mortal Coil ft. Kim Deal & Tanya Donelly (1991)

5) Desolation Row: Bob Dylan (1965)

6) Country Feedback (Album Version): R.E.M. (1991)

7) Aeroplane Blues (LA Mix): The Blue Aeroplanes (1991)

8) Sexy Eiffel Towers: Bow Wow Wow (1980)

9) I Hear They Smoke The Barbecue: Pere Ubu (1990)

10) Twist (Album Version): The Fat Lady Sings (1991)

11) Safesurfer (Reprise): Julian Cope (1991)

 

1965: Highway 61 Revisited: 5 

1980: Your Cassette Pet: 8

1987: Hang On St. Christopher (USA 12"): 2

1989: Soundclash: 1

1990: Worlds In Collision: 9

1991: Blood: 4 

1991: Out Of Time: 6

1991: Peggy Suicide: 3, 11

1991: Twist: 10

1991: Volume Two: 7

 

Side Two (45:59) (Box) (Mega)

Low Eyed Lady Of The Sadlands

Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the hoopla surrounding his 80th birthday on 24th May, I've been listening to Bob Dylan a lot recently. Perhaps more surprisingly, a lot of it for the first time. 

 

Case in point: Blonde On Blonde, which I listened to in full last month. I have tonnes of Dylan covers, mostly as freebies with the likes of Mojo and Uncut magazines, and including a 50th anniversary cover version of the entire album. However, this was the first time I had heard Dylan's original version of Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands. 

 

It's been written about many, many times by writers far more eloquent and prosaic than I, suffice to say that it's a beautiful, epic story that - at the time - Dylan apparently considered to be the best song he'd ever written.

Uncut magazine's recent Dylan tribute CD included a great version by Weyes Blood and the aforementioned Blonde On Blonde Revisited featured an equally languid version by Jim O'Rourke. I've collected them here with a shorter, live acoustic version by French band Phoenix and finish off with Alabama 3, not a cover but a riff on the title and a great closer.

1) Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands: Bob Dylan (1966)

2) Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands: Weyes Blood (2021)

3) Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands (Live & Unplugged for NDR Hörfunk, Hamburg): Phoenix (2009)

4) Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands: Jim O‘Rourke (2016)

5) Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlife (Album Version) (Edit): Alabama 3 (2000)

 

Low Eyed Lady Of The Sadlands (44:45) (GD) (M)