What's not clear until you flip over to the back sleeve is that the lead song is a duet with Marc Almond, who also wrote the song. There was a 7" single too, but I've only ever heard the extended version, seven minutes of relationship breakdown, peppered with the sound of broken crockery and barbed insults passing back and forth between the lost lovers in the song's final moments.
I found a fan made video on You Tube, which prompted me to dig out the 12" vinyl I bought secondhand from Replay Records in Bristol sometime around 1991-92, after I had been seduced by the brilliant Mekons Rock 'n' Roll album. It was £1.90 well spent.
Two songs on the B-side. According to the sleeve, Chained To The Anchor Of Love is backed by My Little Pony...according to the label, however, the latter songs is Heaven's Gates. Which one is it? Discogs seems to defer to the latter, I can't find either on YouTube and it's late at night writing this, so I'm going to have to wait to find out until tomorrow, when I can give the record a spin.
Somebody's Rocking My Dreamboat, the sole album by Sally Timms & The Drifting Cowgirls, came out in 1988. The only song from this EP to make it is Chained To The Anchor Of Love.
This House Is A House Of Trouble! is worth tracking down, whether you're a Mekons or Marc fan, or both, a hidden gem in their respective back catalogues.
Happily, both Sally and Marc are still actively recording and performing, and Mekons are touring the UK in May.
Guess Things Happen That Way by Johnny Cashfeaturing 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
