The Unthinkable Is Now Thinkable

The The have featured here a lot recently but when Matt Johnson and co. are about to release their first album* of new material since 2000, followed by a major world tour, then it's something to get excited about.

 

The album is titled Ensoulment and it's due on 6th September. In the meantime, opening track Cognitive Dissident was released as the lead single last month. This weekend, it was accompanied by a video directed by long time foil Tim Pope as well as a limited edition release on 7" vinyl.

Cognitive Dissident skillfully manages to sound instantly like The The, lots of familiar musical and lyrical touches whilst sounding fresh and bang on the moment. 

 

In the 1980s and 1990s, I would buy The The singles on release on 12" and/or CD. Sadly, I won’t be in the queue to buy Cognitive Dissident, even though it boasts an exclusive non-album B-side, When Is The Heart Of Waiting. 

 

Gorgeously packaged in a quality sleeve featuring previously unused art by Matt's brother Andy (RIP) it may be, but between £10 & £12 (plus postage) for what will amount to be just one song - I will buy the album - is more than my budget can withstand. The completist in me will wait in the hope that the B-side will eventually be available elsewhere.

 

If you're tempted, lots of retailers offering it for sale, including the wonderfully-named Pie & Vinyl Record Cafe in Southsea. That's a place worth visiting one day!

 

A bit closer to home - well, my working patch annyway - is the wonderful Badlands based in Cheltenham. One of many friendly retailers who are taking pre-orders for Ensoulment. But what to choose, the regular formats, crystal clear double vinyl or CD in mediabook packaging?

 

* not counting the four film soundtrack albums released between 2010 and 2020, which were largely instrumental and effectively Matt Johnson solo.

Music For Small Bedrooms But Spacious Minds

A special Dubhed selection today, featuring The The live in concert, 1989 to 2018. 

 

Fellow blogosphere traveller Strictly Rockers reached out on Friday to say hello, a familiar name not least for his impressive run of Imaginary Compilations over at The Vinyl Villain. In fact, his debut ICA inspired one of my first ICA contributions a few years later and the format of today's selection. 

 

We both grew up in Bristol, have never knowingly met but likely were at the same gigs, pubs and record shops in our callow youth. In the very full Venn diagram overlap which is our music collection, you'll find The The.

I've previously posted a mixtape that I recorded in 1989 and a late-period The The compilation but never a live selection. I've only seen The The live in concert once, a relatively intimate gig at the University of Bristol's Anson Rooms in 2000. As this selection will demonstrate, regardless of the band performing with Matt Johnson, The The live is an exciting proposition. 

I already had quite a few live songs from various singles, a collection that's been added to considerably in the last couple of years by The Comeback Special album and ongoing series of Official Bootlegs, available via The The's official website.

So, the real challenge was keeping this selection under 100 songs and twenty-odd hours! I'd (over) ambitiously aimed for 10, failed spectacularly and ended up with 16 and even then there are glaring omissions. However, I think I've largely managed to stitch the sequence into a largely seamless set and I had a lot of fun doing it. I hope you get the same enjoyment from listening to it...!

 

1) Dogs Of Lust (Live @ Palladium, Köln, Germany, 16th December 2000)

2) Sweet Bird Of Truth (Live @ Sony Music Studios, New York, 6th May 1993) 

3) Flesh & Bones (Live @ Royal Albert Hall, London, 5th July 2018)

4) The Sinking Feeling (Live @ Royal Albert Hall, London, 12th July 1990)

5) Helpline Operator (Live @ Palladium, Köln, Germany, 16th December 2000)

6) (Like A) Sun Rising Thru My Garden (Live @ Royal Albert Hall, London, 5th July 2018)

7) The Mercy Beat (Live @ Royal Albert Hall, London, 12th July 1990)

8) GIANT (Live @ somewhere, The The Versus The World tour, 1990) 

9) Soul Catcher (Live @ Royal Albert Hall, London, 5th July 2018)

10) Love Is Stronger Than Death (Live @ Sony Music Studios, New York, 6th May 1993) 

11) Armageddon Days Are Here Again (Live @ Royal Albert Hall, London, 12th July 1990)

12) Voidy Numbness (Live @ Palladium, Köln, Germany, 16th December 2000)

13) Out Of The Blue (Into The Fire) (Live @ somewhere in the USA, The The Versus The World tour, 1989)

14) Uncertain Smile (Live @ Later...With Jools Holland, BBC2 TV, 11th June 1993) 

15) Beyond Love (Live @ Royal Albert Hall, London, 12th July 1990)

16) True Happiness This Way Lies (Live @ Brixton Academy, London, 5th June 1993) 

 

1992: Dogs Of Lust EP: 15

1993: Love Is Stronger Than Death EP: 4, 7, 11

1993: Slow Emotion Replay EP: 2, 10

2021: Official Bootleg 002: 8

2021: Official Bootleg 004: 16

2023: Later... With Jools Holland (bootleg): 14

2023: Official Bootleg 007: 1, 5, 12

2023: Official Bootleg 008: 13

2023: The Comeback Special: Live At The Royal Albert Hall: 3, 6, 9

 

Music For Small Bedrooms But Spacious Minds (1:23:17) (KF) (Mega) 

 

I've refreshed links to my previous The The selections as well...

Testament To Reality (October 1989)

Truth Is Nothing But A Point Of View (August 2022)

Pie & Mash With Matt Johnson

This was posted on Friday, The The's Matt Johnson interviewed by Jake Green...well, reminiscing more about growing up with Pie And Mash shops in London. Not date stamped but the format and closing comments place this firmly in the lockdown, circa 2020.

 

Growing up in Bristol in the 1980s, the closest comparison was the Clarks Pie shop on the high street up the road from where I lived and dotted around the city. Strictly takeaway only, and I can remember the Saturday tradition of getting pies and bringing them home for lunch. I honestly don't remember if mash or liquor were on offer - mushy peas and gravy definitely were - but we'd generally stick with the pie alone.

 

I loved hearing these anecdotes although there is inevitably a shadow of people and places long gone. Stirring stuff best not listened to on an empty stomach. Mine's already growling.

Fact Becomes Opinion, Opinion Becomes Crime

The The released a new single on 24th February, so I really should have got around to posting about it before now. 

$1 One Vote! is a rousing song, sonically a natural progression from Dusk and NakedSelf and immediately identifiable as a The The song. Matt Johnson's in good voice and on good form, lyrically speaking, with some characteristically quotable couplets, including the inspiration for today's post title. Seems particularly apt, given the BBC shitstorm of the past couple of days.

 

The single is available on several platforms to stream or purchase. If you're quick, you can also buy it on 7" vinyl from the official The The website store with a proper B-side - Mrs Mac - previously only available as a one-off download single in 2007. I previously featured Mrs Mac in my The The in the 21st Century selection last August, which is available again here.

£12.50 is a bit steep for me to buy the vinyl, despite the exclusive song and a striking cover image from the archives of Matt's late brother, Andy. I bought the MP3 yesterday and it's already in double figures for repeat plays.

Matt's hinted that there is a new The The album on the horizon. Then again, he's made similar comments for decades now. Fingers crossed, with the release of $1 One Vote!, that there's more to come in 2023.

 

 

One dollar, one vote

Watch where the money goes
Even truth in an age of deceit
Is impossible to believe

Because everything is inverted
Everything perverted
Everybody's got something to hide
Everybody tells lies

Those who profess love the loudest
Practice hate the proudest
I'll say it again
Those who profess love the loudest
Practice hate the proudest

One dollar, one vote
Watch where the money goes
No justice for Jesus
While all the diseases
Are too lucrative to cure
Too much to endure

Because the rich man's war is a poor man's fight
And there ain't no cure for this virus of the mind
What was said is unsaid
What's implied is denied
Fact becomes opinion
Opinion becomes crime
To do or die
Yet never wonder why

One dollar, one vote
Watch where the money goes
Even truth in an age of deceit
Is impossible to believe

But did we ever really have a choice?
Do we ever really have a choice?
When different masks on the same face
Dictate what to love and who to hate

Your Cassette Pet!

Side 2 of a cassette compilation, recorded September 1991. 

 

Essentially, this is a trawl through my brother's collection of albums on tape, cherry picking favourite songs to stick on two sides of a C90. The title is nod to 1980's cassette-only album by Bow Wow Wow, which my brother didn't own and therefore isn't featured here, but I had a copy of a copy which my friend had given me.

It's an eclectic mix albeit firmly in 'alternative' territory, with Flesh For Lulu, Marc Almond (here with The Mambas), Bauhaus and Howard Devoto. I was arguably the bigger Depeche Mode fan as a teen but I bought only the singles, whilst my brother had their first three albums, all on cassette. 

Part of the appeal of cassettes was the 'double play' format, where you'd either get two albums for the price of one or a slew of bonus tracks on Side 2. Quite a few examples here: Fashion's Fabrique contained a whole side of remixes, whist Laibach paired Opus Dei with their cover of The Beatles' Let It Be album. 

 

The The's Soul Mining was perhaps the strangest of the lot. The original album on Side 1, the flip side containing 6 songs purportedly planned for The The's aborted album The Pornography Of Despair. Things get off to a reasonably normal start with the re-recorded version of Perfect. And then Three Orange Kisses From Kazan, a real WTF? moment. Initially, I was both shit-scared and morbidly fascinated by the song, but it's long since become a highlight of The The's back catalogue for me. 

 

Many of the artists have 2 or 3 songs on this compilation. This Mortal Coil is no exception, though the late inclusion of a 1:30 edit of Waves Become Wings was clearly to pad out Side 2's running time. With apologies to Lisa Gerrard, who is just getting into her stride when she's unceremoniously faded out, I've retained the edit for this recreated selection.

 

Last but not least, a brace of cover versions by Laibach (a third from Let It be is on Side 1). In both cases, they take songs - by Queen and Opus - that I didn't particularly care for and create bruising, industrial marching songs that take the clichéd phrase "...and make it their own" to a whole other place. 

 

Side 1 may take a while to come, as it features a track from Bristol-band Renegade Flight, who I saw live several times in the late 1980s and picked up a couple of their DIY cassettes from their merch stall. I think I've still got them - and a tape deck - somewhere in a box in the attic, so hopefully I can find and convert to MP3 format in the next 12 months. Just don't hold your breath!

 

1) The Sun And The Rainfall (Album Version): Depeche Mode (1982)

2) Rainy Season (Album Version): Howard Devoto (1983)

3) Subterraneans (Album Version): Flesh For Lulu (1984)

4) Something In Your Picture (Alternative Playback) (Half Frame) (Remix By Zeus B. Held): Fashion (1982)

5) Shame (Album Version): Depeche Mode (1983)

6) Geburt Einer Nation (Album Version) (Cover of 'One Vision' by Queen): Laibach (1987)

7) Who Killed Mr. Moonlight?: Bauhaus (1983)

8) Three Orange Kisses From Kazan: The The (1982)

9) Caroline Says II (Cover of Lou Reed): Marc & The Mambas (1982)

10) Waves Become Wings (Edit): This Mortal Coil ft. Lisa Gerrard (1984)

11) Opus Dei (Album Version) (Cover of 'Live Is Life' by Opus): Laibach (1987)

1982: A Broken Frame: 1

1982: Something In Your Picture EP / Fabrique (Special Edition Double Play Cassette): 4

1982: Untitled: 9

1983: Burning From The Inside: 7

1983: Construction Time Again: 5

1983: Jerky Versions Of The Dream: 2

1983: Uncertain Smile EP / Soul Mining (Special Edition Double Play Cassette): 8

1984: Flesh For Lulu: 3

1984: It'll End In Tears: 10

1987: Geburt Einer Nation EP / Opus Dei: 6, 11

Side Two (45:55) (KF) (Mega)

This Is The Land Where Nothing Changes

Unbelievably, for me at least, The The's second album Infected was released on 17th November 1986. Thirty six years ago!

 

Whilst Soul Mining is an incredibly important album to me, Infected has the edge as I got it on the day of release and played it to death from the start. Sound Seekers, an independent record shop in Staple Hill, a suburb of Bristol, was my local go-to as a teenager and Dave the owner was a great guy for a budding music collection and enthusiast. 

 

Dave knew how much I loved The The. He had managed to get a copy of the first, limited edition 12" single of Sweet Bird Of Truth and the double 12" and cassette of Heartland. Whilst Dave hadn't been able to get hold of the withdrawn 'wanking' 12" of Infected that preceded the album, I came away again with the double 12" and cassette singles.

On 17th November 1986, I raced to Sound Seekers after school to pick up the Infected album. Dave had put aside the limited edition "torture" sleeve with a giant fold out poster of Andy Dog's illustration for the Heartland single. "I've got something else", Dave said with a smile, pointing to a couple of in-store promo cardboard cutouts for the album. "I haven't got space to put them up here, so you can have them for free if you like". Of course I like!

I must have been a strange sight, walking jauntily back to my parents' shop a mile or so up the road, with a life size head-to-waist cut out of a topless Matt Johnson under my arm. Back home, both were prominently positioned in my room; both long gone now, sadly. I can't remember what happened to them but this would have been way before eBay or a realisation that they might have a resale value. 

The Heartland poster also went AWOL. I visited my brother in his bedsit a while later and saw that he had a Heartland poster up on his wall. I should add that he didn't have Infected on any format at the time, let alone the limited edition vinyl. Swore blind that he hadn't nicked my poster, but he had form for 'migrating' vinyl from my to his collection. Water under the bridge, I managed to get hold of another poster at a later date.

I was surprised to find that, of my numerous The The posts, this is my fourth post this year specifically about a song from Infected, having previously enthused about Angels Of Deception, Slow Train To Dawn and The Mercy Beat. Heartland previously featured on the homemade Testament To Reality cassette compilation that I posted in August 2021, but thankfully (for this post, at least) was missed off the video selection that I posted a few days later.

The video for Heartland is directed by Peter' 'Sleazy' Christopherson (Throbbing Gristle, Psychic TV, Coil) and was filmed at Greenwich Power Station. It's a deceptively simple set up, with Matt performing on stage against a giant screen backdrop of distorted and pixelated video images, playing to an audience of one, a woman in white T-shirt and Levi's, glugging a bottle of Coke. 

 

In an 1986 interview, Matt Johnson described Heartland's political theme:

 

"I’m attacking those working-class Tories and middle class who still think Britain is on a par economically with France and Germany… I wanted to write a classic song which is basically representative of its time, a record that in 1999 people will put on and it will remind them exactly of this period of time… you know it took 18 months to write on and off because I knew it was the most important song I was writing."

 

Could the 25-year old Matt have imagined that, thirty six later, Heartland would not only remind people of a point in time but still feel so relevant today? As Matt sings elsewhere on the song, "This is the land where nothing changes"...

 

None of this detracts from the fact that Heartland is a brilliant song. I remember hearing it on Radio 1 of all places, though I guess the references to piss-stinking shopping centres and pensioners being raped must have been edited out of the broadcast version. Poring over the album credits, whilst it was no surprise to see regular collaborator Zeke Manyika on backing vocals, I'd forgotten/didn't know that piano on Heartland was played by Steve Hogarth, who went on to replace Fish as lead singer of Marillion. I haven't knowingly listened to any Hogarth-era Marillion, but he did a good job here.

 

I've listened again to the Infected album in full whilst writing this. What an incredible, incredible record.

Come On Down, The Devil's In Town

I'm on the mailing list for The The and received an unexpected email regarding Matt Johnson's brother, Andy Dog, who passed in 2016. My love of The The's music as a teenager went hand in hand with a love of Andy Dog's unique and striking artwork on their singles and albums. The email promotes the Andy Dog Collection, with a few new items of merchandise bearing iconic The The images but also including a couple of beautiful tributes to Andy from brothers Matt and Gerard.

Mrs. K bought me a The The T-shirt in 2020, featuring an alternative illustration of the character from the classic album Soul Mining. The latest addition is Andy's illustration for the Sweet Bird Of Truth single and will be another must-have. 

The The's videos have always been striking accompaniments to the music, lyrics and record artwork and I've previously featured a Dubhed video selection as well as standalone posts on Slow Train To Dawn and The Mercy Beat, from the ground breaking and jaw-droppingly wonderful video realisation of 1986's Infected album. 

 

Receiving the email immediately made me think of another video from Infected, the closing song of Side 1, Angels Of Deception. It's directed by animation legend Alastair McIlwain, whose career kicked off with kids' TV classic Roobarb in 1974 and has gone on to include films such as Heavy Metal (1981) and Pink Floyd’s The Wall (1982).

 

A perfect choice then for Angels Of Deception, which brings Andy Dog's illustrations to the fore via animation, model sets and Matt Johnson's make up. It's quite different from every other song on the video album, which makes it all the more amazing. I need little excuse to listen to The The, but it was joy to be reminded of this song, video and artist.

 

Thank you Matt, Alastair and, of course, Andy Dog, whose work continues to inspire and delight. 

Well, it's high noon at the U.K. corral, 

And it's high time I got myself back on the rails,
I'm the lonesome cowboy, ridin' across the range,
With just a hand held radio to keep me sane,
Ridin' through the F.M. stations, the tumbleweed, the petrol stations,
Will all on board this Yankee station
Prepare themselves for battle stations

 
Jesus wept, Jesus Christ,
I can't see for the tear gas and the dollar signs in my eyes.
Well, what's a man got left to fight for
When he's bought his freedom
By the look of this human jungle
It ain't just the poor who'll be bleeding!

 
Most everyone round here thinks they're something special,
That destiny will be kind,
While they're digging for gold, diving for pearls, 

And aiming for heaven from this man made world.
Come on down. the devil's in town
He's brought you sticks and stones
To bust your neighbour's bones,
He's stuck his missiles in your gardens,
And his theories down your throat

And god knows what you're gonna do with him
'cos I certainly don't
 

Jesus wept, Jesus Christ,
I can't see for the tear gas and the dollar signs in my eyes.
Well, what's a man got left to fight for
When he's bought his freedom
By the look of this human jungle
It ain't just the poor who'll be bleeding!

 
Down by the river, I've been washing out my mouth,
'cos deep in the heart of me
There's a frightened man breaking out.
Oh, I was just looking for paradise
Anywhere in this world
While they're gunning for heaven
From this man made hell!

 

(ad lib)

Well, oh 

God knows, 'cos they don't.

Come on down, the Devil's in town
Oh, the Angels, 

Angels of destruction.
The Angels, Angels of deception

I'm Just Another Western Guy With Desires That I Can't Satisfy

You wait ages for a The The post, then two come along in the same month. What better way to celebrate Dubhed's 500th post?

 

if you've been following this week, you'll have noticed that I've been running with black and white videos, hopping back and forth in time from Danger Mouse & Black Thought (2022) to The Jimi Hendrix Experience (1967) to Serge Gainsbourg (1962) and now The The (1986).

Slow Train To Dawn first appeared on The The's jaw-droppingly brilliant album Infected and was subsequently released as a single in January 1987, sporting a typically striking cover by Matt Johnson's brother, sui generis artist Andy Johnson.

Amongst an album of astonishing songs, Slow Train To Dawn is a particular standout because it features a duet with the wonderful human being that is Neneh Cherry. This was slightly ahead of her successful solo career, but the name resonated from a poster that I remembered from the early 1980s, almost certainly in Smash Hits, when Neneh was a member of Rip Rig & Panic. Thanks to the wonders of t'internet, it took less than two minutes for me to track down an image of that very poster.

The video for Slow Train To Dawn was directed by Tim Pope and features Matt and Neneh in a rather intriguing set up. There's the literal: yes, there's a big old steam train and yes, you could argue that it's going relatively slowly and yes, it may possibly be the wee hours of the morning. There's also a (kind of) homage to the tropes of the silent movie, with the 'damsel in distress' tied to the railroad track, whilst an oncoming train brings the threat of inescapable and horrific death. Of course, being a The The video directed by Tim Pope, the imagery and metaphor literally steam and drip with sweat.

 

In keeping with the Infected album as a whole, Slow Train To Dawn's lyrics are open to multiple layers of reading and interpretation and can be said to touch on themes of masculinity, emasculation, misogyny, racism and objectification. I remember poring over the lyrics printed on Infected's inner sleeve trying to interpret and understand the layers of meaning, as far as I was able at the time as a naive, angst-ridden, ignorant yet questioning 15-year old.

 

Whether the casual viewer of the Slow Train To Dawn video would pick up on any of the song's themes and nuances is debatable. What is striking is that, despite having to spend most of the video on her back, restrained and largely immobile, Neneh conveys a strength and steely determination that defies the precarious and questionable position that her character has been forced into.

 

When the needle hit side 2, song 2 of Infected and I heard Neneh Cherry's first words in Slow Train To Dawn, I was properly introduced to an incredible artist. Raw Like Sushi landed in 1988 and began a rather brilliant solo career. I also got to go back in time and discover Neneh's history with Rip Rig & Panic and New Age Steppers. Neneh's reputation and influence as an artist was cemented in June this year, with the release of The Versions, with reworkings, covers and collaborations featuring Robyn, Sia, Anonhi and Kelsey Lu. Good though they are, of course none of them can better Neneh Cherry, the true innovator.

 

Slow Train To Dawn (Album Version): The The ft. Neneh Cherry (1986)

Truth Is Nothing But A Point Of View

The ever excellent Charity Chic Music featured The The's Dusk on Monday, which referenced a 2002 review on Popmatters.com that this was arguably their last great album.

 

I definitely would not argue that the follow-up, an album of Hank Williams cover versions called Hanky Panky was in the same league as the albums that had gone before: Burning Blue Soul (as Matt Johnson) (1981), Soul Mining (1983), Infected (1986), Mind Bomb (1989) and Dusk (1993). However, as I mentioned in the comments, I have a lot of love for the 'proper' follow up, NakedSelf, which caught me by surprise when it appeared in 2000. 

Yes, NakedSelf is a very different The The album; it's also a very different The The, with Matt Johnson assembling a new all-American band and co-writing half of the songs with guitarist Eric Schermerhorn. Schermerhorn had been on board following Johnny Marr's departure from the band after touring Dusk. The originally planned album, Gun Sluts, was scrapped in the late 1990s, some of the songs surviving and evolving into the versions on NakedSelf. 

I was lucky enough to win free tickets via the Bristol Evening Post and I got to see The The play an relatively intimate gig at Bristol University's Anson Rooms in 2000, where the majority of the album was performed live. It was a fantastic night and, as such, connected me much more deeply to the album. 

 

I've been listening to NakedSelf a fair bit this week and this in turn inspired me to create a selection focusing on The The's music (mostly) in the 21st Century, a companion piece if you will to the 'classic period' mixtape that I posted almost a year ago.

 

Whilst The The has continued to release new music, it's predominantly been film soundtracks, instrumentals and spoken word pieces, with the occasional one-off single now and again. Matt Johnson has said in interviews that a 'proper' new The The album is in the works.

 

In the meantime, here's an 18 track selection of The The songs, kicking off with an excerpt from the aborted Gun Sluts album, followed by a trio of songs from NakedSelf, including a marvellous  live version of Soul Catcher from The The's Comeback Special performance at the Royal Albert Hall in London in 2018. I really wish I'd been there.

A Long Hard Lazy Apprenticeship is from The Inertia Variations and has previously featured in a Dubhed mix that I created in 2020. Here, it provides an introduction to 2017 single We Can't Stop What's Coming, recorded as a tribute to Matt's brother, Andy, who sadly passed the previous year. We Can't Stop What's Coming also features the return of Johnny Marr, James Eller and Zeke Manyika and is one of the finest songs The The has ever released.

 

Fuck Wit is a demo from the Gun Sluts sessions which eventually became Diesel Breeze on NakedSelf. For this selection, I've welded bits of both together so you get the rough, instrumental opening, followed by a vocal second half. The Gun Sluts demo has been released as part of The The's Official Bootleg series, available on CD via their online store. Another in the series - and featured here - captures an acoustic radio session in the USA, promoting the NakedSelf album. You can purchase the Official Bootleg CDs here.

 

The selection closes with a beautifully emotive piece from the soundtrack to 2014 film Hyena, directed by Matt's brother Gerard Johnson and starring his cousin Peter Ferdinando, Neil Maskell and Stephen Graham. No words, but Matt's voice carries the listener through the song and lingers in the memory long after the final note has sounded.

This selection is dedicated with thanks to Stevie (Charity Chic Music), for inspiring this post, and C (Sun Dried Sparrows) for sharing wonderful memories of her friendship with Andy.

 

1) Gun Sluts (1997)

2) Voidy Numbness (2000)

3) Salt Water (2000)

4) Soul Catcher (Live @ The Royal Albert Hall, London) (2018)

5) A Long Hard Lazy Apprenticeship / We Can't Stop What's Coming (Video Version) (2017)

6) Weather Belle (2000)

7) December Sunlight (Cried Out) (New Version ft. Liz Horsman) (2002)

8) Wargasm (2017)

9) The Whisperers (Album Version) (2000)

10) Deep Down Truth (45 RPM Version ft. Angela McCluskey) (2002)

11) Our Secret Selves (Album Version) (2010)

12) Mrs Mac (2007)

13) Global Eyes (DJ Food's Stolen Moments Remix) (2022)

14) Fuck Wit (Gun Sluts Demo N.Y. 1990's) / Diesel Breeze (Album Version) (Slipshod Re-Edit By Khayem) (2022)

15) Phantom Walls (Live Acoustic US Radio Session) (2000)

16) I Want 2 B U (Album Version) (2020)

17) Shrunken Man (Album Version) (2000)

18) Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven (But Nobody Wants To Die) (2015)

 

1997: Gun Sluts EP: 1 

2000: Naked Self: 2, 3, 6, 9, 14, 17

2002: 45 RPM: The Singles Of The The: 7, 10

2007: Mrs Mac EP: 12

2010: Tony OST: 11

2015: Hyena OST: 18

2017: Radio Cinéola: Trilogy/Midday To Midnight: 8

2017: We Can't Stop What's Coming EP: 5 

2020: Muscle OST: 16

2020: Official Bootleg 001: 14

2021: The Comeback Special: LIve At The Royal Albert Hall: 4

2022: Global Eyes EP: 13

2022: Official Bootleg 005: 15

Truth Is Nothing But A Point Of View (1:05:18) (KF) (Mega)

The Mercy Beat

I've still got my copy of The The's stunning Infected: The Movie on VHS tape, but it's been many many years since I've actually been able to play the thing. Legal and licensing entanglements mean that a DVD or digital release is unlikely in the near future, but a lucky few (sadly not including me) did get to see it on the big screen back in 2016 with a 30th anniversary screening at London’s ICA. A short but fascinating documentary about the film was unexpectedly released on The The's official website on Valentine's Day.

I remember seeing the Infected: The Movie's TV premiere on Channel 4 in December 1986. I'd bought Infected (on vinyl, with limited edition 'torture' sleeve) the month before and I became obsessed with the album. Experiencing the videos took the songs - and Infected as a whole - to another level.

 

The album and the film closes with The Mercy Beat, filmed in Iquitos, Peru and La Paz in Bolivia. Directed by Peter ‘Sleazy’ Christopherson, it's an incredible visual imagining of Matt Johnson's lyrics and music, including some tense on-the-fly scenes filmed during a political rally. Johnson later recalled the filming of scenes in the midst of the crowd:

 

"Someone produced a snake which I was grappling with, and I hate snakes. A monkey bit me, and then me and this guy, who I'd only just met, cut each other and we became blood brothers, rubbing blood over each other's face, stuff like that."

 

Whilst filming in the Amazon jungle, Johnson's drug experience was further expanded by an introduction to hallucinogenic concoctions used by the indigenous tribes. This dislocated, out of body experience permeates the entire video album and The Mercy Beat brilliantly captures this. 

In lieu of a re-release, you can currently piece together Infected: The Movie via various sources on YouTube and I'll possibly revisit the entire album in a future post. In the meantime, I'm pulling out the old vinyl - now crackly and in a cat-scratched sleeve - for an airing this weekend. There's a high wind blowing...

 

The Mercy Beat: The The (1986)

 

There's a high wind blowing and the stars are shining bright
Oh what a night, this is gonna be
I think I'll let the world sleep without me
I got one eye open, one eye closed

And my thin body's trembling beneath the bedclothes
My hearts beating against the roof of my mouth

It's almost time to get out of this house

 
I got one hand on the radio, one hand on the wheel
I got my right foot on the floorboard

I'm preparing to kill or be killed

 
There's a high wind blowing and the stars are shining bright

And the rain upon the tarmac

Helps me sail through the traffic lights
I'm heading down to the dock of the bay

To feel the power of the waves
I'm gonna move up close to that wind

And wrestle with the thoughts solitude always brings

You see, I'm stuck between hell and the deep blue sea

And I know that water's sucked under better men than me
I was just another western guy

With desires that couldn't be satisfied 

One day, I asked the angels for inspiration

But the devil bought me a drink

And he's been buying them ever since

 
He's had the liquor on my tongue

Feel like the sea upon the sand
He's had me signing confessions

Feom this shaking hand,
He's had me struggling to hang onto hope

Like a drunken sailor in a tugboat
With a bottle of vodka in my overcoat

And my dog eared bible lost--overboard

 
You see he tricked me into temptation

So I've tricked him into this confrontation
I never said I was the man I appeared to be
Not the flesh wrapped around the bones of necessity
Or the soul on fire, scribbling thoughts for posterity
I'm gonna have little Lucifer, running off to Purgatory

With his tail between his legs
I'm gonna teach him a lesson 

He ain't ever gonna forget

All the vultures & crows are fixing up some tombstones
But they won't be chewing the meat off my bones

 
There's a high wind blowing and the stars are shining bright
Me and him are gonna have a little knife fight

In the bowels of the big city skyline
Oh, this feeling inside runs dark and deep 

Tonight my hearts not thumping 

...A Mercy Beat

 
I was just another western guy
With desires that couldn't be satisfied

 

What a night this is gonna be

The world can sleep without me 

What a night this is gonna be

The world can sleep without me 

What a night this is gonna be

The world can sleep without me  

 

Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?

You can thank/blame John Medd for today's selection. His quite literally stunning post of Elizabeth Taylor photos inspired a playlist of songs named after her movies (I attempted the same trick with Faye Dunaway last year). No clever sequencing here: I started with the earliest match - and Elizabeth Taylor's 2nd film from 1943 - through to her uncredited appearance in a 1979 political conspiracy movie starring Jeff Bridges, John Huston, Anthony Perkins and Toshirô Mifune "as Keith". 

 

I think it mostly works, though for 1976 film The Blue Bird I was torn between equally great songs from Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions and Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. Hope prevailed.

 

Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? was one of the set texts for my English Literature O Level (too many years ago to count) and we got to watch the 1966 film as part of the study. It's a great play and a great cast, but Elizabeth Taylor transcends all. Arguably her greatest performance, and that's saying something.

Unfortunately, I don't currently have a song named Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? but Jimmy Smith has kindly obliged with this classic from 1964, which I must get hold of.

 

1) Lassie Come Home: Alphaville (1986)

2) A Place In The Sun: Stevie Wonder (1966)

3) Rhapsody: Siouxsie & The Banshees (1988)

4) Giant (Radio Edit) (Cover of The The): DJ Food ft. Matt Johnson (2012)

5) Cleopatra (John Peel Session): Adam & The Ants (1978)

6) The Comedians: Elvis Costello & The Attractions (1984)

7) Ash Wednesday: The Psychedelic Furs (2020)

8) Blue Bird: Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions (2009)

9) Winter Kills (Electronic Periodic's Sub / Piano Mix): Yazoo (2008)

Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? (42:00)