Echo & the bunnymen: Classic or Dud?

The grey album is the only remaster I have bothered with. I love that album, but of course I'm nuts. I have the boxset so the extra tracks on the remasters are less of a lure. They should have picked a gig from each era and put out a second live CD with each reissue.

Anyone else remember them doing fantastic versions of 'The Game' and 'Lips Like Sugar' on some sort of tribute the the OGWT TV programme just before the grey record came out? Bit of a letdown when I heard the actual album though.

(I might still have it on VHS in the loft somewhere)

Bring On The Dancing Horses, which I think of as the best Xmas single of all time, is only available (as far as I can tell) in this reissue programme in two different versions on the grey album. Bah, I'm not buying the bloody grey album.

S/T record from 1987.

Not part of this reissue programme, though. It was last year, wasn't it? That might be too much duplication for me ("Killing Moon" in about five places then) but if I see the CD/DVD version going cheap...

I think I could "do" you a Dancing Horses replica 12" if you like. The 7" was on the box set, but I sold that (fool!).

Ocean Rain does sound fantastic. Possibly the best use of strings on a rock record ever.

i do like the 90s/present-day bunnymen records, though i concede that it's more "for the fans"/already-coverted and they aren't the same w/t de freitas & pattinson et. al. & they haven't come up w/ any as catchy as even "lips like sugar" (much less anything offa the first 4).

i think the newer stuff is OK if you take it for what it is -- competent, polished late 90s sorta-indie rockish stuff -- as opposed to expecting heaven up here, v. 2.0. and of this latter stuff, their LAST record siberia may be the best of the lot -- they play w/ a bit more passion than the other latter-day stuff.

personally, the biggest letdown re the latter-day stuff is that ian's voice is totally shot to SHIT.

unfortunately, its true.

That was a mistake, I feel. If only for what I might have cribbed from it.

Perhaps BOTDH should stay where it is - on my picture disc LP and mixed in with the slush and drizzle of the walk along the Breck to school.

Just listening to the box set on CD1 right now. Broke My Neck (long version) - WOW!!

completely different. grind stuff is ambient soundscapes, some quite dark. glide stuff is poppier, lots of samples, reminds me, somehow, of willy wonka's chocolate factory gone bad.

samples here (ipcress track particularly good. do not listen to whilst operating machinery or driving though):

http://www.bunnymen.com/Glide/mp3page.html

last glide lp (curvature of the earth) had instantly recognisable bunnymen style guitar submerged within it in places, was very odd given that i wasn't expecting it and it took me right back.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000HKDC6C/ref=olp_product_details/026-3945335-0330023?ie=UTF8&seller=

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ECHO-AND-THE-BUNNYMEN-VERY-BEST-OF-PLUS-DVD-NEW_W0QQitemZ280075967382QQihZ018QQcategoryZ2250QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Anyway - now on Disc 3 of the box. And really, what's not to like about any of the later stuff? Nothing Lasts Forever, Rust - all tremendous. Must dig out the WAYGTDWYL album later.

All the B-sides/outtakes are stellar - e.g. Rollercoaster (Will back on the Fender Jag - yay!, Hurracaine etc)

Angels and Devils is possibly my favourite EATB song. Who else could get that groove, that *sway*? The guitars and drums are fantastic on that - really woody and close-sounding.

I'd recommend it. Both under his name and as Glide.

The box set does a great job at cherrypicking the early reunion material, and all the B-sides and rarities and live tracks = rockness. It's a well-put-together compilation and one of the few box sets around that's worth relistening to.

There should be a compilation of that era called "Nein Danke".

Just listening to the box set on CD1 right now.

Sounded vaguely Doors-ish or even Love-ish or just generally Elektra-ish, at any rate.

I'm going to be the Porcupine newbie here, but I found a nice cheap copy and I'm listening to it for the first time. What the fuck HAPPENS in "Porcupine" about 1/2 way through? Awesome!

I like Porcupine just fine, but it's probably my least favorite of the five, original 1980s albums. Still a good one, though.

What the fuck HAPPENS in "Porcupine" about 1/2 way through?

The drugs kick in.

I like Porcupine just fine, but it's probably my least favorite of the five, original 1980s albums. Still a good one, though.

Really? God, that's such great news to hear. I've only heard Songs to Learn and Sing and Porcupine, and I couldn't be more instantly obsessed. I've had so many experiences with being introduced to bands with the best possible entry point (aka, Jesus and Mary Chain, Psychocandy)) and being disappointed afterwards with further exploration.

What the fuck HAPPENS in "Porcupine" about 1/2 way through?

The drugs kick in.

ah ... so THAT'S what the "pork of the porcupine" was really all about then!

> I like Porcupine just fine, but it's probably my least favorite of the five, original 1980s albums.

there's not a lot to dislike about those first 4.

very cheap double cd best of just released
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Killing-Moon-Best-Echo-Bunnymen/dp/B000WTNDQ2

but buy the original lps anyway.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/musicclub/doc_ericsliverpoolclub.shtml

"Steve Lamacq presents a celebration of Eric's, the Liverpool club that helped establish Merseyside as the UK's musical epicentre at the end of the 1970s.

During a brief period of time in the late seventies, the club witnessed the birth of a whole new Liverpool music scene, one that would travel far and beyond the city.

With Echo and the Bunnymen playing their first ever gig at the club as support to the Teardrop Explodes in November 1978, Eric's has earnt its place in rock 'n' roll history as the angsty younger brother to the Cavern."

(this was over the weekend but is listenagainable)

also, this friday on bbc4, 2 liverpudlian Rock Family Trees, the merseybeat years and the early eighties. "Contains some strong language."

recently went to liverpool for the first time in search of eric's and brian's and the like. and found nothing. eric's is now vivian westwood's (was slap bang next to the old (and new) cavern in matthew street. was all knocked down and rebuilt as appartments & shops. only mention i saw of E&tB was at a poster of liverpudlian bands in hmv...)

I'm in NYC now, having flown here to catch the Bunnymen doing the entirety of the Ocean Rain album with a ten-piece "orchestra". They also did an earlier set of stuff from across their career.

Anyway, I want to give thanks to the wonderful European man at the gig who spontaneously and rather passionately hugged me in the middle of "Thorn of Crowns" and said "this song is amazing isn't it?"

Also want to give a shoutout to Deeznuts, for even though I was at my worst drunkenness-wise when I last posted that "Thorn of Crowns" You Tube clip here, he remembered it and said he really liked that song, too.

I'm playing Killing Moon on my iPod now.

The SOUND OF THE GUITAR.

I really think Silver is their finest ever moment. Those strings! that will sergeant guitar! the 'did he
slip in a rude word there?' bit
so much mightier than the cutter, good as that is, but it's really just a good riff and some choppy guitar
but not much melody. even killing moon can't top silver.
never stop is another overlooked single, the best thing on porcupine

"Boney Maroney??"