― JoB (JoB), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 12:48 (nineteen years ago) link
― jon dale, Tuesday, 2 November 2004 12:53 (nineteen years ago) link
― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 12:54 (nineteen years ago) link
― B.A.R.M.S. (Barima), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 13:04 (nineteen years ago) link
― Beta (abeta), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 17:36 (nineteen years ago) link
great news though. RT still has to pay him royalties, right?
― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 17:57 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 18:02 (nineteen years ago) link
― Beta (abeta), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 20:27 (nineteen years ago) link
― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 20:40 (nineteen years ago) link
― Jedmond (Jedmond), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 21:55 (nineteen years ago) link
can someone email me the first peel session? i accidently deleted them and can't use slsk right now.
― artdamages (artdamages), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 22:03 (nineteen years ago) link
― jed_ (jed), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 22:04 (nineteen years ago) link
According to Green's own sleeve notes, "the masters are long lost".
Tracklisting:
1. Skank Bloc Bologna2. Is and Ought the Western World3. 28/8/784. Scritlocks Door5. OPEC - IMMAC6. Messthetics7. Hegemony8. Bibbly-o-Tek9. Doubt Beat10. Confidence11. P.A.S12. The “Sweetest Girl”13. Lions After Slumber
Rough Trade, RTRADCD188
― JoB (JoB), Thursday, 4 November 2004 12:00 (nineteen years ago) link
― .adam (nordicskilla), Saturday, 8 January 2005 04:19 (nineteen years ago) link
And for all that this is a pretty good remastering job, sounds just fine -- I'd draw a general comparison to, say, the proper Cog Sinister rerelease of Fall in a Hole + in terms of a vinyl remastering sounding very well. The quieter spaces and minimal touches of the earlier work come through nicely.
and what are the odds that versions on soulseek were digitised by me? see the desperate bicycles thread...
Heh, the Desperate Bicycles are indeed specifically credited by Green in the liner notes as having 'galvanized (the original band) into action,' so there ya go. (Not that this was any shock, I'm sure.)
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 14 January 2005 03:23 (nineteen years ago) link
maybe his paymaster record co. just ain't "commie" these days ?
― george gosset (gegoss), Friday, 14 January 2005 05:47 (nineteen years ago) link
I think I have only EVER seen this on vinyl and have it on cassette somewhere not available to me at the moment. Wait. Let me think...no I don't think I have this one with me! And guilt will eat my insides like bugs all night. Until I have it again.
― Bimble... (Bimble...), Friday, 14 January 2005 06:43 (nineteen years ago) link
Thanks for your help!
― paul c (paul c), Friday, 25 February 2005 00:03 (nineteen years ago) link
― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Friday, 25 February 2005 00:31 (nineteen years ago) link
I'm pretty sure "Lions After Slumber" is re-recorded, by the sound of it. "The Sweetest Girl" is harder to tell, although it sounds tons better on my remastered Songs to Remember CD. Both versions were recorded by the same engineer in the same studio, though.
― JoB (JoB), Friday, 25 February 2005 00:35 (nineteen years ago) link
― dan (dan), Friday, 25 February 2005 00:37 (nineteen years ago) link
― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Friday, 25 February 2005 00:42 (nineteen years ago) link
― Stormy Davis (diamond), Friday, 25 February 2005 00:48 (nineteen years ago) link
Green was one of the rudest, begrudging, non-responsive wankers I ever tried to interview (1985). But then, maybe he was hungover or having a bad day. Of course I can be an asshole at times, too.
― lovebug starski (lovebug starski), Friday, 25 February 2005 00:49 (nineteen years ago) link
― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Friday, 25 February 2005 00:54 (nineteen years ago) link
― JoB (JoB), Friday, 25 February 2005 00:57 (nineteen years ago) link
In any case, the version of "The 'Sweetest Girl'" heard here is different from the more familiar version heard on 1982's Songs To Remember album, with which every child should be issued at birth. There is a different vocal, though gliding with equal ease from the personal to the political and back again ("She left because she understood the value of defiance") and Robert Wyatt's keyboards are much more in evidence, with greater deployment of dub echo. The rather dry album mix now turns into a hymn whose tender grandeur allows us to forget the persuasive poison in its heart, though it's a shame that the track is faded before Wyatt reaches his dissonant keyboard coda (and how appropriate that Robert Wyatt should now enter the Scritti story in the environment of a song which arguably could not have been possible without the precedent of "Oh Caroline," not to mention "Sea Song").
The original B-side, "Lions After Slumber," is similarly far spikier and far more sheerly danceable than its album version, with slap bass and entertainingly discursive Chris McGregor-ish piano both played by the mysterious "Mike" (does anyone out there know exactly who this was?) backing a far more voluptuous vocal itemising by Green of everything he owns and which defines him, tangible and intangible.
― paul c (paul c), Friday, 25 February 2005 02:40 (nineteen years ago) link
And Love of a Lifetime was a great fit for Chaka!
― peepee (peepee), Friday, 25 February 2005 02:58 (nineteen years ago) link
Wood Beez is as fresh today as it ever was. I bought Cupid & Psyche three times as a soulstruck 13 year old (WH Smith was always the master of duff tape copies, so I switched to LP in the end), and picked it up again on CD last year. A couple of years later, Provision was my most anticipated album, and it doesn't disappoint. Anomie & Bonomie is another perfectly produced gem, but maybe a notch or two below the rest. Didn't pick up Songs To Remember until a couple of years back, but it's right up there too- probably the most-played band on my trusty iRiver.
I bought Early the other day, and played it directly after Bloc Party. I don't think bands should bother competing with the original early 80s set.
― Buffalo Stan (Buffalo Stan), Friday, 25 February 2005 11:44 (nineteen years ago) link
― Grouty, Friday, 25 February 2005 12:48 (nineteen years ago) link
― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 25 February 2005 12:49 (nineteen years ago) link
― Chris Dahlen (Chris Dahlen), Friday, 25 February 2005 14:34 (nineteen years ago) link
― john lewis (johnnylewis), Saturday, 26 February 2005 00:36 (nineteen years ago) link
― aretha franklin, Saturday, 26 February 2005 02:23 (nineteen years ago) link
"It's been a long, long time since i heard this stuff. It sounds like an anti-produced labour of negativity, kind of structurally unsound and exposed, by design and default, If you felt generous you might say it was music with the questions built in and the assurances left out - otherwise you could just judge it gauche and technically unaccomplished. Whatever.
These are the first songs i wrote, recorded by the first Scritti Politti line up of Tom Morely (drums and drum machines) Nial Jinks (bass) and me, Green Gartside (vocals and guitar). We were living in a tiny squat in Camden Town at the time. Tom and I had just left School where the 'conceptual art' thing had led to a deeper interest in philiosophy. Nial and I had been together since schooldays, his marxist background was where our critical thinking began. We were united by our love of pop music (all terms used advisedly here). Inspired by seeing the Clash, Pistols, Damned and the Heartbreakers on night and Galvinised into action by d.i.y. pioneers "The Desperate Bicyles - we formed a group and started to play.
Although this music doesn't seem equal to conveying the ides and influences that informed it, perhaps a gereral drift and shifting of Musical Passions and theoretical passions is discernable, I think in the final minutes i can definately hear one place, one voice, one life being left and another being entered - blimey!
It's murky and frail stuff cut from old vinyl (the masters are long lost) i found it evocative of extraordinary times and a bit wiceworthy. Hopefully you'd find it at least - um - interesting. There's some nice bits especially the drumming and bass playingand Robet Wyatt's keyboards on "The Sweetest Girl" alone are worth your attention.
see you later.
Green Gartside"
― jed_ (jed), Saturday, 26 February 2005 19:36 (nineteen years ago) link
― jed_ (jed), Saturday, 26 February 2005 19:37 (nineteen years ago) link
i have never seen or heard of him since
― mark s (mark s), Saturday, 26 February 2005 19:40 (nineteen years ago) link
― mark grout (mark grout), Saturday, 26 February 2005 19:43 (nineteen years ago) link
― Stormy Davis (diamond), Saturday, 26 February 2005 19:51 (nineteen years ago) link
― jed_ (jed), Saturday, 26 February 2005 19:53 (nineteen years ago) link
Suggestions:
- Make sure all words are spelled correctly. - Try different keywords. - Try more general keywords.
― Bimble... (Bimble...), Sunday, 27 February 2005 02:35 (nineteen years ago) link
― jed_ (jed), Sunday, 27 February 2005 02:49 (nineteen years ago) link
― rwillmsen (rwillmsen), Sunday, 27 February 2005 03:27 (nineteen years ago) link
― robertw, Sunday, 27 February 2005 19:49 (nineteen years ago) link
― basquiat (disco stu), Sunday, 27 February 2005 23:40 (nineteen years ago) link
Say, I have a 7" pressing of "Jacques Derrida/Asylums in Jerusalem", and of "Faithless" (both Rough Trade original pressings) - would they be worth anything at all? I always figured not really.
― Trayce (trayce), Monday, 28 February 2005 00:46 (nineteen years ago) link
One of my best memories from my last job (recording studio) was telling Tawatha Agee, Fonzi Thornton and BJ Nelson (background vocalists) how much I loved them on the Scritti records (among others). They seemed pretty amazed I knew about their work on them.
― Jay Vee (Manon_70), Monday, 28 February 2005 03:43 (nineteen years ago) link
― MG, Monday, 28 February 2005 10:29 (nineteen years ago) link
Closer to Steely Dan or something (not exactly of course). The singing is way more palatable than I'd expected.
It's really weird that I somehow never knowingly heard anything by SP, considering how much college radio I was listening to at the time they would have been active.
― RS £aRue (rockist_scientist), Wednesday, 9 March 2005 14:55 (nineteen years ago) link