Primal Scream: C or D?

No, not in there, they're scattered around all over the place, more or less whenever Bob or Primal Scream are mentioned - and sometimes without them even being mentioned.

Hahahahaha...

Primal Scream Announce Give Out But Don't Give Up: The Original Memphis Recordings

Following the recent discovery of these tracks in a box lurking in Andrew Innes’ basement, Primal Scream will release the original studio recordings from Memphis, the tracks that eventually became their 1994 album ‘Give Out But Don’t Give Up’.

Teaming up with iconic producer Tom Dowd and the Muscle Shoals rhythm section of David Hood and Roger Hawkins at Ardent Studios in Memphis, the resulting recordings from those sessions showcase a more country soul, rock’n’roll side to a band.

Dowd’s production, coupled with the merging of the slick rhythm section of the band, led to the creation of nine tracks that run the gamut between blues, gospel and brilliant songwriting, available for the first time.

“I felt we went down there with such good intent, but somehow we lost our way afterwards,” Bobby Gillespie admits. “There’s definitely a lesson to be learned about how creativity can go down the wrong track. We’re a band that constantly keeps moving and doesn’t look back, but, for years, I felt bad about us going to Memphis and not doing what we set out to do. Hearing these songs after all this time has made everything all right again. I feel redeemed.”

After their breakout album ‘Screamadelica’ (1991), Primal Scream relocated to Memphis in 1993 to record what would become ‘Give Out But Don’t Give Up’.

Once the band and Creation Records’ boss Alan McGee heard the recordings, however, they were both confused and underwhelmed. Their inner punks got the better of them and they brought producer George Drakoulias onboard to overhaul the recordings, with the band replacing, guitar, bass and drum parts over several sessions in the ensuing weeks until they were left with what became ‘Give Out But Don’t Give Up’.

CD1 – Tom Dowd album mix
Jailbird
Rocks
Call on Me
Everybody Needs Somebody
Sad and Blue
Big Jet Plane
Free
Jesus
(I’m Gonna) Cry Myself Blind

CD2 – Ardent Outtakes
Billy / To Love Somebody
Memphis Groove (Improvised Song Jam)
Sad And Blue (Early Rehearsal Jam)
Blue Moon Of Kentucky / Trying To Get To You
Big Jet Plane (Early Rehearsal Jam / Tom Dowd Instructions)
Free (Bobby Vocal / Full Band Rehearsal Jam)
Everybody Needs Somebody (Alternative Recording)
Country Guitar
Jailbird Guitar
Jesus (Monitor Mix )
Funky Jam (Original Recording)
Free (Early Rehearsal Sitar /Piano / Bobby Vocal)
Call On Me (Monitor Mix)
Cry Myself Blind (Monitor Mix)
All I Have To Do Is Dream

I would listen to this

So would I to see how it compares, but even though this album has some moments that aren't actually all that bad, I'm glad they got it out of their system in order to make Vanishing Point and XTRMNTR.

yeah I'm into hearing this. But far as I can tell, Big Jet Plane, Sad & Blue, I'll Be There for You (left out above?), Everybody Needs Somebody - these are all Tom Dowd versions on the original anyway.

In other words, the good tracks on the original are the remixed ones.

Their inner punks got the better of them so they brought in the Black Crowes' producer.

the Ardent tracks produced by Weatherall on Dixie-Narco are better than the Ardent tracks produced by Dowd, but tbf the band weren't 94% smacked out of their minds the first time around

This was the era i recall they were called 'Dance Traitors'.

Dixie Narco tracks are great

This was the era i recall they were called 'Dance Traitors'.

― piscesx, Monday, August 20, 2018 8:55 PM (nine minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah, I remember reviews of this being not particularly kind. It's depressing that 'Rocks' was such a big hit for them - it's not really representative of what this band is best at, and if that was someone's first exposure to the band, they could be forgiven for getting the wrong idea. Fans of the band from the earliest material may have been a little less surprised at the style they adopted, and the Screamadelica fans were definitely cold on the album.

Also, this was the first album after that tour with Depeche Mode wasn't it? Or were they touring on this LP at the time?

Alternative press release: "Desperate, they returned to the studio where they produced the only track that had any impact in the US but were so half-assed owing to them being smacked-out that the record label (Sony having controlling share of Creation by then) farmed them out to a bunch of remixers and the final record was unliked and re-releasing it now would be a waste of time and money. So here's this."

xpost -- They opened the second US go round of that Depeche tour cycle, in 1994, so they were touring the album.

Ah yeah, that's right! For some reason I'd got it into my head that the LP was released in the back half of '94, rather than at the beginning.

Primal Scream at their messiest meets Depeche Mode at their messiest.

And to top it all off the opening act for them both was Stabbing Westward

One of the bios of the time - possibly Grant Fleming's - tells of Duffy not being in his room the morning after a show, and the tour manager's panic -- nobody had been with him the night before, no-one knew what locals may have led him "astray" - and having to give up and get the rest of the band on to the next town.

Where Duffy was already at the venue, having crawled inside a riser and passed out after playing, remaining asleep not only through Depeche Mode's set, but also being packed up by Depeche's crew, shipped through the night, and arising well-rested when roadies unpacked him at bump-in.

Funnily enough the Wombles were at their messiest at the same time.

I still haven't heard the original Memphis recordings of Give Out But Don't Give Up yet, but I listened to the version as released in 1994 last night and - while it's no Screamadelica, Vanishing Point or XTRMNTR, and it sounds like a very confused record - I thought that there's actually quite a lot that's enjoyable about the record. I mustn't have heard the record for well over a decade or two.

lol these original Memphis recordings are kind of a hilarious nothingburger. Like yeah you can see what they were going for but they really just couldn't quite do it. Lots of farting about doing half-assed covers not particularly well, and the "original versions" are mostly just super-cleanly recorded/stripped down arrangements without all the (often bad) bells and whistles stuck on after the fact.

I do have a morbid fascination with this album and find it kinda funny/entertaining how badly they fucked this up - they had a budget, tons of great collaborators, a pretty good (if muddled) idea, a great studio to work in, but they couldn't get the songs and performances together.

Your problem is you don't like black music.

o rly

You'd get it if you followed sports especially basketball.

(xp) That's the reason Bob gave why UK rock critics didn't like the album, so it must be true.

our wee Boaby wouldna lie to us now

pls let’s not talk about our wee boabies itt, this is a family thread

Are the spoken word bits on "Kill All Hippies" a sample from somewhere?

Out of the Blue dir. Dennis Hopper 1980

p weird, bleak movie, sort of a hippie meditation on their generational failings and punk as the response

I fucking love that track

so good

I have just discovered "XTRMNTR" today and I'm super impressed.

! probably their best record

‘shoot speed kill light’ is so good

It is.

I literally just heard Screamadelica two weeks ago and have known XTRMNTR for twenty years. It’s a disorienting thing.

Wow.

I’ve always thought of XTRMNTR as the inverse of Screamadelica. They’re structured very similarly.

Agreed. From multiple mixes of the same song to radical remixes of tunes from the last record.

Bobby's Insta always delivers: https://www.instagram.com/primalscreamofficial/

https://www.facebook.com/ThurstonMooreOfficial/photos/a.164674653592590/3598726446854043/?type=3 (hope this works)

Damn. It’s a funny photo!

https://imgur.com/gallery/rlmYUzr

https://imgur.com/gallery/rlmYUzr

Ugh, sorry

You can't embed a web page, it has to be an image


https://i.imgur.com/Os99C7S.jpg

Yo Bobby G!!!!!!!!🤘🔥❤️@primalscreamofficial Witnessed blinding gig last nite by @thurstonmoore58 @cafeotodalston TM & James Shredwards straffing on twin guitar sonic attack whilst our darling @googoogiegoo anchored the sound w/ stone solid bass rhythms allowing the boys to fly around her ( sonically speaking ! ) freely safe in the knowledge they had a safe place to land again after their psyche zonked astral ( guitar ) adventure's - all needle frequency angular solos spiralling into hypnotic drones which sucked out our skulls and spewed out our brains and it felt real good, lemme tell you people. It was a Zoom only type affair so only fifteen of us lucky ones got to see it in the flesh. Such a blast to see a proper r & r band play again and it sure did blast away de ol' lockdown blues. 🎸⭐️🎸 Photograph by Brother @jamesendeacott

pic has got a lot of "day release from Monster Mansion" energy.

Hilarious

Siri show me 'an almost transcendental lack of self-awareness' please. (From Bobby Gillespie's book). pic.twitter.com/EB0tGFmc7O

— ⚫Neil Kulkarni (@KaptainKulk) May 13, 2022

He's beyond parody but I'm going to keep on trying.

lol I think all the music hacks who encouraged him for decades should bear some responsibility for his condition. Someone from literature-twitter pointed out that the Kipling quote is wrong!

All Boaby knows about Kipling is that he makes exceedingly good cakes.

That truly is something else.