V01-T03 Rosegarden Funeral Of Sores

.....After dubbing the first full song, a T. Rex cover, I considered what criteria I should use when selecting a track to follow it. Should I use another midwestern band? Another label sampler? As I explained in the previous post, I linked to it by countering it with a T. Rex original. Before I came to that decision, however, I toyed with the possibility of a second T. Rex cover instead. The one that came to mind was Bauhaus' version of "Telegram Sam". I knew I had it as a bonus track on the CD "In The Flat Field" but when I found it, I noticed that the next track on the CD was its B-side, a cover of a John Cale song...

Volume 1: THE PITCHFORK APPROACH, track 3

• 05:50 "ROSEGARDEN FUNERAL OF SORES" (John Cale)
• performed by: John Cale
• original source: B-side, 7" I.R.S./SPY IR-9008(US) Jan/1980
• my own source: the same

.....I was concerned that if I chose either of the Bauhaus songs that I'd be running the risk of establishing a pattern too much like the thematic compilations I had already made. If I had wanted a compilation of covers I would have planned and made one. Instead, I was reminded that I had recently acquired the Cale original, the B-side of the song "MERCENARIES". The single was released shortly after the LP"Sabotage/Live" on the same label and with very similar artwork. The single's packaging claims that the A-side comes from the album, but the same song on the album is clearly a live recording and the A-side is a shorter, clearly different studio recording. Half the credited line-up are different musicians as well. To date, I can't recall seeing it on CD. My interest at the time, however, was this B-side. Bauhaus was sufficiently impressed with it to record their cover by September of that year, just after finishing a cover of "TELEGRAM SAM" in August, backed with an original called "CROWDS" dating from a June session. Those two songs were coupled as a 7" in October and a few weeks later their version of "ROSEGARDEN..." was added to make the 12".

.....Flash forward to 1993 when I'm putting together this tape. There exists an undated Canadian pressing of the "Sabotage" album manufactured by Cinram and distributed by A&M which has no bonus tracks. I'm not sure what year I bought it, but if the contemporary single didn't appear as bonus tracks there, I could have reasonably assumed that they wouldn't be forthcoming any time soon. Strangely, the Rhino label 2CD retrospective "Seducing Down The Door" from the summer of 1994 licenses tracks from that period but not either side of the single. By 1999 Diesel Motor Records released a CD with no specific nation of manufacture that includes not only "ROSEGARDEN..." but the three songs that make up the EP"Animal Justice". The John Cale website, "Fear Is A Man's Best Friend" mentions that the studio version of "MERCENARIES" was left off because the masters are missing. So, this track was hard to come by for at least the first six years that my compilation tape was circulating, but had I chosen the A-side on a whim it would have been otherwise unobtainable to date.