V01-T04a "..and we're back..."

.....The next track was introduced with an interstitial that was one of the few in this collection that was created as an interstitial:

Volume 1: THE PITCHFORK APPROACH, track 4

• 00:27 [DJ's on WBAI-FM 99.5, NYC]
• aka an excerpt from "LIGHTNING STRIKES (NOT ONCE BUT TWICE)"
• performed by ? (nominally The Clash, but the identities of the disc jockeys speaking in this excerpt are likely among the 23 credited "guest musicians"-- see below)
• original source: 3LP "Sandinista!" Epic E3X 37037 (US) 12/12/80
• and my source: 2CD "Sandinista!" Epic E2K 37037 (US?) n.d. (1989?)

.....After 2LP "London Calling" was released at the end of 1979 The Clash had a tour that ended in Detroit. One of their long-time roadies went to work for Joe Ely, Paul Simonon started working on a movie and Joe Strummer began producing a lesser known band and grumbling about possibly quitting. Meanwhile, Mick Jones and Topper Headon stayed in New York to make demos and drum tracks. ((Technical note: Most pop music recording is made in layers, usually with rhythm recorded first and vocals last. Topper was the Clash's drummer. Despite their punk credentials, after four years The Clash was writing things that were more complex and had also learned that this layered track approach saves time in the studio since 'live-in-studio' recording requires all performers being perfect simultaneously-- not likely with self-taught musicians. Also, with layered production each musician can play along to whatever parts had been recorded up to that point, ensuring coordination. Any songs tested out on the road could be recorded live-in-studio, anything new would be demo'd in layers.))

.....Of course, Paul and Joe eventually returned, the album was finished and the rest was history, etc. The hand-lettered lyrics and credits were kind of haphazard. Robert Ellen's "Junco Partner" was credited as "Author Unknown", for instance. There were 23 guest musicians listed without any specific attributions. That doesn't even include a few that slipped through, such as Tim Curry's cameo as a priest on "The Sound Of Sinners". Theoretically, anyone on the list could be acting as the DJ's in this excerpt. Realistically, many of the names could be eliminated due to their known participation elsewhere on the album or in different capacities:

• Mickey Gallagher was the pianist with the Blockheads
• Timon Dogg was a violinist who wrote and sang "Lose This Skin"
• Norman Watt-Roy was the bassist with the Blockheads, brought in by Gallagher early in the sessions while Simonon was still working on his film
• J.P. Nicholson was the bassist on "Washington Bullets"
• Ellen Foley shared the vocals on "Hitsville U.K."
• David Payne was a saxophonist
• Den Hegarty was a backing vocalist
• Luke Gallagher (Mickey's son) sang on "Career Opportunities"
• Ben Gallagher (Mickey's son ) sang on "Career Opportunities"
• Maria Gallagher (Mickey's daughter) sang bits of "Guns Of Brixton" at the end of "Broadway"
• Gary Barnacle was a saxophonist
• Bill Barnacle was a trumpeter
• 'Jody Winscott' may have been a misspelling of Jody Linscott, a percussionist signed to Epic at the time
• Ivan Julien was a guitarist with the Voidoids
• Noel Tempo Bailey was a reggae artist who also goes by the name 'Sowell Radics'
• Anthony Nelson Steelie was a reggae artist whose real name is Wycliffe Johnson
• Lew Lewis played harmonica with Eddie and the Hot Rods
• Terry McQuade appeared in the film "Rude Boy"

.....Other unlikely candidates are Band Sgt Dave Yates, who was probably leading a military or Salvation Army band for background atmosphere on songs like "Something About England", and a credit that simply says "Battersea", without indicating if that's a person, a band, the neighborhood or the power station. That leaves three that I can't account for: Ray Gasconne, Gerald Baxter-Warman and Rudolph Adolphus Jordan. Since the actor McQuade is listed between Gerald and Rudolph, and all three are listed last (except for Battersea), it's possible that McQuade was the voice you hear asking for more music, coerced by the band members into crank calling a genuine radio station near the studio or hotel room while they recorded the exchange for the album or for their own amusement.

.....On the other hand, owing to the DJ's island accents, it's possible that it was staged using Sowell Radics and Steelie playing DJ's in a studio. That just seems less likely to me. Considering the immense volume of Clash-related chattering that transpires online, you would think a trivia nugget like the identities of these people would have surfaced. It could very well be out there, but I can't find it. Anyone with an inside scoop can feel free to chime in on the comments area. It would be much appreciated.

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.

V01-T02 Thunderwing

.....The natural follow-up to a T. Rex cover would be a T. Rex rarity:

Volume 1: THE PITCHFORK APPROACH, track 2

• 03:47 "THUNDERWING" (Marc Bolan)
• performed by: T. Rex
• original source: B-side, 7" T.Rex Wax Company MARC1 (UK) 05/05/72
• and my source: CD "GREAT HITS" Sounds Marketing System, Inc. MD32-5018 (Japan) 1983

.....I compiled this first volume in 1993 and this song wouldn't appear on CD in the US until 1997 when it became a bonus track on the album "THE SLIDER", home of the A-side METAL GURU. The label 'T. Rex Wax Co.' was actually an imprint on EMI, not an independent label, and these were the first album and second single (after TELEGRAM SAM) on it. Over the last twenty years Bolan's voluminous recorded output (including demos, live shows and wigged-out radio interviews) has been endlessly repackaged. At the time I put the tape together there were still a few B-sides and other items from Bolan's career I was yet to find and wouldn't be making a definitive compilation on him for a while. This car-cruising tune, I thought, deserved to be aired more often.

V01-T01b 20th Century Boy

.....These first two selections have been edited together and are treated as one track. Often when I do this it's because I'm using a snippet or sound clip to introduce a full-length song. For brevity's sake I just call these 'interstitials' and their posts are labelled (or 'tagged') as such. The word 'interstitial' is more properly used to describe the brief video material that acts as a buffer between television programming and a block of commercial advertisements, also called a 'bumper'. There are no ads on my compilations, obviously, but the significance of the snippet here is almost always contextual, not intrinsic. In the case of the previous post, it really introduced the whole tape, not just the first song. It also didn't come between two other things, so I guess it would be more like a 'stitial' than an 'interstitial'. Anyway...

Volume 1: THE PITCHFORK APPROACH, track 1b

• 03:55 "20TH CENTURY BOY" (Marc Bolan)
• performed by: The Replacements
• original source: B-side, 12" TwinTone TTR8440 (US) Aug.?/1984
• and my source: VA 2LP "LA VIE EN ROSE" New Rose ROSE 50 (France) 1985

.....Today this track can be found on the most recent domestic pressings of the CD "Let It Be"(2008) as a bonus track, but at the time this tape was made (in 1993) it was probably known to few people outside of trivia junkies like myself or the Replacements' hardcore fans. The original version of the song was, of course, a huge hit for T. Rex in the early seventies (in England at least). Since it would be a few more years until the movie "Velvet Goldmine" was released, it was difficult finding British glitter here in the US. Bowie, Mott and a few T. Rex albums were in print here but everything else was pretty scarce. Even American artists like Rick Derringer and Suzi Quatro had more titles available overseas than here. So the name of the song naturally caught my eye.

.....According to my original liner notes, the various artists' double album I used as my source "was a boxed set (a pair) in a rose-colored box on rose-colored vinyl with rose labels and rose liner notes (including a label discography). New Rose did a compilation almost every year, beginning in 1982, this being one of the best." Today the label seems like an anomaly; in the 1980's it did very well as a by-product of the D.I.Y. movement that started in the late 1970's by providing a means to distribute US and UK artists beyond the limited reach of their own,often smaller independent labels. New Rose would license the material then manufacture their own copies and ship in every direction. When they introduced an act to a new market, they swallowed the cost if it failed and reaped the rewards if it succeeded, if only for the term of the license. For artists kept on the fringe by overly cautious major labels, New Rose was like someone who's willing to pay you to do demographic research for you in Europe. When going on tour means investing most or all of your life savings up front, that's useful. The most recent New Rose compilation isn't an annual sampler but the anniversary retrospective 4CD "NEW ROSE STORY 1980-2000".

V01-T01a "Are you sitting comfortably?..."

.....Many years ago I made audio cassette tape compilations, mostly for long commutes and jobs where I could program the music for my work environment. Occasionally they would be topical, with some unifying theme. Mostly, though, they would be chronological overviews of a single artist or act. I would try to include A-sides, B-sides, key album tracks and rare items that often didn't appear on commercially released compilations due to licensing conflicts. Since I never sold my tapes, this wasn't an issue for me.

.....One day a regular customer entered where I worked, heard whatever tape I was playing, and smiled. He said, out of the blue, "Every time I come in here, there's interesting music playing." "Thanks," I replied, taking it as a compliment on my tastes. "Except," he continued, "it's always something I've never heard before and I never hear the same thing twice.... How much music do you own?" That led to conversations about tastes and variety in listening and ultimately I had to admit to myself that there was an increasing body within my collection of recordings that were unlikely to ever be included on the compilations that I made. Either they were the works of artists who recorded little (or little that was of interest to me) or they were by artists I enjoyed but were not characteristic of them and would be left off compilation tapes for being unrepresentative. Yet, I had to admit that there was some reason, at some time,for me to add them to the pile. What I needed was a more accurate cross-section of the kudzu that was my collection of recordings. Not a 'best-of' but an 'all-of'.

.....I created shortly thereafter the first in a series of cassettes I called "So, What Kind Of Music Do You Listen To?". Each was a 90-minute tape containing two album-length programs (one on each side) with its own title. And unlike the detailed handwritten liner notes I provided on my other compilation tapes, these were blank (except for the titles and series name). No song names, no artists, no playing times, nothing. No preconceptions, either. One would be forced to listen, without prejudice or not at all. I ran off a copy for that customer, who told me he loved it. I've circulated copies to a few others since and some have confirmed to me that they have as well. I honestly don't know how many people have heard them. For most I'm sure that half the fun has been guessing the sources or at least the artists. And I've shown the liner notes to a few people, but not many. Until now. It's been at least fifteen years, so I guess the joke is over. Here now, in daily installments, in proper running order so that you can (good luck) reconstitute the mixes yourselves, are the true contents of the tapes.

Volume 1: THE PITCHFORK APPROACH, track 1a

• 00:05 [introduction, "Are you sitting comfortably? Then I shall begin."]
• (aka excerpt from "Peter And The Wolf" by Sergei Prokofiev)
• performed by David Bowie (with Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra)
• original source: LP "Peter And The Wolf" RCA Red Seal ARL1-2743(US) 05/12/78
• and my source: CD "Peter And The Wolf" RCA Victor 09026-60878-2(US) 1992

.....The full recording was reportedly done by Bowie as a birthday present for his son (then Zowie, now Joe) who would have turned seven when it was released. At one point, when I noticed how many celebrity recordings of "Peter And The Wolf" there were, it occurred to me to collect them as a sideline hobby. Fortunately I was experiencing a rare moment of lucidity that day and decided against it. (How many times would I listen to the Phyllis Diller version, honestly?) There were at least two others I wound up with: The Wendy (formerly Walter) Carlos and Weird Al Yankovic version and the 1970's British art-rock version with members of Roxy Music, King Crimson and Genesis. I think Brian Eno plays the duck on that one. I mean he represents the duck, he's not actually playing one as a musical instrument ( although I wouldn't put it past him to try...).

.....The CD I used is not the only version on disc. There's an earlier version that reproduces the art used on the original vinyl release. The one I used was manufactured a few years later, after BMG acquired RCA. Both include the non-Bowie flipside, the reliable standby Britten's "Young Person's Guide To The Orchestra". The 1992 version was part of a "60+" imprint, however, whose selling point was that CD's could contain more material than vinyl (more than 60 minutes anyway). To this end they added a 1972 recording of Ormandy conducting "The Nutcracker Suite", technically creating a new catalog title.