The recent Steely Dan vinyl reissue series continues with the band’s 1974 album, Pretzel Logic.
The album features ‘Rikki Don’t Lose That Number’, which was a top 5 hit in the US singles chart. This resulted in Pretzel Logic being, commercially, a very successful album, peaking at number eight in the American album charts, the second highest peak from the original era (Aja reached number six).
Rikki is of course the best known song, but Pretzel Logic is a truly wonderful album, one of their best, and is full of brilliant songs like the moving ‘Charlie Freak’, the groove-laden ‘Night by Night’ and the warm pop of ‘Any Major Dude Will Tell You’.
As before, this vinyl reissue has been mastered by Bernie Grundman from the original analog tapes with lacquers cut by Alex Abrash at his AA Mastering studio from high-resolution digital files of Grundman’s new masters.
Pretzel Logic will be reissued on vinyl on 28 July 2023.
The Boo Radleys‘ 1993 album Giant Steps has been remastered for a 30th anniversary reissue.
An attempt, perhaps, to break out of the ‘Shoegaze’ scene for which they were best known, the 17-track Giant Steps exhibited a wider range of influences and was the band’s second album on Creation Records. This genre-hopping long-player was the one before their 1995 breakthrough album Wake Up! which tends to be associated with Britpop.
The formats for this reissue are 2LP vinyl and expanded CD. The 2LP edition is also available pressed on purple and orange vinyl at indie shops and comes with a bonus vinyl 10-inch featuring Saint Etienne remixes of both ‘Lazarus’ and ‘Rodney King’. The 20-track CD offers both of those remixes and ‘Peachy Keen’.
Writing about the album, drummer, Cieka reflected on Giant Steps, stating: “Creation loved it, people’s reactions seemed really positive. I do listen to it from time to time and still find great moments I’d forgotten about. I think it stands up pretty well today. I’m always left feeling happy to have been a part of the record”.
Giant Steps will be reissued on 1 September by Brighton-based label Two Piers.
T. Rex’s celebrated 1972 album is reissued as a 2CD set in seven-inch deluxe gatefold packaging. CD1 features the original album, accompanied by three non-album b-sides. CD2 contains “The Alternate Slider: Rabbit Fighter”, an extra disc of fascinating ‘work-in-progress’ versions and demos, which (more or less) mirrors the original album’s running order. Comes with an 8-page booklet with notes.
Christine and the Queens / Paranoïa, Angels, True Love (new album)
The new album by Christine and the Queens is a sprawling but intoxicating 20-track, triple album. Produced by Mike Dean, Madonna features on three tracks. A cut-down 9-track version is also available.
SDE editor Paul Sinclair takes a first look at No 9 in the SDE Surround Series, Tears For Fears’ 1983 album The Hurting.
This physical product features FOUR exclusive versions of the album and two bonus tracks, as follows:
A 2023 Dolby Atmos Mix of The Hurting (by Steven Wilson)
A 2023 DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Mix of The Hurting (by Steven Wilson)
The 1983 mix of The Hurting in hi-res stereo as remastered by Miles Showell for the half-speed mastered vinyl
A hi-res 2023 stereo instrumental mix of The Hurting (by Steven Wilson)
A hi-res stereo remix of The Hurting (by Steven Wilson)
Two previously unreleased bonus tracks: ‘Mad World’ (Mike Howlett Version) and ‘Watch Me Bleed’ (Mike Howlett Version). Both newly mixed to hi-res stereo by Steven Wilson.
This product is not available anywhere else. It is No.9 in the ongoing SDE Surround Series and ships with a collectible SDE slipcase.
The Hurting SDE-exclusive blu-ray is released on 9 June 2023. These are temporarily available again due to cancellations/contingency stock. Order while you can via the SDE shop using this link or via the buy button (‘pre-order’) below.
TECHNICAL NOTES: This blu-ray audio requires a blu-ray player. Decoding the Dolby Atmos mix requires a Dolby Atmos-certified soundbar or a Dolby Atmos-compatible AV Receiver/Amp. The Dolby Atmos mix will ‘fold down’ to 5.1 or stereo if a Dolby Atmos decoder is not detected.
EU SHIPPING NOTES: If you are ordering from the EU please be aware that that goods may be subject to import VAT when they arrive from the UK. The prices the SDE shop charge you do not include VAT
Tracklisting
The Hurting Tears For Fears/
‘The Hurting’ in Dolby Atmos, DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (96/24), stereo & Instrumental Mix (96/24) and original stereo mix
Neil Young continues his occasional Official Release Series box sets with a new volume (No 5) which brings together four albums released as the 1980s turned into the 1990s.
The albums are 1989’s Freedom, Ragged Glory from 1990, the live album Weld and it’s experimental companion, Arc (both 1991). These are discs 22, 23+, 24 and 25 in the series. The ‘+’ for Ragged Glory indicates some bonus material which is two B-sides (‘Interstate’ and ‘Don’t Spook The Horse’) and unreleased versions of ‘Box Car’ and ‘Born To Run’, the latter a 12-minute version.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhjJLZDVRrA
Rockin’ in the Free World from Freedom
The Freedom studio album relaunched Young’s career to a certain degree and features a mix of musicians and sessions. It includes the NY anthem ‘Rockin’ in the Free World’. Ragged Glory saw Neil reunited with Crazy Horse and was recorded a Young’s Broken Arrow Ranch in Northern California.
Live album Weld comprises performances recorded on the tour to promote the Ragged Glory album. It was originally issued as a 3-disc set with Arc, an experimental 35-minute outburst of feedback, improvisation, guitar solos and vocal fragments. This Official Release Series box marks the album’s first release on vinyl.
The 9LP vinyl version of Original Release Series Volume 5 (click image to enlarge)
There are two box sets. One is a 9LP offering (pressed on 180g black vinyl) with Freedom as a 2LP set, Ragged Glory and Weld as 3LP packages and Arc as a single vinyl record. For the 6CD versionRagged Glory and Weld are doubles and the other two, single discs. All box sets are numbered. Like all the reissues in this series, the albums are remastered from the best source available, the original analog tape in most cases. This is, in fact, the first time any of these four albums have been remastered.
The Original Release Series Volume 5 box will be released on 28 July 2023 (was 14 July), via Warner Music.
Alexis Petridis examines the new multi-disc box set
It is the summer of 1981 and the letters page in Smash Hits is preoccupied by a single topic. A correspondent from Kirkintilloch who signs herself Sexy Lexy wants “more colour pictures” of The Teardrop Explodes’ frontman Julian Cope. Kathi Kelli of Blackley writes in to inform the world that she has kissed him, judging him “beautiful and macho-bodied”, while Lorraine Dick of Lanarkshire reports that she has seen The Teardrop Explodes live and Julian Cope’s voice was “really sexy, especially when he spoke to the audience”. Gail from Birmingham is preoccupied by the thought that she might miss The Teardrop Explodes – and most importantly “the wonderful Mr Cope” – when they play her hometown: the gig is the night before her A-Levels. Simon Nash of Wimbledon believes they band have “kicked their fans in the teeth” by re-releasing their single ‘Treason’, but Claire McGann of Liverpool warns off “misguided trendies, rock critics and I Was An Original Punk types” from “knocking The Teardrop Explodes” for “entering the dreaded ‘pop market’.” Too late, Claire, here’s one of them now: a correspondent from Manchester, dismayed to see “hoardes of screaming girls in frilly blouses at their concert, all having hysterics at Julian”, a state of affairs they deem “naff”. No such issues for our old friend Sexy Lexy who, presumably flushed with the success of getting her name in print, writes again, in more robust terms, detailing a fantasy in which she ties Julian Cope to her bed.
The overall message seems clear. There are new teen idols in town, pretenders to Adam and The Ants’ throne: there are also rumblings on the Smash Hits letters page about Spandau Ballet and Duran Duran. But in the summer of 1981, if you had to take a punt on who would depose Adam in adolescent affections, the smart money would go on The Teardrop Explodes.
Of course, it didn’t work out like that at all. As Head-On, Julian Cope’s incredible 1994 autobiography, makes clear, The Teardrop Explodes spent their brief commercial zenith – which begins with the release of the Top 10 single ‘Reward’ in January 1981 and ends when the Top 30 hit ‘Passionate Friend’ starts descending the charts in October – behaving not like gimlet-eyed, ambition-fuelled pop stars, but as if they were engaged in an experiment to see whether it was possible to navigate Top Of The Pops-sized fame while subsisting on a diet largely comprised of LSD. No spoilers, but it wasn’t.
One of the six CDs in this exhaustive box set is given over to a live recording from Liverpool’s Club Zoo – a couple of highlights appear on the 7LP vinyl version – recorded a grand total of three months after Sexy Lexy et al were pledging their undying troth in print. The venue is tiny, and – by all accounts – far from sold out. Among the performances lurks an 11-minute version of ‘Sleeping Gas’, during which an audibly frazzled Julian Cope barks like a dog, threatens to attack the audience and offers musical recommendations (“Mercenaries by John Cale – have you heard it?”) before lapsing into a lengthy silence during which, it becomes apparent, he has been gurning at the crowd: “the people at the front,” he announces, “have been witnessing a face solo”. You couldn’t really blame the Smash Hits correspondents – who clearly hadn’t signed up for this – for deserting them in droves.
It’s meant as no slight on the pulchritude of Julian Cope – sexy voice, macho body and all – to say that, listening to the contents of Culture Bunker, you wonder how the world of Smash Hits ever became a consideration in the first place. As the first disc of early singles and b-sides underlines, The Teardrop Explodes started life purveying a spindly, trebly brand of post- punk. Their monochromatic sound feels very much a product of the late 70s – the lo-fi, cheap-studio quality of the original recordings amped up by the fact that the master tapes are clearly long-gone, and the tracks are dubbed from noticeably cracklier vinyl than that used for needle-drops on Piano, a 1990 compilation which highlights some of the same material – although something about it echoes the 60s as well: Cope’s well-elocuted vocals have an air of Syd Barrett to them, the needling organ recalls The Seeds, the titles of ‘Sleeping Gas’ and ‘Kirby Workers Dream Fades’ evocative of the garage-punk found on the Nuggets compilation and the first stirrings of British psychedelia respectively. You could see why a major label might have signed them, but as an albums act, aimed more at NME readers than Smash Hits. But with Mercury Records’ cash on the table, the organ was replaced with synthesizers and a brass section, and they dug into their skill for concise, bright pop songs – ‘When I Dream’, ‘Reward’ – consigning their weirder side to the b-sides: the cacophonous ‘Strange House In The Snow’; the fractured ‘Christ Vs. Warhol’.
Cope’s well-elocuted vocals have an air of Syd Barrett to them
Alexis Petridis
Cope’s tousled good looks and aura of wide-eyed enthusiasm (“bless my cotton socks, I’m in the news!” opens ‘Reward’) did the rest. The problems with that situation were manifold. Cope had expected cult-dom, and the artistic freedom that entailed, and largely agreed with the Smash Hits correspondent who thought the screaming girls were “naff”: he went along with it for a while – largely, one suspects, to annoy his fellow travellers from Liverpool’s quite astonishingly bitchy and competitive music scene – but pop stardom, he waspishly opined in Head-On, was OK only “if you were into being adored by flat-chested premenstrual virgins”. And then there were the drugs. It’s not recorded whether Alan Gill, briefly The Teardrop Explodes guitarist, ever expressed regret for insisting the previously clean-living Cope smoke a joint during the recording of their debut album Kilimanjaro, an action that appeared to turn the frontman into a maniac overnight: From Drug Puritan To Acid King, as one CD in the box set is titled.
The ensuing madness Head-On details is stupidly, luridly entertaining: “every day, we would wake up, take acid, then ride to the studio on our imaginary horses,” opens one typical anecdote. In fact, it’s so stupidly, luridly entertaining, that it’s hard not to feel the stories of drugged lunacy have overshadowed The Teardrop Explodes’ actual music. It’s a situation Culture Bunker clearly seeks to redress, although it’s hard to imagine its six hours of singles, b-sides, demos, live performances, rough mixes and outtakes appealing to anyone who who isn’t already a fan of 1980’s Kilimanjaro or its more expansive flop follow-up Wilder (1981), which stirred into the mix angular avant-funk and two brilliant, epic ballads, ‘Tiny Children’ and ‘The Great Dominions’. The live recordings in particular are frequently so rough as to repel all but the most committed, which is a shame, as they’re both packed with otherwise-unheard songs – ‘The Tunnel’, ‘Straight Rain’, ‘Beauty Comes Second’, ‘Vox Clamantis In Deserto’ – and document a band who covered a lot of musical ground in a short space of time: from the frantic post-punk of two 1979 gigs to a more measured, pop-facing London performance in 1980, to the compelling madness of the Club Zoo shows a year later, where the songs from the Wilder era take on a far looser, noticeably stranger tone (there’s a particularly great version of ‘Colours Fly Away’ that sounds a lot closer to the humid, agitated funk of Talking Heads than the one they released as a single).
The Teardrop Explodes throw away songs as good as ‘Soft Enough For You’ on B-sides. They come up with a glacially beautiful synth ballad, then call it ‘Flipped Out On LSD’.
Alexis Petridis
But for those with the time and the inclination, the sound of The Teardrop Explodes’ failed attempt to wrangle two opposing impulses, continued commercial success and drug-fuelled anything-goes experimentation, is endlessly intriguing, and a constant source of what-ifs? They throw away songs as good as ‘Soft Enough For You’ on B-sides. They come up with a glacially beautiful synth ballad, then call it ‘Flipped Out On LSD’. A February 1981 demo reveals they had a perfect follow-up to ‘Passionate Friend’ lurking around, but they never finished it, for reasons unknown: Julian Cope eventually did, and had a solo hit with ‘World Shut Your Mouth’ in 1986. The aborted 1982 sessions for their third album, eventually released in 1990 as Everybody Wants To Shag The Teardrop Explodes, were so disastrous they ended with drummer Gary Dwyer chasing guitarist/keyboard player Dave Balfe across farmland near Rockfield Studios with a loaded shotgun – perhaps understandably, the band spilt up shortly afterwards – but the rough sketches of songs on the final disc are great: a wracked take on ‘Serious Danger’, a different version of which made it onto the 1990 release, ‘Log Cabin’ and ‘Icarus 1’, neither of which did.
In the years after their demise, Cope took to painting The Teardrop Explodes’ swift decline from their brief moment of mainstream stardom as something inevitable and inbuilt: he was, he announced, on a “white male fuck-up” trip at the time. “I used to do outlandish, extreme things because that’s what my heroes would have done – the idea was that the accumulation of all my heroes would be one hell of a god to be,” he told one journalist. By ‘heroes’, he meant damaged psychedelic renegades like Syd Barrett, Jim Morrison and The Thirteenth Floor Elevators’ Roky Erickson: figures that burned out quickly in the 60s. Perhaps he’s right: the Smash Hits early 80s were probably not the most receptive climate for an acid-fuelled, wildly unpredictable pop star, no matter how sexily-spoken or macho-bodied. If the contents of Culture Bunker sometimes belie the popular image of The Teardrop Explodes – barely three years separate its earliest tracks from its latest, the musical distance between them seems an impossibly large area to traverse by the kind of drugged-out disaster area Head-On suggests they were – its unaccountable dead ends and missed opportunities do suggest the kind of muddled thinking that a vast quantity of hallucinogens might induce.
Culture Bunker isn’t the perfect introduction to the Teardrop Explodes – the uninitiated or curious would be better off buying Kilimanjaro and Wilder – nor the last word on them: it’s clearly intended as a companion to those albums, and Everybody Wants To Shag…, aimed squarely at the devotees. But its lovely packaging (matching sleeves, authoritative notes by their former press officer Mick Houghton) conceals six hours of music that’s variously chaotic, exploratory, commercial, wilfully alienating and a bit of a mess, but is liberally studded with incredible songs and fantastic ideas that don’t always get off the ground. In that sense, it’s The Teardrop Explodes all over.
Culture Bunker 1978-1982 was reviewed by Alexis Petridis for SDE and is released today, via Universal Music Recordings.
The box sets are not available via normal retail channels are can only be ordered via Universal direct-to-consumer (D2C) sites.
Treason (It’s Just a Story) (Remixed Version) – Single
Use Me – B-Side
Traison (C’est Juste Une Histoire) – B-Side
Ha Ha I’m Drowning – Single
Poppies In the Field – B-Side
CD 2: CHRIST VERSUS WARHOL – THE SINGLES
Passionate Friend – Single
Christ Versus Warhol – B-Side
Colours Fly Away – Single
East of the Equator – B-Side
Window Shopping for a New Crown of Thorns – B-Side
Tiny Children – Single
Rachel Built a Steamboat – B-Side
You Disappear from View – Single
Suffocate – No Strings from US LP of version of Kilimanjaro
Ouch Monkeys – B-Side
Soft Enough for You – B-Side
The In-Psychlopedia – B-Side
CD 3: FROM DRUG PURITAN TO ACID KING
Camera Camera – Granada TV, February 1979
Band on The Wall – Live, Manchester, 05 March 1979
Instro
Sleeping Gas
Seeing Through You
Straight Rain
All I Am is Loving You
Read It In Books
Jury Service
Take A Chance
The Tunnel
Camera Camera
Outstro
Sleeping Gas (Encore)
Beauty Come Second – Live Bristol 06 October 1979, unrecorded song
Take A Chance – Cargo Demos / To the Shores of Lake Placid Version
Poppies In the Field – Cargo Demos
Brave Boys Keep Promises – Cargo Demos
Bouncing Babies – Cargo Demos, all November 1979
Ha Ha I’m Drowning – Live at Studio Y 30/05/1980
Second Head – Live at Studio Y 30/05/1980
Went Crazy – Live at Studio Y 30/05/1980
Thief of Bagdad – Live at Studio Y 30/05/1980
Save Me – Live Y Club – London 30/05/1980
When I Dream – To the Shores of Lake Placid Version, Rockfield, 1980
CD 4: THE GREAT DOMINIONS
Dialogue Between (Window Shopping for a New Crown of Thorns) – Rockfield, 1980
For Years aka Nobody Knows This Is Everywhere – Zoology Version, 1980
Suffocate (With Strings) – Baroque Version, Rockfield, Spring 1982
Bent Out of Shape – Skinner Session – 17 August 1981
Colours Fly Away – Club Zoo – 25 November 1981
Pure Joy – Club Zoo – 25 November 1981
Falling Down Around Me – Bearshank Lodge, April 1981
Passionate Friend – also Bearshank Lodge
Tiny Children – Zoology / Air Rough Mixes, Summer 1981
…And The Fighting Takes Over – Zoology, 1981
The Culture Bunker – Club Zoo – 25 November 1981
The Great Dominions – Soundboard Tape Guildford June 1981
Butchers Tale – Air Studios Rough Mixes, summer 1981; credited on the original Wilder inners but not included on the LP. Cover from the Zombies Odyssey and Oracle
Screaming Secrets – from Copes Notes: TheTeardrtop Explodes , 1981
Not My Only Friend – also Bearshank Lodge
I’m Not the Loving Kind – Zoology Version, 1981, John Cale cover from Slow Dazzle
World Shut Your Mouth – Instrumental Demo #1 – Liverpool Feb 1981 / Portastudio
CD 5: CLUB ZOO
Club Zoo – December 22 1981
Log Cabin
Tiny Children
Passionate Friend
Bouncing Babies
You Disappear from View
Ha Ha I’m Drowning
Reward
Culture Bunker
Sleeping Gas – also b-side Tiny Children
Bonus tracks from Club Zoo, 25 November 1981
Like Leila Khaled Said
Treason
Bouncing Babies
Vox Clemantis in Deserto
Sleeping Gas
CD 6: DEATH RATTLE
Whopper Kwalo Koblinsky’s Lullaby – from To the Shores of Lake Placid, January 1981
You Disappear from View – from Zoology. Demo, Producers Workshop, 1982
Log Cabin – from Zoology, 1982
Serious Danger – Julian Cope And Dave Balfe Cassette – demos, May 1982(Take 2 of 3)
Count To Ten and Run for Cover – JC And DB Cassette
Ouch Monkeys – JC And DB Cassette
Icarus #1 – JC And DB Cassette
Terrorist – JC And DB Cassette
Pussyface – Instrumental backing track, Spring 1982
Flipped Out on LSD – Excerpt, 1982, featuring rare Dave Balfe vocal
Your Big Lies – Julian Cope home demo, Tamworth May 1982
Camera Camera – With World Shut Your Mouth producer Steve Lovell, 1984
LP 1: IT’S SO ETHEREAL
Side One
Sleeping Gas – Zoo Single
Camera Camera – B-Side
Kirby Workers Dream Fades – B-Side
Bouncing Babies – Zoo Single
All I Am Is Loving You – B-Side
Treason – Zoo Single
Read It in Books – B-Side
When I Dream – First Mercury Single
Side Two
Kilimanjaro – B-Side
Reward – Single
Strange House in the Snow – B-Side
Treason (It’s Just a Story) (Remixed Version) – Single
Use Me – B-Side
Traison (C’est Juste Une Histoire) – B-Side
LP 2: CHRIST VERSUS WARHOL
Side One
Ha Ha I’m Drowning – Single
Poppies In the Field – B-Side
Passionate Friend – Single
Christ Versus Warhol – B-Side
Colours Fly Away – Single
East of the Equator – B-Side
Side Two
Window Shopping for A New Crown of Thorns – B-Side
Tiny Children – Single
Rachel Built a Steamboat – B-Side
You Disappear from View – Single
Suffocate – No Strings – from US LP version of Kilimanjaro
Ouch Monkeys – B-Side
LP 3: BAND ON THE WALL
Side One
Camera Camera – Live on What’s On – Granada TV – Feb 1979
Instro – Band on The Wall – Live, Manchester 05 March 1979
Sleeping Gas – Band on The Wall – Manchester 05 March 1979
Seeing Through You – Band on The Wall – Manchester 05 March 1979
Straight Rain – Band on The Wall – Manchester 05 March 1979
All I Am is Loving You – Band on The Wall – Manchester 05 March 1979
Side Two
Read It in Books – Band on The Wall – Manchester 05 March 1979
Jury Service – Band on The Wall – Manchester 05 March 1979
Take A Chance – Band on The Wall – Manchester 05 March 1979
The Tunnel – Band on The Wall – Manchester 05 March 1979
Camera Camera – Band on The Wall – Manchester 05 March 1979
Outstro – Band on The Wall – Manchester 05 March 1979
Sleeping Gas – Band on The Wall – Manchester 05 March 1979 (Encore)
LP 4: FROM DRUG PURITAN TO ACID KING
Side One
Beauty Come Second – Live Trinity Centre – Bristol 06 October 1979 (Un-Recorded Song)
Take a Chance – Cargo Demos, November 1979 / To the Shores of Lake Placid Track
Poppies in the Field – Cargo Studios, Rochdale – November 1979
Brave Boys Keep Promises – Cargo Studios, Rochdale – November 1979
Bouncing Babies – Cargo Studios, Rochdale – November 1979
For Years aka Nobody Knows This Is Everywhere – Zoology Version – Alan Gill’s Studio 1980
Side Two
Ha Ha I’m Drowning – Live at Studio Y (YMCA London) 30/05/1980
Second Head – Live at Studio Y (YMCA London) 30/05/1980
Went Crazy – Live at Studio Y (YMCA London) 30/05/1980
Thief Of Bagdad – Live at Studio Y (YMCA London) 30/05/1980
Save Me – Live at Studio Y (YMCA London) 30/05/1980
When I Dream – To the Shores of Lake Placid Version – Rockfield Studios March 1980
LP 5: OUT OF THE CULTURE BUNKER
Side One
Dialogue Between (Window Shopping for a New Crown of Thorns) – Rockfield, March 1980
Suffocate (With Strings) – Baroque Version – Hugh Jones 1982
Reward – US LP Version of Kilimanjaro
Bent Out of Shape – Skinner Session – 17 August 1981
Colours Fly Away – Club Zoo Liverpool – 25 November 1981
Falling Down Around Me – Bearshank Lodge April 1981
Side Two
Pure Joy – Club Zoo Liverpool – 25 November 1981
Passionate Friend – Bearshank Lodge April 1981
Tiny Children – Air Studios Rough Mixes, Summer 1981
…And The Fighting Takes Over – Warner Brothers Demo 1981 – Zoology Version
The Culture Bunker – Club Zoo Liverpool – 25 November 1981
LP 6: FALLING DOWN AROUND ME
Side One
The Great Dominions – Guildford Civic Hall, 18 June 1981
Butchers Tale – Air Studios Rough Mixes – Wilder Sessions, credited on the original Wilder inners but not included. Cover from the Zombies Odyssey and Oracale
Screaming Secrets – 1981, from The Teardrop Explodes Copes Notes
Not My Only Friend – Bearshank Lodge April 1981
I’m Not the Loving Kind – Producers Workshop – Zoology Version, 1981. John Cale cover from Slow Dazzle
World Shut Your Mouth – Instrumental Demo #1 – Liverpool Feb 1981 / Porta Studio
Side Two
Whopper Kwalo Koblinsky’s Lullaby – from To the Shores ofLake Placid Version – Jan 1981
You Disappear from View – From Zoology. Producers Workshop 1982 demo.
Log Cabin – Demo 1982 (Ft. Kate St John and Nicky Holland) – from Zoology
The In-Psychlopedia – B-Side of ‘You Disappear From View’, Spring 1982
Serious Danger – Julian Cope and Dave Balfe Demos May 1982 (Take 2 of 3)
LP 7: DEATH RATTLE
Side One
Count To Ten and Run for Cover – Julian Cope and Dave Balfe Demos May 1982
Ouch Monkeys – Julian Cope and Dave Balfe Demos May 1982
Icarus #1 – Julian Cope and Dave Balfe Demos May 1982
Terrorist – Julian Cope and Dave Balfe Demos May 1982
Soft Enough for You – B-Side of ‘You Disappear from View’
Side Two
Pussyface – Instrumental backing track 1982, Spring 1982
Your Big Lies – Julian Cope home demo, Tamworth May 1982
Camera Camera – Recorded with World Shut Your Mouth producer Steve Lovell 1984
I’m pleased to inform everyone that the second run of No 7 in the SDE Surround Series – Ten Years After’s 1971 album A Space In Time, is now in stock and available to order.
The original production run of 1000 sold out in a matter of days back in January, so we clearly underestimated demand! As before, this Blu-ray Audio is only available via SDE and is packed with great content, as follows:
New Dolby Atmos Mix
5.1 Mix (DTS HD-Master Audio 5.1)
1973 Quad Mix (DTS HD-Master Audio 4.0)
2023 Chris Kimsey Stereo Mix (48/24)
Flat transfer of the Original 1971 Mix (48/24)
The Quad Mix corrects the channels which were inadvertently switched (front to back) on the 2012 DVD (which came with a vinyl LP). The brand new stereo mix is by original producer/engineer, Chris Kimsey, using transfers from the original two-inch multitrack tapes. Chris’ work on the stereo mix was the basis for the new Atmos Mix.
This second edition has the words ‘second edition’ just above the barcode on the back, to differentiate from the first edition. There are 1000 available, although be aware that 200 have sold in the last hour, so it doesn’t look like these will last long (again). Don’t miss out a second time!
A Space in Time blu-ray audio is a collaboration between SDE and Chrysalis Records. This item is available to ship immediately and comes with a free, collectible SDE Surround Series slipcase. You can order via the SDE shop using this link or via the ‘buy button’ below.
EU SHIPPING NOTES: If you are ordering from the EU please be aware that that goods may be subject to import VAT when they arrive from the UK. The prices the SDE shop charge you do not include VAT
TECHNICAL NOTES: This blu-ray audio contains no video. It requires a blu-ray player. Decoding the Dolby Atmos mix requires a Dolby Atmos-certified soundbar or a Dolby Atmos-compatible AV Receiver/Amp. The Dolby Atmos mix will ‘fold down’ to 5.1 or stereo if a Dolby Atmos decoder is not detected.
The ‘Motion Picture Soundtrack’ to David Bowie’s last gig as Ziggy Stardust will be reissued for the 50th anniversary in July.
Bowie retired his alter-ego on 3 July 1973, at London’s Hammersmith Odeon, and the show was filmed by D.A. Pennebaker who captured the evening’s events, including Bowie’s famous speech just before the final encore, ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide’, where he revealed that he was retiring the Ziggy Stardust persona. The announcement shocked and surprised everyone, including members of his own band!
The film and the audio recording were mothballed for a decade as Bowie was keen to leave Ziggy behind, but once he left RCA for EMI in 1982 the label (RCA) were free to release it without worrying about was David did or didn’t want to do, and that’s exactly what happened in 1983. Suspecting this would happen, Tony Visconti and Bowie mixed the audio in 1981 so they at least had some input on how it would sound when released.
2CD+blu-ray edition for 2023 (click image to enlarge)
It took almost another decade for this live album to be released on CD, when Rykodisc issued it towards the end of their Sound + Vision reissue campaign of the early Nineties. Unlike most of Ryko’s other Bowie reissues, there were no bonus tracks.
Ten years after that EMI released what was then a 30th anniversary 2CD set, with audio newly mixed by Visconti. The concert film was also issued on DVD with a 5.1 surround sound mix.
For this new 50th anniversary reissue, the soundtrack has been newly remastered and finally includes the medley of ‘The Jean Genie/Love Me Do’ and ‘Round And Round’ featuring Jeff Beck. These additions have been newly mixed by Tony Visconti. The film has also been digitally restored by D.A.’s son, Frazer Pennebaker and will be issued on blu-ray and will be shown at over 1000 cinemas worldwide during July 2023.
2LP pressed on gold-coloured vinyl (click image to enlarge)
In terms of formats, a 2CD+blu-ray edition brings together film and audio, while a 2LP set is pressed on gold-coloured vinyl. There’s a 2CD set (without the blu-ray) as well. The 5.1 mix on the blu-ray is the same as the 2003 DVD except for the two new tracks which are obviously newly mixed.
Ziggy Stardust: The Motion Picture will be reissued on 11 August 2023.
Wishbone Ash’s 1972 album Argus was recently reissued as a 50th anniversary box set.
Featuring a heady blend of prog rock, folk and hard rock, Argus is band’s biggest selling album, and tracks include ‘Blowin’ Free’, ‘The King Will Come’, ‘Time Was’, ‘Warrior’ and ‘Throw Down The Sword’.
The seven-disc box set features the following content:
3 CDs: Martin Turner’s Argus remaster, Live at The Alexandra Palace 1973 & Memphis 1972. Also features four previously unreleased early version demos.
2 vinyl LPs: Original Argus replica, remastered for this release + Argus Live (selected recordings from Alexandra Palace & Memphis).
DVD: French & Swiss TV footage, Live from the Rainbow 1973 & RTS Broadcast from 1974.
7” Single of ‘Blowin’ Free’.
The package comes with a 48-page book with rare photographs and extensive liner notes with contributions from Andy Powell, Martin Turner & Steve Upton.
This 50th anniversary box set of Argus is out now via Madfish.
It’s a great time to be a Bob Dylan fan. Over the past few years, we’ve been treated to a masterful studio album, 2020’s Rough and Rowdy Ways, some essential official Bootleg Series releases, like Springtime In New York and January 2023’s Fragments: Time Out of Mind Sessions, superb live performances and a mysterious, stylised, and brilliant ‘concert’ film, Shadow Kingdom: The Early Songs of Bob Dylan.
Directed by the Israeli-AmericanAlma Har’el, Shadow Kingdomappeared on theVeeps live streaming service in May 2021, to tie-in with Dylan’s 80th birthday. Viewers had to pay $25 to view the show, which was available to rewatch for only 48 hours before it disappeared.
This moody, arty, black and white performance by Dylan and his masked band was supposedly set in the fictitious and smoky dive bar, the Bon Bon Club, in Marseille, France, but, in reality, it was filmed on a soundstage in Santa Monica, California over a week in 2021, when the pandemic put the brakes on Dylan’s Never Ending Tour.
That wasn’t the only strange thing about the critically-acclaimed Shadow Kingdom – it wasn’t really a concert at all, as the musicians, including Shahzad Ismaily on accordion, and Big Thief guitarist, Buck Meek, were miming to pre-recorded backing tracks, and Dylan aside, the band who were credited in the film didn’t actually appear on the soundtrack. Well, he did once write a song called ‘Mixed Up Confusion….’
Now, shortly after Dylan’s 82nd birthday, which was on 24 May this year, we’ve been treated to an official release of the songs on Shadow Kingdom.
This soundtrack album, which is available on CD and double LP – the fourth side of the vinyl version is etched rather than including any music – features the 13 songs from the film and an atmospheric instrumental piece called ‘Sierra’s Theme’, which played over the film’s closing credits and sounds like ‘All Along The Watchtower’ rewritten for a cowboy movie.
The mystery surrounding Shadow Kingdom continues, as the musicians who performed on the album aren’t credited in the sleeve notes, but there’s speculation that Dylan’s band included Jeff Taylor (accordion), Greg Leisz (pedal steel guitar, mandolin), Tim Pierce, T-Bone Burnett, Ira Ingber (guitars) and Don Was (upright bass).
What we can be certain of is the quality of the music and the performances, which lean heavily on acoustic guitar, upright bass and accordion – there are no drums or piano, but Dylan adds a touch of harmonica here and there.
Although the Shadow Kingdom film was described as ‘The Early Songs of Bob Dylan’, confusingly, it doesn’t include anything from his first four albums. These reworkings of songs span from 1965 to 1989. The earliest is a new take on ‘It’s All Over, Baby Blue’ from Bringing It All Back Home, and the most recent track, and one of the highlights, is a version of ‘What Was It You Wanted’, from Oh Mercy. Most people probably wouldn’t consider Oh Mercy to be one of Dylan’s early records, but to be fair, it’s 34 years old…
Dylan is in fine voice on Shadow Kingdom and the musicians breathe new life into these songs with their inspired and often stripped-back, cantina band-like arrangements.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JSB-L3BpvY
The riotous ‘Tombstone Blues’ from Highway 61 Revisited undergoes a radical reinvention – it’s now slowed down, sparse and intimate, while a delightfully playful and breezy ‘While I Paint My Masterpiece’, which was first released by The Band on Cahoots in September 1971, but appeared on Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits Vol. II later that year, has a Cajun feel.
There’s a poignant ‘Forever Young’ and ‘What Was It You Wanted’ sounds moodier and sultrier than the original – in its new incarnation, it’s even more powerful.
‘I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight’ and ‘To Be Alone With You’ have been shorn of their country influences; the former becomes bluesy rockabilly, and the latter is now laid back, more poignant and sounds less throwaway than the version we’re more familiar with.
A sprightly ‘Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I’ll Go Mine’) is more faithful to the original, there’s a lovely, delicate rendition of ‘Queen Jane Approximately’ with finger-picked guitar, accordion and harmonica, and a great, slow, late-night take on the bluesy ‘Pledging My Time.’
There’s more blues on ‘Watching The River Flow’, which was released as a digital single ahead of the album, and is one of the record’s more up-tempo offerings, with some tasty electric guitar.
The slow and moody version of ‘It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue’ definitely sounds like it’s been influenced by the arrangements on Rough and Rowdy Ways, as do some of the other songs on the album.
Shadow Kingdom is a record for Dylan diehards to treasure – the latest of several releases by him that are essential purchases. Unlike some acts who, when they choose to revisit and rerecord songs from their back catalogue, simply churn out inferior acoustic versions, or rope in an orchestra to add some strings and horns, Dylan has expertly reinvented some of his well-known and lesser-known numbers, taking them into new territory and never sounding once like he’s going through the motions.
In fact, his voice on Shadow Kingdom is the best it’s been in years. To coincide with the release of the soundtrack, the film is being made available to download and rent from Apple TV on 6 June, so there’s another opportunity to see and hear what he did in the shadows.
Who knows what he’ll be getting up to next. Dylan’s career has lasted more than 60 years and, now in his early eighties, he still surprises, confuses and delights us. Long may it continue.
Shadow Kingdom was reviewed for SDE by Sean Hannam. It’s out on Friday 2 June 2023.
Janet Jackson’s 1993 album Janet will be reissued as an expanded deluxe edition in July.
This record was Jackson’s fifth studio album and her second after the international success of 1986’s Control. Like that record, and 1989’s Rhythm Nation 1814, it featured the production and writing skills of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. Notably, it was Janet’s first album for Virgin Records after a high-profile bidding war with the incumbent label A&M losing out.
All six singles from Janet reached the top ten of the US charts, with two songs (‘That’s The Way Love Goes’ and ‘Again’) hitting the top spot. In the UK, the singles from Janet faired slightly better than the previous album and the singer enjoyed a whopping seven top 20 UK singles with two top ten hits!
The 3LP deluxe vinyl edition of Janet (click image to enlarge)
Already a 75+ minute album (it actually only has 12 ‘proper’ songs with loads of interludes) the deluxe edition for 2023 adds a few extra songs and some remixes. These are all on the third LP of the 3LP vinyl edition which comes in a tri-gatefold, ‘upgraded’ jacket and a booklet of rarely seen photos from the period of its release.
The same seven bonus tracks feature on CD 2 of the 2CD deluxe edition which is offered in a slightly less lavish jewel case, assuming the packshot is accurate.
Note, that the availability of the 3LP vinyl is limited to certain channels. For example, in the UK, it’s a D2C-only edition (direct-to-consumer) and can be pre-ordered via The Sound of Vinyl. In Germany, you can pick it up at JPC.de.
Janet will be reissued on 7 July 2023 via UMe/Virgin. More CD links should come through on the widget soon!
Tom Waits‘ 1973 debut album is reissued “for the first time” as a 2LP set. This contains no bonus material but is half-speed mastered, pressed at 45RPM and presented in a gatefold sleeve. The album includes the songs ‘Ol’ 55′, ‘Martha’ and ‘I Hope That I Don’t Fall In Love With You’.
Deacon Blue are to release You Can Have It All – The Complete Albums Collection, a new career-spanning 14CD box set along with a new ‘best of’ called All The Old 45s – The Very Best of Deacon Blue.
The albums box set features all ten of the band’s studio albums, two B-sides/rarities compilations (1988’s Riches and 1990’s Ooh Las Vegas) and Peace Will Come, a brand new album of ‘deconstructed and rearranged’ acoustic versions of songs, inspired by the ‘campfire sets’ performed on the last tour.
You Can Have It All – the 14CD box set (click image to enlarge)
All The Old 45s – The Very Best of Deacon Blue is available as a 2CD or 2LP vinyl package. The former offers 41 tracks whereas the latter delivers 24 songs via four sides of vinyl.
The ‘best of’ sees the songs newly remastered although for the albums box the audio is not remastered.
Both titles will be released on 1 September 2023 via Cooking Vinyl. The Deacon Blue shop is offering signed A4 prints with the 14CD box set or other bundles (limited to 500).
Four albums by The Strokes will be reissued on limited edition coloured vinyl in July.
The American rock band’s second, third, fourth and fifth long-players receive this treatment, namely:
Room On Fire from 2003 (blue vinyl)
First Impressions of Earth from 2005 (‘hazy red’ vinyl)
Angles from 2011 (purple vinyl)
Comedown Machine from 2013 (red and yellow marbled vinyl)
The band’s 2001 debut This Is It was reissued on white vinyl back in 2020, which might explain its absence as part of this campaign.
Room On Fire and First Impressions of Earth will be reissued on 7 July 2023, via Sony Music. The other two are out on 4 August. These are limited editions but the label has not revealed how many they are pressing.
As you will no doubt be aware by now, the legendary singer Tina Turnerhas died aged 83.
By way of tribute, SDE recommends you read our 2014 interview with Martyn Ware when he spoke warmly of working with Tina on her Private Dancer album which had just turned 30 at that time.
Ware also took to social media earlier today and said the following: “Tina has given immense pleasure to millions of people – everyone loved her, and she loved everyone right back. She was the most extraordinary performer I’ve ever recorded with, and the world is a much poorer place for her passing… There can never be another Tina”.
Some of them are SIGNED by the artists concerned and one of the highlights, which will surely be of great interest to some SDE readers, is a vinyl test pressing of Frankie Goes To Hollywood’sWelcome to the Pleasuredome signed by all five members of the band.
The auction will take place at 11am on Tuesday, 6 June 2023. It is once again being hosted by music memorabilia and vinyl records specialists Omega Auctions. You can browse all 200 lots here.
Joni Mitchell’s first two studio albums will be reissued on vinyl, in July.
1968’s Song To A Seagull was the singer-songwriter’s debut and the two sides of the LP are labelled ‘I Came to the City’ and ‘Out of the City and Down to the Seaside’. This issue features a a new mix of the long-player with Joni herself commenting candidly that “The original mix was atrocious. It sounded like it was recorded under a jello bowl, so I fixed it!”
1969’s Clouds is the original mix, remastered. This album features the songs ‘Chelsea Morning’ and ‘Both Sides Now’. Both of these albums were previously reissued in the 2021 box set The Reprise Albums 1968-1971. That box was very expensive (on vinyl) at the time and is already out-of-print.
Song To A Seagull and Clouds will be re-released on vinyl in on 7 July 2023.
As part of Demon Music’s Suede30 campaign, the label are issuing Suede’s first four singles as seven-inch picture discs, reproducing the original arresting cover images on the discs.
The second release is the classic, ‘Metal Mickey’, originally released on Nude Records on 14 September 1992. The single reached No 17 in the UK charts, earning the band their first appearance on Top Of The Pops, and paving the way for the release of the band’s debut album.
The B-side to this single was ‘Where The Pigs Don’t Fly’ which didn’t appear on the Suede album. The picture disc is strictly limited to 1000 units worldwide and is only available via the SDE shop and the official Suede store.
The ‘Metal Mickey’ seven-inch picture disc is released on 27 October 2023 (was 15 September) via Demon Records. Sadly this item has now sold out on the SDE shop!
EU SHIPPING NOTES: If you are ordering from the EU please be aware that that goods may be subject to import VAT when they arrive from the UK. The prices the SDE shop charge you do not include VAT
Sparks / The Girl is Crying in her Latte (new album)
Sparks are back on Island Records for this new album that includes songs such as ‘Mona Lisa’s Packing, Leaving Late Tonight’ and ‘Nothing Is As Good As They Say It Is’
Musicians mourn the passing of two great bass players
Early this week, it was announced that John Giblin had died aged 71. John played bass guitar on many great records including six Kate Bush albums; Peter Gabriel III, Phil Collins’Hello I Must Be Going and Face Value; and Simple Minds’Street Fighting Years. Kate Bush left a heartfelt message on her website saying “I loved John so very much. He was one of my very dearest and closest friends for over forty years. We were always there for each other. He was very special“. John was part of the band that Kate put together in 2014 for her Before The Dawn residency in Hammersmith.
Peter Gabriel said that Phil Collins had introduced him to John. He posted his own tribute and said “My favourite bit of John’s work with me was also with Phil on drums, No Self-Control. This wonderful and warm hearted musician contributed so much to so many great records and performances . We will all miss you John”.
Of course, yesterday came the shocking news that The Smiths’ Andy Rourke had died at the young age of just 59 (of Pancreatic cancer). Again the musicians who worked closely with, or knew Andy, were quick to offer condolences to Andy’s loved ones and remind the world what a great musician he was. Johnny Marr said Andy was “a kind and beautiful soul by those who knew him and as a supremely gifted musician by music fans”.
Morrissey also left a message, saying that “He didn’t ever know his own power, and nothing that he played had been played by someone else. His distinction was so terrific and unconventional and he proved it could be done. He was also very, very funny and very happy, and post-Smiths, he kept a steady identity – never any manufactured moves”.
Rest in Peace John Giblin and Andy Rourke
Bob Dylan’s Time Out Of Mind re-enters the UK charts!
Thank you to everyone who has left messages to say they are enjoying the Bob DylanTime Out Of Mind (2022 Remix) SDE-exclusive blu-ray audio. I can tell you that all the pre-orders have shipped and if they haven’t already, packages should be dropping through your letterboxes any time now.
On the strength of just the SDE-exclusive blu-ray, the album appeared in the so-called ‘midweek’ UK album charts at No 34, which was amazing. Of course it couldn’t really hang on with all the streaming competition but it re-entered the UK physical album chart at number 10! This is ahead of releases such the Rick Astley’sHold Me In Your Arms reissue, Moby’sResound NYC (his classical re-workings) album and the De La Soul is Dead vinyl reissue!
I’m thrilled at this success which is a result of your passion for physical music and spatial audio. Unlike those other releases, there’s was no PR campaign, no multiple formats… just the SDE community coming together and responding positively to a product that had been designed with your interests at heart. Thank you and let’s do it all over again in a couple of weeks with No 10 and No 9 in the SDE Surround Series: Mike Oldfield’sTubular Bells and Tears For Fears’TheHurting!
