TWO (OR MORE) OF THE SAME (ii)

The return of the occasional series featuring different songs with the same titles.....

Three songs from a long time ago are featuring today, from bands that are well accounted for in my collection of music, but it was only a day or so ago that I realised they had something in common:-

mp3 : Joy Division - These Days
mp3 : Lloyd Cole & The Commotions - These Days
mp3 : R.E.M. - These Days

Three totally different sounding songs, I have to confess that it's the Lloyd Cole & The Commotions one that is my personal favourite - it's from the band's third and final LP, Mainstream, released in 1987. It's a song unlike most Commotions tracks, driven entirely by the keyboard talents of Blair Cowan, with Lloyd delivering a beautiful but sarcastic vocal that warns people off promiscuous behaviour....it was the era when the right-wing media were having a ball rejoicing in the deaths of homosexuals by AIDS....and while it might not actually be the last ever song recorded by the the band, given that it is the closing track on their last ever LP, I've always thought of it that way and considered a really poignant end to a short but wonderful career.

The Joy Division song is one that I suspect quite a few folk own and know as it was the b-side to Love Will Tear Us Apart, which was of course a hit single back in 1980. But then again, given how different and raw it sounds in comparison to the a-side, maybe not many listened to it all that often after the initial couple of listens. However, I've posted a different version - it's one that appeared on the box set Heart And Soul - and was recorded especially for a session for Picadilly Radio in Manchester. It's quite a bit poppier than the original, and that's probably down to the use of a producer other than Martin Hannett.

The R.E.M. song is the second track on the 1986 LP Life's Rich Pageant - the one that the band confused everyone by listing the songs on the sleeve in a random fashion rather than the proper running order.

Happy Listening