No....I don't necessarily mean that any of you my dearest readers will have forgotten it. I wouldn't dream of insulting you so cheaply.I'm having a dig at myself for never before posting the tracks from this 1982 single that came out on Rough Trade Records. It's one that has gathered dust on the shelf, ignored when I featured its cousin the 7" picture disc back in March 2007. I'm a disgrace.
My records are on shelves in a cupboard and don't lend themselves easily to be flicked through. But I was in looking for another 12" single by an act whose name begins with the letter 'S' when I spotted this and took it out for a proper look.
My eyes were drawn to the scarlet sticker that says 'WITH EXTRA TRACK' exactly as the sleeve at the top of this posting. To my shame, I'd forgotten what it was after all these years - this was a piece of vinyl I hadn't burned as it was quicker and easier just to do so from the CD of Songs To Remember. Oh the shame of not remembering that not only was the version of Jacques Derrida extended from that of the 7" (and quite different from that on the LP) but the extra 'hidden' track was a completely different version of one of the great tracks on 'Songs...'
I'm just a heretic.
So, as a way of saying sorry to the other parts of my record collection that I've wilfully ignored this past three and a half years since I got my first USB turntable, here's all three of the songs featured on the record with the catalogue number RT111T, a double-A side effort with a third track which is actually mentioned on the front of the sleeve, itself an homage to a bottle of cognac:-
mp3 : Scritti Politti - Asylums In Jerusalem
mp3 : Scritti Politti - Jacques Derrida (extended version)
mp3 : Scritti Politti - A Slow Soul (alt version)
The single reached #43 in the UK charts. But is much better than all those that followed on a few years later and turned Green Gartside into a bona fide pop star.
7 comments:
我們不是因為快樂而歌唱，而是唱歌使我們快樂 ..................................................
I've always loved this single. I bought the 7" the week of release having never heard it. I just loved the cover! That happened a lot then and doesn't really happen now, I'm afraid.
But once I had listened to it, I knew I was hooked and had to buy the LP Songs To Remember and look for earlier releases, which Hummingbird Records in Dover, Kent helped with. I found Faithless 12" (which I still have) and The "Sweetest Girl", both fantastic releases and both different to the album versions either by being a different mix or a completely different recording (Lions After Slumber springds to mind).
All in all this was the best time for Green (except for his stage fright). How I wish the next album wasn't so different to these singles and album.
Wow, I never heard of any of these! SP barely scratched the surface in the US, and that was only the Cupid & Psyche album. Never knew much about the band other than that and forgot about them soon after. It is definitely news that the singer was a 'bona fide pop star', though if memory serves he did guest on an Elvis Costello song? Or am I making that up? Anyway, great single -- thanks!
Excellent, excellent 12", I'm embarrassed to say mine is stuck in the attic with the rest of my vinyl, really must sort it, bought myself a USB turntable over a year ago and have only ripped 1 single!!
Johny you're right Green supplied backing vocals on "I wanna be loved"
Johnny,
Green also supplied vocals on the Eurythmics track 'Wrap It Up' on the Sweet Dreams album!
Remains one of my favourite singles ever. What a package of songs.
Thank you JC! Love him. I'll confess I loved the 'versions' of thr singles around the time of Cupid and Psyche and the sumptuous photography of the sleeves......bars of chocolate, Aretha etc. I got to see the great man live in London a couple of years ago. The voice is still pure beauty. Anyone notice how Frame nicked that great guitar chord strike from 'Pray Like...' and slapped it onto the very 'of its time' Deep and Wide and Tall? Stlil think Anomie and Bonhomie is a great, great album too.
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