Taking a one-week break from the usual Friday series......There have been 8 studio albums released by Tindersticks since 1993, and while each of them have contained a smattering of singles, it is fair to say that much of their best work can only be found on the long-players.
In the fullness of time, I'll unveil what my five favourite LP tracks are, but as I was going through all the songs I have on the hard drive, I realised that this was a band who had an unbelievable knack of putting some of their best stuff out as non-album singles or b-sides, many of them only available as limited editions (although some were later made available as extra tracks on re-released CDs)
So for one week only, I'm going to feature five stunning bits of music released this way by Tindersticks. I hope you will allow me such self-indulgence as a belated Xmas present to myself:-
mp3 : Tindersticks - Patchwork
mp3 : Tindersticks - A Marriage Made In Heaven (feat Niki Sin)
mp3 : Tindersticks - A Marriage Made in Heaven (feat Isabella Rosselini)
mp3 : Tindersticks - Kathleen
mp3 : Tindersticks - My Autumn's Done Gone
mp3 : Tindersticks - What Are You Fighting For?
Patchwork was the band's first single released on Tippy Toe Records in 1992. A different version of it was recorded for the band's debut LP the following year. Now if you want to get your hands on that particular piece of vinyl, you can expect to pay something like £75 and upwards. Fortunately, it was made available in 1998 on an excellent compilation CD entitled Donkeys. The debut single really captures the band as well as anything they would ever record.
A brooding, melancholy, sparse and wholly uncommercial tune that somehow still grabs your attention while the deep vocal delivery from Stuart Staples reminds you why god in her infinite wisdom gave you a set of ears. Right away it is clear that Tindersticks will be a band that people will love or loath....but a band that will not get much play on mainstream tv or radio.
Donkeys also contains a version of A Marriage Made In Heaven, the first example of what the band would do a lot of over the years, and that is record a duet with a guest female singer. The version on Donkeys features the actress Isabella Rossellini - and given it is a song about a failing love affair between a singer an an exotic actress, she is perfect for the part. But the original had been recorded a few years earlier with the guest vocalist being Niki Sin from Huggy Bear on a very limited edition 7" single.
The Niki Sin and Isabella Rossellini versions are quite distinct. The production of the original is a lot more sparse and is fairly similar in many ways to some of the duets that were recorded in the 60s by Lee Hazelwood and Nancy Sinatra (it is to the former whom the single is dedicated). The Rossellini version is also about a minute longer in length. Both have a lot to offer, but it's the trumpet part that comes in after about 2 and three quarter minutes in the Rossellini version that clinches it for me. Anyway, I've posted both of them today so you can make your own minds up.
The next song in chronological order is a cover of a song by Townes Van Zandt - someone I'm happy to confess I'd never heard of until Tindersticks released Kathleen in 1994. I've since heard the original, but I prefer the cover......
The original clocks in at just under 3 minutes and it is largely a vocal and acoustic guitar with a hint of orchestration. The cover is almost double the time in length. It sounds as if it was a song tailor-made for Staples' vocal delivery.....and the arrangement is rich and beautiful. I was lucky enough to catch Tindersticks play a gig with a full string orchestra and the version of this was a genuine hairs on the back of the neck moment. One of the best cover versions of any song ever.....
Continuing on the covers front, the next song was one released as a b-side in 2003 but had been part of the live set for some time prior to this. It is an act of bravado for any band to open shows with an unreleased cover version, but that's what Tindersticks did in Edinburgh one time with My Autumn's Done Come, a song written and recorded by Lee Hazelwood (yes, him again!!) in 1966. A great example of a cover sounding as if it is an original...
Finally, I've included What Are You Fighting For? which was made available as a one -sided single at gigs back in 2008. This is the sound of Tindersticks Mk2 after the band splintered with Dickon Hinchcliffe (violin, guitar and occasional vocal), Al Macauley (drums and percussion) and Mark Colwill (bass) leaving the band after the tour that promoted the 2003 LP Waiting For The Moon (although they did perform together for a one-off gig in London in 2006). Like much of the recent recordings it is passable.....but something special has been lost, particularly with the the departure of Hinchcliffe whose arrangements, creativity and playing were so central to how the band played and recorded. Sad to say, but while Tindersticks remain interesting, I fear their very best days are behind them....and I don't think I'm alone in that as sales of the two most recent LPs are quite some distance behind the earlier records.
Here's their mid 90s appearance on the BBC music programme Later....you'll see they didn't do things by half.
Happy Listening
3 comments:
Hadn't heard the early version of Patchwork before, thank you for sharing.
That would actually make a great new Friday series when the current one's run its course. Non-album tracks are often a bugger to track down.
An excellent post, as ever, JC.
Now, there wouldn't be anyway you could post Tindersticks version of Psychic TV's Just drifting (b-side of Black Smoke). That's another wee cracker
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