I'D LOVE TO HAVE SEEN THIS PERFORMED ON TOP OF THE POPS....

I recently embarked on a clean-up of the i-tunes on the hard-drive, trying to create a wee bit more space before it fills up. I didn't get very far as it took me hours to do the letter A....

I was astonished to discover that I have 172 different Arab Strap songs on the drive, which would take me nearly 13 hours to listen to all told. OK, its not 172 different songs....in fact there's nowhere near that number of different songs with quite a few of the tracks having three or more different versions such as demos or live or extended mixes. Now I know that the five versions of The Shy Retirer aren't really all essential, but I couldn't bring myself to get rid of any of them.

There's the version which opens up the LP Monday At The Hug And Pint, there's the radio edit that gets rid of their words 'cunted circus', there's a remix version, an acoustic version released on limited edition vinyl and a live acoustic version that I downloaded from someone a while back. All just a wee bit different enough to be kept.....

The radio edit was released back in 2003 as part of an EP that also contained two rather bizarre cover versions of rock songs by Van Halen and AC/DC that Aidan and Malcolm had adored as teenagers.

mp3 : Arab Strap - The Shy Retirer (radio edit)
mp3 : Arab Strap - Why Can't This Be Love
mp3 : Arab Strap - The Good Part
mp3 : Arab Strap - The New Saturday
mp3 : Arab Strap - You Shook Me All Night Long
mp3 : Arab Strap - The Shy Retirer (remixed by Dirty Hospital)

OK, I'll admit as an EP it doesn't quite hang together. The two 'new' tracks are inferior to much of what was on the LP and the cover versions are an acquired taste. But the title track is one of the great long-lost Scottish singles that should have got the boys on what was the UK's longest running weekly music show. That really would have been something to see....