'94/95 GOLD TOO

This is the third part of my series of Beck compilations. It is made up of the singles, b-sides, compilation tracks and live on the radio shows that he did before and during the Mellow Gold era.

I am copying and pasting this blurb from '93 Feelings to give some hindsight:
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Beck has so much goddamn music out there. He was insanely prolific from 1993 to 1998 which always made me crazy when people referred to him as a slacker. He released close to 100 songs as singles, b-sides, outtakes, compilation tracks, remixes, and live on air sessions. That is on top of releasing the following albums: Golden Feelings, A Western Harvest Field By Moonlight, Stereopathetic Soulmanure, Mellow Gold, One Foot In The Grave, Odelay and Mutations. Seven albums, fifteen singles, eight collaborations, twenty seven compilation tracks, remixes of and from various musicians and a bunch of videos. There's also a missing album he recorded with Jon Spencer's Blues Explosion; nthe unreleased follow K Records follow up to One Foot In The Grave and an album he made that would have been "a more rock-based follow-up to Mellow Gold…an album that sounds like a Pavement, Sebadoh kind of thing”. All of this in a span of 5 years. That's fucking insane.
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To make 94/95 Gold Too I used the It's All In Your Mind single; the soundtrack to Kill The Moonlight; songs from the 'bonus disc" of One Foot In The Grave; and songs he performed live on KCRW.

You can find 94/95 Gold here.
You can find 93 Feelings here.

Tracklisting:
Last Night I Traded My Innermost Soul For Some Pickled Fish
Dead Man With No Heart
Title Unknown/Sleeping Bag
Thunderpeel
Underwater Music/Sweet Satan
Hard To Compete
Whiskey Can Can
Stagolee
My Own Best Enemy
Leave Me On The Moon
SA-5
Johnny Depp
It's All In Your Mind
Curses
Mattress
Piss On The Door
Color Coordinated
Favorite Nerve
Devil Got My Woman
Static
Feather In Your Cap
Teenage Wastebasket
Waiting For A Train
Your Love Is Weird
It's All Gonna Come To Be
Woe Is Me

Your love
Your kindness
Your body
on the mattress

SPLIT/LOVELIFE

Lush' first release was a mini-LP called Scar that came out in 1989. They followed that up with two EP's in 1990 (Mad Love and Sweetness & Light). Those of us in North America mainly know those first three releases through the compilation album Gala which I honestly thought was their first album for years. But they released one more EP called Black Spring before finally releasing their first album which came out in 1992 and was called Spooky. Between this album, those early EP's (or the Gala compilation), a Peel Session, a few singles, b-sides and a compilation track or two - Lush had really grown into a certain sound and feel. Then came their 2nd LP called Split. It was a pretty big shift not only in sound and feel but also in songwriting. Try as I did over many years (and I guess at this ploint decades) I just couldn't get into it. Between the lack of textured fuzzy layers and pop song sensibilities it just didn't grab me. Some songs were long, running close to 8 minutes. But they were kind of dull and... meandering. The songwriting just wasn't as good and the band seemed like it was trying to rid itself of their distinctive fingerprints: space, time, sound, harmonies and atmosphere.

This abandonment of, well, Lush(ness) continued on their next (and final) album which was called Lovelife (which was also the name of a song on Split).

Obviously I used songs from the albums Split and Lovelife to make up this compilation. I also used: "Cat's Chorus" from the Hypocrite single; "White Wood" and the Suga Bullit Remix of "Lovelife" from the Desire Lines single; "Tinkerbell", "Shut Up", "Pudding" and "Cul De Sac" from the Single Girl single; "Carmen" and "Matador" from the Ladykillers single.

Tracklisting:
Lovelife
Lit Up
500
Shut Up
Carmen
Tinkerbell
Last Night
Cul De Sac
Pudding
Cat's Chorus
Blackout
Single Girl
Heavenly Nobodies
Starlust
White Wood
Matador
Lovelife [Suga Bullit Remix]

Every door conceals a dream
And a nightmare
Nothing is ever really pure
In the stale air



I collected some remixes, 8 track recordings, a BBC session, and their cover of the children's TV show theme song "Rupert The Bear" as a bonus compilation: Split/Lovelife Plus:

Tracklisting:
Rupert
Last Night [Hexadecimal Dub Mix]
Sweetness & Light [The Orange Squash Mix]
Blackout [BBC Evening Session]
Single Girl [Emma's 8 Track]
Papasan [Miki's 8 Track]

With fingers crossed, you close your eyes
And hope that things will turn out fine

PRIMAL SCREAMADELICA

Primal Scream were one of my favourite bands for years. They weren't afraid to try anything musically. It quite often didn't always turn out for the best but they seemed fearless in their choices. Of course Screamadelica is where it really all began for this group. They had released a couple of pretty mediocre albums before Screamadelica so the direction they went with this album was pretty incredible. In hindsight they were operating more as a collective than a band at this point in their musical lives. I am not even sure how much of the music that was created during the Screamdelica recording sessions were made by the original members to be honest. There's been so many stories over the years of Bobby Gillespie showing up days late for his vocals; Robert Young on every drug known to man and unable to play; and Andrew Innes dexy'd and canned up and falling about while engineers, producers and remixers arranged, rearranged or even created the songs.

Gillespie and Innes have since shown themselves to be a right pair of cunts when it comes to money. It seems they screwed over Denise Johnson, Robert 'Throb' Young, Martin Duffy, Kris 'Thrash' Weston and various other musicians and producers that helped make Screamadelica what it was. To be honest, part of me doesn't even want to put this up here because of all the stories that have come out. The Denise Johnson and Robert Throb stories can't be confirmed because they have both passed away but the brutal witness statement from Martin Duffy's son after his fathers death says it all. Current Primal Scream members and leaders have ignored the statement completely, instead opting to turn off comments on all of their social media sites. Duffy was an original member of Primal Scream but “he was gradually cut out from getting any songwriting credits, then touring and merchandise profits, eventually just being paid per gig.” Even for the Screamadelica anniversary tours! I can't imagine Screamadelica without Duffy and his keyboards. On top of this, Thrash (ex Orb member) claims that he wrote one of the songs that Bobby/Andrew are now passing off as their 'demo' on the Demodelica album. Shady bastards.

I started the compilation with the song "I'm Losing More Than I've Ever Had" which was on their self-titled second album. This is the song that was later remixed by Andrew Weatherall that became "Loaded" which was released as a single a year and a half before Screamadelica came out. From there I used the rest of Screamadelica but opting to replace the original version of "Don't Fight It Feel It" with a remix from the single (the fake whistle sample in the original drives me nuts); replacing "Higher Than The Sun" with the original version written by Thrash (from the Orb); the Terry Farley remix of "Loaded" instead of the Andrew Weatherall version; and using the Orb demo of "Shine Like Stars" instead of the album version. I also added the Terry Farley remix of "Come Together" as it sounds completely different than the album version (and can be played on the same record without feeling repetative). "You're Just Too Dark To Care" was from their self-titled album but used as a b-side on the "Movin' On Up" single. I added it because it just really fits nicely. Finally, I used the Dixie Narco EP to round up compilation. To me it was always a kind of coda to Screamadelica. It even ends with the song "Screamadelica" which was written while the album was being finalized. Anyways, here it is. Like I said, I'm still trying to separate the art from the artist on this one....

Tracklisting:
I'm Losing More Than I've Ever Had
Movin' On Up
Slip Inside This House
Don't fight It feel It [Scat Mix]
Higher Than The Sun [Original Mix]
Inner Flight
Come Together
Loaded [Terry Farley Remix]
Damaged
I'm Comin' Down
Higher Than The Sun [A Dub Symphony In Two Parts]
Shine Like Stars [Orb Demo]
Come Together [Terry Farley Remix]
You're Just Too Dark To Care
Stone My Soul
Carry Me Home
Screamadelica

I watch you sleep, you look so peaceful
You look so vulnerable, I feel scared for you
To me, you're precious, may you always
Shine like stars