Weezer - Songs From The Black Hole (upgrade)

Weezer – Songs From The Black Hole
(soniclovenoize reconstruction)

SEPTEMBER 2021 UPGRADE

Act I, Scene 1:
1.  Blast Off!
2.  You Won’t Get With Me Tonight
3.  Maria’s Theme/Come To My Pod
4.  Tired of Sex

Act 1, Scene 2:
5.  Superfriend
6.  You Gave Your Love To Me Softly
7.  Waiting On You
8.  Tragic Girl

Act 2, Scene 1:
9.  She’s Had A Girl/Good News!/Now I Finally See
10.  Getchoo
11.  I Just Threw Out The Love of My Dreams

Act 2, Scene 2:
12.  No Other One
13.  Devotion
14.  What Is This I Find
15.  Why Bother?
16.  Longtime Sunshine

In honor of the 25th anniversary of Weezer’s influential sophomore album Pinkerton, this is a very long-overdue upgrade to my reconstruction of Songs From The Black Hole, the space rock opera which was the precursor to the album.  Originally meant as a literal opera which functioned as an allegory to Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo’s disenchantment from the band’s instant stardom, the album was scrapped and restructured into the seminal Pinkerton in 1996.  This updated reconstruction, using a combination of Weezer’s studio takes and Rivers’ demo tapes, more closely follows Cuomo’s actual script of the opera.  My own reconstruction of the final script is included here, pieced together from his notes included in The Pinkerton Diaries.  I have also created some cover and back artwork based on river’s sketches in his Diaries.  

With a slew of 1994 hits and lovable, quirky music videos including “Buddy Holly”, “Say It Ain’t So” and “The Sweater Song”, Weezer  seemed to fill the gap left by recently-departed Nirvana, merging Brian Wilson-esque songwriting with fuzzed-out grunge guitars.  The unlikely nerd rockers found themselves in the limelight after hashing it out in the LA club scene, with years of work and dedication paying off and their debut Blue Album becoming a 90s Alt-Rock classic.  But the band’s newfound fame seemed to be a burden for the anxious and introverted frontman Rivers Cuomo, overwhelmed with the reality of what he had always wished for.  

On a break from touring during around Thanksgiving 1994, Rivers charted out the bare bones of the band’s second release: a futuristic concept album about a rock band whose singer was dealing with the band’s popularity, as well as personal relationship issues with a “good girl” and a “bad girl”.  At first using a handful of already-written (and largely unrelated) newer Weezer songs (such as “Getchoo” and “Tired of Sex”), Rivers composed additional material to link the songs, including lyrics as dialog between characters: an actual rock opera.  After creating a rough draft of a script with no real ending, Rivers revised his concept that Christmas, turning the ‘band’ into a crew aboard the space ship Betsy II, on a mission to save the planet Nomis on the edge of a black hole.  At this time, Cuomo recorded demos of most of the rock opera, now titled Songs From The Black Hole.  

Throughout the first half of 1995, Rivers would continue to refine the Songs From The Black Hole concept, while rehearsing and recording segments of the cycle with his Weezer bandmates.  Since the entire lyric of the album were sung by different characters, it was decided that the different members of Weezer would sing for the various characters: Cuomo would sing for the protagonist, Jonas, the captain of the ship Betsy II; crewmate Wuan would be sung by guitarist Brian Bell; crewmate Dondo would be voiced by bassist Matt Sharp; roadie Karl Koch would voice a robot crew member M1, via a vocoder effect; “good girl” love interest Laurel would have been sung by Rachel Haden of the band that dog; “bad girl” love interest Maria would have been sung by Joan Wasser of the band Dambuilders; and Mike Stanton of the band Avant Gard would appear on the album as a pre-recorded message of a television host.  

While on tour in Germany that February, bassist Matt Sharp headed back to the United States due to a family emergency.  The remaining members recorded band demos of several SFTBH songs at a studio in Hamburg, notably the lead-off song “Blast Off!”.  By August, the band had formally entered Electric Lady Land Studios to track SFTBH, recording versions of “Blast Off!”, “Tired of Sex”, “You Gave Your Love To Me Softly”, “Waiting On You”, “Getchoo”, “I Just Threw Out The Love of My Dreams”, “No Other One”, “Devotion”, “Why Bother?” and “Longtime Sunshine”.  The recordings were much more raw and less polished than their debut Blue Album, as the band desired a “live in the studio” sound with minimal overdubs.  Anticipating a short break from the band due to Cuomo being enrolled into Harvard that September, Weezer booked a final recording session for Songs From The Black Hole in August at Fort Apache Studios in Boston.  Although left unfinished, they recorded new versions of “Tired of Sex”, “You Gave Your Love To Me Softly”, “Waiting On You”, “Getchoo”, “No Other One”, “Devotion” and “Why Bother?”. But a new event would shift the course of Songs From The Black Hole into self destruction and ultimately reinvention.  

While at Harvard that Fall, Cuomo began writing new songs that strayed greatly from the Songs From The Black Hole concept-- songs about his loneliness and isolation and a desire to return to simplicity and innocence.  Regrouping with the rest of the band in January 1996 at Sound City Studios, Weezer tracked two of these newer compositions “El Scorcho” and “Pink Triangle” (as well as newer versions of “Tired of Sex”, “Getchoo” and “No Other One”.  Basic tracks of “Superfriend” were finally attempted, but never completed, as seen in the 2004 Weezer DVD Video Capture Device).  Returning to Sound City on Rivers’ spring break, Weezer cut even newer compositions “Across The Sea”, “The Good Life”, “Falling For You” and “Butterfly.”  

By Summer break, the album was complete and now titled Pinkerton.  The Songs From The Black Hole concept was completely abandoned for that of SF Pinkerton from the opera Madame Butterfly, used as a metaphor for Cuomo’s own wanton access that lead to regret.  The tracklist was arranged to be (approximately) in the order in which they were written to illustrate Cuomo’s own emotional progress throughout the last two years.  The album was more immediate, personal and more musically raw in presentation than that of The Blue Album and was a turn-off for some (casual) fans.  Coupled with the simple fact that hype still had not died down from The Blue Album, Pinkerton was an often overlooked release in 1996.  In effect, Cuomo would be disenchanted from writing emotional, personal songs with a rawer production.  He would spend the next three years attempting to create a mathematical formula for the perfect pop song-- a concept that would actually see fruition on their third release, The Green Album, hailed as Weezer’s (first) great comeback.  

Meanwhile, Pinkerton was not exactly the failure that Cuomo saw it as.  Aside from actually hitting the Billboard Top 20 and spawning two hits, a new generation of fans embraced the unfiltered, personal lyrics and cut-throat production of the album and at the turn of the century, began playing a new, “emotional” version of punk rock; Pinkerton had become, intentionally or not, the godfather of the Emo movement.   

But for Weezer die-hard fans, the underlying allure of Pinkerton wasn't it’s influence, but it’s unheard precursor, Songs From The Black Hole.  After clamoring for it’s release for years, fans were treated to leaked demos of the project, often by Karl Koch himself, throughout the Napster years.  Pieces of SFTBH eventually found their way onto the first three volumes of the Alone series, compilations of Cuomo’s early demos, the third of which exclusively covered the SFTBH/Pinkerton era.  Finally, a Deluxe 20th Anniversary release of Pinkerton gave fans a handful of studio versions of the SFTBH project.  Is this enough to reconstruct a fairly accurate SFTBH?  

Not precisely.  The smoking gun was found in the 2011 book The Pinkerton Diaries, which included excerpts from three different drafts of Rivers’ original script for Songs From The Black Hole.  At first glance this would provide the best road map to reconstruct the rock opera, until we realize that the final draft was not only partially included, but some pages were out of order!  The first step in reconstructing SFTBH is to reconstruct Rivers’ script; from there, we will be able to make a more accurate audio version of SFTBH.  To do this, we will be taking the third script draft as a base, and using clues from the previous two drafts to fill in the blanks and correct the page order.  Through this process, we will observe that neither Rivers nor Weezer actually recorded few of the crucial songs for the album: “She’s a Liar”, “Touch Down!”, “Special Thanks” and “I Don’t Belong.”  Along with my standard audio, I am also including my own reconstruction of the SFTBH script, which will note the missing, unrecorded songs in red text. 

Act 1, Scene 1 of Songs From The Black Hole opens with “Blast Off!” from the Pinkerton Deluxe, with the piano intro from “Longtime Sunshine” used as an introduction; note my addition of M1’s count down using the vocoder setting on a MicroKORG, if I may be so bold.  The song sets the stage as five astronauts and a robot head to the planet Nomis, on the edge of a black hole.  The captain Jonas notices Maria, whom they knew in the Academy...  “Who You Callin’ Bitch” is not used in the third draft, so we are going directly into “You Won’t Get With Me Tonight”, the channels swapped to match the panning of “Blast Off!”.  Next is “Oh Jonas/Come To My Pod” from Alone II, in which Maria seduces Jonas; “Please Remember” is excluded, as it was dropped from the third draft of the script.  This follows directly into the early version of “Tired of Sex” from the Pinkerton Deluxe, in which Jonas regrets his decision to hook up with Maria; note that “Oh No This Is Not For Me”  is excluded as it was dropped from the third draft of the script, with Rivers noting “Come To My Pod” should flow into the feedback intro of “Tired of Sex.”  

Act 1, Scene 2 begins with Jonas confiding to Laurel about his dissatisfaction with his relationship with Maria on “Superfriend” from Alone.  They realize they both like each other and hook up themselves in “You Gave Your Love To Me Softly” from the Pinkerton Deluxe.  Maria comes to Jonas’s pod (room) to tell him she’s pregnant with his child, but instead hears him fooling around with Laurel!  The unrecorded “Oh Jonas (I Hear You)” acts as a link to “Waiting On You” from the Pinkerton Deluxe, sung by Maria.  The three then confront each other in the unrecorded “She’s a Liar”, which I presume is a reworking of “Please Remember.”  Choosing to leave Laurel for his fatherly duties with Maria, Jonas laments his situation in “Tragic Girl”, from the Pinkerton Deluxe; note it is likely that the actual SFTBH version of “Tragic Girl” would have had a fairly different set of lyrics, but here we will use the glorious studio version, still somewhat relevant.  

Act 1, Scene 2 features a time jump, where Jonas and Maria’s daughter is born to Jonas’s lamentation in “She’s Had a Girl” from Alone III.  Wuan and Dondo announce the ship has finally arrived to Nomis in “Dude, We’re Finally Landing” from Alone I, followed by Jonas’s epiphany that he does want Laurel in “Now I Finally See” from Alone III.  Of course Laurel rejects him in the early version of “Getchoo” from the Pinkerton Deluxe, although she immediately regrets her decision in “I Just Threw Out The Love of My Dreams”-- the only SFTBH song to actually feature Rachel Haden singing her character.

Act 2, Scene 2 sees Jonas resolving to be with Maria in “No Other One” from the Pinkerton Deluxe, followed by the unrecorded “Touch Down!”, clearly a musical reprise of “Blast Off!”  While Wuan, Dondo and M1 investigate the planet Nomis, Jonas finally pledges his love for Maria in “Devotion” from the Pinkerton Deluxe.  Unfortunately, he sees a used condom in her pod, as heard in “What Is This I Find” from Alone III!  Jonas is ultimately defeated by both Maria and Laurel and claims “Why Bother?” from the Pinkerton Deluxe.  Meanwhile on the planet surface, the crew find a prerecorded message on an unmanned satellite (which was supposed to be voiced by Mike Stanton) explaining that the crew’s entire mission was simply a reality-based TV show; this would have been featured in the unrecorded song “Special Thanks”, which Rivers described as a Sonic Youth-type of noise jam.  Mike explains that while there was no actual mission, there is an actual immediate danger as Nomis is about to be sucked into a black hole.  Luckily, there are five transports to carry the five human crew members to safety (sorry M1).  With the realization that with his new baby, they are one transport short and someone must stay behind, Jonas sacrifices his life for his daughter by giving his transport to her.  This is explained in the unrecorded “I Don’t Belong” and I have extrapolated the lyrics to this, based upon the melody of “Now I Finally See.”  As Jonas watches the crew escape, he awaits his eminent death by singularity.  Jonas then realizes that neither the love of Maria nor Laurel mattered, but only his love for his own daughter, and he sings “Longtime Sunshine” from the Pinkerton Deluxe as the planet is destroyed.  

Sources used:
Rivers Cuomo – Alone: The Home Demos of Rivers Cuomo (2007)
Rivers Cuomo – Alone II: The Home Demos of Rivers Cuomo (2008)
Rivers Cuomo – Alone III: The Pinkerton Years (2010)
Weezer – Pinkerton (deluxe edition, 2010)

flac --> wav --> editing in SONAR Pro and Goldwave --> flac encoding via TLH lv8
*md5, artwork and tracknotes included

Wilco - Here Comes Everybody

 

Wilco – Here Comes Everybody

(soniclovenoize reconstruction)

1.  A Magazine Called Sunset

2.  Kamera

3.  Radio Cure

4.  Cars Can’t Escape

5.  The Good Part

6.  Shakin’ Sugar

7.  Laminated Cat

8.  Ashes of American Flags

9.  Heavy Metal Drummer

10.  I’m The Man Who Loves You

11.  Pot Kettle Black

12.  Poor Places

13.  Venus Stopped The Train

14.  Iamtryingtobreakyourheart

In honor of the surprise release of Wilco’s (pretty fantastic) new album Star Wars, here is a reconstruction of what could have been their fourth album--Here Comes Everybody.  Eventually restructured as their 2001 masterpiece Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, the album ended up very different than the early working tapes due to shifting band members, song arrangements and label affiliations.  Compiling alternate versions from two sets of demo discs as well as a number of studio outtakes, we are able to piece together a less-experimental album more in-line with the band’s previous album Summerteeth (ideally featuring more appearances of multi-instrumentalist Jay Bennett and drummer Ken Coomer, who exited the band during this period).  Some unique edits were made to make new, complete takes;  the tracks were also either crossfaded or banded closely; and all songs are volume-adjusted to create a cohesive listening experience.  

At the end of the 20th Century, Wilco had become critical darling in search of the ever-elusive hit single and the battle between The Artist and The Industry had already bubbled over several times.  Lead singer/songwriter Jeff Tweedy desired Wilco’s second album--1996’s Being There--to be a double album, an idea vetoed by their label Reprise Records; a compromise was reached, in which Tweedy allowed a significant cut of his royalties from the album which offset the label’s loss, in order for it to be released as a double.  The sprawling album that straddled alt-country and experimental-rock gained enough critical success to warrant artistic freedom for their follow-up, 1999’s Summerteeth.  Although once again garnishing much critical acclaim for the album’s lush Pet Sounds-esque layers as well as Tweedy’s songwriting prowess, Reprise Records didn’t hear a hit single and demanded to create a radio-friendly mix of “I Can’t Stand It”.  Wilco acquiesced, knowing how much freedom they had been already allowed in an era of the emergence of media oligopolies and a long list of bands dropped from the label's roster.  The song failed to be a hit, and Wilco approached the danger zone. 

Regrouping at the band’s own rehearsal space in late 2000 to record the follow-up entirely themselves, Wilco’s fourth album at this point had the working title of Here Comes Everybody, a reference to James Joyce’s masterpiece Finnegan’s Wake.  The ever-changing metaphysics of Joyce’s H.C.E. character was appropriate, as the nature of the recording sessions changed as well, moving into early 2001.  While initially the songs were a second wind of Summerteeth—solid songwriting played by a solid rock band with layers upon layers of experimental sounds by multi-instrumentalist Jay Bennett—Tweedy wished to push the boundaries of the band itself.  After spending the year with side project Loose Fur (consisting of Tweedy, experimental producer Jim O’Rourke and drummer Glen Kotche),  the more daring and sonically progressive sound of the trio greatly informed how Here Comes Everybody would progress as well.  The first step was replacing Wilco drummer Ken Coomer with Kotche himself.  A less busy drummer who focused on unusual and homemade percussion instruments, Kotche was able to rhythmically reinterpret Tweedy’s new songs (many already recorded) into a more exotic backbone to perpetuate the atmosphere of the songs, in contrast to Coomer’s more traditional rock drumming. 

The second step in the evolution of Here Comes Everybody into what we now know as Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, was the song selection and mixing process.  Dropping obvious career throwbacks (the Summerteeth-esque “A Magazine Called Sunset” or the Being There-esque “Never Let You Down") and focusing on the songs that specifically dealt with the curious dissatisfaction and personal alienation in an increasingly modern and technological world  ensured a fresh direction for the band.  Jim O’Rourke was brought in to mix the album and much to the displeasure of the rest of Wilco, the songs were drastically stripped to their emotional core, often leaving merely Kotche’s exotic percussion and Bennett’s dizzying sonics.  Gone was the traditional sound of a rock band and all that remained was the strength of the songs themselves, floating in a sea of opiate-inspired fuzzy guitars, twinkling pianos, anonymous voices and static.   

Not only did the album transform, but the band itself.  The behind-the-scenes battle over creative control of the band between Bennett and Tweedy had concluded with Bennett being dismissed from Wilco, an event depicted in the documentary I Am Trying To Break Your Heart.  Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was also the breaking point of the fragile relationship between Wilco and Reprise Records.  After the band refused to bend to label exec’s requests to “make some changes” upon hearing the album, Reprise refused to release it and instead offered Wilco to buy-out their contract (which included the rights to the album) for $50,000.  Accepting their offer, Wilco not only bought the rights back to the album their label refused to release, but they leaked it themselves--streaming it on their website for free--and went public with Reprise’s tactics.  The situation—as well as the strength of the fantastic album itself—earned a Wilco a new record deal with the indie label Nonesuch Records, this time with complete artistic freedom.  Who owned Nonesuch Records?  AOL/Time Warner , the same oligopoly who owned Reprise Records!  Wilco self-produced an album of music they wanted and essentially sold it back to the company who refused to release it in the firstplace. 

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was the musical turning point in the postmodern era that embodied all the issues that artists presently face: digital media as distribution, the effect of media oligopolies and the transfer of power to the underdog indie artists from the dinosaur cash-cows.   But in its original incarnation as Here Comes Everybody, history could have been very different for Wilco’s fourth album.  Using two different bootlegs of the rough and early mixes of the album (known as the YHF Demos and the YHF Engineer’s Demos) as well as some of the outtakes which didn’t conceptually fit, we are able to make a very different album, one that more logically follows Summerteeth and did not create such a radical artistic shift.  We will try to use as many Coomer-drummed tracks as possible as if he hadn’t been ousted from the band (as much as we ascertain, without knowing the specific credit of every recording).  Just as well, we’ll include two Bennett-penned tracks that were left on the cutting room floor, as if he too hadn’t been ousted from the band.     

We can begin this reconstruction of Here Comes Everybody with the most radio-friendly song, “A Magazine Called Sunset”, taken from the More Like The Moon EP.  Although an early mix most likely featuring Coomer on drums is found on the YHF Demos bootleg, we will use the more polished, finished track featuring Kotche on drums.  This is followed with the more rock-anthem-arranged “Kamera” from the YHF Demos.  Next, an early and very different, nearly tropicalia version of “Radio Cure“ that was originally titled “Corduroy Cutoff Girl”.   Taken from the YHF Demos, the redundant verses are edited out for a more logical and concise song framework.  Next is the fantastic piano ballad “Cars Can’t Escape”, taken from the Alpha Mike Foxtrot boxset and followed by the very Summerteeth-esque “The Good Part”, using the unreleased version from the YHF Demos that seem to feature Coomer on drums.  “Shakin Sugar” from the YHF Demos follows, a deeper album cut for sure but a Jay Bennett original that would later be recorded for his only solo album post-Wilco.  “Laminated Cat” concludes the first half of the album, a song later reimagined and recorded by Loose Fur.  Here is a straightforward Springsteen-esque version from the YHF Demos originally titled "Not For The Season."   

The second half of Here Comes Everybody follows more closely the sequence of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, except all sourced from early mixes found on the YHF Demos; these versions of “Ashes of American Flags”, “Heavy Metal Drummer”, “I’m The Man Who Loves You” and “Pot Kettle Black” all demonstrate how much of an impact Jim O’Rourke was on the sound of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot by deconstructing the arrangements at crucial points in the songs.  Next is a personal highlight for this album, the early version of “Poor Places” from the YHF Demos propelled by a barroom piano, featuring a full band and a slightly different structure.  Following is an edit of two rough mixes to create a complete take of “Venus Stopped The Train”, a song composed by Jay Bennett around a Jeff Tweedy poem, also re-recorded by Bennett for his solo album post-Wilco.  The album closes with the early version of “I Am Trying To Break Your Heart” from the YHF Demos (which I have stylized as “Iamtryingtobreakyourheart”) which seems to feature Coomer on drums.  Instead of being an exciting opening track on Yankee Hotel Foxtrot that sets the mood for modern disillusionment, it becomes a confusing experimental afterthought to an already stylistically varied album. 

Is Here Comes Everybody an improvement over Yankee Hotel Foxtrot?  I don’t believe it is; pushing Wilco to new musical boundaries is a must for the band, and the album would not have had its historical impact had it not been cutting edge and unified vision.  Here Comes Everybody would certainly have been Wilco's White Album!  But this reconstruction at least shows how much Wilco did push their music at the time, how they got from point A to point B.  At the very least, Here Comes Everybody offers a more traditional option for those who like their Wilco without all the bells, whistles and... static.  

Sources used:

Alpha Mike Foxtrot: Rare Tracks 1994-2014 (1994 CD boxset Nonesuch)

More Like The Moon EP (2003 CD Nonesuch)

War On War (2002 CD Nonesuch)

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot Demos (bootleg, 2002)

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot Engineer Demos (bootleg, 2002)

flac --> wav --> editing in SONAR and Goldwave--> flac encoding via TLH lv8

*md5, artwork and tracknotes included

Blur - Britain Versus America

Blur – Britain Versus America

(soniclovenoize reconstruction)

Side A:

1.  PopScene

2.  Advert

3.  Colin Zeal

4.  Pressure On Julian

5.  Oily Water

6.  Beachcoma

Side B:

7.  Never Clever

8.  Star Shaped

9.  Into Another

10.  Miss America

11.  Turn It Up

12.  Resigned

In honor of the just-released first Blur album in 12 years—The Magic Whip—I’m offering a reconstruction of the unreleased 1992 Blur album Britain Versus America, which evolved into their sophomore and band-defining 1993 album Modern Life Is Rubbish.  Originally designed to sonically follow their debut Leisure using featuring the Madchester sound, the album got a complete facelift to become the first of their “Life Trilogy” and signaled a new era of the band, featuring a more traditional Brit-Pop sound and image.  This reconstruction attempts to present the album as originally envisioned during the band’s dismal American Tour in 1992 and follows the abandoned aesthetic of their “PopScene” single, using alternate versions and a concise track sequence influenced by the setlists of that tour.  Original masters are used when available and all tracks are volume adjusted for a cohesive listening experience.

Following the initial rush of British stardom upon the release of their single “There’s No Other Way” in 1991, their debut album Leisure was seen as an anticlimax, using the indie aesthetic of the Madchester sound—a mix of dance-grooves juxtaposed with shoegaze guitars—with a more pop-friendly face.   Despite this, Blur soldiered on and by 1992 the band was in debt, embarking on an American tour to recoup and fronted by a new single for the occasion: “PopScene”.  At the time, the song was thought of as their crown achievement by the band, with its punk influenced charisma juxtaposed by a particularly British horn section and vocal melody; unfortunately the Americans disagreed and the single flopped.  As the tour continued, band morale diminished and Blur became resentful of the Americas, creating an “us vs. them” mentality.  This planted the seeds for their next album, which would be decidingly British, combating what they felt was overly American music popular at the time: Nirvana, Pearl Jam, etc.  Throughout 1992, Blur recorded new material and road-tested the songs for the Americans but received less-than stellar responses, especially when compared to the positive feedback garnished on their British contemporaries.  The planned follow-up single “Never Clever” was scrapped and the band was left with about 20 new, finished studio recordings tracked between November 1991 and August 1992 at Matrix Studios with John Smith, with the tentative title Britain Versus America.  Featuring an aggressive mix of Baggy and British references meant to compete with the American grunge scene, the recordings remained a sonic continuation of the band’s debut… at least for the time being. 

This musical direction was second-guessed by frontman Damon Albarn, opting to give Blur a much-needed facelift, visually and sonically.  Relegating the previous year’s work to demo status and focusing-in and honing the Brit-Pop aspect of the band with a sound reminiscent of The Kinks, The Beatles and The Small Faces, Blur began re-recording the material with XTC member Andy Partridge in September with disparaging results (before a quick single session with Steve Lowell, who had produced “PopScene”).  After a chance meeting, Blur reconvened with Leisure producer Stephen Street to retrack the best of the 20 new songs with a renewed sense of musical purpose.  By the end of 1992, Blur had compiled an album based on the Street and Lovell session, with a handful the best of the Smith material peppered in to round off an album, still provisionally titled Britain Versus America.  This master was rejected by Food Records as not commercial enough and Albarn went back to the drawing board that Christmas, writing the album-defining hits “For Tomorrow” and “Chemical World”.  After more sessions in early 1993, the more commercial (and more British) album was retitled to a safer Modern Life Is Rubbish and eventually reached critical and commercial acclaim, jump-starting the band back to not only British pop icons, but critical darlings.  Note that it was the trajectory of one year that created this landmark; can we turn back the clock and hear how the album was originally intended?

The first step in reconstructing Britain Versus America is to separate the fact from fiction.  There was a long-held belief that Britain Versus America was the unreleased Blur album reportedly compiled in the spring of 1992, which allegedly had a tracklist of: Oily Water / Mace / Badgeman Brown / PopScene / Resigned / Garden Central / Hanging Over / Into Another / Peach / Bone Bag / Never Clever / Coping / My Ark / Pressure on Julian.  Blur guitarist Graham Coxon has recently debunked this myth, dismissing this information.  We now know that not only was there no album compiled at this point, but it could not have even been Britain Versus America anyways, as the title was adopted in late 1992 after the Street sessions!  Conversely, the Food Records-rejected master of Modern Life Is Rubbish from Christmas 1992 (a more likely candidate for the title Britain Versus America) was probably closer to the final album than we think, missing only the hit singles—not a very interesting reconstruction!

For our purposes, we will acknowledge both fact and fiction surrounding Britain Versus America and instead reconstruct an album that illustrates the evolution of Modern Life Is Rubbish.  We will compile the theoretical second Blur album as is stood before the band’s facelift and attempts to re-record the album with Andy Partridge and then Stephen Street, focusing squarely on the best of the Matrix tapes recorded in the Fall of 1991 and throughout 1992.   In effect, we will have an alternate Modern Life Is Rubbish that follows a more guitar-heavy Madchester sound, closer to that of Leisure.  To do so we will use the alternate versions of the MLIR tracks found on the Blur 21 box (paired with the original masters if they were already officially-released tracks) and a track selection and sequence that acknowledges both the track order for MLIR and the actual setlists of Blur’s 1992 American Tour.  This reconstruction also sets a limit of 12-songs, in line with the length of Leisure and avoiding the hour-long lengths of Blur’s “Life Trilogy” albums. 

Our Britain Versus America sets its tone with the quintessential song of this period, “PopScene”, taken from the original US MLIR release.  The album continues much as MLIR does with the early and punkier Matrix versions of “Advert”, “Colin Zeal” and “Pressure On Julian”, all taken from the 21 box.  Following is the exquisite “Oily Water”, this being the most dynamic master taken from the 1991 V2 compilation Volume Two which predated the MLIR album considerably.  Side A concludes with the fantastic b-side “Beachcoma” from the For Tomorrow single and restarts Side B with the single that never was, “Never Clever” taken from the 21 box.  This is followed by the early Matrix version of “Star Shaped” and one of the lost MLIR songs “Into Another” which was performed regularly in 1992, both also from the 21 box.  The apropos “Miss America” from the US MLIR follows, with the album concluding with the more rockin’ Matrix version of “Turn It Up” found on 21 and the climactic “Resigned” from the MLIR US version.  The effectiveness of this reconstruction is certainly up for debate—possibly dependent on if you are American or British!—but offers not only an alternate flavor to a magic whip, but if you might have thought that Modern Life was actually rubbish. Let the battle begin!

Sources used:

Blur 21: The Box (2012 Parlophone CD)

For Tomorrow (1993 Food Records CD single)

Modern Life is Rubbish (1993 SBK Records CD - US version)

Various Artists – Volume 2 (1991 V2 Records compilation CD)

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* md5 files, track notes and artwork included

Ferris Bueller's Day Off Soundtrack

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off Soundtrack

(soniclovenoize reconstruction)

1.  Love Missile F1-11 - Sigue Sigue Sputnik

2.  Oh Yeah - Yello

3.  Beat City - The Flower Pot Men

4.  B.A.D. - Big Audio Dynamite

5.  Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want - The Dream Academy

6.  Danke Shoen - Wayne Newton

7.  Twist & Shout - The Beatles

8.  Radio People - Zapp

9.  I'm Afraid – The Blue Room

10.  Taking The Day Off - General Public

11.  The Edge of Forever - The Dream Academy

12.  March of the Swivel Heads - The English Beat

In honor of April Fool’s Day—and of course Spring Break—this is a reconstruction of the unreleased soundtrack to the classic 1986 John Hughes film Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.  Even though much of the film’s music and songs have since become staples of pop culture, an actual soundtrack album was never released because Hughes thought the material was too stylistically diverse and wouldn’t function as a continuous album.  In effect, much of this material remained as rare vinyl-only b-sides and, in some cases, extremely out-of-print and nearly impossible to find.  This reconstruction attempts to collect the best versions of the relevant selections from eleven different sources and present the cohesive album that Hughes did not believe could be made. 

A top-grossing film at the time of its release that has grown to such celebratory heights as being selected for inclusion into the National Film Registry for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant,” Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is the story of three teenagers search for freedom in our modern world, something that every young Baby Buster and old Generation X-er seemed to relate to.  Following the antics of clever teen Ferris Bueller’s attempts to skip school with his friends Cameron and Sloane and jaunt around Chicago, the film also featured a classic soundtrack that bounced from then-contemporary New Wave to the classics to other cinematic comedic nods.  But what set Ferris Bueller apart from other 80s John Hughes films such as Sixteen Candles or Pretty in Pink was the lack of an official soundtrack album, despite having noteworthy and culturally relevant music featured in the film.  Quoted as feeling that he wouldn’t think “anyone would like it”, Hughes ditched the notion of actually releasing a soundtrack and instead released a hand-made limited edition 7” single of “Beat City” b/w “I’m Afraid” to the John Hughes mailing list.  That 7” is now long-forgotten and hard to locate, with copies sporadically appearing on eBay, selling for upwards of $200; this dire situation is worsened by the fact that this is the only release one could find those two specific songs! 

Although the Ferris Bueller soundtrack has been reconstructed by other blogs throughout the years, my version is a bit different as it does not attempt to be all-inclusive and exhaustively comprehensive, what I perceive as a pitfall of those other versions.  My reconstruction will be limited to an album-length soundtrack, comparable to other John Hughes soundtracks—what would have most likely been released in 1986.  In effect, I will not be including incidental music (notably the score by Ira Newborn) and other media themes used as comedic effect (The Star Wars Theme, the theme from I Dream of Jeanie); we will only include the music most likely to have been released on a 1986 soundtrack album. The songs are sequenced in the order they appear in the film and it is also available in a lossless option, something not previously found on other blogs -- especially for the Fan Club 7" tracks.

My reconstruction beings with the Extended Mix of “Love Missile F1-11” by Sigue Sigue Sputnik, which is featured as the music bed for the opening scenes in which Ferris lectures the viewer about skipping school.  This is a rare mix not found on any album, taken from the A-side of the Love Missile 12” single.  Next is probably the most well known track from the soundtrack, “Oh Yeah” by Yello which has become synonymous with greed and lust.  Featured throughout the film—but most notably when Cameron shows Ferris his father’s Ferrari, it is taken from the first pressing of their album Stella.  Next is one of the rarest tracks, “Beat City” by The Flower Pot Men, occurring during the scene as the trio drive to Chicago.  This recording is the actual film version taken from a lossless rip of the rare John Hughes fan club 7”, not the live recording found on The Janice Long Session EP.  Big Audio Dynamite’s “B.A.D.” follows, heard during the garage scene, taken from an original pre-emphasized copy of their debut album.  An instrumental version of The Dream Academy’s cover of The Smiths’ “Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want” is taken from the compilation album Boutique Chill, the only CD release of the track in existence; the song was famously used during the trio’s visit to the Art Institute of Chicago. 

Next is “Danke Shoen” by Wayne Newton, taken from the Capitol Collector’s Series CD; although the song is a reoccurring motif throughout the film, this recording is featured during the parade scene, “sung” by Ferris on a float.  The second number to be “sung” is “Twist and Shout” by The Beatles, this recording taken from their current 2009 remaster series (still the best master in my opinion!).  Notably, John Hughes overdubbed a horn section onto the track for the film to fit the setting, much to the displeasure of Paul McCartney; Hughes then kept the mix in the can after discovering he offended a Beatle!  Driving home from Chicago we hear Zapp’s “Radio People”, taken from their album The New Zapp IV U.  Probably the rarest of all recordings included is Blue Room’s “I’m Afraid”, heard during the poolside scene.  This is taken from a lossless rip of the John Hughes fan club 7” and is an alternate mix as compared to the circulating version, featuring a longer ending.  Another poolside track, “Taking The Day Off” by General Public is taken from the Classic Masters compilation.  As Sloane and Ferris have a parting heart-to-heart, The Dream Academy’s “The Edge of Forever” is featured, taken from an original pressing of their debut album.  My reconstruction concludes with the music bed featured as Ferris races to beat his parents home, The English Beat’s “March of the Swivel Heads”, itself an instrumental mix of “Rotating Head” and found on the deluxe version of Special Beat Service.  And with that, we can stop and look around at what we otherwise missed!

Sources used:

The Beatles – Please Please Me (2009 remaster Capitol Records CD)

Big Audio Dynamite – This is Big Audio Dynamite (1985 Columbia Records, pre-emphasized CD)

The Dream Academy – The Dream Academy (1985 Warner Bros CD)

The English Beat – Special Beat Service (2012 Edsel Records deluxe eddition)

The Flower Pot Men/Blue Room split 7” (1986 Fireball Records, vinyl rip by asid25)

General Public – Classic Masters (2002 Capitol Records CD)

Sigue Sigue Sputnik – Love Missile F1-11 (1986 Manhatten Records 12”, unknown vinyl rip)

Various artists – Boutique Chill (2006 High Bias Records CD)

Wayne Newton – The Capitol Collector’s Series (1989 Capitol Records CD)

Yello – Stella (1985 Mercury/Polygram CD)

Zapp – The New Zapp IV U (1985 Warner Bros CD)

flac --> wav --> editing in SONAR and Goldwave --> flac encoding via TLH lv8

* md5 files, track notes and artwork included