"Suddenly It's Tuesday" - Part 2 (201-210)

 

Well, I emerged from the opening selection relatively unscathed. Although some took umbrage at 'Secretary' taking the bottom slot, and there were a couple of protests regarding 'Shivers' lowly status, there was a surprising amount of concurrence. Comments included 'I don’t mind Back for Good but otherwise yup that’s about right', 'a bit harsh when it comes to Let Him Have It and Big Rat, but little else to argue with' and even 'all correct and accurate'. I doubt that this will last, however.

On with the next ten, then. Once again, the majority are covers...

210 Him Or Me (What's It Gonna Be?)

(B-side of Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah, 1994)

A 1967 hit for Paul Revere & the Raiders (the video is worth watching for the outfits and the guitarist and bassist's dancing alone), the original was a sprightly slice of psychedelic pop. TWP take a steamroller to it, delivering an energetic if somewhat one-dimensional thrashy take on the song. 

209 Shake It

(Watusi, 1994)

Not a fan favourite; I imagine many might have expected 'Shake It' to have appeared in the previous post. It's an oddity, in that Gedge's voice is nowhere to be heard, bassist Darren Belk performing the lead vocal. His contribution is unremarkable rather than terrible; equally as big a problem is that it's a pretty weak song - a predictable three-chord thrash with a distinctly unedifying lyric ('undress me / darling caress me / I’ll die unless we make it tonight').

208 Hot Pants

(Watusi, 1994)

Watusi does have some great moments, but it's notably patchy, several of its tracks appearing at the lower end of this list. 'Hot Pants' is a throwaway, 'so what?' surf-rock instrumental. Its positioning at the end of the album (following the epic 'Catwoman') makes it feel even more inconsequential.

207 Whole Wide World

(B-side of Two Bridges, 2013)

A song that first appeared on Wreckless Eric's eponymous 1978 debut album (and was also covered by The Proclaimers amongst others). The original has a sleazy, glam-punk charm; as with 'Him Or Me', TWP rush through the song a bit breathlessly, sacrificing subtlety for pace and enthusiasm. Not available online, it would seem.

206 Falling

(B-side of Silver Shorts, 1992)

As I mentioned in the previous post, the tracks selected as covers for the b-sides of the 1992 Hit Parade singles were an interestingly eclectic mix. The fact that so many of them didn't really work out (there's a run of three of them here, and we're still in the 200s) may at least be partly due to the time pressure involved in getting a single out every month for a year; the a-sides were of remarkably high quality given the timescales, so perhaps there wasn't sufficient time to really hone the covers.

TWP's version of 'Falling', a Julee Cruise song that was used as the theme tune for Twin Peaks, actually gets rather good towards the end, evolving into a layered crescendo of scuzzy distorted guitar. Unfortunately, you have to sit through three and a half minutes of ponderous meandering to get there.

205 Think That It Might

(B-side of Three, 1992)

My view of this cover is, I have to admit, coloured by the fact that I can't stand Altered Images' twee and sugary day-glo schtick. (I have frequently been castigated for this view on Scopitones, but I stand by my view that they sound like indie-pop for eight-year-olds.) The Wedding Present's version is a a bit pedestrian, but it at least spares us the original's breathless, cutesy nails-down-a-blackboard vocals.

204 Chant of the Ever Circling Skeletal Family

(B-side of Loveslave, 1992)

On Diamond Dogs (one of Bowie's finest in my opinion), 'Future Legend' and 'Skeletal Family' bookend the LP perfectly, both epitomising the unearthly, dystopian tone that runs through the whole album.  Covering it was a brave choice, but it sounds crude and ham-fisted in comparison to the original. 

203 Jumper Clown

(B-side of It's A Gas, 1994)

A source of much passionate debate on Scopitones: a majority consider it abject nonsense, yet it there is a small but enthusiastic minority who defend it with enthusiasm. Either way, it's certainly a song with an interesting history...

The distinctive bouncy riff first appeared at a handful of late 70s Fall gigs as an untitled instrumental that never received a studio recording. Mark E Smith and Marc Riley famously fell out in 1982, Riley punching Smith in a Sydney nightclub and giving him a black eye. MES would go on to disparage his former guitarist in a few songs (most notably 'Hey! Marc Riley'); Riley's riposte was his 1983 single 'Jumper Clown' - ‘dare to dance on an Aussie floor / bloody nose, bloody bore’ - which recycled the original late 70s riff.

All of which is rather more interesting than the Wedding Present track itself, which has an overly quirky Fall tribute band feel to it.

202 Le Bikini

(B-side of Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah, 1994)

Another slight and ephemeral surf-rock instrumental. It at least has a bit more verve than 'Hot Pants'.

201 Cumberland Gap

(Ruby Trax - The NME's Roaring Forty, 1992)

Ruby Trax was a triple-album compilation released to celebrate the NME's 40th birthday. Predictably, its contents ranged from the decent (Teenage Fanclub's 'Mr Tambourine Man'; The Fall's 'Legend Of Xanadu') to the mediocre (Ride's 'The Model'; Blur's 'Maggie May') to the bloody awful (Cud's 'Down Down'; Carter USM's 'Another Brick In The Wall').

The Wedding Present chose to perform 'Cumberland Gap', a 19th century Appalachian folk song recorded by Woody Guthrie and Lonnie Donegan (one of John Peel's heroes: 'when I was a lad, Lonnie Donegan was all there was really, and he was everything, and he was quite fantastic.') TWP plough through the song with determination, but they fall short of the twitchy, hyperactive energy of Donegan's version.

Thanks, as ever, for reading and all the comments, retweets, etc. 

I suspect we'll be getting into slightly more controversial territory with the next set...

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