The Who - I Can See For Miles

Decca 32206, 1967
 
I've come back to this in part from hearing the remastered CD of The Who Sell Out recently. I've always preferred the sound of the original US single, with its dense mono mix and notably more prominent bass guitar.

Listening to this now, I'm convinced it's a different bass track altogether. On the album mix, John Entwistle stays mostly on the tonic note during the verses, but on the single he follows Pete Townshend's chord changes instead. (Kind of hard to notice the difference with casual listening, especially since the bass line is mixed way down on the album version). It's possible that the the bass on the single may be an overdub, added later to compensate for the poorly recorded original.



Don't bother with the version on the mono The Who Sell Out LP - it's just a reduction of the stereo mix. The single is still the only way to hear this.

The Fall vs. 2003

Susan vs. Youthclub / Janet vs. Johnny - Action (UK), 2002

"The Fall vs. 2003" must have been an in-joke, no doubt in reference to the seemingly interminable time it took to get the Country On The Click LP finished. The LP was eventually shelved anyway, with only these two tracks as official evidence of what was to be. The B-side - in a radically altered version - would appear on their next album.

listen to "Susan vs. Youthclub":

listen to "Janet vs. Johnny":

Peter Gabriel

Games Without Frontiers - Mercury, 1980

The U.S. radio edit of his first hit, complete with altered lyrics. The mix is actually top-notch - I prefer it to the LP version.

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John Cale

Rosegarden Funeral Of Sores - IRS, 1980

This is the B-side of of "Mercenaries (Ready For War)" which was a studio version of the leadoff track from his 1979 LP Sabotage/Live. One of his more bizarre recordings (which is saying a lot), this tune was later popularized by British goth rockers Bauhaus, who also released it as a B-side.

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