| Identifier | 6547229 |
| Created At | Tue May 23 2023 23:54:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) |
| Media Type | SHN |
| Media Count | 1 |
| Note | Haven't listened to it yet. |
| Trades Allowed |
Performance
| The Smiths 1983-07-01 Elephant Studios, London, UK | |
|---|---|
| Set 1 | Source: Studio --> ??? --> Bootleg CD "The Hand That Rocks The Cradle"
Lineage: Silver CD --> CDex --> WAVs --> FLAC Tracks: 01 - Reel Around The Fountain 02 - You've Got Everything Now 03 - Miserable Lie 04 - These Things Take Time 05 - Wonderful Woman 06 - Handsome Devil 07 - Suffer Little Children 08 - Pretty Girls Make Graves 09 - Hand In Glove 10 - What Difference Does It Make? 11 - I Don't Owe You Anything 12 - Jeane These legendary tracks produced by Troy Tate were intended to make up the Smiths' debut (what we know know as the album "The Smiths"), most likely with the title "The Hand That Rocks The Cradle" (hence the bootleg title these were ripped from). However, this first album never saw the light of day. John Porter was called into the studio to re-record these tracks, and it is Porter's work that comprises the Smiths' debut. Quality is excellent. Some bootleg releases of these demos have the tracks at the wrong speed or pitch; this is not the case here. This is one of the better-sounding releases of these songs you'll find. From the book "THE SMITHS - Songs That Saved Your Life", by Simon Goddard: "By the time The Smiths entered Elephant Studios in Wapping during the summer of '83 for their first major recording session, their confidence had been bosted by two rapturously received BBC sessions for John Peel and David Jensen respectively...... Upon the suggestion of Geoff Travis [Rough Trade label head], former Teardrop Explodes' guitarist Troy Tate...was designated as their producer. "The fate of the Troy Tate sessions -- their first under contract to the label [Rough Trade] -- has since become legend within the Smiths' extraordinary history. After a month of work, fourteen tracks had been recorded in total including "Jeane" which had already been selected as the B-side to their second single scheduled for an autumn release; Tate's mix of "Reel Around The Fountain". After the sessions were wrapped however, events became to take an ominous turn, especially for Tate. "On 25 August The Smiths recorded a second session for David Jensen (their third BBC commission in as many months) which spawned two dramatic consequences. First, the Corporation refused to broadcast the Jensen version of "Reel Around The Fountain" because of the press allegations of paedophilic references. The Tate single was shelved indefinitely. Secondly, that same Jensen session had brought The Smiths into contact with producer John Porter. Geoff Travis, who already had his own concerns over the quality of the Troy Tate tapes, gave a copy to Porter to see if he could help remix the album by way of a final lick and polish. To Travis' dismay, Porter informed the Rough Trade boss that the album they'd recorded in Wapping was "out of tune and out of time." Though he couldn't help "fix" the Tate album, Porter willingly volunteered to remake it from scratch himself. Travis agreed, as did Morrissey. Although he'd previously boasted to _Melody Maker_ that the album they had in the can was perfect only a week before ("we've done everything exactly right and it'll show"), his volte-face, hesitantly seconded by Marr, saw the Tate sessions consigned to the vaults as a failed first draft. Speaking to the _NME_ the following year, Tate stressed "disappointment is not strong enough a word". "Widely available on bootleg, when listening to the Troy Tate album today, Porter's criticisms now seem very dubious. The two producers were poles apart in style and technique or, to quote Andy Rourke, "Troy was lo-fi whereas John was more hi-fi". Yet while Porter played a pivotal role in Marr's apprenticeship in the art of multi-layered production, which in itself pushed The Smiths into a whole other stratosphere of studio innovation, at the other end of the scale Tate captured the thrilling rawness of The Smiths in 1983 in a way that their eventual eponymous debut failed to grasp. Rough around the edges, neat and undiluted, there are many -- Mike Joyce himself and this author included -- who prefer Tate's album to Porter's.... "Rourke philosophically suggests that Tate was made a scapegoat for the band's lack of experience, that Morrissey and Marr "wanted to make this big sounding album the we just weren't capable of doing". He and Joyce also acknowledge the plausible suggestion that Tate's good working relationship Johnny Marr was another key factor in his dismissal; that Morrissey, whose green-eyed repulsion of those who got too close to his songwriting partner would deteriorate considerably over the years that followed, wanted him out..." |
| Set 2 | |
| Set 3 | |
| Comment | |