The Smiths "Extra Track (and a tacky badge)" - Archive collection download

Famous when dead

Vulgarian
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The incredible project that everyone should own.
The blog site that launched this project has been dead for 7 years now.
Given the detail in the information and the general amazing quality of the restoration,
I humbly present the entire collection via static links.

The collection's tagline:
"A careful restoration of the Smiths on Rough Trade.

All tracks were taken from the best/earliest possible sources to avoid modern mastering techniques which crush the dynamics. Tracks sourced from vinyl have been carefully cleaned and EQ levels have been tweaked for consistency.
The artwork was scanned at the highest possible resolution and the type was reset when possible using the original fonts.

All of these singles are out-of-print in their original form. Some of the tracks have never appeared on CD. This was a labor of love from a small, devoted circle of fans.

These are the songs that saved your life. If you like what you hear support the band by purchasing their catalog."


When the site ended, this was the final post:

"Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Dear friends,
Thank you for your enthusiasm and support. It's been a complete surprise that this project was allowed to live online with no interference from the label or band. However, all good things must come to an end. The Extra Track crew has made a joint decision to deactivate all the download links, effective immediately.

You may still be able to find the audio online, if you approach fan sites, newsgroups, or torrent sites.
The entries for each single will remain here as a sort of Wiki about The Smiths' singles.

We hope you enjoy the hours of work we put into this project. You'll be hearing from us again.

Sincerely,
Drew Crumbaugh
Jeb Edwards"

To Drew, Jeb & all who contributed to this great archive, please let me thank you for all your efforts and I hope you will view this as a tribute to your hard work.
Thank you immensely,
FWD.


Click below to go straight to the links:
https://www.morrissey-solo.com/thre...ack-and-a-tacky-badge.143862/#post-1987162444


Each single's information, tracks, sources, restoration & notes:

1 "Hand In Glove"
Rough Trade RT131
Produced by The Smiths
May 1983

Tracks:
1 Hand In Glove (original single version)
2 Handsome Devil (live)
3 Hand In Glove (live at Brixton Ace 29 June 1983)

Sources:
1 from Hatful of Hollow Rough Trade CD ROUGHCD76
2 from Handsome Devils WEA France promo CD PRO 2005 _ 2, 1992
3 from "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out" WEA YZ0003CD1, 1992

Restoration:
Gentle EQ as needed, a smidgen of tasteful noise reduction if required, and very cautious, gentle peak limiting.
Artwork for this, and every other release we'll be featuring, was sourced from the amazing Vulgar Picture treasure trove of sleeve artwork scans (with permission).

Notes:
The Smiths' calling card. Thundering out of the gate with one of the band's most "wall-of-sound" tracks, this record sounded nothing of its time in comparison to other 1983 records. Recorded with Joe Moss' money at Stockport's legendary Strawberry Studios (while the band was still seeking a record deal), and with the band handling basic production duties, Rough Trade released this on spec when handed a copy of the finished record. As they only recorded "Hand In Glove" at Strawberry, they dug into their not-very-deep vault for the B-side, a stomping take on "Handsome Devil" recorded live at the Hacienda in February 1983.
Morrissey was still bemoaning this record's relative chart failure a year after release, begging gig-going punters to keep buying it.
The Smiths never sounded this raw again. While I never used to rate "Hand In Glove" (though always loved "Handsome Devil"), I have developed a growing fondness for this take ever since having to (repeatedly) audition it while working on the audio segment of this endeavour. I think this was the perfect first release for this band - immediately sounding the consummate studio band on the A-side, and a storming live entity on the flip.
The bonus track here, "Hand In Glove" recorded live at the Brixton Ace, was initially a radio promo track sent out by Rough Trade on cassette in late summer 1983, and finally saw official release on the long-deleted WEA "There Is A Light..." CD single in 1992. Not necessarily a stellar version or recording, nonetheless it's a key track in the archives and for that reason belongs here.
You will have to forgive me if you are looking for meaningful insight on Morrissey's lyrics, for these or any other tracks we may be featuring. I was always drawn to this band by Johnny Marr's guitars, and Andy Rourke's unparalleled bass work. I always thought the Moz as a bit of a character, never reading anything more into his lyrics than just that, they being lyrics because the band didn't want to only record instrumentals. So in discussing the songs, I'll tend to stick to what I can speak of best, usually the music.

2 "Reel Around The Fountain"
Rough Trade RTT136
Produced by Troy Tate
Summer 1983 (not released)

Tracks:
0 Reel Around The Fountain **new pristine Warners source** --- see below
1 Reel Around The Fountain
2 Jeane
3 Accept Yourself
4 Wonderful Woman

Sources:
0 from the new double LP bootleg featuring unreleased mixes/demos, sourced from Warner Strategic Marketing product
1, 3-4 from a tape containing the alleged "Final Mixes" of the abandoned Troy Tate 1st LP sessions
2 from "This Charming Man" WEA YZ0001CD1, 1992

Restoration:
Gentle EQ as needed, a smidgen of tasteful noise reduction if required, and very cautious, gentle peak limiting.
Artwork for this, and every other release we'll be featuring, was sourced from the amazing Vulgar Picture treasure trove of sleeve artwork scans (with permission).

Notes:
Summer 1983 saw the band repair to Elephant Studios, Wapping with Teardrop Explodes guitarist Troy Tate handling production duties of that "critical" first LP. As any fan knows, this session ultimately was abandoned, with the recordings scrapped and restarted with John Porter in Manchester that fall.
While the Tate project was still active, the plan was for the Smiths' 2nd single to be the Tate recording of "Reel Around The Fountain", backed by "Jeane". (Some think they were planning on releasing one of the BBC session versions of "RATF" as the single; however, Simon Goddard, in the wonderful book Songs That Saved Your Life, states otherwise - that it was the Tate recording that was planned for use. I trust Goddard on this one.) This got as far as the test pressing stage, at which point Johnny had come up with "This Charming Man" and Rough Trade decided that "TCM" would be the 2nd single instead.
Print ads were placed promoting the Tate "Reel Around The Fountain" single release, and as far as can be determined, the actual single was to be a 7" only. We are using the Tate recordings of "Accept Yourself" and "Wonderful Woman" as the extra tracks, to give an idea of what a Tate 12" would be like using the same songs ultimately used for the "TCM" 12" (coming up later on the blog).
This is a great fake single. I love the rawness of the Tate recordings; Tate managed to capture Mike Joyce's drums like no other producer did - besides the odd BBC session - in the band's entire recording career. They thunder! They boom! The band, in my humble opinion, committed a great error in binning the Tate recordings. We can only hope that someone, somewhere, decides to un-bin these and officially release them, in pristine condition. Until then....
******** UPDATE ********
Late December 2010 saw a surprise "release" of a double LP vinyl bootleg entirely comprised of unreleased, sometimes unmixed, rough takes, monitor mixes, etc from various Smiths sessions dating from the initial Troy Tate summer 1983 debut LP sessions, to the final album sessions with Stephen Street in spring 1987. Among this material was the final, as far as Warners knew, mix done by Tate of "Reel Around The Fountain". Needless to say a pristine, spectacular stereo transfer of this was sourced and used here.
I probably shouldn't, because it only raises expectations of a full release of the entire Tate session knowing Warners has it in this quality, but here's the mythical Track 0 (zeroth track?) as it really should replace entirely our original Track 1. You've never heard Tate's "Reel Around The Fountain" in this quality, and if I hadn't mentioned its lineage from vinyl, one would think I nicked the Warners half-inch master and went from there.

3 "This Charming Man"
Rough Trade RTT136
Produced by John Porter
(except 2 produced by Troy Tate)
(tracks 6-7 remix Francois Kevorkian @ Right Track Studios, New York)
October/December 1983

Tracks:
1 This Charming Man (Manchester)
2 Jeane
3 Accept Yourself
4 Wonderful Woman
5 This Charming Man (London)
6 This Charming Man (New York Vocal)
7 This Charming Man (New York Instrumental)
8 This Charming Man (Single Remix)

Sources:
1-4 from "This Charming Man" WEA YZ0001CD1, 1992
5-8 from "This Charming Man" WEA YZ0001CD2, 1992

Restoration:
Gentle EQ as needed, a smidgen of tasteful noise reduction if required, and very cautious, gentle peak limiting.
Artwork for this, and every other release we'll be featuring, was sourced from the amazingVulgar Picture treasure trove of sleeve artwork scans (with permission).

Notes:
As production was running up on the soon-to-be-abandoned "Reel Around The Fountain" single, the band was still busily writing new material. In a 24-hour timespan Marr came up with two classic tracks, shortly before a September 1983 Peel Session: "Still Ill" and "This Charming Man". Chuffed with the quality of these two new tracks, the band recorded them for the first time for Peel, and upon hearing "TCM", Rough Trade supremo Geoff Travis immediately new what the next single should be.
This was John Porter's first production with the band. It was also the first recording with Marr laying a million guitar tracks down on the recording; one can argue that had Porter not worked on this record, the Smiths - and specifically Johnny Marr - would not have ultimately received all the acclaim now given.
There are "Manchester" and "London" versions (we'll discuss "New York" in a moment) because immediately after the Peel recording session, the band and Porter attempted to record the single in a London studio. Not happy with the results, and with Geoff Travis wanting a more Northern sound, the band regrouped in Manchester a week later and re-recorded the whole thing. So the "Manchester" version became the well-known single, and the "London" version appeared on the 12" as a B-side. "Accept Yourself" and "Wonderful Woman" both came from the London sessions, while "Jeane" was a remnant from the Troy Tate sessions (apparently always being tagged as a B-side track).
New York producer Francois Kevorkian was then handed the multitracks to follow U2's lead in making "New York" versions for club airings; hence the two "New York" variants. While one may laugh at the ultimate dancefloor usefulness of these tracks, allegedly Morrissey and Marr despised them and blamed Travis for releasing this against their wishes. I don't buy it for a second, but that's revisionism for you. More reconstructions than remixes, I don't mind either NY variant, but as far as the canon goes, they're eminently disposable.
Tracks 3, 5, 7 and 8 are no longer officially available, as they last saw release on the now out-of-print 1992 WEA singles.

4 "What Difference Does It Make?"
Rough Trade RTT146
Produced by John Porter
January 1984

Tracks:
1 What Difference Does It Make?
2 Back To The Old House
3 These Things Take Time
4 What Difference Does It Make? (7 inch edit)
5 What Difference Does It Make? (Troy Tate abandoned version)

Sources:
1-3 from "What Difference Does It Make?" RTT146CD, 1988
4 edited from same
5 from a tape containing the alleged "Final Mixes" of the abandoned Troy Tate 1st LP sessions

Restoration:
Gentle EQ as needed, a smidgen of tasteful noise reduction as required, and very cautious, gentle peak limiting
Artwork for this, and nearly every other release we'll be featuring, was sourced from the amazing Vulgar Picture treasure trove of sleeve artwork scans (with permission).

Notes:
This, the band's third single, delved a bit deeper into their songwriting history for the title track. While the prior "This Charming Man" was a relatively brand-new song at the time it was released as a single, "What Difference Does It Make?" was amongst the first batch of songs Morrissey and Marr composed together, back in late 1982.
Featuring an immediate, grabbing guitar motif, this track was recorded initially for John Peel (and obtainable on Hatful Of Hollow), and then subsequently re-recorded both by Troy Tate (for the abandoned first LP sessions), and finally John Porter (what we have here as the A-side, and, later, as featured on their debut LP). The Peel version is more of a stomper, with a loose, heavy groove laid down by Mike Joyce. Most "experts" on the Smiths prefer the Peel version, and I count myself firmly
in that camp. It just has more "oomph", more power, it's just a better take on the song. The Porter/A-side version, featured here, is just "eh". I don't think the groove was quite captured in this take, and the guitars sound strangely neutered.
But, it is what it is.
The B-side tracks are infintely more interesting. "Back To The Old House" is a re-worked, re-arranged variant on the acoustic Hatful Of Hollow/BBC session version, and "These Things Take Time" most definitely should have wormed its way into the debut LP tracklisting. I know that I'm the most inept that ever slept, indeed.
We've chosen to bonus this single with a Tate recording of the title track. It's not as crystalline as the Tate "Reel Around The Fountain" single fantasy, but it's an interesting, and welcomed, re-interpretation of the song. It's notably in a different key than the Porter version, and Marr chirps right along on a harmonica in rhythm with his own guitar track.
It's hard to spice up conversation about this single. I've never really rated it as a stunner in the band's catalog, but there you are. Far more interesting are the various cover combinations, with the Terrence Stamp sleeve, then the Morrissey faux-Stamp sleeve, then Stamp with the band's name, Morrissey with the band's name, etc and etc and etc. I'll let our co-host, if he so chooses, carry on with that part of the discussion...

5 "Hand In Glove" - The Sandie Shaw Single
Rough Trade RTT130
Produced by John Porter
February/March 1984

Tracks:
1 Hand In Glove
2 I Don't Owe You Anything
3 Jeane
4 Hand In Glove (rare alternate mix)

Sources:
1-3 from "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out" (WEA YZ0003CD2, October 1992)
4 from The Smiths (Tokuma Japan 35JC-102, September 1984)

Restoration:
Gentle EQ as needed, a smidgen of tasteful noise reduction if required, and very cautious, gentle peak limiting.
Artwork for this, and every other release we'll be featuring, was sourced from the amazing Vulgar Picture treasure trove of sleeve artwork scans (with permission).

Notes:
Allow me to preface this with two basic incontrovertible facts: 1) I am not English, and 2) I am not a fan of 1960s English bubblegum pop.
To me - a Yank in the frozen tundra of the Great Lakes - this single is frankly an oddity in an otherwise nearly blemish-free catalog. I have no idea of the cultural import this single had at the time; were Brits driven to the record stores in teeming mad droves at the news a faded Sixties pop diva was replacing Morrissey on a 12"? I'm trying to think of an American analogue to this: Perhaps if Cher had quit, or dropped out of the limelight, after "I Got You Babe" and then 30 years later fronted Green Day for a single. Regardless, to me, this record has always had a big question mark superimposed on top of it. I frankly didn't get it when I first heard it, and I still don't get it now.
That said... Marr goes poppy on these new arrangements, and I have to say his simple, breezy take on "Jeane" perhaps is the quintessential backing for this song. When I reach for the acoustic to strum Marr, I often return to this arrangement. I don't think the "Hand In Glove" musical re-statement is better or worse than the classic; it's different, and Marr had to do something to match the tune (and also that for "I Don't Owe You Anything") to Shaw's vocals.
Track 4 came from an unnamed co-conspirator, ripped from a copy of the relatively (very) rare original September 1984 Japanese CD pressing of the debut LP; it along with three other tracks were unique bonus tracks on this CD. I do not believe this mix is available anywhere else; if anything, it's even more Marr-riffic than the common mix.

6 "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now"
Rough Trade RTT156
Produced by John Porter
March 1984

Tracks:
1 Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now
2 Girl Afraid
3 Suffer Little Children
4 Girl Afraid (live in Glasgow 2 March 1984)
5 This Night Has Opened My Eyes
** new **
6 Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now (12" extended mix)

Sources:
1-3 from "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now" (RTT 156CD, November 1988)
4 from NME Department of Enjoyment cassette (NME011, 1985, via the bootleg CD Asleep)
5 from Hatful of Hollow (ROUGHCD76, December 1985)
6 re-edited from 1 based on link shared by a reader

Restoration:
Gentle EQ as needed, a smidgen of tasteful noise reduction if required, and very cautious, gentle peak limiting.
Artwork for this, and every other release we'll be featuring, was sourced from the amazing Vulgar Picture treasure trove of sleeve artwork scans (with permission).

Notes:
The first Smiths single that earned them their "depressive" tag. Nothing spectacular about this; Marr's summery retro composition of the title track belies the subtle moping humor of Moz's lyric (which was written during a miserable first visit as a band to America for a New Years Eve gig in December 1983). "Girl Afraid" is a better track; in my humble opinion it's lasted better than the A-side. "Suffer Little Children" is simply a reprise of the same track on the debut LP, no more, no less. Due to the exposure this track received because of the relative high chart placing of this single, however, controversy arose due to its subject matter (the Moors Murders) despite the track having been available for some time as the final track on the debut LP.
Track 4 was taken from the bootleg CD Asleep, part of the Chelsea label's vaunted collection of otherwise-unavailable-and-rare outtakes, BBC sessions, and rare compilation tracks. It's raw and rough, but a nice version of the song.
Track 5 was/is the only officially available version of this track, recorded as part of a Peel Session for the BBC in September 1983, and was first made available on record as part of November 1984's Hatful of Hollow compilation LP. The studio version (from June 1984) was yet to be recorded at the time of the "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now" single release, and did not surface until December 2010 as part of the legendary Demos and Outtakes double LP bootleg.
*** addendum ***
Thanks to a kind reader who supplied a link to an actual rip (mp3 only) of an actual original-pressing 12" with the rare extended version of "Heaven Knows...", I've uploaded Track 6, a recreation of the same. Really it's only the "In my life..." segment repeated, but it's good to have nonetheless.


7 "William, It Was Really Nothing"
Rough Trade RTT166
Produced by John Porter
July 1984

Tracks:
1 William, It Was Really Nothing
2 How Soon Is Now?
3 Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want
4 How Soon Is Now? (withdrawn alternate mix)

Sources:
1-3 from "William, It Was Really Nothing" (RTT 166CD, fall 1988)
4 from "William, It Was Really Nothing" (Italy, Virgin VINX71 12" single, 1984)
(thanks to Steve)

Restoration:
Gentle EQ as needed, a smidgen of tasteful noise reduction if required, and very cautious, gentle peak limiting.
Artwork for this, and every other release we'll be featuring, was sourced from the amazing Vulgar Picture treasure trove of sleeve artwork scans (with permission).

Notes:
If this record was all the Smiths ever released as a band, they'd be legendary. This 3-track 12" collects three, easily, of the best songs ever written and performed by the band.
"William, It Was Really Nothing" is all a modern pop single isn't. There's no chorus, really - or should it be said the chorus lasts for 2/3 of the song? It's a hair over 2 minutes long, it's quick and to-the-point. The entire song nearly sums up Johnny Marr's passion for guitars. A real gem.
"How Soon Is Now?" - well, there's nothing I can add about this song that isn't already legendary. It's a shame this was initially wasted on a B-side, though the label did come to its senses (far too late, it must be said) eventually and properly released this some months later as an A-side in its own right.
"Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want" - the final track on the original single - is, along with "How Soon Is Now?", a contender for many fans' favorite Smiths track of all time. The late American "Brat Pack" movie director John Hughes loved it so much, he used it twice in his 1980s films - both as the Smiths original, and as a cover by the Dream Academy. Many had their first exposure to this track via the Pretty In Pink soundtrack LP (including yours truly), and it only grew from there.
The Italians, when given the masters for their own local release of this 12" single, somehow got their reels confused and initially released a highly unique rough mix of "How Soon Is Now?" instead of the final, approved take. While it doesn't start off terribly different (the guitars are mixed differently, but that's about it in the first quarter of the song), it quickly devolves into a most unique version. Moz gets to exercise his moaning organ a bit, and there's a great bit where the band comes to a complete stop with Moz clearly saying "OK?" to producer John Porter, and then a few seconds later the track fades back up to the final closing. There are other vastly different instrumental sections in the latter third of the song that make this a great listen as well. When made aware of their error, the Italians quickly corrected it before too many records hit the shops, and replaced it with the final, approved take.
 
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8 "Barbarism Begins At Home"
Rough Trade RTT171
Produced by The Smiths
January 1985 (UK promo 12" and foreign territory commercial release only)
November 1988 (UK commercial CD single)

Tracks:
1 Barbarism Begins At Home
2 Shakespeare's Sister
3 Stretch Out And Wait ("US version")
4 Barbarism Begins At Home (edit)

Sources:
1 from Meat Is Murder (ROUGHCD81, April 1985)
2-4 from "Barbarism Begins At Home" (RTT 171CD, November 1988)

Restoration:
Gentle EQ as needed, a smidgen of tasteful noise reduction if required, and very cautious, gentle peak limiting.
Artwork for this, and every other release we'll be featuring, was sourced from the amazingVulgar Picture treasure trove of sleeve artwork scans (with permission).

Notes:
Here is where we have to begin taking some liberties with the discography. While this actual "RTT 171CD" itself wasn't issued as a commercial product until November 1988, "Barbarism" was released as a promo (and a commercial single in some territories outside the UK) in early 1985 to promote the then-upcoming Meat Is Murder LP. What is hard to determine, due to Rough Trade's casual bookkeeping, is the actual release order (and that the territories often released material on their own schedules). I cannot for the life of me determine which was made generally available first: this promo/commercial 12", or RTT 176 "How Soon Is Now?". So I made the executive decision to go numerically in the catalog, by RTT catalog number instead.
Some nominate "Barbarism" for the best Andy Rourke bassline in existence; while I would agree that it's fantastic, I think Rourke's talents are displayed in better fashion on other tracks. What is more interesting about this record is that - considering we are dealing with Morrissey - it is so utterly un-Smithlike in its very being. The full-length track is an extended funk workout showing off the power of the band in a fashion not seen again until 1986, while the edit is a quick and dirty summation of the track.
"Shakespeare's Sister" - which we'll see again in a couple singles - is perhaps the quirkiest recording in the catalog. I think it suffers from "throw it all in the mix" syndrome; there are no "hooks", no catchy motifs, that draw the listener in. It's too condensed and blurred to really sustain impact, and the record-buying public agreed in that it was basically a non-starter in the charts. I might go on to say it's a forgettable song; I never find myself having the urge to throw it on and listen unlike the majority of other tracks in their stellar catalog.
"Stretch Out And Wait" is called the "US version" here for no other reason than to separate it from the actual B-side version used for the then-upcoming "Shakespeare's Sister" single release. It's a different mix and vocal recording that first appeared in 1987 on both The World Won't Listen and Louder Than Bombs, and was also used for the late 1988 RTT 171CD release.

9 "How Soon Is Now?"
Rough Trade RTT176
Produced by John Porter and The Smiths
Early 1985

Tracks:
1 How Soon Is Now?
2 Well I Wonder
3 Oscillate Wildly
4 How Soon Is Now? (USA 7" Phil Brown edit)
5 The Headmaster Ritual (USA 7" Phil Brown edit)

Sources:
1 from "William, It Was Really Nothing" (RTT 166CD, Fall 1988)
2 from Meat Is Murder (ROUGHCD81, April 1985)
3 from The World Won't Listen (ROUGHCD101, February 1987)
4, 5 from "How Soon Is Now?" (USA Sire 9 29007-7, summer 1985)
(4, 5 re-edited by Analog Loyalist from original full-length versions)

Restoration:
Gentle EQ as needed, a smidgen of tasteful noise reduction if required, and very cautious, gentle peak limiting.
Artwork for this, and every other release we'll be featuring, was sourced from the amazingVulgar Picture treasure trove of sleeve artwork scans (with permission).

Notes:
"How Soon Is Now?" needs no introduction. A track released as a B-side, then on the compilation Hatful Of Hollow, and then a few months later as an A-side in its own right. Par for the course, Rough Trade.
"Well I Wonder" is easily amongst my (and fans all over) top Smiths songs of all time. Oddly it was also the only main track of theirs never to be performed live, barring the obviousStrangeways album and the odd B-side. Gentle acoustic, forlorn lyrics, the gentle washing of the rain. Brilliant work and well deserved of its early release here (some two weeks prior to the actual Meat Is Murder LP release, if Simon Goddard has it right).
"Oscillate Wildly" was the first (of an eventual three) instrumental track released by the band. Credited to Morrissey/Marr, Morrissey obviously didn't contribute to the record but was in full favor of it. Amongst my friends in the late 1980s, this was THE track to play on piano once you learned your way around the keys a bit.
The two 7" edits closing out this post, Phil Brown edits of "How Soon Is Now?" and "The Headmaster Ritual", are unique to an American 7" on Sire that never saw wide release. While we were given fairly clean transfers of this 7" to work from, I chose to re-engineer the edits from the original full-length tracks so as to better maintain sonic consistency throughout the release. The "HSIN?" edit is wonky and at times jarring, but it's exactly as it was in the original Phil Brown edit, and is unique for that alone. "Headmaster" is done brilliantly: precise, surgical trimming of the track down to its essence and would have made a fantastic "radio edit" had the label(s) chosen that route. I find myself listening to this edit more than the full-length version!

10 "Shakespeare's Sister"
Rough Trade RTT181
Produced by The Smiths
March 1985

Tracks:
1 Shakespeare's Sister
2 What She Said
3 Stretch Out And Wait ("UK version")

Sources:
1, 3 from The World Won't Listen (ROUGHCD101, February 1987)
2 from Meat Is Murder (ROUGHCD81, April 1985)

Restoration:
Gentle EQ as needed, a smidgen of tasteful noise reduction if required, and very cautious, gentle peak limiting.
Artwork for this, and every other release we'll be featuring, was sourced from the amazingVulgar Picture treasure trove of sleeve artwork scans (with permission).

Notes:
Interestingly enough, rather than pull a track from the then-new LP, the band chose a new track instead as the single release.
"Shakespeare's Sister" I've written about previously. My thoughts remain - in my opinion the weakest track in an otherwise stellar singles discography, and the relatively poor chart performance reflected the common opinion being of a similar note.
"What She Said" - pulled from the then-current LP Meat Is Murder - is a strong, powerful, near-metallic Marr tour de force. Always a live favorite, one can make the argument that this track itself would have made a better single than the actual single track itself, with "Shakespeare's Sister" being the B-side.
"Stretch Out And Wait" - appended with the "UK version" suffix here to differentiate it from the alternate version first released on Louder than Bombs and subsequently the RTT171 CD single of "Barbarism Begins At Home" - is the original version of this track. A classic track that, again, shows the band's penchant for burying their very best tracks on the back side of the 12", where your average punter may fear to tread. Maybe this was intentional? A form of secret Smiths society whereby only the initiated know the pure depth and quality of their deep catalog? Only the band knows.

11 "That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore"
Rough Trade RTT186
Produced by The Smiths
(live tracks mixed by Stephen Street)
July 1985
alternate:
11 "The Headmaster Ritual"
Megadisc MD 125295
Produced by The Smiths
(live tracks mixed by Stephen Street)
early summer 1985
alternate:
11 "The Headmaster Ritual"
Rough Trade RTT215CD
Produced by The Smiths
(live tracks mixed by Stephen Street)
November 1988

Tracks:
1 That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore
2 William, It Was Really Nothing (live)
3 Nowhere Fast (live)
4 Stretch Out And Wait (live)
5 Shakespeare's Sister (live)
6 Meat Is Murder (live)
7 Miserable Lie (live)
8 That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore (7" edit)
9 The Headmaster Ritual

Sources:
1, 9 from Meat Is Murder (UK: ROUGHCD81, April 1985)
2 from Westwood One In Concert New Rock (USA: Westwood One #95-40, September 1995)
3-4, 6 from "The Headmaster Ritual" (UK: Rough Trade RTT215CD, November 1988)
5 from "That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore" (UK: Rough Trade RTT186 12" single, July 1985)
7 from Rough Trade Compilation (Canada: Rough Trade RTS1986 vinyl LP)
8 edited from 1
Intros and crossfades created from the 2009 Rhino CD Singles Box variant of "That Joke..."

Restoration:
Gentle EQ as needed, a smidgen of tasteful noise reduction if required, and very cautious, gentle peak limiting.
Crossfades and patching galore (see below).
Artwork for this, and every other release we'll be featuring, was sourced from the amazing Vulgar Picture treasure trove of sleeve artwork scans (with permission).

Notes:
Summer 1985 saw Rough Trade (or the band) proposing a live EP based on the Meat Is MurderUK Spring 1985 tour: the 18 March 1985 Oxford gig was recorded by the BBC and tapes given to Rough Trade to use. Using the RTT186 catalog number, very limited test pressings of the 7" and 12" "Meat Is Murder - Live EP" records were cut. The tracklistings for the proposed releases were as follows:
7" (RT186): Meat Is Murder - Live EP
Meat Is Murder
Nowhere Fast
Stretch Out And Wait
12" (RTT186): Meat Is Murder - Live EP
Meat Is Murder
Nowhere Fast
Stretch Out And Wait
William, It Was Really Nothing
Miserable Lie
For unknown reasons this release was scrapped, with the decision made to pull "That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore" off the LP as a single, with the live tracks from the Oxford gig used as the B-sides, and the whole package remaining under the root RT(T)186 catalog number. Left behind from the final official product were "William..." and "Miserable Lie", though "Shakespeare's Sister" was added to the package as a consolation gift of sorts. The final tally:
7" (RT186)
That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore (edit)
Meat Is Murder (live)
12" (RTT186)
That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore
Nowhere Fast (live)
Stretch Out And Wait (live)
Shakespeare's Sister (live)
Meat Is Murder (live)
Meanwhile, the Europeans via Megadisc decided to use an alternate sleeve with an alternate A-side, though kept the 12" B-sides, and released "The Headmaster Ritual" at roughly the same time. The alternate sleeve remains a classic sleeve in the canon, hence the reason for including it here.
In 1988 Rough Trade began releasing, in haphazard fashion, the band's 12" back catalog on CD single. The rarest of these - RTT215CD using "The Headmaster Ritual" as the "A-side" with 3 of the 4 live tracks from the RTT186 12" as B-sides ("Nowhere Fast" / "Stretch Out..." / "Meat Is Murder") - was quickly withdrawn as the cover star quickly protested use of the artwork, so only a handful made it out to collectors. Again, its rarity (and classicism as cover art) warrants its inclusion here.
Finally, in 2009 Rhino UK released a box set of the first ten or so singles as individual CD singles, and in the process used a new transfer of the Oxford live set as the basis for their release. How do we know this? The original Rough Trade 7" and 12" from 1985 was one of the most piss-poor edit hack jobs I've ever heard, with drumstick click-ins from the wrong song leading into the various tracks, really poor edit points, etc. While the proper click intros were restored on the Rhino CD, the outtros were faded out rather than edited into the next track. It too was a poor overall experience.
I repaired and enhanced the live selection with the help of an excellent team of co-conspirators, who not only lent their considerable collections to the endeavour, but their equipment as well. Basically, I used the raw audio sources as detailed up top in the tracklist descriptions, with the intros stolen from the Rhino CD, and patched it all together. We finally have a coherent, quality assemblage of the best versions available of the "released" live tracks, nicely crossfaded, source-matched, and pristine.
Yes I am aware of the existence of "What She Said" from this gig on an NME 7", and I have several transfers of this, but the quality (I blame the pressing, not those who kindly sourced them for me) did not lend itself to inclusion here, at least to our standards.
My quick take on the 7" edit of the title track: While I like the reverse fade at the end as preserved on the album track and full 12" version, it's a bit much for radio play and I agree with the reasoning behind editing it out for the 7". Not that it helped, I'm sure, as while a beautiful track, it's not exactly daytime Radio 1 stuff.

12 "The Boy With The Thorn In His Side"
Rough Trade RTT191
Produced by Morrissey and Marr
Engineered by Stephen Street
September 1985

Tracks:
1 The Boy With The Thorn In His Side
2 Rubber Ring ->
3 Asleep

Source:
All tracks from "The Boy With The Thorn In His Side" (RTT 191CD, November 1988)

Restoration:
Gentle EQ as needed, a smidgen of tasteful noise reduction if required, and very cautious, gentle peak limiting.

Artwork for this, and every other release we'll be featuring, was sourced from the amazing Vulgar Picture treasure trove of sleeve artwork scans (with permission).

Notes:
The classic single, as it was meant to be heard.
One of the most satisfyingly beautiful melodies ever captured by Johnny Marr, the title track is a clear favorite in the discography. What many people don't realize is that the common version, that on the LP The Queen Is Dead, is muchly embellished from the simpler single version (extra synthetic strings, some guitar overdubs, etc.). Now (even in this blog!) I've been known to be wrong before, but as best as I can determine the only place to get the original single mix was on the actual, you know, single. None of the compilation appearances of this track was the single mix, they all featured the LP version. I can't speak for the recent Rhino singles boxes, but I suspect they too feature the LP mix.
The November 1988 Rough Trade CD single also thankfully featured the single mix, which is what we have here. It's a tossup as to which version is better; the LP mix fits better on the album, but as a standalone track I think I prefer the simplicity of this one.
This same November 1988 Rough Trade CD single is (and I think remains) the only CD source for the wonderful Rubber Ring -> Asleep segue, where the two tracks gracefully segue together. We maintain this segue here. Johnny maintains that the only way to fully appreciate the two pieces of music is to hear them of a piece and I agree: the entirety of the Rubber Ring / Asleep piece is one of the most poignant, beautiful segments of music in the catalog.

13 "Bigmouth Strikes Again"
Rough Trade RTT192
Produced by Morrissey and Marr
Engineered by Stephen Street May 1986

Tracks:
1 Bigmouth Strikes Again
2 Money Changes Everything
3 Unloveable
4 Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others (Australian unique edit)

Sources:
1 from The Queen Is Dead (ROUGHCD96, June 1986)
2 from The World Won't Listen (WEA 450991898-2, November 1993)
3 from The World Won't Listen (ROUGHCD101, January 1987)
4 from The Queen Is Dead (Australia - Festival D30108, 1988)

Restoration:
Gentle EQ as needed, a smidgen of tasteful noise reduction if required, and very cautious, gentle peak limiting.
Artwork for this, and every other release we'll be featuring, was sourced from the amazing Vulgar Picture treasure trove of sleeve artwork scans (with permission).
Notes:
And, they're back.
Legal issues having held the band out of the public eye for the greater part of a year, the public thirst for new Smiths product was reaching fever pitch (or so we would have it).
Rough Trade supremo Geoff Travis wanted "There Is A Light" as the lead track premiering the upcoming LP The Queen Is Dead. Johnny wanted this. Johnny won. It's all one could hope for for the first new Smiths record of the year, with Moz throwing up lyrics about Walkmen and melting hearing aids and featuring blisteringly triumphant Marr guitars. Johnny called this single his "Jumping Jack Flash" moment, and it's not hard to see why. Another absolute classic in the canon, and great for drunk singalongs with friends and whisks involved (don't ask...).
"Money Changes Everything" was the second instrumental released by the band, and while not terribly phenomenal (or terribly poor), it is perhaps of greater import that Bryan Ferry would re-christen this as "The Right Stuff" and work it up with Marr post-breakup. It is one of the few Smiths tracks not to see CD release on official Rough Trade product, hence the sourcing from the lesser WEA disc.
According to Simon Goddard, "Unloveable" was short-listed for the LP but left off to include the last-minute-composition "Vicar in a Tutu". Frankly, they shouldn't have bothered, because this wipes the floor with "Vicar". Another classic composition, perhaps featuring the most bleakly ironic Moz lyric "I wear black on the outside, because black is how I feel...on the INSIDE" married to a cloyingly pretty Marr guitar figure. That this was the extra track on the 12" is shameful, but then again, many of this band's all-time classics were the so-called "extra track" on the 12". Such is this band's sheer genius.
The Australians, forever unique they shall be, decided that the reverse fade intro on the closingThe Queen Is Dead track "Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others" just wasn't their cup of tea, so they chopped the fade intro and did a weird doubling edit of one of the intro phrases at approximately 0:14 into the song. I have no earthly idea why, because I can't imagine the hordes of cries pleading to "fix" the intro of the official "Some Girls..." track. But if nothing else it gave the world a slightly rare curiosity, which is why we chose to feature it here. That all said, this is perhaps Analog Loyalist's favorite piece of Smiths music ever. There is something about the guitars, the emotions within, that really gets into me. There's also no chorus figure to speak of, or, is the entire song a chorus? More Marr genius, I guess. That Moz had to throw this lyric on top just makes the juxtaposition that much greater.

14 "Panic"
Rough Trade RTT193
Produced by John Porter
* Produced by Morrissey and Marr, engineered by Stephen Street
July 1986

Tracks:
1 Panic
2 Vicar In A Tutu *
3 The Draize Train

Source:
All tracks from "Panic" (RTT 193CD, fall 1988)

Restoration:
Gentle EQ as needed, a smidgen of tasteful noise reduction if required, and very cautious, gentle peak limiting.
Artwork for this, and every other release we'll be featuring, was sourced from the amazing Vulgar Picture treasure trove of sleeve artwork scans (with permission).

Notes:
Certainly anyone with a passing interest in this endeavour knows the story by now: Bassist Andy Rourke comes down with a rather nasty cold, is booted out of the band, gets arrested for buying too much cold medicine, and in a fit of empathy is subsequently re-invited to the fold. In the meantime onetime Aztec Camera Craig Gannon is brought in by Johnny Marr to replace Rourke on bass, though Gannon says this is fabrication; according to him, he was brought in specifically to beef up the guitars.
Meanwhile, this silly thing called Chernobyl happens in April 1986. Moz is listening to the Beeb one morning late in April, and the storyline that morning was a discussion of the Chernobyl tragedy immediately followed by the non-sequitur "I'm Your Man" by Wham!. Enraged, he pens a strident attack on radio. Marr marries it to a glam stomper, and "Panic" is born.
This session - featuring John Porter producing, and the band recording "Panic" and instrumental track "The Draize Train" - is Gannon's first studio outing with the band. "Panic" is a fan favorite; the refrain "Hang the DJ" is amongst the most memorable bits in the band's catalog. For a Manchester band, the virtual English travelogue in the lyric doesn't reach Cheshire or Greater Manchester, oddly.
"Vicar In A Tutu" assumes its rightly position as a B-side, even though it was just released on the LP The Queen Is Dead only a few months prior. Yes, we know this song has its cheerleaders, but to the Analog Loyalist it's not anywhere close to the band's peaks.
"The Draize Train" was the third - and last - instrumental released by the band. A highly percussive affair, this track was built up around a Linn drum and sounds it (and there's no problem with that!). It's one of Marr's best instrumental performances, in a catalog full of them; its later appearance on the live set Rank really makes the song shine. RT boss Geoff Travis so loved this song he pleaded with Moz to write a lyric, which obviously Morrissey declined. It's a shame; while I don't hear an obvious vocal melody on this track, I wouldn't have put it past Moz to find one that would be perfect.
 
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15 "Ask"
Rough Trade RTT194
Produced by John Porter, mixed by Steve Lillywhite
* Produced by Morrissey and Marr, engineered by Stephen Street
October 1986

Tracks:
1 Ask (single version)
2 Cemetry Gates *
3 Golden Lights
4 Ask ("album" version)

Source:
1-3 from "Ask" (RTT 194CD, fall 1988)
4 from The World Won't Listen (ROUGHCD101, February 1987)

Restoration:
Gentle EQ as needed, a smidgen of tasteful noise reduction if required, and very cautious, gentle peak limiting.
Artwork for this, and every other release we'll be featuring, was sourced from the amazing Vulgar Picture treasure trove of sleeve artwork scans (with permission).

Notes:
The band's second single as a 5-piece, this breezy strummer is yet another clear fan favorite. I wonder what buck-toothed Luxembourgian lasses thought, however... Great guitar interplay between Johnny Marr and Craig Gannon, you hear all sorts of wicked guitar effects including fake seagulls done on guitar. Had John Porter had his way, it would have been even more amazingly tracked, though - Morrissey had Steve Lillywhite mix it without the map detailing the hundreds of guitars on the track.
"Cemetry Gates" as legend has it was written in about 3 minutes by Marr in his kitchen, and suddenly they had the song. Not much more needs to be said; it too is a classic and deserves all the exposure it can get.
Regarding "Golden Lights"... Err, is this the Smiths? Perhaps the most wretched track in the catalogue; Moz sounds ridiculous and this insipid Twinkle cover doesn't really rate at all. Porter says its initial incarnation was much better before Lillywhite got his hands on it.
As to the "album mix" of "Ask": There is no technical "album mix" because the song was never taken from an album. The single (and original) version drops in at 3:05, whereas that released on the various compilations stretches an additional 13 or so seconds to 3:18. As detailed as I am, I've not taken the chance to lay the two versions atop each other and find those spare 13 seconds. Anyone who can find them, let me know!


16 "Shoplifters Of The World Unite"

Rough Trade RTT195
Produced by Johnny Marr
* Produced by Morrissey and Marr, engineered by Stephen Street
** Produced by John Porter
January 1987

Tracks:
1 Shoplifters Of The World Unite
2 London *
3 Half A Person *
4 You Just Haven't Earned It Yet, Baby ("UK version") **
5 You Just Haven't Earned It Yet, Baby ("US version") **

Sources:
1-4 from The World Won't Listen (ROUGHCD101, February 1987)
5 from Louder Than Bombs (ROUGHCD255, November 1988)

Restoration:
Gentle EQ as needed, a smidgen of tasteful noise reduction if required, and very cautious, gentle peak limiting.
Artwork for this, and every other release we'll be featuring, was sourced from the amazing Vulgar Picture treasure trove of sleeve artwork scans (with permission).

Notes:
Second guitarist Craig Gannon ceased to be a Smith at the completion of the band's 30 October 1986 gig at Manchester's Free Trade Hall, though he wasn't to find out for a week or so afterwards. Thankfully for him, the band had stockpiled some tracks recorded with his services in the month or two previous to his dismissal.
"Shoplifters Of The World Unite" was not one of them, though the track initially shortlisted as the A-side for RTT195 was (more on that later). "Shoplifters", recorded shortly after Johnny Marr's near-fatal car crash in November 1986, is the only Smiths track credited to Marr alone with regards to production; it's a stunning look back at (and update of) the swampy vibe that lifted "How Soon Is Now?" to greatness, and a portrait of a band that is truly locked-in on all cylinders. Morrissey's contribution led Rough Trade to promote the record with absurd "Shoplifter" carrying bags at participating record shops.
"Shoplifters" was, for various reasons, a last-minute substitute A-side for "You Just Haven't Earned It Yet, Baby" - a wonderfully classic Smithsian Marr jangle-a-thon that easily sits in this writer's short list of "Best Smiths Songs Ever". Produced by John Porter, "You Just Haven't Earned It Yet, Baby" was recorded in October 1986 with Gannon contributing second guitar, and got so far through the release schedule that artwork proofs are in existence with this as the lead track on RTT195, and a so-called "pressing error" actually saw this song surface in January 1987 in "Shoplifters" sleeves - ahead of its release on February's The World Won't Listen compilation as the exclusive "new track". Two mixes of this track exist, one on ROUGH101 and one on (initially US/Canada only) Louder Than Bombs, and the mixes are different enough to warrant both included here. The US/Canada mix seems a bit more refined, with audible extra effects on Morrissey's vocals and slightly different guitar lines. The EQ on the US/Canada version was really shitty, so I matched it with the ROUGH101 version and it virtually leaps off the platter now. It's truly a stunner.
"London" is perhaps - along with "What She Said" - the hardest track in the band's catalog. A Marr tour-de-force if there ever was one, the song is off from the word go on a hurtling trip from Manchester to Euston station.
"Half A Person" is a track 99.9% of other bands would trumpet as their "Best Song Ever" and re-re-release it over and over again on countless compilations, reissued singles, etc. For The Smiths, it's just another Extra Track on the 12", and a track that, according to Marr, was written in the staircase at the studio where it was recorded. I was sixteen, clumsy and shy when I first heard this song myself, and while I was not a backscrubber, or staying at YWCAs, or even in London, the song struck an immediate chord in me and was the first song that truly cemented my love of this band.
Back to "You Just Haven't Earned It Yet, Baby": I remember reading an interview with mastering engineer Frank Arkwright and Johnny Marr at around the time the Sound Of The Smiths compilation came out, a few years back, and Arkwright had mentioned that removing the varispeed effect from the song's master gave the song an entirely new life. (What he meant was that the master was keyed to play faster/higher pitched than normal, and in fact what saw release on both the UK and US/Canada compilations of the day was this unnaturally higher pitched/faster variant.) Intrigued, I slowed the track down to concert A440 pitch, and it really does feel and groove like a new song. 25 years of exposure to the wrong-speed version still means the "correct" version sounds "wrong", but "wrong" doesn't mean "worse". I can't listen to the original versions these days as Morrissey now sounds like a chipmunk in comparison (the re-pitched, slowed-down version is much more in Morrissey's natural baritone, and the drums sound appropriately "oomphy" for lack of a better term).

17 "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out"
Virgin (France) 90229
Produced by Morrissey and Marr, engineered by Stephen Street
* Produced by John Porter
January 1987

Tracks:
1 There Is A Light That Never Goes Out
2 London (Peel Session, recorded 2 December 1986, BBC Maida Vale 4) *
3 Half A Person (Peel Session, recorded 2 December 1986, BBC Maida Vale 4) *

Sources:
1 from The Queen Is Dead (ROUGHCD96, August 1986)
2-3 from some forgotten lossless bootleg (ha!)

Restoration:
Gentle EQ as needed, a smidgen of tasteful noise reduction if required, and very cautious, gentle peak limiting.
Artwork for this, and every other release we'll be featuring, was sourced from the amazing Vulgar Picture treasure trove of sleeve artwork scans (with permission).

Notes:
OK, so this wasn't really a Rough Trade release. However, its sleeve is truly one of the iconic ones in the catalog, and shamefully wasn't used much beyond promo material in the homelands. So, it's really here just to feature the sleeve.
The French chose to issue a 7" of "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out" in place of "Shoplifters", and backed it with the common "Half A Person" as released on "Shoplifters".
I have nothing to say about "There Is A Light" - if you don't know this song, you're reading the wrong blog. A giant among giants.
To avoid excessive reduplication, I decided to back this with the best versions I could find of two of the (few) unreleased and truly unique tracks in the catalog, the December '86 Peel takes on "London" and "Half A Person". "London" absolutely crushes the Street studio version; Marr's guitars are, simply, awesome. "Half A Person" doesn't differ nearly as much as the Street studio version, but it's still a nice piece of music that deserves release.
Our "London" is easily the best version I've ever heard of this track, on the various bootlegs that feature it. As featured here, it's near impossible to tell it's not from official BBC-released sources. The same can't be said for "Half A Person" though I did yeoman's work in tarting it up for this project; while I have heard "better" captures of it, they're all lossy BBC digital streaming versions and aren't up to lossless sourcing muster. The giveaway too on the digital stream captures is the swirlyness/smearing of the highs, especially cymbals. The source here was an actual off-air recording, tape hiss and all. It goes without saying that anybody who can help with pre-broadcast, or high-quality analog recording of the BBC broadcasts (without Peel's speaking over intros/outtros, or any other broadcaster for that matter), please do so.

18 "Sheila Take A Bow"
Rough Trade RTT196
Produced by Morrissey and Marr, engineered by Stephen Street
* Produced by John Porter for the BBC
** Produced by John Porter
April 1987

Tracks:
1 Sheila Take A Bow
2 Is It Really So Strange? *
3 Sweet And Tender Hooligan *
4 Sheila Take A Bow (John Porter reject) **

Sources:
1-3 from "Sheila Take A Bow" (Line [Germany] LICD9.00308L, Spring 1987)
4 from Unreleased Demos & Instrumentals (unofficial LP December 2010)

Restoration:
Gentle EQ as needed, a smidgen of tasteful noise reduction if required, and very cautious, gentle peak limiting.
Artwork for this, and every other release we'll be featuring, was sourced from the amazing Vulgar Picture treasure trove of sleeve artwork scans (with permission).

Notes:
December 1986 and January 1987 saw the band repair to the studio to gin up tracks for future singles and demo ideas for the then-forthcoming LP sessions later that spring.
"Sheila Take A Bow" was first recorded zingily (new word!) with John Porter, with guitar lines zinging and eeping and twanging all across the stereo field. Less stompily glam than the released Stephen Street version, this variant was rejected for unknown reasons and presumably binned. It was to be Porter's last recording session with the band.
They regrouped with Street to attempt "Sheila" again. Lifting the odd Porter-played guitar line from the Porter recording - to his chagrin, not because he wouldn't have allowed it but because they never asked - Street and the boys returned to the T.Rex "Panic"-style glam attack, with great success. Porter's zing is replaced by Street's stomp, for lack of a better term. I guess you could say they threw their homework into the fire, binning the Porter recording.
Oddly, despite having completed versions of the two selected B-sides in the can from studio sessions dating back to spring 1986 with Craig Gannon on second guitar, the band chose to feature recordings made for John Peel in December 1986, at BBC Maida Vale 4, as the B-sides. Not having heard the studio version of "Sweet and Tender Hooligan" (recorded during the May 1986 "Panic" sessions), I can't say if they made the right decision by using the Peel "SaTH", but the Beeb take is a pretty nice rocker. The studio take of "Is It Really So Strange?" - recorded during the June 1986 "Ask" sessions - did finally see unofficial release on the double LP bootleg Unreleased Demos & Instrumentals in December 2010. I think using the Peel take was the right call here; while the structure, melody and lyric is in place on the abandoned studio recording, the drums sound like guide drums (almost Linn-like) and the overall recording lacks the sonic impact and shine the Peel recording gave it. The cynic in me also wonders if they kept the with-Gannon studio versions in-house so as to not give Gannon the pleasure (and royalties?) of credits on further Smiths releases.
While we've given the world a listen to the Porter "Sheila" via the petition started by yours truly, the thought was it was only fair to bring it into this single too. So, our special bonus is the Porter version, superbly tarted up from bootleg vinyl to the point that the vinyl lineage is undetectable. Please note that this version presented here supersedes all previous releases of this track; I obtained a high-definition transfer from a new source and that transfer - in all ways - bettered that which was used to prepare the other blog's (re)mastering of the bootleg LP. (Watch the other blog for an updated, re-remastered posting of the set in its entirety, from this new high-definition transfer.)

19 "Girlfriend In A Coma"
Rough Trade RTT197
Produced by Morrissey and Marr, engineered by Stephen Street
* Produced by Grant Showbiz, remixed by Stephen Street
August 1987

Tracks:
1 Girlfriend In A Coma
2 Work Is A Four-Letter Word *
3 I Keep Mine Hidden *
4 Work Is A Four-Letter Word (7" edit) *
5 Girlfriend In A Coma (demo)

Sources:
1-3 from "Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before" (Line [Germany] LICD9.00440J, Fall 1987)
4 edited from 2 by Analog Loyalist
5 from Unreleased Demos & Instrumentals (unofficial LP December 2010)

Restoration:
Gentle EQ as needed, a smidgen of tasteful noise reduction if required, and very cautious, gentle peak limiting.
Artwork for this, and every other release we'll be featuring, was sourced from the amazing Vulgar Picture treasure trove of sleeve artwork scans (with permission).

Notes:
Spring 1987 saw the band, with Stephen Street, retreat to the idyllic Bath countryside to record what was to be their swan-song LP "Strangeways, Here We Come". Apparently the album sessions were pictures of camraderie; all accounts say that the sessions themselves would never be portents of the fractures that the band would sustain just months later.
So it was that "Girlfriend In A Coma" was chosen to be the lead single for the LP. A beautiful, jaunty, acoustic-tinged number, it wasn't quite the "Smiths are back!" moment that "Bigmouth" was a year earlier, but it did foreshadow to a degree the direction Johnny Marr wanted the band to take going forward.
Then, Marr had a rethink and eventually wanted to take a break from the pressures of no management (or management stifled by Morrissey, depending on who you believe). By his account, he didn't want to break up the band, just take some time away from it all and regroup later on with a more concrete plan for the future. Morrissey, however, sensing discontent, ordered the band back to the studio to record B-sides for the upcoming singles. So, with the band at soundman Grant Showbiz's studio in London, they set to tape the tracks that really told Marr that the end was near. Morrissey wanted the band to cover Cilia Black, so they did "Work Is A Four-Letter Word" which Marr hated (though the recording is professional, as you would expect). The session also produced the final Morrissey/Marr original composition, "I Keep Mine Hidden" - a jaunty music hall ditty that Morrissey claimed was his favorite Smiths track of all time (why...?). It sounds nothing like previous Smiths tracks, and I doubt this direction is what Marr intended had the band not split shortly thereafter.
The 12" of "Girlfriend" had the full-length "Work Is...", while the 7" featured an early fade version. We have both here.
As with "Sheila Take A Bow", we decided to bonus this post with the first version of "Girlfriend" recorded in January 1987, during the Street "Sheila" sessions. Much more reggae-influenced than the final version, about the only thing that survived from this session was the majority of Morrissey's lyric/melody, and Andy Rourke's bass (surprisingly, close inspection of the final version's bass track reveals the reggae pattern prominent in the demo recording, which I never noticed before hearing the demo). Just like with the Porter "Sheila", the demo "Girlfriend" we have here is from a newly-sourced high-resolution transfer from bootleg vinyl, with all evidence of vinyl in the lineage gone. It's another track that could be lifted from this blog and released by Rhino.

20 "I Started Something I Couldn't Finish"
Rough Trade RTT198
Produced by Morrissey and Marr, engineered by Stephen Street
* Produced by Troy Tate
** Recorded by Grant Showbiz
November 1987

Tracks:
1 I Started Something I Couldn't Finish
2 Pretty Girls Make Graves *
3 Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others (live) **
4 What's The World (live) **
5 Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before

Sources:
1, 5 from "Strangeways, Here We Come" (ROUGH CD106, September 1987)
2-3 from Stop Me (Victor [Japan] VDP-28025, Fall 1987)
4 from "Sweet And Tender Hooligan" (Reprise (USA) 9 43525-2, May 1995)

Restoration:
Gentle EQ as needed, a smidgen of tasteful noise reduction if required, and very cautious, gentle peak limiting.
Artwork for this, and every other release we'll be featuring, was sourced from the amazing Vulgar Picture treasure trove of sleeve artwork scans (with permission).

Notes:
The band was no more. Johnny Marr had left for Los Angeles, the remaining Smiths tried carrying on with replacement guitarists for a couple seconds, and then the band was put to rest. Morrissey was amidst recording sessions for his debut solo LP, yet there was still a Smiths record to promote. With no new tracks in the can (ha! Just see the various demos that saw release in 2010...) to use as B-sides, the single was filled out with selected live recordings and alternate session takes.
The A-side itself was a last-minute substitute for the obvious single candidate "Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before", which was pulled from the schedule in the UK at the last minute due to concerns about bombings/murder references in the lyric. Other territories kept "Stop Me..." as the single, as planned - hence our inclusion of "Stop Me..." on this set too.
"I Started Something I Couldn't Finish" is one of the least interesting Smiths single A-sides; it's not a bad track, it's just not great. It's almost Smiths-by-numbers, though interestingly enough the well-paced drum stomp is rooted to an audible Linn drum. I guess the most interesting bit is the fade-out where you hear Morrissey calling out to Stephen Street about the vocal take...
The live "Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others" was performed only once, at the band's final UK gig ever, in December 1987. It was challenging to master as it's quite noisy; I think people will be pleased with the results. Oddly, Morrissey sings a third verse here not present on the studio version. Johnny plays like he has three hands.
"What's the World" is a James cover, performed during the band's brief Scottish tour in fall 1985. An odd choice for a B-side, it was featured only on the cassette single release in the UK. In the USA, Sire/Reprise felt the need to promote the 1995 Singles compilation LP with a subset of rarities, so the label released "Sweet and Tender Hooligan" as a CD and 12" single in the US backed with the two "Girlfriend" B-sides, and "What's the World" taken from an actual UK cassette single as the label couldn't locate a master.
Most interesting is the Troy Tate abandoned debut LP session version of "Pretty Girls Make Graves". It's got a unique clip-clop pseudofolk canter to the rhythm, and according to Simon Goddard in the wonderful book The Smiths: The Songs That Saved Your Life was released as an overdue fulfillment of a promise by Geoff Travis to the cellist who played on the track.
"Stop Me..." is one of the classics in the catalog: urgent guitars, strident lyrics, just a stunner. Marr returns to his old trick - first done on "This Charming Man" - of bashing his guitar strings with a knife. It was the obvious choice for the single and a shame it didn't get to serve that role in the UK.

21 "Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me"
Rough Trade RTT200
Produced by Morrissey and Marr, engineered by Stephen Street
* Produced by John Porter for the BBC
December 1987

Tracks:
1 Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me
2 Rusholme Ruffians *
3 Nowhere Fast *
4 William, It Was Really Nothing *
5 How Soon Is Now? *
6 Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me (single edit)

Sources:
1 from "Strangeways, Here We Come" (ROUGH CD106, September 1987)
2-4 from "Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me" (RTT 200CD, December 1987)
5 from some unknown lossless bootleg (ha!)
6 edited from 1 by Analog Loyalist

Restoration:
Gentle EQ as needed, a smidgen of tasteful noise reduction if required, and very cautious, gentle peak limiting.
Artwork for this, and every other release we'll be featuring, was sourced from the amazing Vulgar Picture treasure trove of sleeve artwork scans (with permission).

Notes:
And the book was finally written on the Smiths, as far as contemporary releases went. The last official, planned single from the band was one of the most desolate tracks in their catalog, the beautiful "Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me". Except in this case it wasn't just another false alarm, the band truly was over. The single release stripped out the extended intro segment to go bang into the body of the song, which we also present here.
The B-sides were selected from the band's June 1984 Peel session, one that wasn't as exciting as their other sessions but a good one nonetheless. Oddly, "Nowhere Fast" as released by Rough Trade here is mono, while the actual broadcast version is full stereo. I've not been able to source a quality lossless stereo version of this track, so we unfortunately don't get the whole stereo effect here.
"How Soon Is Now?" was also done for this session, but per Johnny Marr the session version simply consisted of the band bringing in the multitracks from the original recording and re-jiggering them for the session. I think maybe Morrissey re-sung the lyric, and not all the guitars are present here, but besides that it's not super different from the "studio" version. I used the best lossless version I could locate, as it was not released with the other tracks on the 12"; if anyone can locate a better version that's not from a BBC digital stream capture and is without DJ talking over the intro/outtro please let us know.
 
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Links:
1 "Hand In Glove"
https://mega.nz/#F!x0txGIZL!Tfbb8dHULOlTsiDCsYne5w
2 "Reel Around The Fountain"
https://mega.nz/#F!wo81xayI!CN1XgXbJBbjsReAEPGUlmQ
3 "This Charming Man"
https://mega.nz/#F!B11RBKBQ!X4uHfKddd-i9c3LqfGfZxA
4 "What Difference Does It Make?"
https://mega.nz/#F!1s1lzSTC!ZJxz5bnQO1YiwXVAPF-r3w
5 "Hand In Glove" - The Sandie Shaw Single
https://mega.nz/#F!Utt1ESqA!j0XjPrqFYcge_NZTRigy0w
6 "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now"
https://mega.nz/#F!pgtVSCRY!rQaS8xKZDuDWQg70W4QdFA
7 "William, It Was Really Nothing"
https://mega.nz/#F!F5lhwSKb!w_2yi1UKkLPrq0IoNRS9Jw
8 "Barbarism Begins At Home"
https://mega.nz/#F!U9snSahK!irfKZe-9PGlIAuxZwuOY9w
9 "How Soon Is Now?"
https://mega.nz/#F!Fo03RAoS!XbAZpNuKKB0A9kUsyGx1XA
10 "Shakespeare's Sister"
https://mega.nz/#F!l80XnK6D!2aRXrS7OxLpXjyytHTv_bQ
11 "That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore" / "The Headmaster Ritual"
https://mega.nz/#F!xx0F1A4R!jnu4UFl6JxYTbBdWVXD0Eg
12 "The Boy With The Thorn In His Side"
https://mega.nz/#F!5x8liAxC!3UQ7UTjCgN_Dy-mjild4Qw
13 "Bigmouth Strikes Again"
https://mega.nz/#F!h9txWS5J!Y68-bfEho2Tb9A6-f4ybvA
14 "Panic"
https://mega.nz/#F!o90xnaLJ!FdUiwjF65vPKzuGQrVXUNA
15 "Ask"
https://mega.nz/#F!NkknAYQL!VE8S-kq-66MuWUkOJxoWlw
16 "Shoplifters Of The World Unite"
https://mega.nz/#F!op0xHAzI!KbVtfIW3D1WAOSYKJuZ-pQ
17 "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out"
https://mega.nz/#F!F5UhxYTD!T_7KAYEmY6LSsnFbnXpvCA
18 "Sheila Take A Bow"
https://mega.nz/#F!t0cxiaxa!2av3bjh-3leW9XuKErrugQ
19 "Girlfriend In A Coma"
https://mega.nz/#F!RocREawC!zxi5BJMp86k44H5GY2mMjg
20 "I Started Something I Couldn't Finish"
https://mega.nz/#F!EoFllKbQ!4l4niaV7K7sVnyqLyW0SQg
21 "Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me"
https://mega.nz/#F!Z9NlWYaZ!6mFowal3MmsZsI4z41dAlw
 
FWD, that was alot of historical information there,and I see you took some valuable time to put all this together, knowing you from past post, your sources are true to form, and very dependable. Thank you for time well spent I look forward to more.
Thanks, fgmJ
 
FWD, that was alot of historical information there,and I see you took some valuable time to put all this together, knowing you from past post, your sources are true to form, and very dependable. Thank you for time well spent I look forward to more.
Thanks, fgmJ
The links will appear later today.
The info is from the site that released the music each week.
My only efforts have been sourcing the full collection (as several were missing) and collating the information to post here.
It's very well done and absolutely worth having in a collection.
The tracks sound awesome. They are in M4a at a high bit rate (might annoy some), but Drew et al never did release a FLAC to my knowledge.
The artwork is excellent too - encompassing the extra tracks and incudes posters and CD inlays.
Very thorough and worth a download
The links are very long gone now, so thought it could live on here.
Regards,
FWD.
 
Updated 16 Aprl, 2019:

Added links in post number 4 above.
Regards,
FWD.
 
Amazing work, thank you so much for tracking these down. I remember hearing about this blog but for whatever reason assumed it was taken down for copyright before they could finish the project. Little did I know...
Seriously, thank you, this is an unbelievably great project and I’m glad it’s not lost to the sands of time. If only record companies were a fraction as dedicated as the team behind the old recycle blogs.
 
Although I keep an eye on what's going on I haven't logged in for a good few years now but felt compelled to do so today.
FWD, I'm sure we have spoken before, some years ago when you were just a nipper, however I wanted to say a massive thanks for sharing this. I may have some or all of it hidden away somewhere but to have it all together again is superb.
For this and all of the other projects you invest your time and effort into, I thank you from the heart of my bottom.
Keep up the good work young man.
 
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