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August 10, 2006
Works in Progress, vol. 1
New Feature! Got a New Feature! Look at Us! We Got a New Feature!
Obscure musical completism, once the province of only the most determined and least likely to make out among us, is easier than ever. While we used to sit around, nervously waiting for Rhino and their ilk to drop rare demos and alternate takes of material from our favorite artists in wallet murdering box set form, now a high speed modem and some free time will do just fine. So, now that we have all of this stuff, what do we do with it?
We do what any self respecting nerd would do. Dissect it within an inch of its life.
Every two weeks or so, the MS braintrust will offer up some cool songs in various states of their existence. Hopefully, this will give us all a little insight into the songwriting process, and raise a few questions along the way. If a song is better in an earlier or alternate version, does the "official" version even matter anymore in the age of consumer crafted playlists? If something obscure is widely available to all, does it lose its charm? Is there even such a thing as a definitive version of a consistently evolving entity? Dunno. Let's see.
Radiohead - "Motion Picture Soundtrack" (live, acoustic April '96)
Radiohead - "Motion Picture Soundtrack" (album version)
Radiohead, notorious for their perfectioneering, have songs that often live many lives before getting their day in the rain. A similar level of obsessive fandom makes sure that tons of bootlegged material exists in circulation. I first encountered future Kid A track "Motion Picture Soundtrack" in the grips of OK Computer dementia in the summer of '97. I sent some message board lurker five bucks and he sent me a homemade CD compilation, in a paleo-file sharing maneuver. Yes, teen smart asses, it was delivered to my house by pterodactyl. At the time, the song had been talked up in live reviews in hyperbolic terms, "Thom took to the stage alone and sang MPS, to rapidly dropping jaws. Wheel chair bound grannies took their first steps in years, and immediately began railing out against New Labour." I have to say, I was not disappointed. Lovesick and emotionally direct, it seemed like RH was about to crossover for real with this undeniable weepy.
When Kid A finally reached my hot little hands almost three years later, I admit I was initially a little appalled at what they'd done to my ballad. First of all, it was chopped in half, losing a beautiful verse and refrain. Gone was the simple acoustic guitar strum, replaced with funeral organ and later overwhelming harp. Thom's vocal was more sedate, and less sincere. They'd sacrificed one of their purest tunes, at the alter of chilly art. Looking back now, with a few hundred records more under my belt, I realize it's for the best that the boys didn't take the simpler route. I mean, there definitely is something to the original version. The axed verse is pretty strong, and a chill comes form the understated moment when Yorke changes chords and delivery on "I will see you, in the next life". Ultimately though, we didn't need Radiohead to be that band. Look no further for evidence than the fact that Coldplay was willed into the populist void only to prove how boring it all would have been. The revisions are smart too, under scrutiny. Cutting the song in half gives the "next life" line more impact by singing it only once and then floating off. The instrumentation is interesting too, with church organ and harp more evocative of the song's themes. So, even though I'm nowhere near the Radiohead fanboy I once was, I say again; OK Thom. I guess you're pretty good
Television Personalities - "King and Country" (demo version)
Television Personalities - "King and Country" (single version)
A band that are a more recent (but less current) obsession of mine are the TV Personalities. Unlike most of their end of the seventies British contemporaries, the kids favored sly self deprecating wit and observational minutiae to depict a full range of indentifiable emotions. It seemed like everyone else was just painting with gloom, righteousness, or fashion forward nihilism. Although it's true in the abstract that playing tuneful, vulnerable songs (often about the emptiness in the punk scene) to rooms full of gobbing safety pin "tough guys" was a pretty ballsy move, the band could be one of the first to be described as twee. Belle and Sebastian get alot from early TVP's I think, to give you a reference. But it turns out they could kind of slay too, as this demo for future single "King and Country" shows us.
A fuzzed out feedback rocker, not unlike the future Yo La Tengo at their least genteel, "K & C" drips venom. Playing away from their strength at narrative character studies, the emphasis is on quick riffs. Dan Treacy's childish vocals sound wasted and far away, and you get a more impressionistic sense that he's mad at something, without getting into specifics. While this is an interesting peek into another side of the group, the polished in comparison single version is hard to beat. Though cleaner in production it's always simple, never overblown. After a start similar to the demo, the vocals come in much more prominent in the mix. The structure is tightened up and brightened significantly by "ooh-ooh" back up and occasional descents into whistling. A memorable riff from late in the demo jamming is rescued and inserted into the middle of the song with a stutter step beat, keeping it fresh and progressive. The story is easier to follow as well, with young punk Dan fed up with drunk old Brits waxing nostalgic for WWII. As compared to the acidic rough cut, Danny sounds less angry but more annoyed and superior. The result is basically a perfect indie pop song.
Tags: Television Personalities, Radiohead, songwriting, demos
Posted by Jeff Klingman at August 10, 2006 04:06 PM
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Comments
In my experience meeting new and interesting Radiohead fans, the vast majority name "Motion Picture Soundtrack" as the cream of the album's crop. Conversely, I've always been kind of turned off by the over orchestration and prefer Kid A when it gets oddly spastic in "National Anthem".
That being said, the demo is fantastic. I'm one of those that is holding out hope that Radiohead will someday return to their Bends days of guitar rock.
Posted by: Randall Monty at August 11, 2006 11:28 AM
for a great TV Personalities song, listen to "Mysterious Ways"...off the They Could Have Been....
Posted by: Patrick at April 9, 2008 12:13 AM
That whole compilation is pretty swell, but I gotta say that the later romantic psych type stuff that Treacy wrote never gets me as pumped up as his, "I'm smarter than all the punks in this room" early pop songs.
Posted by: Jeff K at April 9, 2008 09:38 AM
