Thursday Music Link
We're all in this together. I know it's true, I heard the Chancellor say it yesterday. I suspect that some people might have preferred it if we'd all been in this together when things were going well and paying big bonuses, but that didn't happen. But now, we're all in this together.
In general, the phrase "we're all in this together" is a pretty flawless indicator of bad news that's about to get worse. If the person saying it wasn't expecting a shit shower, they wouldn't be looking around for someone else to be in it together with them.
Come Together
(related, via the song that I was actually looking for, did you know that the American version of Screamadelica had a version of "Come Together" that a) doesn't include the Jesse Jackson speech and b) is quite extraordinarily sappy?)
That's the 7" version, and strictly speaking the A-side of the 12". A friend of mine got badgered into buying the 12" by the hipsters behind the counter at the record shop - go on, it's Andy Weatherall, you don't want to listen to some greasy-haired Scottish git... She told them she did actually want to listen to a greasy-haired Scottish git - that was what she'd come in for - but caved in and got the 12" anyway. Not surprising that the original version didn't make it onto the album; I am surprised it made the American cut.
ReplyDeleteSee also 'tough choices' as a code for 'I'm going to have to fuck over somebody, but it's not going to affect me personally.'
ReplyDelete(It comes up five times in the Spending Review document, incidentally.)
Take, for example,
ReplyDelete"This includes taking tough choices, such as removing the
entitlement to free training for a first full level 2 qualification for those over 25. Further
education students aged 24 and over studying for a level 3 qualification (A-level equivalent)
will be asked to pay fees."
&
"The Government will consult on major reforms to the legal aid system to deliver access to
justice at lower cost to the taxpayer. This will involve taking tough choices about the types of
case that should receive public funding, and focusing support on those who need it most."
I'm actually quite fond of that mix, myself.
ReplyDeleteIt might not be all that bad intrinsically. I just can't get to terms with it - there's a real sort of Mozart/Salieri effect for people who heard the Screamadelica album and then gradually discovered "oh my god ... this music ... that awful greasy soft-metal band ...". I hear that apparently they got better after the nadir of "Rocks" but they did so without further involvement from me.
ReplyDeleteIncredible that they recorded the Dixie-Narco EP within a year of the sessions for Pass Out But Don't Let On. Wikipedia is illuminating:
ReplyDeleteThe band began work on their fourth album in Roundhouse Studios in London in September 1992. Most of the band members had developed heroin addictions, and as a result the sessions did not produce any new material. The band called in producer Tom Dowd to help. After some short sessions in London's E-Zee Studios, the band, along with Dowd, moved to Alabama. After the completion of the sessions, the band felt that they had "rehearsed the life out of the songs", and they brought in multiple producers to remix some of the tracks.
Usually what you get with junkies is either sod-all or instrumental tracks that meander on endlessly, so I guess even a Faces B-side like "Rocks" is something of an achievement. It was enough to turn me off the band for good, though.
Most of the band members had developed heroin addictions
ReplyDeletemy understanding is that the word "developed" there implies a previous better state of affairs which did not obtain.
They should have (and indeed probably did) consulted Shaun Ryder, who discovered that you can wean yourself off heroin addiction surprisingly easy, on a prescription of five or six doses of crack a day.
further, that you can get this treatment on the NHS. Well, sort of. Rather, it's possible to convince Tony Wilson to finance the process at the expense of half of Manchester.
ReplyDeleteActually, I've just listened to all links in this post and you're quite right. That version is indeed pants.
ReplyDelete