Lloyd Cole on new Commotions box

http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/new-box-set-collected-recording-1983-1989-by-lloyd-cole-the-commotions.427220/page-5

Wayne – see post 120, have a listen and tell me if you still think you were wrong….

Lloyd Cole and the Commotions Collected Recordings 1983-1989

5 CDs, 1 DVD and a book, in a box.

We began work on this in February 2014. It’s been a lot of work. There were two product managers. Joe Howard (son of Dr Robert Howard) initiated the project and then moved on. Lewis Robinson took his place. Lewis and I have exchanged hundreds of emails as we tracked down the original tapes, cassettes, u-matics, and Ian Jones at Abbey Road has done a fabulous job in transferring them to CD.

All three studio albums are included, all three are re-mastered, but we did very little to Mainstream other than adjust level. Bob Ludwig’s original work was near perfect and still sounds great almost 30 years later. The original 1/2″ mixdowns of Easy Pieces could not be used as the tape had disintegrated and baking, etc could not save it. We worked from the 1/4″ back up (made the same day as the 1/2″ for this very reason) and to my ears the album is significantly improved. The big news, to my ears, is Rattlesnakes. We were able to use the original 1/2″ tapes and upon hearing a ‘flat transfer’ I was shocked at how far we had strayed from the original recordings over the years. I sent the files to the band to listen to to be sure I wasn’t imagining things. Is this as great as I think it is? They agreed. We decided to make the new CD as close as possible to the original tapes. The trade off would be volume. If we wanted the album to sound loud, then we would lose the dynamics which were what was making it sound better. We chose the sound over the loudness. You have a volume control on your stereo. You can turn it up if you need to.

The first bonus CD is all our collected b-sides, not including live recordings, unless they were songs we hadn’t recorded in the studio – so the 1986 recordings from New York are there. The only remix included is our own extended mix of My Bag, as we all pretty much agreed it was the only decent dance mix we ever made.

The final CD is rarities, from the unreleased 1983 single Down At The Mission, the 1985 Paul Hardiman recordings, the 1986 Paris recordings with Chris Thomas, demos, etc. Pretty much everything we recorded which wasn’t a complete disaster is here. Full track listing below.

The book contains an extensive essay by Pete Paphides, who spent way more time and wrote many more words than was originally the plan. He spoke to all the protagonists. It’s a lovely story, if a little sad, at times.

Watched the Video disc last night.
Interesting but not essential.

I think I was most struck by the fact that they obviously had to remove one of the drug references from My Bag (“Powder my nose” became “Launder my clothes”) to appear on Wogan. Clearly the “20-storey non-stop snowstorm” escaped their notice.

A separate disc of remixes and edits wouldn’t go amiss or effect the beauty of the box set!

I find it a pain in the butt that Lloyd didn’t choose to include “Beautiful City”. Why do we need to rebuying something else to get a small number of tracks?

I can’t wait to get this box and finally have Easy Pieces back in my collection. I wish this was a complete collection, though – too bad the single versions and remixes were left out. Who knows, maybe some nice 2 CD deluxe editions of all three albums will be released some day (could be, considering Mr. Cole revealed that he’s working on the deluxe edition of Rattlesnakes in order to bring it in line with this set), so we can get lots of other rarities, possible outtakes, radio sessions and all those single versions :)

A lot of acts are rushed into a 2nd album, when the debut was the result of years building up to a point where lots of material was honed and everyone had a clear idea of what they wanted to do. Follow-ups are inevitably cobbled together in moments on tour, holed up in tax exile abroad, and with the label gunning for a lucrative release date so they can cash in (as Lloyd alluded to with Easy Pieces’ 1985 deadline).

Same with Nik Kershaw’s The Riddle, Bowie’s Tonight, even something like Duran’s Seven & The Ragged Tiger. It was just what happened back then, before adding a few bonus tracks created an expanded version to extend the album’s lifespan by another year as happens now.

This reminds me of some of the conversations with Jim Kerr regarding Sparkle in the Rain. Obviously Simple Minds did not have the stunning debut album like Lloyd Cole but New Gold Dream might be a good comparison to Rattlesnakes with respect to how easily the albums came together compared to the difficulties or perceived difficulties with the follow-ups. Easy Pieces is a good if not great record to me but you can sense the difference between that and Rattlesnakes in the way that Rattlesnakes does seem like such a happy album resulting from a period where the band were tuned into each other as opposed to an album where there were differing approaches that needed to be worked out through compromise, argument….etc.

New Gold Dream, another timeless album was said to have come together extremely easy and was the result of the hard work that was invested in the previous efforts. The album sort of recorded itself and was the result of a time where the band were enjoying being in a band, having welcomed a new member who brought a fresh perspective in Mel Gaynor and those happy times resulted in what is to me, a classic and one of my very favorite albums. Sparkle in the Rain may have been the hangover from that previous party, as good as it is. I think the band tried too hard to avoid making NGD2 and that extra labor caused the difficulties that caused the album to lose its cohesiveness on side 2 and caused the less than golden praise the band members have for the album.

Bonanza delivery today:

– Joy Division Closer and Unknown Pleasures (very good reproductions of the covers including the texture of the sleeves).

And more pertinently – the Lloyd Cole & the Commotions box arrived as well.

First impressions very good indeed:
– Packaging mirrors the quality of the Tears for Fears packages
– Hardcover booklet looks and feels high quality
– Albums, although not Japanese mini-sleeve editions, feature reproductions of the outer and inner sleeves rather than being re-worked versions like some boxes tend to do.

Unfortunately no song by song analysis which would have been a real bonus, and no lyrics unless your eyes are good enough to read the ones on the Easy Pieces inner – their difficult enough to follow on the vinyl :-). Lyrics would have been interesting given what a Cole is such a wordsmith.

Having said that – no complaints from me so far.
Others with greater attention to detail may spot issues (but hopefully their aren’t any).

I recently watched Lloyd’s interview on the Vintage TV channel, with Neil McCormick, and if you’ve seen that you’ll know Lloyd Cole thinks about his answers, and offers very candid but quite serious musings when posed a question. It’s refreshing. He doesn’t waffle on for the sake of it, and I can hear his conversational voice coming through even in the stiff medium of an email Q&A.

Like others, I don’t think Easy Pieces or Mainstream are remotely poor albums by most people’s standards, but I do understand where he is coming from with his views on that era. There is a bit too much filler on Easy Pieces, but Mainstream is very underrated even if I can well believe it was a nightmare to record.

Thanks for the interview, Paul.

Euro-centrism? The box is $62 (equivalent) on Amazon.co.jp today.

Some rock guys [bands and fans] tend to be uncomfortable about the inclusion of single and extended mixes. No such hang-ups in the pop world.

I still think all the extended mixes should have been included. Just because Lloyd isn’t a fan of them doesn’t mean that the fans (ie the ones expected to actually pay for the box set) aren’t…

I mean, if the remixes were really so ‘atrocious’, then what was the record company doing in releasing them in the first place?….

Great interview in that it mined some very good insight! Shame that Lloyd wasn’t feeling well as an email exchange definitely lacks any enthusiasm on the part of the interviewee. Still, great questions and the answers were just informative enough to give anyone who reads it a look at how Lloyd felt about this project and some interesting takes on his albums. Obviously music is one of the most subjective topics to discuss and someone who went through the process of actually recording it will most likely be much more critical when compared to the diehard and casual fan’s thoughts. When you record a song then listen to it, you start thinking about all the steps taken from the first notes, any changes, arguments…..etc. It seems that it’s rare when someone as accomplished as Lloyd Cole actually thinks….yep, got that one perfect. Interesting to read this, thanks very much!

I must be one of the only people that does not feel that deluxe editions should include every single remix under the sun. I usually find most of them are novelties (i.e. only worth listening to once or twice) and boring when strung together on the same CD (3 versions of track x, followed by 4 versions of track y etc etc).
Not for me (no offence meant to others that love collecting remixes).

As regards this boxed set in particular I have to agree with Lloyd’s view that the Dancing Mix of My Bag is probably the only remix of any worth in their catalogue (apart from possibly the alternate mix of Perfect Blue which is lovely). A friend made me a CD of all the remixes (tracklist below for those that are interested) and as big a fan as I am of LC&TC I’ve probably played it twice in the 15+ years I’ve had it.

The tracklist of that CD:
– Perfect Skin (remix)
– Forest Fire (extended version)
– Brand New Friend (long version)
– Lost Weekend (extended version)
– Cut Me Down (extended version)
– Cut Me Down (remix)
– Cut Me Down (extended remix)
– My Bag (dancing mix)
– Perfect Skin (’87 remix)
– My Bag (dancing remix)
– From the Hip (remix)
– From the Hip (extended remix)
– Forest Fire (’89 7″ remix)
– Forest Fire (’89 extended remix)
– Perfect Blue (’89 remix)

Looking forward to this but I do think the extended mixes should have been included. Yeah, 12″ mixes from the 80’s probably belong in the 80’s but anqyone buying this is an enthusiast of LC and I don’t think they’d have been unwelcomed.

As for the remastering of the two disc version of Rattlesnakes mentioned in the interview, it could result in, if you include the copy in this boxset, the obsessives buying / owning four copies of the album!

Generally Lloyd is pretty open in interviews and on his website he takes the time to answer even the obscurest fan questions (“What guitar effects did you use on such and such?” type questions) so I suspect that the slightly terse tone of his responses comes from feeling under the weather and the fact that it was an email interview (never the easiest medium for interviews)

Having said that I found it very interesting and has certainly increased my anticipation of the Boxed set. Many thanks Paul!

@Chris, I get where you are coming from – the comment about ‘Beautiful City’ also made be pause.
However as an owner of the 2CD edition I’m kind of glad it has not been rendered totally redundant. Also, to be completely fair, the set is not billed as being complete but I do still see your point.

Many thanks for sharing the interview – an interesting read.

Despite the answers given above, I would still have included ‘Beautiful City’ on disc four and moved the dancing mix of ‘My Bag’ to a seventh “completist’s disc” of all the single mixes, extended mixes and remixes:

(01) ‘Brand New Friend’ [Single Edit] (from ‘Brand New Friend’ single)
(02) ‘Cut Me Down’ [7” Remix] (from ‘Cut Me Down’ single)
(03) ‘From The Hip’ [7” Remix] (from ‘From The Hip’ single)
(04) ‘Forest Fire’ [Extended Version] (from ‘Forest Fire’ single)
(05) ‘Brand New Friend’ [Long Version] (from ‘Brand New Friend’ single)
(06) ‘Lost Weekend’ [Extended Version] (from ‘Lost Weekend’ single)
(07) ‘Cut Me Down’ [12” Extended Remix] (from ‘Cut Me Down’ single)
(08) ‘My Bag’ [Dancing Mix] (from ‘My Bag’ single)
(09) ‘Perfect Skin’ [Commotions Meet The Irresistible Force] (from ‘My Bag’ single)
(10) ‘My Bag’ [Dancing Remix/Mixed by Francois Kevorkian] (from ‘My Bag’ single)
(11) ‘My Bag’ [Dancing Remix Dub/Mixed by Francois Kevorkian] (from ‘My Bag’ single)
(12) ‘From The Hip’ [12” Extended Remix] (from ‘From The Hip’ single)
(13) ‘Forest Fire’ [7” Remix/Mixed by Bruce Lampcov] (from ‘Forest Fire’ 1989 reissue single)
(14) ‘Perfect Blue’ [Paul Hardiman Recording/Remixed by Bruce Lampcov] (from ‘Forest Fire’ 1989 reissue single)
(15) ‘Forest Fire’ [12” Remix/Mixed by Bruce Lampcov] (from ‘Forest Fire’ 1989 reissue single)

Still, fantasy track listings aside, I’m looking forward to the box set; the two new tracks shared above sound great.

I agree that Mr. Cole seems a bit disinterested in the tone of his responses; but sometimes that’s just a function of writing email. Some people just don’t like to write email, and how they come across in email is completely different from how they come across in other contexts.

Anyway, I’ve loved his music for a long time and I expect I’ll get this. But I had thought this was to be a “complete recordings”-type set. The respond to the question about “Beautiful City” is a bit of a bummer: I don’t have a lot of enthusiasm about buying this set *and* buying a 2CD Rattlesnakes where half the material is already on this set.

Ah well.

I have always been aware if Mr Cole from back in the day and only the songs which received airplay in one form or another. I did not buy any of their work as my musical tastes were in a slightly different genre and that cash was limited.

But now with the beneit of disposable income and an a much broader taste in music I will definitely be picking up this boxset.

The interview was a good read too.

Nice set of questions Paul. So refreshing when the interviewer knows their stuff.