Strip-Mine / Your cut

[cbrown]

Did something like this on the old official msg board before it got taken down, but I'm in the same frame of mind now, so thought it should be rekindled.

The idea is this - If you could step back in time to when the albums were released, knowing what you know now, i,e, which bsides of the time were not included, impact etc, what would have been YOUR cut of each album? We live in the age of the ipod and the CD-R so these playlists are easy to make. Experiment. On my mp3 player I've made my own cuts of each album, removing songs I don't care for, replacing them and re-ordering the tracks.

In this case, Strip-Mine.

I feel its an album that could have been amazing. It's let down by an attempt at being commercial, something that was never really James strongest suit in the 80's. You have songs like Stutter completely left on the shelf, Left Out Of Her Will as an almost unheard bside and then things like Charlie Dance coming on the album at number 2. What's that all about?

Anyway, here's the version I would love to have seen released :

1. NOT THERE
2. ISLAND SWING
3. FAIRGROUND
4. VULTURE
5. STUTTER
6. RIDERS
7. NEW NATURE
8. YA-HO (single *samba* version!)
9. LEFT OUT OF HER WILL
10. MEDIEVAL
11. WHAT FOR
12. STRIP-MINING/REFRAIN

Give it a try. If not, what would yours have been?

cB

[bobbyperu2]

SIDE 1

1. WHAT FOR
2. WONDERFUL
3. YA HO
4. MOSQUITO
5. NEW NATURE
6. STRIPMINING/REFRAIN

SIDE 2

7. MEDIEVAL
8. RIDERS
9. NOT THERE
10. STOWAWAY
11. FAIRGROUND
12. STUTTER

Good idea. Im away to make this up just now. ;D

[Johnny Yen]

I really like Charlie Dance.

[NewColour]

Me too

Although it's grown on me rather than being a love at first sight kinda song. It's great to jump around to

[jackanderton]

Wonderful and Might As Well Be Friends should've easily usurped Vulture and Not There.

[oneofthethree]

Whoops, Discipline, Gregory's Town, Mr Ex-President

would have loved to see them all

Stowaway as a b-side too.

[oneofthethree]

add Doubts to that too

[cbrown]

i really like doubts too - isn't that the one that was known as Dark Room for a while? On the other hand I did think Stowaway was a bit cheap though. Island Swing is just as ludicrous but better

cB

[BlackHole]

cbrown said:

The idea is this - If you could step back in time to when the albums were released, knowing what you know now, i,e, which bsides of the time were not included, impact etc, what would have been YOUR cut of each album? We live in the age of the ipod and the CD-R so these playlists are easy to make. Experiment. On my mp3 player I've made my own cuts of each album, removing songs I don't care for, replacing them and re-ordering the tracks.

Well, I know for sure my cut of Millionaires would be different... I felt a lot of songs that made the album sounded more like B-side material, whereas many of the songs that did end up as B-sides were good enough to be A-sides in their own right. I've often thought this may have been one of the reasons why the album wasn't as successful as it was hyped up to be, because the tracks that made the final cut just weren't strong enough. My cut would have been:

1. Crash
2. Just Like Fred Astaire
3. IKWIHF
4. Shooting My Mouth Off
5. We're Going to Miss You
6. I Defeat
7. Afro Lover
8. Surprise
9. Mary
10. Stolen Horse
11. Confusion
12. Vervaceous

IMO this would have made for a much stronger album. I'd have released different singles as well, my choices for singles would have been (in this order): Confusion, Afro Lover, JLFA, WGTMY (album version)... though I think Mary and I Defeat would also quite possibly have been strong enough to have been singles in their own right.

[paranormalhandy]

There was another version of the whole "Strip Mine" album which was scrapped, wasn't there? Can't remember if it was produced by Steve Power or Hugh Jones, but it was deemed uncommercial by Sire (iirc).

James's only release in 1987 was "Ya Ho (Edit)", taken from those album sessions, and released on the Sire "Just Say Yes" CD. The sleeve notes list it as being from their forth-coming album "If Things Were Perfect". This probably (but not definitely) means a re-recorded version of ITWP was intended, along with the original "Ya Ho" - and I've also heard a studio version of "Stutter" from the same sessions, although I think I've lost the mp3.

About four months after "Strip Mine" emerged, the "Ya Ho EP" appeared. The version from "Just Say Yes" reappears as the single (salsa) mix - and I think the three b-sides also sound like they were recorded in 1987. They've got that clattering, experiment sound: not the more slick sound of 1988's "Strip Mine".

So:

(1) If Things Were Perfect
(2) Stutter
(3) Ya Ho (Salsa Version)

and ... er ...

[jackanderton]

11. Confusion

----

Insanity, that's all I have to say. Insanity.

[lostinsound]

jackanderton said:

11. Confusion

----

Insanity, that's all I have to say. Insanity.

That was my thought when I read that as well. Plus releasing it as a single? Hmm....

[BlackHole]

lostinsound said:

jackanderton said:

11. Confusion

----

Insanity, that's all I have to say. Insanity.

That was my thought when I read that as well. Plus releasing it as a single? Hmm....

Am I really alone in liking this song that even the band hated???

I honestly think it's a really good song. Nothing's changing my opinion. Can't seem to see what's so bad about it.

[Pooka]

I like Confusion too.

With regards to Strip Mine, however... I think Stripmining and Refrain should have been two separate tracks...

[paranormalhandy]

They are, aren't they? Tracks 10 and 11. Only the CD is mastered wrong and has them as one track.

I wonder if this reissue due out on the 25th will rectify this?