Archive for July, 2012

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Debbie Harry, Madonna and Janet Jackson walk into a dance club…and everyone is like “OMG”

Thursday, July 5th, 2012

It’s an 80s diva clearinghouse here at the Lost Turntable! Hurry up and grab your favorite pop dance mixes before they’re gone for good! All sales are final!

Debbie Harry
French Kissin (Dance Mix)
Did you know that this song was written by Chuck Lorre? Yes, the same Chuck Lorre who brought us Dharma and Greg, The Big Bang Theory and Two And A Half Men?! What? How? Huh?

It turns out that this was the only pop song the dude ever wrote (at least, the only one that made it onto an album) and he went on to TV pretty soon afterward, his first stop being a co-composer for all the music to the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon! And I thought the dude from the Exotic Birds who ended up drumming for Stabbing Westward only to go on to create music for A&E shows had a weird career arc.

I can promise you that this song is exponentially better than any episode of any television show Chuck Lorre has worked on in the last 10 years.

Madonna
Frozen (Extended Club Mix)
Frozen (Meltdown Mix)
Hanky Panky (Bare Bottom 12″ Mix)
Hanky Panky (Bare Bones Single Mix)
One of these songs is a meditation on the difficulties of maintaining a serious relationship with someone who refuses to open up emotionally. The other is about a spanking fetish. Guess which one is which.

I think it’s fair to say that “Frozen” is the deeper of the two songs. It’s also the one I like more, but that has less to do with the lyrical content and more to do with the production as a whole. “Hanky Panky” is a fun song for sure, but I’ve never been a big fan of any modern song that tries to ape the 40s jump blues/jazz sound. I will say though that I do like the “Bare Bottom 12″ Mix” a bit more than the original version, thanks to its (very) extended breakdown that really emphasizes the beat over the horns and other more “vintage” aspects of the song’s production.

Additionally, I’m very depressed that no one has ever done a mash-up of this song with Christina Aguilera’s “Candyman” and/or “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy.”

Janet Jackson
Escapade (Shep’s Good Time Mix)
Escapade (The Get Away Dub)
Escapade (Shep’s Housecapade Mix)
Escapade (Housecapade Dub)
Escapade (I Can’t Take No More Dub)
These “Escapade” mixes will be the last Janet tracks I’ll be sharing here…until I find more. There were eight singles for Rhythm Nation 1814, and you bet your ass I’m going to get all of them someday.

Until that glorious day, enjoy these cuts. These are great mixes, and the near-acapella sections really show just how much Janet sounded like Michael back then. There are portions in the “Shep’s Good Time Mix” where she sounds just like her brother. It’s freaking eerie.

 

Posted in Debbie Harry, Janet Jackson, Madonna | 6 Comments »

Music for Unicorns

Thursday, July 5th, 2012

I celebrated American Independence Day by watching clips of The Day After on YouTube. Actually, my roommates did more to celebrate the holiday and they’re both Chinese immigrants. I fail at being American.

But I totally rule at sharing 80s music, so let’s do this.

Bryan Ferry
Is Your Love Strong Enough (Extended Version)
Man, that’s one stone cold stare.

When Ridley Scott finished his Tom Cruise frolics with unicorns fantasy epic that is Legend, the studio was not happy with his final cut. Not only did they strip his original 113 minute version down to 96 minutes for European audiences, they also went ahead and cut the American version even more, down to a scant 89 minutes. But that wasn’t the only change they made to the film when bringing it to American shores.

No, in addition to randomly slicing out seven minutes of pesky plot , they also completely removed Jerry Goldsmith’s fully symphonic score and replaced it with a synthesized score by Tangerine Dream, with additional contributions by Jon Anderson of Yes and Bryan Ferry. From what I’ve read it was because they wanted the film to have a broader appeal, but I think it was just because someone at Universal Studios thought Firestarter was dope.

It’s such an odd thing to do if you think about it. Did the executives at Universal really thing that an electronic soundtrack would really help to bring in the kids and families? Why even bother? Why eat the costs of Jerry Goldsmith’s score? Just seems totally random to me.

Besides, it didn’t help. The movie was a bomb and critical dud. Ironically today, you can find Goldmith’s original score on iTunes and Amazon relatively easily, but Tangerine Dream’s soundtrack has long been out of print. The soundtrack version of this song (which features guitar work by David Gilmour) is on a few Ferry compilations, but this 12″ version has never seen the light of day digitally.

The Cure
Kyoto Song (Live)
A Night Like This (Live)
I was going to put a picture of Robert Smith up, but I think one freaky looking British dude is enough for one post.

These two live tracks are from the 12″ single to “Catch” and originally appeared in The Cure’s 1987 concert film The Cure In Orange. (In case you’re wondering, the Orange in question is the Theatre antique d’Orange, located in the Principality of Orange, France.) The movie was released on tape and laserdisc, but it still has never seen a DVD or Blu-Ray release, something that no doubt makes fans of The Cure even more depressed than they already are. Mopey bastards.

 

Posted in Bryan Ferry/Roxy Music, live, remixes, The Cure | 2 Comments »

Boy George And Family (Not His Family)

Tuesday, July 3rd, 2012

 

Look at Boy George. Would you really want to hurt him?

The Family
The Screams Of Passion (Extended Version)
Nothing Compares 2 U
The Family sure sounded a lot like Prince. That’s probably because Prince created the group, wrote nearly all the songs for their sole album (which he also produced) and performed most of the instruments on it as well. Rumor has it that he even recorded vocal tracks that vocalist St. Paul used as a guide for his own vocal performance. Since St.Paul sounds just like Prince throughout the entire album, I think that rumor has some credence.

The Family’s only album failed to chart, and they’ve pretty much vanished into obscurity since the 80s, save for the fact that their album was the birthplace of “Nothing Compares 2 U,” the song that Sinead O’Connor made crazy famous just a few years later (although if you ask me, that’s only her second best cover. This would be her first).

A major bummer about The Family is that, since they were such a commercial failure, almost none of their work was given the 12″ single treatment. “The Screams Of Passion” was the only track from their album that got an extended version, and it’s only about a minute and twenty seconds longer than the original version. Still, it’s a good version of a great song.

The B-side of the 12″ single was the album cut “Yes.” But whatever, I’m sharing “Nothing Compares 2 U’ instead. Because duh.

Culture Club
White Boy (Long Version)
I’m Afraid Of Me (Long Version)
Am I high or does “White Boy” sound a little like a Duran Duran song?

That’s all I got tonight. I’m sure there is something interesting to be said about Culture Club. I’m equally sure that at 12am on a Monday night that I am not the person to do it. Enjoy these mixes that I got off of a crazy looking Japanese 12″ single.

Posted in Culture Club, Prince, remixes | 1 Comment »

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