Tag: Alternative

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Tunes

Eighties’ best 100 redux: #83 [Tie] Yazoo “Only you” (1982) & The Flying Pickets “Only you” (1983)

<< #84    |    #82 >>

The #83 position on this Eighties’ best 100 (redo) list is occupied by two very different versions of the same song: Yazoo’s original synth-heavy New Wave hit and The Flying Pickets’ a capella cover of “Only you”.

Vince Clarke left Depeche Mode after the release of their debut album, “Speak & spell”, in 1981 and formed Yazoo (known as Yaz in the U.S.) with vocalist Alison Moyet. “Only you” was released as the duo’s first single and would later appear on Yazoo’s synth pop trailblazing debut “Upstairs at Eric’s” in 1982 but was actually written by Clarke back when he was still with Mode. Yazoo would only release one more album before calling it quits in 1983 when Clarke went on to form Erasure (another synthpop duo) with Andy Bell.

Though Yazoo’s “Only you” hit #2 on the UK singles chart, it was actually beaten by The Flying Pickets’ a capella cover version of the same song. They scored the coveted Christmas number one spot on the UK singles chart in 1983 when they recorded and released it as their debut single. The Flying Pickets started as a six piece group that specialized in a capella covers and were very active on the political left. They have never officially broken up but the members have changed so much over the years that not a single original member remains.

Both versions of the song bring me back to grade 10 music class because this is where I first heard the two of them. Ms. Harrison, the music teacher, brought in The Flying Pickets’ version to play for us and to show us an example of a capella singing. Many in the class liked the song so much that we listened to it again the next day, and the next, and it got to be almost a daily ritual at the end of each class. Finally, someone in the class or maybe it was Ms. Harrison again (my memory on this is a bit fuzzy – it was a few decades ago) brought in the original Yazoo version to bask in the differences in sound, feel, and emotion. To this day, though I am a much bigger Yazoo fan than I am of The Flying Pickets (can’t say I know any of their other songs), I love both versions of this tune equally.

Here is the original Yazoo version:

Here is a cappella cover by The Flying Pickets:

Original Eighties best 100 position: #83

Favourite lyric: “All i needed was the love you gave / all I needed for another day / and all I ever knew / only you.” Okay. Maybe I’m cheating here because this is the chorus but I do love singing along with it.

Where are they now?: Yazoo reformed for a tour in 2008 that brought them through Europe and the US but that was pretty much it. Erasure is still very much Clarke’s primary project. And as I mentioned already, Flying Pickets are still plugging away out there somewhere.

For the rest of the Eighties’ best 100 redux list, click here.

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Live music galleries

Live music galleries: The Lowest of the Low [2025]

(I got the idea for this series while sifting through the ‘piles’ of digital photos on my laptop. It occurred to me to share some of these great pics from some of my favourite concert sets from time to time. Until I get around to the next one, I invite you to peruse my ever-growing list of concerts page.)

Lowest of the Low, live at Overflow Brewing Company

Artist: The Lowest of the Low
When: April 25th, 2025
Where: Overflow Brewing Company, Ottawa
Context: I’ve been a fan of the legendary Toronto indie rockers since I was a teenager and first fell for their debut album, “Shakespeare my butt” in the early 90s. I’d seen live them a handful of times already, each since their triumphant reformation in the early 2000s, but it had been more than a decade since the last time* so when I saw this show advertised, I hemmed and hawed a little but bit the bullet in the end. Part of the reason I pondered so much was because of the location** and given my recent medical issues*** but after everything, I was super glad I went. The show was the second on a month-long mini-tour in support of their newest album, “Over years and overnight” (due out this Friday). The problem with slogging an album not yet released is always that you can’t properly sell it at the merch table**** and that fans won’t have had the time to familiarize themselves with the new material. However, the band did push through a good deal of these new tracks, were mostly well received by the crowd, and definitely had me looking forward to giving the album a spin. Most of the rest of the set was pulled from the group’s classic debut*****, which had the whole crowd singing along, along with a sampling of the best of the rest of their output from over the years. Indeed, Ron Hawkins and the other gentlemen in the band displayed that are great show people, knowing their audience and their bread and butter, so of course, there were laughs and cheers and maybe some tears. So much fun.
Point of reference song: “The only one I see”

Ron Hawkins, frontman and lead vocalist
Michael McKenzie, lead guitarist
Lawrence Nichols, keys, backing vocals and legendary on the harmonica
Greg Smith, bassist and pogo dancer
David Alexander, drummer
Greg and Michael enjoying the jam
Ron Hawkins
Lawrence rocking the harmonica
Ron and Greg having a rest while David and Michael rock out
Ron and Lawrence performing ‘Black Monday’

*The last time being in September 2013, possibly one of, if not the last time founding member Stephen Stanley performed live with the band.

**The venue was at Overflow Brewing Company, a local craft brewery that is a bit out of the way in terms of transit, and definitely required a cab ride home given that I am still not driving.

***This was my first live show in more than six months and I was a bit unsure but in the end, it was the perfect show to get back in the saddle.

****Though frontman Ron Hawkins kept making cracks about us being able to pay to scan a QR code at the merch table.

*****By my count and not necessarily trustworthy memory, 10 tracks from the debut, including “Rosy and grey”, “Bleed a little while tonight”, “Salesmen, cheats and liars”, and “Henry needs a new pair of shoes”.

Categories
Tunes

100 best covers: #37 The National “Pretty in pink”

<< #38    |    #36 >>

I don’t know how the compilation, “Reprises Inrocks”, ever ended up in my Apple music library*, which song it was that led me to track down the two disc compilation, but it did. And I did. And though, I don’t listen to it all the way through all that often, there are some great tunes on there that are not available anywhere else.

It was released in 2007 by French music and culture magazine, Les Inrockuptibles, whose pages upon whom I have admittedly never glanced, though I have admired a few of their other compilations in the past, most notably the wicked Leonard Cohen and The Smiths tribute albums, “I’m your fan” and “The Smiths is dead”. The twenty five tracks on this one are all covers, some by bands I love and others not, and many are ones that may not seem like they could work on paper, but somehow do nonetheless. Examples include: Ray Lamontagne’s stripped down take on Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy”, Jose Gonzalez’s unplugged version of Massive Attack’s “Teardrop”, Nina Gordon channelling Frente but doing NWA’s “Straight outta Compton”, and Calexico’s spanish guitar folk rendition of The Clash’s “Guns of Brixton”.

One of the few tracks that I knew would work from the very beginning was Cincinnati, Ohio’s The National taking a crack at The Psychedelic Fur’s classic, “Pretty in pink”. I was still relative new to The National at this point, having just delved into their fourth studio album, “The boxer”, but I was already hooked on their dark and atmospheric sound and completely sold on the rich vocals of frontman Matt Berninger. Even though his voice is quite different from that of Richard Butler, more lounge and laconic than rough and punk, it still feels exactly right for the song.

Originally written and released in 1981, “Pretty in pink” gained a greater following and notoriety when it was re-recorded a few years later for inclusion on the soundtrack for the John Hughes teen 80s film of the same name. Both Furs’ versions are hard to argue with, raw and more guitar heavy, and more upbeat than The National’s cover. The song is a post punk classic and likely a huge inspiration for a band who have long since penned a bunch of post punk revival classics of their own.

I think both of these recordings are incredible and full of life, one sunny and one rainy, but I have to go with the original here, mostly for the nostalgia factor for me.

Cover:

Original:

*It would’ve been iTunes way back then.

For the rest of the 100 best covers list, click here.