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Underground > Radio & Music >

Lipstick Traces: A Secret History Of The Manic Street Preachers

14:50 / 05.07.03

Manics threads usually have a fair old bit of mileage round these parts, so I was wondering what everyone thought of the forthcoming Lipstick Traces compliation, released 14.07.2003.

Disc: 1
1. Prologue To History
2. 4 Ever Delayed
3. Sorrow 16
4. Judge Yr'self
5. Socialist Serenade
6. Donkeys
7. Comfort Comes
8. Mr Carbohydrate
9. Dead Trees And Traffic Islands
10. Horses Under Starlight
11. Sepia
12. Sculpture Of Man
13. Spectators Of Suicide
14. Democracy Coma
15. Strip It Down Live
16. Bored Out Of My Mind
17. Just A Kid
18. Close My Eyes
19. Valley Boy
20. We Her Majesty's Prisoners

Disc: 2
1. We Are All Bourgeois Now
2. Rock And Roll Music
3. It's So Easy (Live)
4. Take The Skinheads Bowling
5. Been A Son
6. Out Of Time
7. Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head (Warchild Version)
8. Bright Eyes (Live)
9. Train In Vain (Live)
10. Wrote For Luck
11. What's My Name (Live)
12. Velocity Girl
13. Can't Take My Eyes Off You
14. Didn't My Lord Deliver Daniel
15. Last Christmas (TFI Friday Performance)

This certainly isn't an exhaustive tracklisting (I seem to remember a Gold Against the Soul era tune called Patrick Bateman that isn't featured). I would have liked their cover of Pennyroyal Tea on there, too. Thoughts?

BTW - I nearly misstyped Patrick Bateman as Patrick Batman. Definitely sheds new light on the book...

Matthew Fluxington

14:56 / 05.07.03

When I clicked on this from the main page, the Manic Street Preachers part of the title was missing, and I was so excited because I thought this was going to be about Greil Marcus's book of the same title.

So I guess the Manics are fans of Marcus?

15:07 / 05.07.03

Huge fans.

15:45 / 05.07.03

Thanks to Not Me Again for this link (included in the Welsh Punk Not Dead thread).

'Judge Y'rself

Now the Manics are releasing a compilation of unreleased tracks and b-sides, including Judge Y'rself - the last song written with before Richey disappeared.

It was recorded for the soundtrack to the Sylvester Stallone film Judge Dredd but was never released.

...

A band spokesman said it was a very emotional time putting out the track.

"It's the last they wrote as a four-piece band." he said.

"It was a shame it was not released at the time, because it's a fantastic song."'

16:32 / 05.07.03

Cheers, though that link was actually a cock-up - I've added a new one to the actual story I was talking about, where they found a body which was meant to be Richey but wasn't.

I think this compilation has a definite whiff of contractual obligation about it - either a split or a radical new direction is in the offing, I think. Either will do - the Glanstonbury songs I caught on tv were woeful...

16:35 / 05.07.03

Damn stupid of me not to use the preview button - that's Glastonbury. Gla(n)stonbury is an entirely different kind of festival, I should think...

09:40 / 07.07.03

The B-sides selection isn't too bad - and I'm glad they're putting some of this stuff out on CD; I don't have a functional record player any more... Good to see 'Comfort Comes' on there, and have always had a soft spot for 'Prologue to History' and even 'Mr Carbohydrate', even if the latter is the first in a long series of songs all about Nicky Wire and his anti-rock'n'roll fun lifestyle.

I was never so fussed about the covers - the version of 'The Drowners' is a mangling, really - but 'Raindrops keep Falling on my Head' is pretty classic. I see they haven't included 'Ol' Red-Eyes is Back'.

09:42 / 07.07.03

But on a second glance - where is 'Too Cold Here', eh? Pfffrrrt, load of rubbish, etc., mumble mumble...

Regrettable Juvenilia

10:26 / 07.07.03

Funny, I was just going to say that since it doesn't have 'Us Against You' on it, it's worthless. Old skule Manics fans think alike...

But seriously, what annoys me about this is the way it's being presented largely as a history of the Manics early days (check the packaging, the title) when in fact it leans the other way. This is just as revisionist as Forever Delayed, in a slightly less obvious and thus more insidious way. I would have preferred something as completist as Suede's Sci-Fi Lullabies (where you get the effect that only the first disc is worth listening to, but by God is it worth listening to). Secret history my arse.

Mind you, I guess I will have to hear 'Judge Yourself' at some point...

11:03 / 07.07.03

Off-topic, Sci-Fi Lullabies annoyed me in a similar manner in that as a purely B-sides compilation it missed out Stay Together. To the best of my knowledge that's still never appeared anywhere other than its original release as a limited single, but as the track that marks the turning point between Suede and Dog Man Star (and a bloody fine tune, to boot) it's one of the most important in their history. Daft.

Jack The Bodiless

18:54 / 07.07.03

But that's the point of 'Stay Together'. That it's not on an album. That you can't just walk into HMV and get it whenever you like. It was supposed to be throwaway. Just because they could.

22:25 / 07.07.03

I know, but you could claim the same of B-sides - they're throwaway, literally if they're rejected from the tracklistings of the proper albums, which makes this omission a little odd (especially when its own B-sides are included).

Whinging, because I'm too damn lazy to find a new stylus to enable me to listen to the 12".

05:14 / 17.07.03

I heard Judge Jourself on a listening post yesterday, and it's both fab and a bit depressing. Stylistically it sounds like the material on the Holy Bible (heavy, guttural, nicely drum and guitar choices by James and Sean), better produced, with an edge that sounds a little bit Queens of the Stone Age. I can still remember it a day later, and I only heard it once.

I say depressing because this is what the band could have become, and it suits them SO much better than what they are now. What a shame. I'll definitely be getting the album when I get paid, despite the whack of shite on there, too.