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Tributes paid to Chas & Dave’s Chas Hodges

Sam Richards
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Tributes paid to Chas & Dave’s Chas Hodges
Musicians have been paying tribute to Chas & Dave's Chas Hodges, who died on Saturday (September 22) after a battle with oesophageal cancer. Speaking to BBC News, bandmate Dave Peacock hailed Hodges as a "fabulous musician and a fabulous mate. All he wanted to do was play music. He just couldn'...

Musicians have been paying tribute to Chas & Dave’s Chas Hodges, who died on Saturday (September 22) after a battle with oesophageal cancer.

Speaking to BBC News, bandmate Dave Peacock hailed Hodges as a “fabulous musician and a fabulous mate. All he wanted to do was play music. He just couldn’t stop, even when he was eating his dinner he’d be humming a tune.

“When he was having chemotherapy they couldn’t believe it – he even wrote a song while he was having chemotherapy in the hospital. I always say to people Chas and Dave ain’t just a band, it’s a way of life and I’m going to miss him terribly,” he added.

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Before forming Chas & Dave in the mid-70s, Hodges was a session bass player who recorded with Joe Meek and backed Jerry Lee Lewis, Gene Vincent and many others. He was also a member of country rockers Heads, Hands & Feet.

Neil Innes of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and The Rutles called him a “Premier Division musician and human being”. Luke Haines wrote: “What a musician, one of my favourite voices.” The Kinks’ Dave Davies tweeted simply: “Sad day, I love Chas Hodges”.

The November 2018 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – with David Bowie on the cover. The issue also comes with two exclusive Bowie art prints, including one previously unseen image. We pay tribute to Aretha Franklin, while elsewhere in the issue you’ll find exclusive features on John Lennon, Tom Petty, Led Zeppelin, Cat Power, John Grant, Blondie, Connan Mockasin, Billy Gibbons, Family, Stereolab and many more. Our free 15-track CD has been exclusively curated by Sub Pop and includes tracks by J Mascis, The Afghan Whigs, Mudhoney, Luluc, Low and Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever.

Exclusive! The second coming of David Bowie’s Never Let Me Down

Sam Richards
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Exclusive! The second coming of David Bowie’s Never Let Me Down
The new issue of Uncut – in shops now or available to order online here – presents the untold story of David Bowie's 1980s, the decade that found him achieving fame and success on an unprecedented scale – but was it worth it? The feature is hooked to the release of Bowie's latest career-spann...

The new issue of Uncut – in shops now or available to order online here – presents the untold story of David Bowie’s 1980s, the decade that found him achieving fame and success on an unprecedented scale – but was it worth it?

The feature is hooked to the release of Bowie’s latest career-spanning box set, Loving The Alien (1983-1988), on October 12. Perhaps the most intriguing feature of package is the inclusion of an entirely new recording of Never Let Me Down. Initially released in April 1987, Bowie later dismissed the album as “awful”, regretting his lack of application when it came to the record’s production.

“About a year later, David and I were sitting on deckchairs by Mountain Studio in Switzerland, looking across Lake Geneva,” recalls songwriter/guitarist Reeves Gabrels, with whom Bowie had just begun recording as Tin Machine. “He started telling me, ‘Y’know, I’m proud of the songs on Never Let Me Down, but I wasn’t in the best shape and wasn’t as present as I should’ve been at the sessions.’ He later pointed to a couch in the studio and said, ‘I did most of my work on the record from there, passed out.’ He blamed himself for a lot of it and suggested we try re-recording some of those songs back then. It was a subject that would come up periodically through the years, usually late at night on the tour bus or in the studio.”

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Under the guidance of engineer/producer Mario McNulty, Gabrels is now part of the band responsible for finally granting Bowie his wish, alongside David Torn (guitar), Sterling Campbell (drums) and Tim Lefebvre (bass). The revamped Never Let Me Down also features string arrangements by Nico Muhly and a guest appearance by Laurie Anderson. Bowie himself set the ball rolling in 2008, when he asked McNulty to re-record and remix “Time Will Crawl”, the album’s second single, for his iSelect compilation. “Oh, to redo the rest of that album,” wrote a wistful Bowie in the liner notes.

“There were three major changes that David was specifically looking for when we redid ‘Time Will Crawl’,” McNulty tells Uncut. “One was replacing the cold, badly programmed drum machines with real acoustic drums. He also wanted to have a very modern string arrangement, in the style of Philip Glass or Steve Reich. And the other thing was to make a new arrangement, getting rid of most of what was there, then taking bits and looping them. He was getting creative with the existing track.”

Tackling “Zeroes” was a particularly poignant moment for Gabrels. “Mario played it to me with bass, drums and just David’s acoustic guitar and vocals on the first day at Electric Lady,” he says. “I was like, ‘Wow! There’s a song here!’ It was obvious that a second acoustic guitar would beef it up a little. One of the things David and I often used to do, from Tin Machine through to Hours [1999], is play double acoustic guitar together. Sometimes he’d play 12-string and I’d play six-string, and vice versa. We’d sit facing each other with our guitars in front of the mics. So I started playing ‘Zeroes’ on acoustic guitar, with my eyes closed while we were recording. In my mind’s eye I saw David sitting across from me. I could see the way he would move his shoulder and even the way he’d cross his legs and bounce the crossed leg while he was playing. He’d look at you, but at the same time get this faraway look in his eye. When I got to the end of the track, I opened my eyes and of course he wasn’t there. I knew at some point during the session that I was going to feel like I was about to cry. I was just glad I was sitting alone in the studio when it happened.”

Read much more about the new version of Never Let Me Down and David Bowie’s 1980s in the new issue of Uncut, in shops now or available to order online here.

The November 2018 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – with David Bowie on the cover. The issue also comes with two exclusive Bowie art prints, including one previously unseen image. We pay tribute to Aretha Franklin, while elsewhere in the issue you’ll find exclusive features on John Lennon, Tom Petty, Led Zeppelin, Cat Power, John Grant, Blondie, Connan Mockasin, Billy Gibbons, Family, Stereolab and many more. Our free 15-track CD has been exclusively curated by Sub Pop and includes tracks by J Mascis, The Afghan Whigs, Mudhoney, Luluc, Low and Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever.

Aretha Franklin: “She became greater than the greats”

Sam Richards
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Aretha Franklin: “She became greater than the greats”
The new issue of Uncut – in shops now or available to order online here – features an extensive tribute to Aretha Franklin, exploring how the Queen Of Soul empowered America. Charting the singer's rise alongside that of the civil rights movement and noting how she delivered rousing inauguration...

The new issue of Uncut – in shops now or available to order online here – features an extensive tribute to Aretha Franklin, exploring how the Queen Of Soul empowered America.

Charting the singer’s rise alongside that of the civil rights movement and noting how she delivered rousing inaugurations for presidents Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama, Stephen Deusner writes that few artists in any genre or in any medium were so tied to the conscience of their country as Aretha. She was revered in a way public servants are revered, praised as though she had benevolently held public office – which is perhaps not far from reality. She was proof that the accomplishments of an artist 
could reverberate down through subsequent generations, that pop music can change the world.

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“Part of what made her great,” says Sam Moore, a lifelong friend and one half of the Stax R&B duo Sam & Dave, “was the struggle, the hurt, the pain she endured. She took it all up on the stage with her. Some of us in the industry, we would turn to drugs or alcohol or maybe even suicide, but she took it all up on that stage 
and she became greater than the greats.”

Following her journey from the gospel circuit via her Atlantic breakthrough to her 80s pop reinvention, Uncut remembers a singer who inspired awe at every turn. One of Aretha’s most popular performances came about when Luciano Pavarotti had been booked on the 1998 Grammy Awards show to perform “Nessum Dorma”, an aria from Puccini’s Turandot that had been his signature tune since the early 1970s. At the last minute he fell ill and was unable to perform. Aretha took his place with little notice and even less rehearsal, but 
to say she brought down the house would be an understatement. Her performance was disarming in its power and interpretation, as she dipped dramatically into her lower register, then hit and sustained those high notes.

Sam Moore was in the audience that night and admits he got caught up in the action. “Aretha came on with this big band, and I was like, what? I didn’t know at the time that she had been studying opera. I just thought, ‘What is she doing?’ But then I completely embarrassed myself. When she started singing, I stood up and yelled… I hope she didn’t hear me, but that woman could do anything.”

Read much more about Aretha Franklin in the new issue of Uncut, on sale now with David Bowie on the cover.

The November 2018 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – with David Bowie on the cover. The issue also comes with two exclusive Bowie art prints, including one previously unseen image. We pay tribute to Aretha Franklin, while elsewhere in the issue you’ll find exclusive features on John Lennon, Tom Petty, Led Zeppelin, Cat Power, John Grant, Blondie, Connan Mockasin, Billy Gibbons, Family, Stereolab and many more. Our free 15-track CD has been exclusively curated by Sub Pop and includes tracks by J Mascis, The Afghan Whigs, Mudhoney, Luluc, Low and Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever.

The inside story of Prince’s album, Piano & A Microphone 1983

Sam Richards
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The inside story of Prince’s album, Piano & A Microphone 1983
For this week's archive feature, here's part of our Prince cover story from August 2018 - this time digging deep into his posthumous album, Piano & A Microphone 1983. Order the latest issue of Uncut online and have it sent to your home! Announced on what would have been Prince’s sixtieth bir...

For this week’s archive feature, here’s part of our Prince cover story from August 2018 – this time digging deep into his posthumous album, Piano & A Microphone 1983.

Order the latest issue of Uncut online and have it sent to your home!

Announced on what would have been Prince’s sixtieth birthday, Piano & A Microphone 1983 is a unique, intimate portrait of an artist in full flood. Taped in January 1983 at his Kiowa Trail home studio, it’s a remarkable 35-minute window into Prince’s creative process, featuring nine songs performed alone at his Yamaha acoustic piano: some classics, some covers, some in the throes of being written, some unheard until now.

“Can you turn the lights down a little?” he asks engineer Don Batts at the start, before launching into an astonishing seven-song medley, recorded in a single take. On “17 Days”, he pumps out the beat on his piano pedal, before transitioning into a verse and a chorus of an embryonic “Purple Rain” and a beautiful version of Joni Mitchell’s “A Case Of You”.

There’s a full-blooded gospel take on “Mary Don’t You Weep”, a nineteenth-century spiritual which occasionally popped up in his live set, and an early attempt at “Strange Relationship” in which he struggles to negotiate the transition between verse and chorus. The song finally found a home on Sign O’ The Times. After a raw “International Lover” comes “Wednesday”. Written for protégé Jill Jones and briefly in the running for Purple Rain, it’s sung by Prince in an unfamiliar style, unadorned and oddly innocent. The album ends with two unreleased tracks, the funky “Cold Coffee And Cocaine” and “Why The Butterflies”.

Piano & Microphone 1983 is both an invaluable historical artefact, and an outstanding work in its own right. Though at times Prince is clearly feeling his way into these songs, there are no stops and no mistakes. There’s nothing tentative about it. We hear him road-testing arrangements, scatting rhythmic ideas and guitar parts, playing brilliantly fluid piano and flipping through his full repertoire of vocal styles. These working methods were typical, says his engineer, Susan Rogers. “He didn’t demo songs. If he had an idea he would go straight to the piano – sometimes the guitar, but mostly the piano – and record.”

Discovered while tapes were being moved from Paisley Park, Piano & Microphone 1983 is the first in what promises to be a tantalising series of releases from Prince’s infamous Vault. This is where the legacy industry is heading, transitioning from deluxe expanded editions of classic albums, fleshed out with demos, alternate takes and live cuts, towards entire ‘lost’ works conceived as discrete entities. Recent examples include David Bowie’s The Gouster, an early sketch for Young Americans, and Neil Young’s 1976 album Hitchhiker.

Prince’s catalogue is particularly ripe for this kind of exploitation (he even did it himself, famously shelving and then issuing The Black Album). His modus operandi was such that – whether in the studio, at rehearsal, or on stage – he could record everything to a high standard of audio felicity. The Vault is bursting with material, much of it dating from his imperial 80s. Matt Fink says there are “two or three albums worth of Revolution material which really need to be finished or embellished upon. Those are sitting in there, among all the other material that has accumulated over the years.”

Eric Leeds recalls conversations in early 1986, during rehearsals for the Parade tour, concerning a possible Broadway musical. “He had four or five tracks that we recorded that would ostensibly have been for [that] idea,” says Leeds. “To what degree the idea was even fleshed out in his own mind, God only knows, but he had four or five songs we were working on. ‘Maybe next year we’ll put together a stage musical and go to Broadway.’ Why the hell not!”

The post-Revolution era was perhaps even more productive. Among other conceptually unified projects that could potentially see the light of day are the New Year’s Eve 1987/88 session with Miles Davis, and the albums laid aside in favour of Sign O’ The Times: Crystal Ball, Dream Factory and Camille. There’s also a stack of material recorded with the New Power Generation and 3RDEYEGIRL. Prince was dazzlingly productive while he was alive. In death, he’s destined to be even more so.

“I met him in 1977, and he was writing at least two songs a day since then,” says Bobby Z. “Do the math. People ask me what’s in the vault and I give them that equation! Two songs, times 365, times [39]. They’re going to have stuff to put out when you and I are long gone.”

The November 2018 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – with David Bowie on the cover. The issue also comes with two exclusive Bowie art prints, including one previously unseen image. We pay tribute to Aretha Franklin, while elsewhere in the issue you’ll find exclusive features on John Lennon, Tom Petty, Led Zeppelin, Cat Power, John Grant, Blondie, Connan Mockasin, Billy Gibbons, Family, Stereolab and many more. Our free 15-track CD has been exclusively curated by Sub Pop and includes tracks by J Mascis, The Afghan Whigs, Mudhoney, Luluc, Low and Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever.

Paul McCartney – Egypt Station

Graeme Thomson
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Paul McCartney – Egypt Station
Given the jaunty, shamelessly button-pushing preamble to the release of Paul McCartney’s 17th 
solo studio album – 
a televised magical mystery tour around key Liverpool haunts in the company of James Corden; hometown gigs at the Philharmonic and Cavern; everything short of piloting a yellow...

Given the jaunty, shamelessly button-pushing preamble to the release of Paul McCartney’s 17th 
solo studio album – 
a televised magical mystery tour around key Liverpool haunts in the company of James Corden; hometown gigs at the Philharmonic and Cavern; everything short of piloting a yellow submarine across the Mersey – you might have expected the actual record to be awash with ringing Rickenbacker, supercharged beat music and waggle-headed harmonies.

At 76, McCartney is entitled to trade on old glories, but Egypt Station is nothing so obvious. His first album since 2013’s New is produced by hitmaker for hire Greg Kurstin, with a sole contribution from the similarly clubbable Ryan Tedder. Following recent collaborations with Rihanna and Kanye West, the immediate suspicion is that Macca is more concerned with relevance than nostalgia, a theory backed up by the blast of youthful exuberance, even irreverence, of “Come On To You” and “Fuh You”. The former is just the right kind of dumb. Boasting thuggish drums, rattling piano, sitar solos, cool horns and a melody a toddler could master, it goes for the full “Lady Madonna” vibe. The latter is more contrived, a rather grim pitch for the millennial market that isn’t so much edgy as unseemly.

Such is the tightrope between ‘now’ and ‘then’ traversed by Egypt Station. The pre-match puff pitches the album as a “journey”, framed by two brief, ambient instrumentals. If so, it follows a haphazard itinerary in an attempt to cover all bases. There’s pop Macca, rock Macca, experimental Macca, acoustic Macca, funky Macca – and senior Macca. “Happy With You” might be the first song on which McCartney has truly sounded like the old man he now is. A frugal campfire tune, with echoes of Peter Gabriel’s “Solsbury Hill”, his voice creaks on words that reveal a clenched fist behind the raised thumb. 
“I used to get angry,” he sings. “I sat around all day/I liked to get stoned/I used to get wasted/But these days I don’t.”

“Confidante” is even more regretful, a surreal but heartsore tale of busted friendship set to a ragged minor-key folk strum, while the excellent “Do It Now” is a stately valediction (“I’ll be leaving in the morning, watch me go”), bent on seizing the day before the shadows fall. It’s one of the few occasions where McCartney and Kurstin bring out the big guns – cascading drums, orchestra, choir and all.

On these reflective songs, redolent of the long road travelled and the far shorter path ahead, the hard weather in his voice works well. That high, bell-like tone may not ring so sweet these days, but McCartney can still raise a serviceable scream when the mood takes him, as it does on “Who Cares”, a low-slung blues boogie powered by greased-up ZZ Top guitars, and “Caesar Rock”, a rousing semi-acoustic funk-rock curio that finds McCartney apparently auditioning for Spinal Tap vocal duties.

For ballast, there’s a handful of tunes that could have appeared on any McCartney album since Flowers In The Dirt. On the ropey “People Want Peace” – “I know that you’ve heard it before…” – you can only admire his fealty to this particular theme while acknowledging that it has become a creative bone-yard. Opener “I Don’t Know” is better, a solid, mid-tempo piano archetype flooded with late-night anxiety. “Crows at my window, dogs at my door,” he pines over simple, chunky chords, “Where am I going wrong?” “Dominoes” – a favourite pensioners’ pastime, lest we forget – offers an embarrassment of melodic hooks, with a rare sunburst of harmonies and some Revolver-style backwards guitar on the outro. “Hand In Hand” is a wisp-like beauty, pastoral and fragile, with a superb, serpentine melody.

If these are the album’s equivalent of central stations, McCartney ventures further afield on the branch lines. “Back In Brazil” is an eccentric electro bossa nova, surfing a funky clavinet groove and featuring a flute solo that raises the spectre of Ron Burgundy in Anchorman. It comes close to pastiche while foregrounding an experimental spirit that reaches full bloom on “Despite Repeated Warnings”, a seven-minute multi-part suite on which Macca unburdens himself of his thoughts on Brexit (“We have been misled… What can we do to stop this foolish plan going through?”) and Trump (“The captain’s crazy… How can we stop him, grab the keys and lock him up?”) via the extended metaphor of a capering quest to stop a mad skipper running his ship aground. Consciously doffing its hat to “Band On The Run”, “Live And Let Die” and “Happiness Is A Warm Gun”, among others, the music flips from proggy piano plod to chugging rocker, before undertaking further handbrake turns into thrusting orchestral rock and crunchy blues. The last words we hear as the vessel veers towards the rocks is a mocking, “It’s the will of the people!” It’s as inventive as it is endearingly silly. Hidden track “Hunt You Down/Naked/C-Link” evolves from primal rock through warped doo-wop to crying blues in similarly entertaining fashion.

It all adds up to an artist in rude creative health. If none of Egypt Station is quite startling enough to shift preconceptions about the most famous musician on the planet, it’s sufficiently vibrant to justify its existence, and strong enough to ensure that McCartney can sprinkle three or four tracks into the set on his upcoming world tour without setting off any alarms. Despite the distance travelled, at this late stage Beatle Paul is still travelling forward, yet to reach his destination.

Fleet Foxes announce First Collection 2006 – 2009

Sam Richards
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Fleet Foxes announce First Collection 2006 – 2009
To mark the 10th anniversary of their self-titled debut album, Fleet Foxes are re-releasing it as part of a lavish early years box set called First Collection 2006 - 2009. The package also includes the Sun Giant EP on 10” vinyl; the previously only self-released The Fleet Foxes EP on 10”; and B...

To mark the 10th anniversary of their self-titled debut album, Fleet Foxes are re-releasing it as part of a lavish early years box set called First Collection 2006 – 2009.

The package also includes the Sun Giant EP on 10” vinyl; the previously only self-released The Fleet Foxes EP on 10”; and B-sides & Rarities on 10”. In addition to its musical offerings, the release will feature a 32-page booklet including flyers, lyrics, and artwork from the period. First Collection 2006 – 2009 will also be released on CD and on all digital platforms.

Order the latest issue of Uncut online and have it sent to your home!

Watch a trailer for the release here:

Peruse the tracklisting below and pre-order First Collection 2006 – 2009 here.

Fleet Foxes 12”
Side A
1. Sun It Rises
2. White Winter Hymnal
3. Ragged Wood
4. Tiger Mountain Peasant Song
5. Quiet Houses
6. He Doesn’t Know Why
Side B
1. Heard Them Stirring
2. Your Protector
3. Meadlowlarks
4. Blue Ridge Mountains
5. Oliver James

Sun Giant 10”
Side A
1. Sun Giant
2. Drops in the River
3. English House
Side B
1. Mykonos
2. Innocent Son

The Fleet Foxes EP 10”
Side A
1. She Got Dressed
2. In the Hot Hot Rays
3. Anyone Who’s Anyone
Side B
1. Textbook Love
2. So Long to the Headstrong
3. Icicle Tusk

B-Sides & Rarities 10”
Side A
1. False Knight On The Road
2. Silver Dagger
3. White Lace Regretfully
4. Isles
Side B
1. Ragged Wood (transition basement sketch)
2. He Doesn’t Know Why (basement demo)
3. English House (basement demo)
4. Hot Air (basement sketch)

The November 2018 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – with David Bowie on the cover. The issue also comes with two exclusive Bowie art prints, including one previously unseen image. We pay tribute to Aretha Franklin, while elsewhere in the issue you’ll find exclusive features on John Lennon, Tom Petty, Led Zeppelin, Cat Power, John Grant, Blondie, Connan Mockasin, Billy Gibbons, Family, Stereolab and many more. Our free 15-track CD has been exclusively curated by Sub Pop and includes tracks by J Mascis, The Afghan Whigs, Mudhoney, Luluc, Low and Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever.

Hear Richard Swift’s posthumous album, The Hex

Sam Richards
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Hear Richard Swift’s posthumous album, The Hex
When singer-songwriter, producer and musician's musician Richard Swift died tragically in July at the age of 41, he left behind a completed album – his first solo record since 2009. According to a press release, The Hex was conceived sometime in 2012, really finding its conceptual footing in 2016...

When singer-songwriter, producer and musician’s musician Richard Swift died tragically in July at the age of 41, he left behind a completed album – his first solo record since 2009.

According to a press release, The Hex was conceived sometime in 2012, really finding its conceptual footing in 2016, and finalised in the month before his death with plans for its release already in place.

Order the latest issue of Uncut online and have it sent to your home!

It includes a song about Swift’s mother (“Wendy”) and his sister (“Sister Song”) whom he lost in back-to-back years, as well “Dirty Jim”, an ironically jaunty and buoyant song about substance abuse; the lies you tell yourself in its grip; and the loved ones you hurt along the way.

The album is released digitally today – hear it below:

A physical release of The Hex follows on December 7 – pre-order it here.

The November 2018 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – with David Bowie on the cover. The issue also comes with two exclusive Bowie art prints, including one previously unseen image. We pay tribute to Aretha Franklin, while elsewhere in the issue you’ll find exclusive features on John Lennon, Tom Petty, Led Zeppelin, Cat Power, John Grant, Blondie, Connan Mockasin, Billy Gibbons, Family, Stereolab and many more. Our free 15-track CD has been exclusively curated by Sub Pop and includes tracks by J Mascis, The Afghan Whigs, Mudhoney, Luluc, Low and Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever.

Read the complete tracklisting for Bob Dylan’s More Blood, More Tracks – The Bootleg Series Vol. 14

Michael Bonner
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Read the complete tracklisting for Bob Dylan’s More Blood, More Tracks – The Bootleg Series Vol. 14
Bob Dylan's 1975 album Blood On The Tracks is to provide the focus for the next instalment of his ongoing Bootleg Series. More Blood, More Tracks – The Bootleg Series Vol. 14 is released by Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings on November 2. Order the latest issue of Uncut online and have it s...

Bob Dylan’s 1975 album Blood On The Tracks is to provide the focus for the next instalment of his ongoing Bootleg Series.

More Blood, More Tracks – The Bootleg Series Vol. 14 is released by Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings on November 2.

Order the latest issue of Uncut online and have it sent to your home!

A single disc / 2LP edition showcases alternate New York versions of all 10 songs from the original album along with an unreleased take of “Up To Me”.

A 6CD Limited Edition Deluxe Set, meanwhile, presents the complete New York City recording sessions and the five existing Minneapolis/Sound 80 recordings in chronological order. You can pre-order the deluxe set by clicking here.

You can hear “If You See Her, So Hello [Take 1]” below.

The deluxe box set includes a hardcover photo book featuring liner notes and a complete reproduction of one of Dylan’s legendary handwritten 57 page notebooks, where you can follow the lyrical development of the songs that would eventually comprise Blood on the Tracks.

Here’s the tracklisting for the 1 CD / 2LP set:

Tangled Up In Blue (19/9/74, Take 3, Remake 3)
Simple Twist Of Fate (16/9/74, Take 1)
Shelter From The Storm (17/9/74, Take 2)
You’re A Big Girl Now (16/9/74, Take 2)
Buckets Of Rain (18/9/74, Take 2, Remake)
If You See Her, Say Hello (16/9/74, Take 1)
Lily, Rosemary And The Jack Of Hearts (16/9/74, Take 2)
Meet Me In The Morning (19/9/74, Take 1, Remake)
Idiot Wind (19/9/74, Take 4, Remake)
You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go (17/9/74, Take 1, Remake)
Up To Me (19/9/74, Take 2, Remake)

Here’s the tracklising for the 6 CD Deluxe Edition

DISC 1
A & R Studios
New York
September 16, 1974

If You See Her, Say Hello (Take 1) – solo
If You See Her, Say Hello (Take 2) – solo – previously released on The Bootleg Series, Vols. 1-3: Rare and Unreleased, 1961-1991
You’re a Big Girl Now (Take 1) – solo
You’re a Big Girl Now (Take 2) – solo
Simple Twist of Fate (Take 1) – solo
Simple Twist of Fate (Take 2) – solo
You’re a Big Girl Now (Take 3) – solo
Up to Me (Rehearsal) – solo
Up to Me (Take 1) – solo
Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts (Take 1) – solo
Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts (Take 2) – solo – included on Blood on the Tracks test pressing

Bob Dylan – vocals, guitar, harmonica

DISC 2
A & R Studios
New York
September 16, 1974

Simple Twist of Fate (Take 1A) – with band
Simple Twist of Fate (Take 2A) – with band
Simple Twist of Fate (Take 3A) – with band
Call Letter Blues (Take 1) – with band
Meet Me in the Morning (Take 1) – with band – edited version included on Blood on the Tracks test pressing and previously released on Blood on the Tracks
Call Letter Blues (Take 2) – with band – previously released on The Bootleg Series, Vols. 1-3: Rare and Unreleased, 1961-1991
Idiot Wind (Take 1) – with bass
Idiot Wind (Take 1, Remake) – with bass
Idiot Wind (Take 3 with insert) – with bass
Idiot Wind (Take 5) – with bass
Idiot Wind (Take 6) – with bass
You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go (Rehearsal and Take 1) – with band
You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go (Take 2) – with band
You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go (Take 3) – with band
You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go (Take 4) – with bass
You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go (Take 5) – with band
You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go (Take 6) – with band
You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go (Take 6, Remake) – with band
You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go (Take 7) – with band
You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go (Take 8) – with band

Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar, harmonica
Eric Weissberg, Charles Brown III, Barry Kornfeld: guitars
Thomas McFaul: keyboards
Tony Brown: bass
Richard Crooks: drums
Buddy Cage: steel guitar (5-6)

DISC 3
A & R Studios
New York
September 16, 1974

Tangled Up in Blue (Take 1) – with bass

A & R Studios
New York
September 17, 1974

You’re a Big Girl Now (Take 1, Remake) – with bass and organ
You’re a Big Girl Now (Take 2, Remake) – with bass, organ, and steel guitar –included on Blood on the Tracks test pressing and previously released on Biograph
Tangled Up in Blue (Rehearsal) – with bass and organ
Tangled Up in Blue (Take 2, Remake) – with bass and organ
Spanish is the Loving Tongue (Take 1) – with bass and piano
Call Letter Blues (Rehearsal) – with bass and piano
You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go (Take 1, Remake) – with bass and piano
Shelter From The Storm (Take 1) – with bass and piano – previously released on the Jerry McGuire original soundtrack
Buckets of Rain (Take 1) – with bass
Tangled Up in Blue (Take 3, Remake) – with bass
Buckets of Rain (Take 2) – with bass
Shelter From The Storm (Take 2) – with bass
Shelter From The Storm (Take 3) – with bass
Shelter From The Storm (Take 4) – with bass – previously released on Blood on the Tracks

Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar, harmonica
Tony Brown: bass
Paul Griffin: keyboards (2-9)
Buddy Cage: steel guitar (3)

DISC 4
A & R Studios
New York
September 17, 1974

You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go (Take 1, Remake 2) – with bass
You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go (Take 2, Remake 2) – with bass – previously released on Blood on the Tracks

A & R Studios
New York
September 18, 1974

Buckets of Rain (Take 1, Remake) – solo
Buckets of Rain (Take 2, Remake) – solo
Buckets of Rain (Take 3, Remake) – solo
Buckets of Rain (Take 4, Remake) – solo

A & R Studios
New York
September 19, 1974

Up to Me (Take 1, Remake) – with bass
Up to Me (Take 2, Remake) – with bass
Buckets of Rain (Take 1, Remake 2) – with bass
Buckets of Rain (Take 2, Remake 2) – with bass
Buckets of Rain (Take 3, Remake 2) – with bass
Buckets of Rain (Take 4, Remake 2) – with bass – previously released on Blood on the Tracks
If You See Her, Say Hello (Take 1, Remake) – with bass – previously included on Blood on the Tracks test pressing
Up to Me (Take 1, Remake 2) – with bass
Up to Me (Take 2, Remake 2) – with bass
Up to Me (Take 3, Remake 2) – with bass
Buckets of Rain (Rehearsal) – with bass
Meet Me in the Morning (Take 1, Remake) – with bass – previously released on the “Duquesne Whistle” 7” single
Meet Me in the Morning (Take 2, Remake) – with bass
Buckets of Rain (Take 5, Remake 2) – with bass

Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar, harmonica
Tony Brown: bass (1-2, 7-20)

DISC 5
A & R Studios
New York
September 19, 1974

Tangled Up in Blue (Rehearsal and Take 1, Remake 2) – with bass
Tangled Up in Blue (Take 2, Remake 2) – with bass
Tangled Up in Blue (Take 3, Remake 2) – with bass – included on Blood on the Tracks test pressing and previously released on The Bootleg Series, Vols. 1-3: Rare and Unreleased, 1961-1991
Simple Twist of Fate (Take 2, Remake) – with bass
Simple Twist of Fate (Take 3, Remake) – with bass – previously released on Blood on the Tracks
Up to Me (Rehearsal and Take 1, Remake 3) – with bass
Up to Me (Take 2, Remake 3) – with bass – previously released on Biograph
Idiot Wind (Rehearsal and Takes 1-3, Remake) – with bass
Idiot Wind (Take 4, Remake) – with bass
Idiot Wind (Take 4, Remake) – with organ overdub – included on Blood on the Tracks test pressing and previously released on The Bootleg Series, Vols. 1-3: Rare and Unreleased, 1961-1991
You’re a Big Girl Now (Take 1, Remake 2) – with bass
Meet Me in the Morning (Take 1, Remake 2) – with bass
Meet Me in the Morning (Takes 2-3, Remake 2) – with bass

Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar, harmonica
Tony Brown: bass

DISC 6
A & R Studios
New York
September 19, 1974

You’re a Big Girl Now (Takes 3-6, Remake 2) – with bass
Tangled Up in Blue (Rehearsal and Takes 1-2, Remake 3) – with bass
Tangled Up in Blue (Take 3, Remake 3) – with bass

Sound 80 Studio
Minneapolis, MN
December 27, 1974

Idiot Wind – with band – previously released on Blood on the Tracks
You’re a Big Girl Now – with band – previously released on Blood on the Tracks

Sound 80 Studio
Minneapolis, MN
December 30, 1974

Tangled Up in Blue – with band – previously released on Blood on the Tracks
Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts – with band – previously released on Blood on the Tracks
If You See Her, Say Hello – with band – previously released on Blood on the Tracks

The November 2018 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – with David Bowie on the cover. The issue also comes with two exclusive Bowie art prints, including one previously unseen image. We pay tribute to Aretha Franklin, while elsewhere in the issue you’ll find exclusive features on John Lennon, Tom Petty, Led Zeppelin, Cat Power, John Grant, Blondie, Connan Mockasin, Billy Gibbons, Family, Stereolab and many more. Our free 15-track CD has been exclusively curated by Sub Pop and includes tracks by J Mascis, The Afghan Whigs, Mudhoney, Luluc, Low and Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever.

Get a free, 15-track Sub Pop CD with this month’s issue of Uncut!

Sam Richards
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Get a free, 15-track Sub Pop CD with this month’s issue of Uncut!
The new issue of Uncut – in shops now or available to buy online here – comes with a free CD curated by Sub Pop head honcho Jonathan Poneman. Celebrating the legendary Seattle label's 30th anniversary, it features 15 tracks from the cream of Sub Pop's current roster, including Low, Iron & W...

The new issue of Uncut – in shops now or available to buy online here – comes with a free CD curated by Sub Pop head honcho Jonathan Poneman.

Celebrating the legendary Seattle label’s 30th anniversary, it features 15 tracks from the cream of Sub Pop’s current roster, including Low, Iron & Wine, Sleater-Kinney, J Mascis, Luluc, The Afghan Whigs and Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever.

Order the latest issue of Uncut online and have it sent to your home!

“It’s been a busy 30 years but the last year in particular has been really crazy,” says Poneman. “The monolithic Sub Pop sound, the singular grunge thing, has long been built upon, and the roster’s a reflection of the musical interests of all the people at the label.”

Peruse the full CD tracklisting below, and order a copy of the mag here.

1. Rolling Blackouts CF – Sister’s Jeans
2. Loma – Relay Runner
3. Low – Fly
4. Yuno – No Going Back
5. Knife Knights – Give You Game
6. Moaning – Don’t Go
7. King Tuff – Psycho Star
8. Frankie Cosmos – Jesse
9. J Mascis – See You At The Movies
10. Iron & Wine – What Hurts Worse
11. Luluc – Kids
12. The Afghan Whigs – Demon In Profile
13. Mass Gothic – How I Love You
14. Sleater-Kinney – Surface Envy
15. Jo Passed – MDM

The November 2018 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – with David Bowie on the cover. The issue also comes with two exclusive Bowie art prints, including one previously unseen image. We pay tribute to Aretha Franklin, while elsewhere in the issue you’ll find exclusive features on John Lennon, Tom Petty, Led Zeppelin, Cat Power, John Grant, Blondie, Connan Mockasin, Billy Gibbons, Family, Stereolab and many more. Our free 15-track CD has been exclusively curated by Sub Pop and includes tracks by J Mascis, The Afghan Whigs, Mudhoney, Luluc, Low and Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever.

Tom Petty: “He was committed to being great”

Sam Richards
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Tom Petty: “He was committed to being great”
One year on from his sudden and tragic death at the age of 66, Tom Petty is the subject of a memorial feature in the new issue of Uncut, on sale tomorrow (September 20). In it, Petty's Heartbreakers bandmates and lifelong friends Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench pay tribute to their former bandleade...

One year on from his sudden and tragic death at the age of 66, Tom Petty is the subject of a memorial feature in the new issue of Uncut, on sale tomorrow (September 20).

In it, Petty’s Heartbreakers bandmates and lifelong friends Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench pay tribute to their former bandleader and guide us through the highlights from the new Tom Petty anthology An American Treasure.

Order the latest issue of Uncut online and have it sent to your home!

“Tom was a great leader in every sense of the word,” says Mike Campbell. “He was definitely in control; we were following his lead every step of the way. Fortunately, he was almost always right! Every band needs somebody like that, with that drive, yet it was also a democracy in lots of ways. He would bring in a new song and 
be very free: ‘Just play what you feel.’ … We believed in him, and he believed in us, too. He believed we could get him there.”

“He was committed to being great. We’d work on stuff sometimes that sounded pretty good, and he’d say, ‘Let’s throw that one out, I can do better.’ He saw through bullshit instantly; he knew what was good and what wasn’t. He knew what was phoney and he knew what was real. He had that in spades. I’d look at him sometimes and think, ‘This guy is on his game. He knows who he is, and he knows how to get it across.’ He was a great songwriter, good rhythm-guitar player, great bass player. Great record maker. He was all those things. Perhaps his defining characteristic as a player was his confidence. Plus, he was really fucking smart.”

Reflecting on Tom Petty the man, Benmont Tench says: “He was a very, very funny guy. He didn’t let that out much, every now and then you’d see some whimsy in a video or a lyric, but he could be an absolute riot… He got real quiet when he was mad. That was some force, too!”

Adds Campbell, “I’m still grieving, I’ll probably be grieving for a long time, but I feel blessed that we had our time, and we wrote a lot of great songs which I think are going to hold up long after I’m gone. Everything is in the songs. The guy who wrote those songs, that’s who Tom is, that’s what he was like. He had a deep love of humanity. He had a deep belief in hope and the power of rock’n’roll, and he was compassionate towards people in pain… I’m very grateful and proud of what we did together.”

Read much more about Tom Petty in the new issue of Uncut, in shops now or available online now by following this link.

The November 2018 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – with David Bowie on the cover. The issue also comes with two exclusive Bowie art prints, including one previously unseen image. We pay tribute to Aretha Franklin, while elsewhere in the issue you’ll find exclusive features on John Lennon, Tom Petty, Led Zeppelin, Cat Power, John Grant, Blondie, Connan Mockasin, Billy Gibbons, Family, Stereolab and many more. Our free 15-track CD has been exclusively curated by Sub Pop and includes tracks by J Mascis, The Afghan Whigs, Mudhoney, Luluc, Low and Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever.

Mark Knopfler announces new solo album

Sam Richards
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Mark Knopfler announces new solo album
Mark Knopfler has announced that his new solo album, Down The Road Wherever, will be released on November 16 on his own British Grove label via Universal/Virgin EMI. The band features Mark Knopfler on guitars, Jim Cox and Guy Fletcher on keyboards, Nigel Hitchcock on saxophone and Tom Walsh on trum...

Mark Knopfler has announced that his new solo album, Down The Road Wherever, will be released on November 16 on his own British Grove label via Universal/Virgin EMI.

The band features Mark Knopfler on guitars, Jim Cox and Guy Fletcher on keyboards, Nigel Hitchcock on saxophone and Tom Walsh on trumpet, John McCusker on fiddle, Mike McGoldrick on whistle and flute, Glenn Worf on bass, Ian ‘Ianto’ Thomas on drums and Danny Cummings on percussion. Richard Bennett and Robbie McIntosh also feature on guitar and Trevor Mires on trombone. Imelda May, Lance Ellington, Kris Drever, Beverley Skeete and Katie Kissoon add backing vocals.

Order the latest issue of Uncut online and have it sent to your home!

All songs are written by Mark Knopfler apart from “Just A Boy Away From Home” where he shares the credits with Rodgers and Hammerstein, as the song uses a piece of “You’ll Never Walk Alone” to spin its tale of a lone Liverpool fan wandering the empty streets of Newcastle after midnight.

Other topics broached on Down The Road Wherever include his early days in Deptford with Dire Straits, the compulsion of a musician hitching home through the snow, and a man out of time in his local greasy spoon.

“You get to an age where you’ve written quite a few songs,” says Knopfler. “But Down The Road Wherever seems to be appropriate for me just because it’s what I’ve always done. I’ve always tried to make a record and also to keep my own geography happening in the songs.”

Down The Road Wherever will be available on digital, CD, double vinyl (with one bonus track), deluxe CD with two bonus tracks, and a box set that will include the album on both vinyl and deluxe CD and an additional 12” vinyl EP with four bonus tracks, a 12” print of the artwork and a 12” guitar tablature of a selected song. The album is available to pre-order here.

The November 2018 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – with David Bowie on the cover. The issue also comes with two exclusive Bowie art prints, including one previously unseen image. We pay tribute to Aretha Franklin, while elsewhere in the issue you’ll find exclusive features on John Lennon, Tom Petty, Led Zeppelin, Cat Power, John Grant, Blondie, Connan Mockasin, Billy Gibbons, Family, Stereolab and many more. Our free 15-track CD has been exclusively curated by Sub Pop and includes tracks by J Mascis, The Afghan Whigs, Mudhoney, Luluc, Low and Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever.

Hear Marianne Faithfull’s new song, featuring Nick Cave

Sam Richards
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Hear Marianne Faithfull’s new song, featuring Nick Cave
Marianne Faithfull will release her 21st album, Negative Capability, on November 2. Hear the first single, “The Gypsy Faerie Queen” featuring Nick Cave, below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwbCZ5mDZWM Order the latest issue of Uncut online and have it sent to your home! Inspired by Shakes...

Marianne Faithfull will release her 21st album, Negative Capability, on November 2.

Hear the first single, “The Gypsy Faerie Queen” featuring Nick Cave, below:

Order the latest issue of Uncut online and have it sent to your home!

Inspired by Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, “The Gypsy Faerie Queen” was co-written with Nick Cave and features his vocals and piano playing. “It’s a little miracle,” says Faithfull. “It’s just gorgeous… I think it’s one of the loveliest songs we’ve ever written together. It was so great working with Nick again.”

The song also features Warren Ellis, Ed Harcourt and Rob Ellis, who all make further appearances on Negative Capability.

The November 2018 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – with David Bowie on the cover. The issue also comes with two exclusive Bowie art prints, including one previously unseen image. We pay tribute to Aretha Franklin, while elsewhere in the issue you’ll find exclusive features on John Lennon, Tom Petty, Led Zeppelin, Cat Power, John Grant, Blondie, Connan Mockasin, Billy Gibbons, Family, Stereolab and many more. Our free 15-track CD has been exclusively curated by Sub Pop and includes tracks by J Mascis, The Afghan Whigs, Mudhoney, Luluc, Low and Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever.

Watch a video for John Grant’s new single, “He’s Got His Mother’s Hips”

Sam Richards
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Watch a video for John Grant’s new single, “He’s Got His Mother’s Hips”
John Grant's new album Love Is Magic will be released by Bella Union on October 12. Watch a video for the single "He's Got His Mother's Hips" below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yhchpgY5kw Order the latest issue of Uncut online and have it sent to your home! The video was directed by regular...

John Grant’s new album Love Is Magic will be released by Bella Union on October 12.

Watch a video for the single “He’s Got His Mother’s Hips” below:

Order the latest issue of Uncut online and have it sent to your home!

The video was directed by regular John Grant collaborators Casey Redmond and Ewan Jones Morris. “I just thought it was about time for another Peter Gabriel ‘Sledgehammer’ video and John was up for it,” says Morris. “Thirteen animators in total, including us. The highlight for me was 24 hours in the cool drizzle of Iceland to meet up with John, at the height of the British heatwave”.

Casey adds: “Always a delight to work with John. For this disco-tinged track we decided to get some of the hardest-partying animators we knew together for a right old knees-up, and this was the result.”

You can read a candid and entertaining interview with John Grant in the new issue of Uncut, in shops tomorrow (September 20) or available to order online now by following this link.

The November 2018 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – with David Bowie on the cover. The issue also comes with two exclusive Bowie art prints, including one previously unseen image. We pay tribute to Aretha Franklin, while elsewhere in the issue you’ll find exclusive features on John Lennon, Tom Petty, Led Zeppelin, Cat Power, John Grant, Blondie, Connan Mockasin, Billy Gibbons, Family, Stereolab and many more. Our free 15-track CD has been exclusively curated by Sub Pop and includes tracks by J Mascis, The Afghan Whigs, Mudhoney, Luluc, Low and Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever.

Watch Cat Power performing Rihanna’s “Stay”

Sam Richards
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Watch Cat Power performing Rihanna’s “Stay”
Cat Power has released a performance video for her cover of Rihanna's "Stay". The song features on her new album Wanderer, due to be released by Domino on October 5. Watch the video below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-Tsk-cPXxI Order the latest issue of Uncut online and have it sent to your ...

Cat Power has released a performance video for her cover of Rihanna’s “Stay”.

The song features on her new album Wanderer, due to be released by Domino on October 5. Watch the video below:

Order the latest issue of Uncut online and have it sent to your home!

You can read an extensive, career-spanning interview with Cat Power in the new issue of Uncut, in shops on Thursday (September 20) or available to order online now by following this link.

The November 2018 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – with David Bowie on the cover. The issue also comes with two exclusive Bowie art prints, including one previously unseen image. We pay tribute to Aretha Franklin, while elsewhere in the issue you’ll find exclusive features on John Lennon, Tom Petty, Led Zeppelin, Cat Power, John Grant, Blondie, Connan Mockasin, Billy Gibbons, Family, Stereolab and many more. Our free 15-track CD has been exclusively curated by Sub Pop and includes tracks by J Mascis, The Afghan Whigs, Mudhoney, Luluc, Low and Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever.

Introducing the new Uncut

Michael Bonner
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Introducing the new Uncut
To Reeves Gabrels, the superstar years of his friend and collaborator David Bowie were a period of unlikely but essentially enlightening transformation. “He wasn’t a pop star,” he tells Rob Hughes in this month’s cover story. “He just happened to be able to make some pop records every now ...

To Reeves Gabrels, the superstar years of his friend and collaborator David Bowie were a period of unlikely but essentially enlightening transformation. “He wasn’t a pop star,” he tells Rob Hughes in this month’s cover story. “He just happened to be able to make some pop records every now and then. That’s how he kept the machine running. But he was an artist. The function of entertainment is to make you feel good, the function of art is to make you feel.”

Gabrels is one of Bowie’s many confidants and co-conspirators that Rob’s spoken to as part of his fascinating deep trawl of Bowie’s most contentious decade. There is further wisdom and insight from Carlos Alomar, Peter Frampton, Nile Rodgers and many more who argue that this period was fundamentally necessary in shaping the work that followed: as vital a part of Bowie’s legacy, in its way, as his storied ‘70s. You’ll find the full story in our new issue, which is in shops from Thursday – but you can also order a copy here and have it sent direct to you at home.

And our Bowie celebrations continue! To compliment Rob’s story, the issue comes bagged with a pair of free Bowie art prints – including one exclusive, previously-unseen image.

Forgive me, please, if this Editor’s Letter feels a little like Christmas has come early, but I have some other exciting news to share with you. This month’s free CD has been specially curated for us by Sub Pop co-founder Jonathan Poneman. As his label celebrates their 30th anniversary he’s assembled a sampler featuring 15 of the label’s excellent current artists – including Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, Luluc, Low, Sleater-Kinney, J Mascis, the Afghan Whigs and Iron & Wine.

Elsewhere, Stephen Deusner pays tribute to the legendary Aretha Franklin, take you behind the scenes of John Lennon’s landmark Imagine album and reveal Led Zeppelin at work and at play while, on the first anniversary of his death, Tom Petty’s most trusted lieutenants recall good times with their beloved bandleader. There are more new interviews with Connan Mockasin, John Grant, David Crosby, Cat Power, Stereolab, Blondie, ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons and Family.

As you’ll have gathered by now, it’s been a busy month for us. We hope you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed putting it together.

Follow me on Twitter @MichaelBonner

The November 2018 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – with David Bowie on the cover. The issue also comes with two exclusive Bowie art prints, including one previously unseen image. We also pay tribute to Aretha Franklin and elsewhere in the issue you’ll find exclusive features on John Lennon, Tom Petty, Led Zeppelin, Cat Power, John Grant, Blondie, Connan Mockasin, Billy Gibbons, Family, Stereolab and many more. Our free 15-track CD has been exclusively curated by Sub Pop Records and includes tracks by J Mascis, the Afghan Whigs, Mudhoney, Luluc, Low, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever.

Paul Weller – True Meanings

Peter Watts
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Paul Weller – True Meanings
The past decade of Paul Weller’s career has been defined by his drive for change. From the varied beats of 2008’s 22 Dreams, through the electronica of Sonik Kicks and on to last year’s easily overlooked experimental soundtrack to Jawbone, there’s been a restless desire for new sounds. While...

The past decade of Paul Weller’s career has been defined by his drive for change. From the varied beats of 2008’s 22 Dreams, through the electronica of Sonik Kicks and on to last year’s easily overlooked experimental soundtrack to Jawbone, there’s been a restless desire for new sounds. While that’s been exciting to witness, it’s also sometimes overshadowed the fact Weller is still an exceptional songwriter. There are times, perhaps, when less might have been more – so a song like the gospel-tinged “The Cranes Are Back” on 2017’s A Kind Revolution lacked some of the immediate beauty of the original demo, which featured little more than vocal and piano.

For True Meanings, Weller hasn’t quite stripped things back that far, but he has produced his most sonically consistent album in years. Each song began as vocal and acoustic guitar, but a sense of dynamic was added by the use of strings or horn arrangements, giving the album a backwash of luscious and uncomplicated beauty. At times, these can be relatively subtle, as on opener “The Soul Searchers”, where the strings are just an added layer of texture and not as important as the Hammond solo played by Rod Argent – one of many guests on the album. Elsewhere, the strings are more prominent. The gorgeous “Gravity” swings by like a 1920s waltz, while “May Love Travel With You” has the orchestral feel of a classic Tin Pan Alley weeper explicitly designed to get a post-war housewife sobbing into her onions.

Order the latest issue of Uncut online and have it sent to your home!

Although most songs take the shape of soul or occasionally country, there are other flavours. The most significant is the use of sitar and tampoura on “Books”, a splendid drone attacking religion that also has Noel Gallagher on harmonium. The other big innovation is that on four songs Weller writes tunes for other lyricists. Conor O’Brien from Villagers wrote the words to “The Soul Searchers”, while “Bowie”, “Wishing Well” and “White Horses” are by Erland Cooper, who recently released an acclaimed solo album. Weller’s own solo albums have always been a medium for collaboration, and True Meanings has appearances from Martin Carthy, Danny Thompson, Rod Argent, Barrie Cadogan, Lucy Rose and, inevitably, Noel Gallagher.

The use of strings isn’t simply a decorative conceit. They catch the album’s mood of wistfulness, a nostalgia that the strings sometimes shade as melancholic, sometimes joyful and sometimes joyfully melancholic. Weller turned 60 in May, and that milestone as given him reason to look back just as turning 50 inspired his creative renewal with 22 Dreams. On the delicate, Disney-like “Glide”, he sings about gliding “through a portal to be youth” and how he will “see the memories unfold”, while “May Love Travel With You” opens with him “combing through the years”. “Take me back there again/Let me feel the same way,” he pleads on “Mayfly”, a slice of gorgeous soul that harks back to Stanley Road.

The theme of ageing finds a rich extended metaphor in the jazzy “Old Castles”, on which Weller pictures a Lear-like king in a crumbling castle, wracked with self-doubt. On the simple “Bowie”, Erland Cooper contemplates the mortality of the immortal, while Weller affects a mildly 
off-putting imitation of the titular singer.

Not that Weller is past it, yet. The pastoral “Come Along”, which features Martin Carthy on guitar and Danny Thompson on bass and was cut live, has Weller as an assertive lothario: “Come along and be my baby/Though we’ve only met/I just wanna take you home and/Let nature do the rest.” That song hints at slightly illicit sex, and it’s not the only song to cover that territory. Best of these is “What Would He Say?”, which has a country tone and a beautiful mournful flugel horn solo. On True Meanings, Weller has a lot of love to give, but it’s not always clear who is getting it.

The final songs see him reassert his place in the world, seeking comfort in 
the familiar. On the organ-rich, gospel-tinged “Movin’ On”, he’s adamant that “I’ve got love all around, I don’t need nothing else,” while the elegant “White Horses” sees him take solace in the sanctuary of home. “Time flies/And it’s lonely alone,” he sings, content about where the journey of life has taken him. “White horses are taking me home.”

The November 2018 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – with David Bowie on the cover. The issue also comes with two exclusive Bowie art prints, including one previously unseen image. We also pay tribute to Aretha Franklin and elsewhere in the issue you’ll find exclusive features on John Lennon, Tom Petty, Led Zeppelin, Cat Power, John Grant, Blondie, Connan Mockasin, Billy Gibbons, Family, Stereolab and many more. Our free 15-track CD has been exclusively curated by Sub Pop Records and includes tracks by J Mascis, the Afghan Whigs, Mudhoney, Luluc, Low, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever.

Craig Smith aka Satya Sai Maitreya Kali – Love Is Our Existence

Luke Torn
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Craig Smith aka Satya Sai Maitreya Kali – Love Is Our Existence
For anyone captivated by ‘60s idealism and its downward spiral after Altamont and the Manson ordeal, Craig Smith’s career arc is sad and riveting. As a teenager, Smith was pop star Andy Williams’ right-hand man in the Good Time Singers. He later wrote songs for the Monkees and Glen Campbell an...

For anyone captivated by ‘60s idealism and its downward spiral after Altamont and the Manson ordeal, Craig Smith’s career arc is sad and riveting. As a teenager, Smith was pop star Andy Williams’ right-hand man in the Good Time Singers. He later wrote songs for the Monkees and Glen Campbell and led Penny Arkade, a fine folk-rock group that never experienced liftoff. From 1968-73, though, Smith fled deep into the mystic and fell deep into the horrific—physically, emotionally, spiritually, geographically—never to truly return.

Order the latest issue of Uncut online and have it sent to your home!

Living off royalties, Smith traipsed through Europe in summer 1968, downing blotters of LSD and seeking spiritual enlightenment. The goals were a connection with the Maharishi in India and Transcendental Meditation. Unfortunately, disaster awaited in Kandahar, where he was beaten, raped, and robbed. Friends and family said he was never the same, and for those few who heard his homemade early-‘70s albums Inca and Apache (which actually included Penny Arkade material as well), that was just as true. With fragile, floating songs delving deep into the existential, the philosophical, and karma, one could say his music glided onto the astral plane. Smith’s ghostly voice hovers over sweet guitar strums and droning melodies in spooky songs like Apache’s “Ice and Snow” and “Black Swan”, while Inca’s “Sam Pan Boat”, an utterly hypnotic ballad, is gentle and gorgeous, delivered as a mantra guiding willful listeners into consciousness and peaceful rebirth. As Smith mirrors his deep introspection and gallant search for life’s meaning with music, the songs seem as if they slipped into this world from another world.

Love Is Our Existence’s recently discovered, mostly acoustic gems (recorded 1966-71) contrast somewhat with the dystopian freefall of the trippy Inca/Apache material. More structured and graceful, revealing traces of optimism and bits of Smith’s poppy songwriting splendor, they add new depth to his already uncanny narrative. Smith’s sweet, pliable voice, sometimes lofting into falsetto, swings from happiness to doubt, fear to devotion, sometimes within the same verse. The Tim Buckley–styled “Race the Wind,” for instance, merges contentment with tears amid his vulnerable, trembling voice. While “Sky” and “Season” are emblematic—serene views of life, nature, and freedom, Smith’s forlorn wail in “When I Find God” questions everything. It’s a startling, even intuitive view of a life about to shatter into decades of homelessness and mental illness. Flipping the mood, though, the majestic “It’s All Love” could and should have been a Beach Boys’ comeback chart-topper, while the title cut is a drifting, timeless masterpiece. Carrying in its heart a mystical awakening, empathy, and faith against all odds, “Love Is Our Existence” is a model vision of the planet’s peacemakers overtaking its predators.

The November 2018 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – with David Bowie on the cover. The issue also comes with two exclusive Bowie art prints, including one previously unseen image. We also pay tribute to Aretha Franklin and elsewhere in the issue you’ll find exclusive features on John Lennon, Tom Petty, Led Zeppelin, Cat Power, John Grant, Blondie, Connan Mockasin, Billy Gibbons, Family, Stereolab and many more. Our free 15-track CD has been exclusively curated by Sub Pop Records and includes tracks by J Mascis, the Afghan Whigs, Mudhoney, Luluc, Low, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever.

November 2018

Michael Bonner
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November 2018
David Bowie, John Lennon, Cat Power and Aretha Franklin all feature in the new issue of Uncut, dated November 2018 and out on September 20. Order the latest issue of Uncut online and have it sent to your home! Bowie is on the cover, and inside we present the untold story of his superstar 1980s. Fr...

David Bowie, John Lennon, Cat Power and Aretha Franklin all feature in the new issue of Uncut, dated November 2018 and out on September 20.

Order the latest issue of Uncut online and have it sent to your home!

Bowie is on the cover, and inside we present the untold story of his superstar 1980s. Friends, confidants and collaborators recall “survivor’s guilt”, island hopping with Iggy Pop and disappearing stage props.

“Looking back at that period, you might even think Bowie was ahead of his time,” says Carlos Alomar. “It’s just that people weren’t ready to receive the message…”

Our Bowie celebrations continue as issue also comes with two free exclusive, frame-ready art prints – including one previously unseen image!

Uncut also present an exclusive extract from the upcoming book commemorating John Lennon‘s Imagine album – included here are unseen photographs and eyewitness accounts from the sessions.

Cat Power takes us through her recorded work to date, from 1995’s Dear Sir to 2018’s Wanderer, recalling collaborations with Jim White, Teenie Hodges and more along the way. “It was very tense at first,” she explains, remembering her early recording sessions. “These were my secrets…”

We also pay tribute to Aretha Franklin, and discuss how she empowered America, while some of her close collaborators remember their time working with the Queen Of Soul.

Uncut heads to the wilds of Cornwall, where John Grant is preparing to release a spendid new album, Love Is Magic. There are synths, rollercoasters and, as the notoriously self-critical singer-songwriter tells us, a renewed sense of purpose. “Maybe I do risk alienating the audience,” he muses.

A year on from Tom Petty‘s death, Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell recalls the life and times of his beloved friend and bandmate. Meanwhile, Family discuss the making of “The Weaver’s Answer”, while ZZ Top‘s Billy Gibbons answers your questions in our An Audience With feature and David Crosby reveals the songs and albums that have shaped his life.

In our reviews section, we take a close look at new records from Connan Mockasin, Elvis Costello, Julia Holter, Phosphorescent, Kurt Vile, Anna St Louis and more, and archival releases from Stereolab, The Groundhogs, John Lennon, Cocteau Twins, Felt, The House Of Love and a host of others.

Led Zeppelin, Blondie, Boygenius and Lonnie Holley all feature in our Instant Karma section, while our DVD & Films section includes New Order, Lodge 49, First Man and Climax. Live, we catch Kamasi Washington and review End Of The Road festival.

Our free CD this month celebrates 30 years of Sub Pop Records with a look at the cream of their current roster – from Low, Sleater-Kinney, The Afghan Whigs and Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever to Jo Passed, Loma and Luluc and more.

The new issue of Uncut, dated November 2018, is out on September 20.

Neil Young announces new US dates

Sam Richards
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Neil Young announces new US dates
Following his US festival appearances at Farm Aid and the Outlaw Music Festival later this month, Neil Young has added four more dates to his September schedule. He'll play two nights at The Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York, on September 26 and 27 with his regular backing band Promise Of T...

Following his US festival appearances at Farm Aid and the Outlaw Music Festival later this month, Neil Young has added four more dates to his September schedule.

He’ll play two nights at The Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York, on September 26 and 27 with his regular backing band Promise Of The Real, tickets available here.

Order the latest issue of Uncut online and have it sent to your home – with no delivery charge!

They’ll be followed by two solo shows at the Tower Theater in Philadelphia on September 30 and October 1, tickets available here.

The October 2018 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – with Jimi Hendrix on the cover. Elsewhere in the issue, you’ll find exclusive features on Spiritualized, Aretha Franklin, Richard Thompson, Soft Cell, Pink Floyd, Candi Staton, Garcia Peoples, Beach Boys, Mudhoney, Big Red Machine and many more. Our free CD showcases 15 tracks of this month’s best new music, including Beak>, Low, Christine And The Queens, Marissa Nadler and Eric Bachmann.

Wire discuss their best albums: “Talking only gets you so far… it’s the intuition that’s important”

Tom Pinnock
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Wire discuss their best albums: “Talking only gets you so far… it’s the intuition that’s important”
Practice makes perfect: Wire take us through 40 years of ‘difficult records’ – from their 1977 debut Pink Flag to 2017's Silver/Lead – in this piece from the Uncut archive. Originally published in our May 2017 issue. ________________________ Although they’re known as one of post-punk’s...

CHANGE BECOMES US
PINKFLAG, 2013
With Matthew Simms replacing original guitarist Bruce Gilbert, the group hit Rockfield to record this set of songs inspired by demos for the band’s shelved fourth album.

NEWMAN: It was a disaster when Bruce left. The band was already at a low ebb, and it became very difficult. But because we all decided that we needed to unite to see off a challenge from our ex-manager, there was a reason for the three of us to get together, and that was the beginning of the arc that ends up with Silver/Lead.
LEWIS: Matt came in to be the second guitar player live, and everything worked extremely well. We finished a tour in San Francisco and I had become really convinced that Matthew was in the band; he wasn’t just an add-on. But our problem was we’d just released [2011’s] Red Barked Tree, so we didn’t really have any material. The one thing that we’d always had on the shelf was the material we’d released as [1981 live album] Document And Eyewitness, which represented the underdeveloped material that would have been the Wire album after 154. We wanted to take the essence of that material, bring it into the studio and for Matt to be in right from the beginning.
MATTHEW SIMMS (GUITAR): I was glad they didn’t want me to imitate Bruce’s parts on the demos, because those were big shoes to fill. Everything’s pretty quick with Wire – each of the last few records have been recorded in the same studio, Rockfield in Wales. After a week there, Colin takes it to his place to do overdubs and mixing.
NEWMAN: In the end it wasn’t the fourth Wire album, it was Change Becomes Us – we took things and made something different. Among the recent canon, I think people regard this as being the first really strong one.

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WIRE
PINKFLAG, 2015
Their first self-titled record was one of their strongest, topped off by the sludgy majesty of “Harpooned”.

SIMMS: We worked on so much material – we also recorded [2016 mini-album] Nocturnal Koreans while we recorded Wire. There’s a lot of on-the-spotness, to capture that initial inspiration, to encourage the use of intuition rather than overthinking everything. Some bands have preconceived ideas of what it should or shouldn’t be, but there’s none of that in Wire – if it sounds good, it is good.
NEWMAN: I have a very specific way of working, and it has been the same since Send. I don’t use any loops. I hate ‘production’ where it’s really obvious. I write super-fast and I produce super-slow – how useless is that? All the keyboard parts and vocals I do in my studio. I don’t want to take up valuable studio time at Rockfield fiddling about with synthesisers, because I’m a rubbish keyboard player.
SIMMS: We worked out “Harpooned” live, before we went to Rockfield. Rob was a big part of that track – he’s very minimal, but he doesn’t like to play the same thing all the time, so he started playing it at half the speed. It all kicked off from there.
GREY: Maybe I was being persistent about making something new, but I just started playing this slow rhythm that seemed to fit. Each of us had the sense that it was new territory. We’d never done dead slow before – Wire tends to be frantic rather than slow, so that was a bit disconcerting. Playing it live increased its value and it became the last song of the set, which is prime position. You can’t finish on a dead slow song, conventionally, but it’s good for Wire.
NEWMAN: From my point of view, “Harpooned” is starting to become a bit of a millstone. I think we’re doing the classic Wire thing of moving on to the next thing.

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SILVER/LEAD
PINKFLAG, 2017
Celebrating the band’s 40th anniversary, their 15th album continues the strong template set by the self-titled album.

LEWIS: Making Silver/Lead, we were prodigiously productive – maybe 20 songs in four or five days.
GREY: Everything had a click track on Silver/Lead, which was a new thing to do, because it gave Colin more options when he was doing the overdubbing and mixing.
NEWMAN: One of the things that’s come in is the single-note bassline, the classic root note on the one. It makes it super-moody and opens up acres of space. I worry about there being too many medium-paced tracks on this, but others don’t seem to have that concern. We’ve just released three albums in three years, and we haven’t done that since the ’70s.
SIMMS: “Sleep On The Wing” was written entirely in the studio. After being a band for 40 years, it’s cool that they can do something unexpected like that.
LEWIS: It was one of those times where we said, “Have we got another song?” And I said, “Well, I’ll have a look,” and it was literally put together on the spot.
NEWMAN: I was fiddling about on my keyboard and came up with a chord sequence that fitted with Graham’s words, so we just did it. It’s the first Wire song I’ve written on keyboards, which gives it a cleanness. Rob plays a kind of jazz rhythm on it, too, which is a departure. I think it sounds too much like Keane, but I’ve been assured it doesn’t sound anything like Keane!

The October 2018 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – with Jimi Hendrix on the cover. Elsewhere in the issue, you’ll find exclusive features on Spiritualized, Aretha Franklin, Richard Thompson, Soft Cell, Pink Floyd, Candi Staton, Garcia Peoples, Beach Boys, Mudhoney, Big Red Machine and many more. Our free CD showcases 15 tracks of this month’s best new music, including Beak>, Low, Christine And The Queens, Marissa Nadler and Eric Bachman.

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