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TRACKLISTING
& COMMENTARY
01.
CLOG DANCE
3.02
(John Marcangelo)
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JM:
"Originally written for brass
band, has come full circle in the film 'Brassed Off'. The
tune was inspired by Brew's, the clog makers. This was a
tiny shop that used to be in my town making clogs for miners."
Recording sessions for Violinski's iconic instrumental
hit single began on 28 April 1978 at De Lane Lea Music
Centre Studios under the working title of 'Pigeons
Part 3'. At that point, there was no violin and the
song was a basic backing track. The next session was on
28 June 1978 with the track retitled 'Friday
Night Clog Fever'. The song went through various
arrangements and a change of title to
'Clog Dance' at De Lane Lea before the band travelled
to Munich in August to remix and add overdubs with Mack.
Though the production master tape for the single was prepared
on 12 December 1978 at Strawberry Mastering Studios,
it was not released until March 1979 due to manager Don
Arden being in America for ELO's forthcoming album
'Discovery'. (Rob)
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02.
SILENT LOVE 2.36
(Michael de Albuquerque)
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MdeA:
"I wrote this song, it's mood
and tempo whilst walking around the park in Munich. Jet Records
sent us out to Musicland Studios in Munich. We started off
each day recording a trio-backing track - piano, bass and
drums (John Marc, myself and John Hodgson). This was always
done before touching a drop of alcohol. After this, overdubs
were introduced with the aid of large amounts of Deinhard
Sekt (German sparkling wine). |
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The
track features John Marcangelo's "Theme for a Summer
Place" type 50's piano, Mik Kaminski's "Adam Faith
type piccicato" on the middle eight, and John Hodgson's
restrained big and steady batterie. The band ceased to receive
our wages during this trip to Germany. We produced eleven
excellent commercial pop songs and 'Silent Love' was picked
as BBC Radio 1's "Simon Bates Song of the Week".
It received great airplay but was not in the shops because
there was an "account" problem with the distributors.
So, looking back - to quote the Steelies - 'Silent Love' could
be considered in the category "Romance Without Finance".
John Marcangelo suggested a picture of an Ann Summers blow
up Sex doll for the single sleeve. Get it?!"
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03. CAPTAIN DANDY 3.26
(John Hodgson)
JH:
"Part 1 of a duology about Captain
Dandy, a man who had been on the high seas for far too long. He
yearned for his long lost love to become reality, but still had
a niggling feeling for those city girls. Maybe he'd been on tour
too long!"
04.
SAVE ME
3.56
(John Hodgson)
JH:
"Save Me is probably how I felt at the time: "Daydreams,
Save Me". Come to think of it, I still feel that way." |
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05.
WHATS YOUR GAME 3.30
(John Marcangelo) Aviation Music Ltd. (P) 1980
From
the album 'Stop Cloning About'.
06. PRINCESS OF DARKNESS
(instrumental rough mix) 3.49
(John Hodgson)
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Previously
unreleased early instrumental version of Cow.
Recorded at De Lane Lea Music Centre, Wembley, 25 April
1978 and mixed at DJM Recording Studios, London,
25 May 1978.
JH:
"The Princess of Darkness
had been a stalwart track in the old Cow days. The title
then of 'Don't Call Your Mother a Cow' wasn't considered
good etiquette for our purposes!"
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07.
CAPED CRUSADER
3.08
(John Hodgson)
JH:
"Caped Crusader was a disillusioned
superhero fed up with his lot in life. Chasing uninteresting villains
and becoming too old for his job."
08.
HIDE IT 3.02
(Mik Kaminski / Michael De Albuquerque) Aviation Music Ltd. (P)
1980
From the album 'Stop Cloning About'.
09.
I DON'T KNOW (MIK'S SONG)
(alternate take) 2.53
(Mik Kaminski) copyright control (P) 2007
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Previously
unreleased early version of Time To
Live. Recorded at DJM Recording Studios, London,
26 May 1978 and mixed at De Lane Lea Music Centre, Wembley,
12 August 1978.
MK:
"Written around the time that both ELO and Violinski
were on the go and life got a bit hectic with not a lot
of time to stop and enjoy it all."
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10.
CLEAR AWAY 2.39
(Mik Kaminski) Aviation Music Ltd. (P) 1980
From the album Stop Cloning About.
11.
TANGO (instrumental
rough mix) 3.49
(John Hodgson) copyright control (P) 2007
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Previously
unreleased early instrumental version of (More
Than A) Sudden Romance. Recorded at De Lane Lea Music
Centre, Wembley, 22 April 1978 and mixed at DJM Recording
Studios, London, 25 May 1978.
JH:
"Tango was an attempt to expand the popular dance vocabulary
of the time. This is funnily enough a tango, but a tango
set in a strange dark place of a night club. Where men may
or may not be men, women the same and drummers are the only
people brave enough to venture through the gates."
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12.
RUBY RHYTHMS (alternate early mix) 2.34
(John Marcangelo)
Previously
unreleased alternate version. Recorded at Ramport Studios,
London and mixed at Red Bus Recording Studios, London,
4 February 1980.
JM:
"Ruby Rhythms' was inspired
by drunken night in a club in Munich…" |
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13.
NO CAUSE FOR ALARM
(early version) 3.24
(John Marcangelo)
Previously unreleased. Recorded on 25 April 1978 and mixed
on 12 August 1978 at De Lane Lea Music Centre, Wembley.
14.
NEED YOUR LOVE (instrumental
rough mix) 3.55
(John Hodgson)
Previously
unreleased early instrumental version. Recorded at De Lane Lea Music
Centre, Wembley, 22 April 1978 and mixed at DJM Recording Studios,
London, 25 May 1978.
JH:
"Melancholia ruled for 'Need Your
Love'. Could have been re-titled 'Need Your Grolsch."
15.
ROCK STEADY
2.51 *
(John Hodgson)
Previously unreleased demo recording.
JH:
"Rock Steady is one of my favourite
[own] tracks. In later life it became 'Vote For Me' during local
government elections, and '40 Something' when I hit that particular
milestone. It may well become something else one day."
16.
SCENARIO (alternate early mix) 3.55
(John Marcangelo)
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Previously
unreleased alternate version. Recorded 13 August 1979 and
mixed 20 August 1979 at Ramport Studios, London. |
17.
BORDERLANDS
(instrumental early version) 4.36 *
(John Marcangelo)
Previously unreleased.
18.
MIRRORED MIRROR 2.55
(John Hodgson)
JH:
"Mirrored Mirror was written after
I had read "The Once and Future King" by T H White.
I believed, if only for a short period, that King Arthur would
return and cure all societies ills. That's what you get for working
with Rick Wakeman!"
19.
HOME TO TEA
(alternate early mix) 3.45
(Michael De Albuquerque)
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Previously
unreleased alternate version. Recorded 13 August 1979 and
mixed 20 August 1979 at Ramport Studios, London.
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20.
CLOG DANCE (Rock
version) 3.01
(John Marcangelo)
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Previously
unreleased alternate take. Recorded and mixed in 1978 at Musicland
Studios, Munich. |
All
tracks produced by John Hodgson, Mik Kaminski, John Marcangelo
except tracks 2-3, 5, 8, 10, 18 produced by Violinski and Mack.
Recorded
at Marquee Studios, London (Engineer: Jeff Calvert); De Lane Lea
Music Centre, Wembley (Engineer: Rafe McKenna); Musicland Studios,
Munich (Engineer: Mack); Ramport Studios, London (Engineer: Mack).
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