In a message dated 11/10/2004 10:38:08 GMT Standard Time, jai@illitrate.co.uk writes:
On 10 Oct 2004, at 23:07, John Milne wrote:
Something which I've wondered since it first came out: Did Bill and Jimmy originally intend Maxine Harvey to sing the single mix of "Justified and Ancient", and only changed it once Tammy Wynette got involved? Is that why we have the "All Bound For Mu Mu Land" version (as featured on CHOC ICE 1 and the CD single/12"?)
there is an interview somewhere... can't remember if it was a tv or in a mag, where they are talking about justified and ancient, and how tammy ended up on it - and they say something along the lines of how they'd put it all together and recorded maxine singing it all, and then they found out that they could get tammy wynette, so they flew out there, spent a day or so having her record the lyrics, flew back and found that she was totally off speed and out of tune and had to jig around with the recording loads to make it fit with the rest of the track
i thinking i definately read that somewere, so it must have been a magazine interview
so at the least, i think Maxine's vocals were the backup in case tammy refused to join the jams
its all explained in his book 45..... wizard
As far as I'm aware, Bill knew Tammy from before his KLF days - maybe through A&R at WEA? John -----Original Message----- From: klf-bounces+john=highlandland.fsnet.co.uk@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:klf-bounces+john=highlandland.fsnet.co.uk@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of TheRitesOfMu@aol.com Sent: 11 October 2004 10:41 To: klf@mailman.xmission.com Subject: Re: [KLF] An obvious question? In a message dated 11/10/2004 10:38:08 GMT Standard Time, jai@illitrate.co.uk writes: On 10 Oct 2004, at 23:07, John Milne wrote:
Something which I've wondered since it first came out: Did Bill and Jimmy originally intend Maxine Harvey to sing the single mix of "Justified and Ancient", and only changed it once Tammy Wynette got involved? Is that why we have the "All Bound For Mu Mu Land" version (as featured on CHOC ICE 1 and the CD single/12"?)
there is an interview somewhere... can't remember if it was a tv or in a mag, where they are talking about justified and ancient, and how tammy ended up on it - and they say something along the lines of how they'd put it all together and recorded maxine singing it all, and then they found out that they could get tammy wynette, so they flew out there, spent a day or so having her record the lyrics, flew back and found that she was totally off speed and out of tune and had to jig around with the recording loads to make it fit with the rest of the track i thinking i definately read that somewere, so it must have been a magazine interview so at the least, i think Maxine's vocals were the backup in case tammy refused to join the jams its all explained in his book 45..... wizard
On 11 Oct 2004, at 13:25, John Milne wrote:
As far as I'm aware, Bill knew Tammy from before his KLF days - maybe through A&R at WEA?
hmm, no mention of that in 45 - here's the bits relevant to your question: "Early summer 1991. Jimmy and I were about to dump the track. We were working in a south London studio, trying to breathe life into a song that had originally been the opening track on our first album, '1987 (What the Fuck's Going On?)'. The singer we had been using sounded uninspired, doing a job, watching the clock. Jimmy turned to me. 'What this song needs, Bill, is Tammy Wynette.' Jimmy is always right. I sang along with the track, mimicking her southern twang. It was going to be the best record we had ever made." "'Bill, is that you, honey? Bill, you come on up here.' Deep white carpets, huge bad taste art and from somewhere upstairs, that voice, calling out directly to me. I was 39, been there done that seen it all, but i was starstruck like I'd never been before in my life, and I'd not even met her yet." "As soon as Tammy tried to sing the backing track I had brough wth me, I knew the whole project was a complete disaster. She could not keep in time with the track for more than four bars before speeding up or slowing down.... 'How's it sound, Bill?' came the voice from the other side of the glass. How do you tell the voice you have worshipped for the past twenty years, one of the greatest singing voices of the twentieth century, a voice that defines a whole epoch of American culture, that it sounds shit?" "The whole idea was turning sour. What sort of egocentric, vanity-drenched trip were Jimmy and I on, appropriating one of the world's greatest and pureset musical treasures just to reduce it to an ironic aside?" "We did take after take, but things didn't get much better. I felt truely ashamed hearing her voice, the voice of poor white American womanhood, stuggling to find some emotional content in our banal, self-referenctial lyrics. I shoved more boiled sweets into my face and prayed it was just a bad acid flashback, and nothing to do with reality. Thirty-six hours later i was back in that south London studio with Jimmy, pilling up more and more excuses as to why I had failed to get any sort of usable performance out of the First Lady of Country. This was before i played him the tape. When I did, he said: 'We just got a new machines. We can sample up every word she sang seperately - stretch them, squeeze them, get them all in time. As for her pitching, the listener will hear that as emotional integrity.' As I said earlier, Jimmy is always right. 'It's a Christmas Number One,' he added. Jimmy was wrong. Freddie Mercury died, 'Bohemian Rhapsody was re-released and we had to settle for the Number Two slot. A singer dying always messes up the agenda." -- --- "She never noticed the monkey bars in the churchyard before. She remembered only headstones. Funny the things that show up in Nature's negative." - tHE pUSHER -- ----------------------------------------------------------- -- Jai Nelson jai@illitrate.co.uk illitrate Publicashions http://www.illitrate.co.uk --- --------------------------------------------------------- ---
Hmmm ... I wonder how Maxine felt about being described as "watching the clock"? But I suppose, since they still presented her version to the world, they were happy enough with it as a b-side. John -----Original Message----- From: klf-bounces+john=highlandland.fsnet.co.uk@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:klf-bounces+john=highlandland.fsnet.co.uk@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of jai Sent: 11 October 2004 15:04 To: All bound for Mu-Mu Land. Subject: Re: [KLF] An obvious question? On 11 Oct 2004, at 13:25, John Milne wrote: As far as I'm aware, Bill knew Tammy from before his KLF days - maybe through A&R at WEA? hmm, no mention of that in 45 - here's the bits relevant to your question: "Early summer 1991. Jimmy and I were about to dump the track. We were working in a south London studio, trying to breathe life into a song that had originally been the opening track on our first album, '1987 (What the Fuck's Going On?)'. The singer we had been using sounded uninspired, doing a job, watching the clock. Jimmy turned to me. 'What this song needs, Bill, is Tammy Wynette.' Jimmy is always right. I sang along with the track, mimicking her southern twang. It was going to be the best record we had ever made." "'Bill, is that you, honey? Bill, you come on up here.' Deep white carpets, huge bad taste art and from somewhere upstairs, that voice, calling out directly to me. I was 39, been there done that seen it all, but i was starstruck like I'd never been before in my life, and I'd not even met her yet." "As soon as Tammy tried to sing the backing track I had brough wth me, I knew the whole project was a complete disaster. She could not keep in time with the track for more than four bars before speeding up or slowing down.... 'How's it sound, Bill?' came the voice from the other side of the glass. How do you tell the voice you have worshipped for the past twenty years, one of the greatest singing voices of the twentieth century, a voice that defines a whole epoch of American culture, that it sounds shit?" "The whole idea was turning sour. What sort of egocentric, vanity-drenched trip were Jimmy and I on, appropriating one of the world's greatest and pureset musical treasures just to reduce it to an ironic aside?" "We did take after take, but things didn't get much better. I felt truely ashamed hearing her voice, the voice of poor white American womanhood, stuggling to find some emotional content in our banal, self-referenctial lyrics. I shoved more boiled sweets into my face and prayed it was just a bad acid flashback, and nothing to do with reality. Thirty-six hours later i was back in that south London studio with Jimmy, pilling up more and more excuses as to why I had failed to get any sort of usable performance out of the First Lady of Country. This was before i played him the tape. When I did, he said: 'We just got a new machines. We can sample up every word she sang seperately - stretch them, squeeze them, get them all in time. As for her pitching, the listener will hear that as emotional integrity.' As I said earlier, Jimmy is always right. 'It's a Christmas Number One,' he added. Jimmy was wrong. Freddie Mercury died, 'Bohemian Rhapsody was re-released and we had to settle for the Number Two slot. A singer dying always messes up the agenda." -- --- "She never noticed the monkey bars in the churchyard before. She remembered only headstones. Funny the things that show up in Nature's negative." - tHE pUSHER -- ----------------------------------------------------------- -- Jai Nelson jai@illitrate.co.uk illitrate Publicashions http://www.illitrate.co.uk --- --------------------------------------------------------- ---
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