Just received (from Burning Shed) an announcement that Cherry Red are re-releasing The Associates third album, 'Perhaps', on January 31st 2020. This is a fabulous album despite the very messy money-and-time-wasting that went into making it and the absence of Alan Rankine edgy and melodramatic multi-instrumentalism. It somehow still manages to be totally smooth and weirdly wonky at the same time!
But keep listening all the way through to the end of the bonus material on disc 2 and you'll find the 7" and 12" versions of the non-album single 'Take Me To The Girl' featuring guitar from none other than Bill Nelson. Not the most obviously Bill-style song or guitar parts and the single is rather over-produced but these are the only surviving snatches (as far as we know) of the quite brief recording sessions for which Billy Mackenzie invited Bill Nelson to contribute to his recording career. There may be another two or three unreleased songs somewhere but even their titles are unknown, let alone the music itself. To me, the whole notion that two such contrasting geniuses ever worked together at all is quite mindstretching!
Got very excited about this single when it came out - I think I might have the 10" somewhere. Listening to it on YouTube at the moment and it has some quite funky guitar on it, which I don't remember. My recollection was just what I thought was an E-bow solo at the very end. Not a huge amount of guitar on the track anyway, and it's a relatively slight piece, arguably. Purchase of the reissue is more than justified however by the presence of the sublime Breakfast - what a gorgeous track that is.
It's almost as if the guy in front is holding a mic and pulling shapes. Reminds me of Billy.
My copy just arrived stateside. I figured they might skimp on this reissue, but it looks great.
My wife takes a glance at the cover of Billy MacKenzie and says, "Wow, he looks intense." Ain't that the truth...
Funnily enough, I can't even remember playing on this track, ('Take Me To The Girl',) and can't hear myself playing on it at all, (at least in the video posted above.) I do remember playing on a few tracks with Billy and thought he was a brilliant vocalist. He also seemed to be a big fan of my own work, hence the invitation to work on those sessions with him. That particular track is very much of its period and sounds rather dated today, particularly those cheesy synth lines, but I guess that's where we were back then. The track is redeemed by Billy's vocals, as always.
In the video you can see his musical influences in his facial expressions, bits of David Bowie and Bryan Ferry emerging in the glances and asides. And those tiered steps he's sitting on remind me of the steps on the back cover photo' on my 'Northern Dream' album. A deliberate reference or just a coincidence?
I've probably mentioned this before but, a few months before Billy died he called me up and asked if we could possibly write and work together in my home studio. Unfortunately, at that time, I was living in a very small rented property near Gateforth, (due to losing my own home and studio in West Haddlesey as a result of divorce,) and I didn't have the space to accommodate a collaborative project. To this day, I very much regret that the project was unable to be put into action. Billy had a great gift and it would have been a wonderful adventure to place my music around his voice.
Bill's guitar contribution to Take Me To The Girl is very much like the 'stuck line' in Reggae, in my opinion. Maybe it's called the 'stuck line' in Funk as well?
This is a type of playing that Bill also contributed to the Rain Tree Crow track Big Wheels In Shanty Town.
It's such an intriguing style of playing. It's so subtle but it can be spine-tingling.
Found an excellent tutorial of what goes into the stuck line [cued] ...
https://youtu.be/8f73TICkFKE?t=356
Looks like we're unable to add YouTube videos cued to a certain place on the video so I've just entered the URL cued.
I like how he says, "Another element of playing inside the music is the stuck line". Very much inside the music!
Alan Rankine explains how he and Billy wrote Party Fears Two ...
Yes, but I think Billy just looks uncomfortable with the studio setting - even though he has his very own, beloved little whippet doggy there to keep him company!
Maybe you already know it but the promo video for Take Me to the Girl has been available on YouTube ...
Hi Mike. One of my all time favorite songs ever is 'Part Fears Two'. It's in my top 10; always has been since 1982, always will be there. Club Country, Q Quarters and Tell Me Easter's on Friday are other favorites by the band.