This 12" single from 1986 is the only piece of vinyl you'll find by Fine Young Cannibals in my collection, and I think it has survived the decades because there is someone else in this house that is even more fond of it than I am. You may know how that goes. There are four songs on the record, including a very decent nearly eight-minute dub version of "Suspicious Minds", but perhaps an even better B-side is a remix of early single "Johnny Come Home", a No. 8 UK smash from 1985. It even managed to break into the Billboard Hot 100 here in America (No. 76). Is this maxi-single trash, a treasure or something in the middle? Certainly better than the Fixx last time around, right? Seems I'm defending Fine Young Cannibals. OK, let me have it.
"Suspicious Minds" (Suspicious Mix)
Johnny Come Home" (That Other Mix)
16 comments:
I've never forgiven them for attempting to cover that Buzzcocks classic Brian!
CC, A travesty, to be sure. I have that song on the Something Wild soundtrack. If the powers that be had taken that one off and included Spring Rain by the Go-Betweens in its place (the song was in the movie) or put up the Feelies doing their cover of Fame it would have been a four-star album.
Ok, so FYC should have been more confident in their own song...songs which added a bit of soul to a very sterile mid 80's Pop scene. The version of Suspicious Minds isn't horrible, but no one really does a great version of this song - B.E.F. feat Gary Glitter, Dwight Yoakam, Miss Kitten and The Hacker or Amanda Lear to name a few.
Johnny Come Home was a very decent track, but other than that I was never much of a fan. Nothing of theirs has dated well at all.
I generally liked the FYC, although as TheRobster says, I think they've dated badly. That said, I'd prefer the original tracks: remixes in my opinion rarely add much, especially 12" ones. Just play the real song twice!
Johnny Come Home is a mighty fine track. The original, not this one, which is dispapointingly effects-laden. Interestingly, Shaggy the Dog seems to quite like this. I have that first album, and it will be played tomorrow when Jo is at the farm
I am going to disagree with most of you here. I love the cover, though not this version, the guitars, the vocal the lot. Was not impressed with the cover of EFIL.
The band are also responsible for one of the finest anti Thatcher songs, with the exception of Tramp The Dirt Down, in Blue but the original album version not the horrible single mix. I have fond memories of an ex girlfriend substituting Blue for Drew and I think she was only half joking.
https://app.box.com/s/9r3z8s4714dwgw15lztjio3eswiooqbk
There was also a great remix album called the Raw and The Remix which has a two brilliant mixes of I'm Not The Man I Used To Be a solo piano intro version by Norman Cook which segues beautifully into the Jazzie B and Nellie Hooper mix and the New York Rap mix I'm Not Satisfied is worth the price of admission alone.
The were much loved in the scootering fraternity and Gift apparently lived near here for a while in the same village as John Martyn.
Echorich, Your roster of names made me shudder. Fine points made by you.
Robster, Rol and George, A huge section of my vinyl dates from 1982-1988. That's when I finally threw in the towel and got a CD player. My teen years were spent buying 12" singles at a furious pace. Many of them are pretty tough to stomach in 2017. I agree that the original Johnny Come Home is better. For whatever reason, I like the bells and whistles of this version of Suspicious Minds... probably because I haven't heard the 7"/album version all that much through the years.
Drew, Maybe I was baiting you a bit. At some point either on your blog or in the comments of another you have defended FYC before. I was hoping you might drop in. I just listened to your Blue for the first time in many years. Sounds great. I think Blue might have been released before Johnny Come Home. I'll have to fix that.
Drew is right - the Cook II Soul remix of I'm Not The Man I Used To Be is really brilliant. It's the Soul II Soul remix that starts with the quiet piano open though...
I agree with Drew - love the Blue version he mentions.
Not on my 12” single Echorich, the Piano intro version is credited to the Fatboy.
I wonder if there are some mislabels out there. But I bow to your getting the vinyl out Drew...I probably have them mislabeled in my iTunes Library...
Echorich, it could be that they have been merged together as on the vinyl there is no discernible gap between the two mixes and the running time is 6:45, whereas the Jazzie B/Hopper mix on the remix cd comes in at 4:42.
I've just played that FYC album. It's better than I remember.
Hey, George. That first LP was the kind of album for kids "in the know" here in America. The next one was a mainstream smash, even here, and I didn't give it a chance because of its popularity. That's how I was back then. Guess I'm still like that.
Post a Comment