Monday, August 26, 2013

REPOST: The Definitive Del Amitri Rarities Series, Vol. 5: The Late-Period B-Sides

Supposedly, for the past several years, Del Amitri has been on indefinite hiatus rather than "broken up", but I'll believe it when I see 'em back at work. (Meanwhile, I encourage you once again to check out Justin Currie's solo albums.) So, until further notice, I'm calling the period spanning the band's last two releases on either side of their Hatful of Rain compilation "Late Period" Del Amitri, and lumping the b-sides from those three releases together in this ten-track post. Once again, live cuts and songs which were tapped for inclusion on Lousy With Love are not included here.

From the era of the band's Some Other Sucker's Parade album (not my favorite, but I love the title's implicit "motherf***er"!) comes three tracks that appeared on the two "Not Where It's At" singles (I also love the idea of an answer song to Beck's "Where it's At", with a typical bit of Currian self-effacement; the Dels would never be hipsters' favorites). Then we have songs from the singles that only appeared on Hatful, "Don't Come Home Too Soon" and "Cry to be Found", and finally, four tracks from the "Just Before You Leave" singles from the final D.A. album, Can You Do Me Good

(Continuing Currie's tradition of negatory inversions of famous song titles, "I'm an Unbeliever" appears here.  On his The Great War album, he actually changes a negative to a positive: "You'll Always Walk Alone". Ouch!  But perhaps his most concise transformation is the addition of a mere comma into a famous Springsteen title: "No, Surrender". The song of that name, from What is Love For, is a real masterpiece, a long and scathing societal rebuke on the order of Dylan's "It's Alright Ma" -- and that's not a comparison I'd make lightly.)

Here endeth our collection of Justin's songs that were exclusive to the various Dels singles -- a total of THIRTY-TWO songs over and above what's on their albums (I'm not counting the 3 cover tunes, re-recorded "Hammering Heart", or original take on "The Difference Is" among their number), plus another 13 B-side tunes on Lousy, three more added to the first album's reissue (again, not counting the one cover there), and three more A-sides only collected on the best-of!  Is there any other band with that many non-LP songs (51!) over the course of a six-album career?  That averages out to more than eight extra songs per album.

And yet, we're only halfway through this series! Still ahead in Delsville are a slew of live bonus discs and b-sides, and alternate versions of various songs, totaling another 41 tracks(!) and rounding out Del Amitri's officially released Rare Stuff. (And perhaps I'll go ahead and post "Lousy With Love" after all to close with, just for completeness' sake.) Plus a few extra goodies for Del fans, so do stay tuned. And keep those comments comin'!

Contents (Title/Source):
Spare Pair Of Laces    Not Where It's At [Disc 1]
Low Friends In High Places    Not Where It's At [Disc 2]
A Grimace Not A Smile    Not Where It's At [Disc 2]
Three Little Words    Don't Come Home Too Soon
Canned Laughter    Cry To Be Found [Disc 1]
One Step At A Time    Cry To Be Found [Disc 1]
Belong Belong    Just Before You Leave [Disc 1]
The Septic Jubilee    Just Before You Leave [Disc 1]
You Love Me    Just Before You Leave [Disc 2]
I'm An Unbeliever    Just Before You Leave [Disc 2]

7 comments:

  1. http://www37.zippyshare.com/v/83772961/file.html

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  2. Thanks for providing all this buried treasure to a long-time Former Owner fan who never went any farther, until now.

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  3. You're insane, man... Insane... Del Amitri (specially their song "Hammering Heart") means a lot for me... Cheers from Lima, Peru...

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  4. This site is amazing, thank you so much! With the Dels touring again next month this was the perfect timing to find these downloads.

    One small plea: please can you repost the other stuff on zippyshare, such as the live tracks?

    Thank you!

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  5. fantastico. spero che ti tornerà la voglia di deliziarci con le tue meravigliose novità

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  6. Thanks SO much. Vol. 1-5 are still up, but could you put 6-10 on Zippyshare also? I'd love to hear them!

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  7. You wouldn't have a song called Some of Those Tears Are True, would you? I had it on my MySpace page years ago and haven't been able to find it anywhere

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