"Question about the different versions of "This Charming Man" and "How Soon Is Now?"

[aurora]

Hi there,

I am currently in the process of putting together a disc of all the officially released Smiths B-sides that, for some reason or other, were never featured on any of the, erm, "major" Smiths compilation albums (HOH, TWWL, LTB.)

Anyway, this is where you guys come in:

I am in no way interested in edited/shortened versions of original, easy-to-find songs and I'm really having a hard time differentiating between the many versions of TCM and HSIS respectively.

Do you guys know which are just edited/shortened versions of the more common ones and which are actually DIFFERENT versions?
Hmm, I hope you understand what I am trying to say...

This Charming Man:

*This Charming Man (Manchester)
This Charming Man (London)
This Charming Man (New-York)
This Charming Man (New-York instrumental)
This Charming Man (John Peel session 21/9/83)
This Charming Man (single remix)

*According to passions, this version is identical to the original single version.

How Soon Is Now?:

HSIN (fade-out)
HSIN (Phil Brown edit)
HSIN (other edit)
HSIN (unfinished studio outtake)

THANKS A MILLION IN ADVANCE,

Aurora

[Not Right in the Head]

This Charming Man (London)

Rather different; the guitar "rings" more. It sounds like it's in an echoey cave.

This Charming Man (New-York)

3 minutes longer, but no better. Starting near the end of the third minute, there's an extended drum-n-bass bit that sounds like mid-80s Prince, oddly enough.

This Charming Man (New-York instrumental)

TOTALLY DIFFERENT from both the original single version & the New York vocal. I'm not sure why it's called "instrumental," because it does have vocal snippets from the chorus.

This Charming Man (John Peel session 21/9/83)

Very different, and rather rockabilly. It almost sounds like late 1991 stuff with Th'Lads.

This Charming Man (single remix)

This sounds very much like the London version.

HSIN (fade-out)

Like it says, it just fades early.

HSIN (Phil Brown edit)

Chopped up a bit, but not terribly interesting.

HSIN (other edit)

Is this the one from the John Peel U.K. Buzz #004? If so, it's completely uninteresting--it fades after 5 minutes, instead of after 3 minutes like the 7" version.

HSIN (unfinished studio outtake)

Rather different & interesting. Passions describes it pretty accurately.

Of all of these, the only ones that I find worth listening to are the Peel version of "TCM" & the Italian outtake of "HSIN."

[Worm]

Agree with Not Right's post entirely. The Peel "TCM" is my second-favorite Smiths song. Strangely the studio mix is probably in my bottom ten, along with the studio version of "WDDIM."

If your intention is to include only tracks that didn't make it on albums, leave off the Peel "TCM", which is on "Hatful of Hollow".

[nobody's hero]

The Manchester version is just the "normal" version right?

[Not Right in the Head]

Hmm, do you recon then that all the alt. versions of HSIN out there, with the exception of the Italian outtake, are merely edited/shortened versions of the "original" one? (By "original" i mean the one that appears on "Hatful of Hollow, Meat Is Murder CD etc.)

Yes. That's exactly right. Of the edited versions, only the Phil Brown has any interest, and that's limited to the weirdness of hearing the verses & chorus chopped up. The Peel U.K. Buzz version is interesting not in and of itself, but because of Peel's comments before and after the song (tracked separately on the LP). I posted it a while back in the bootlegs thread, but I'm too lazy to go look for it--it's my birthday, and besides, we have Kewpie to do that

[Stephane]

If I may add, the single remix of "This Charming Man" is actually a mix of the Manchester and London versions. It was done in 1992 for the single re-release, as if they already didn't have enough versions for the single.

On a funny sidenote, an ex of mine interested to find out what it was that I liked so much about the Smiths, decided to listen to some random Smiths cd while I wasn't at home. Unfortunately the randomly selected cd was the remix single with 7 different versions of "This Charming Man". Enough to drive you crazy if that's your introduction to a band.

Stephane

[nobody's hero]

Yes. That's exactly right. Of the edited versions, only the Phil Brown has any interest, and that's limited to the weirdness of hearing the verses & chorus chopped up. The Peel U.K. Buzz version is interesting not in and of itself, but because of Peel's comments before and after the song (tracked separately on the LP). I posted it a while back in the bootlegs thread, but I'm too lazy to go look for it--it's my birthday, and besides, we have Kewpie to do that

Congratuliations!