The incredible project that everyone should own.
The blog site that launched this project has been dead for 7 years now.
Given the detail in the information and the general amazing quality of the restoration,
I humbly present the entire collection via static links.
The collection's tagline:
"A careful restoration of the Smiths on Rough Trade.
All tracks were taken from the best/earliest possible sources to avoid modern mastering techniques which crush the dynamics. Tracks sourced from vinyl have been carefully cleaned and EQ levels have been tweaked for consistency.
The artwork was scanned at the highest possible resolution and the type was reset when possible using the original fonts.
All of these singles are out-of-print in their original form. Some of the tracks have never appeared on CD. This was a labor of love from a small, devoted circle of fans.
These are the songs that saved your life. If you like what you hear support the band by purchasing their catalog."
When the site ended, this was the final post:
"Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Dear friends,
Thank you for your enthusiasm and support. It's been a complete surprise that this project was allowed to live online with no interference from the label or band. However, all good things must come to an end. The Extra Track crew has made a joint decision to deactivate all the download links, effective immediately.
You may still be able to find the audio online, if you approach fan sites, newsgroups, or torrent sites.
The entries for each single will remain here as a sort of Wiki about The Smiths' singles.
We hope you enjoy the hours of work we put into this project. You'll be hearing from us again.
Sincerely,
Drew Crumbaugh
Jeb Edwards"
To Drew, Jeb & all who contributed to this great archive, please let me thank you for all your efforts and I hope you will view this as a tribute to your hard work.
Thank you immensely,
FWD.
Click below to go straight to the links:
https://www.morrissey-solo.com/thre...ack-and-a-tacky-badge.143862/#post-1987162444
Each single's information, tracks, sources, restoration & notes:
1 "Hand In Glove"
Rough Trade RT131
Produced by The Smiths
May 1983
Tracks:
1 Hand In Glove (original single version)
2 Handsome Devil (live)
3 Hand In Glove (live at Brixton Ace 29 June 1983)
Sources:
1 from Hatful of Hollow Rough Trade CD ROUGHCD76
2 from Handsome Devils WEA France promo CD PRO 2005 _ 2, 1992
3 from "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out" WEA YZ0003CD1, 1992
Restoration:
Gentle EQ as needed, a smidgen of tasteful noise reduction if required, and very cautious, gentle peak limiting.
Artwork for this, and every other release we'll be featuring, was sourced from the amazing Vulgar Picture treasure trove of sleeve artwork scans (with permission).
Notes:
The Smiths' calling card. Thundering out of the gate with one of the band's most "wall-of-sound" tracks, this record sounded nothing of its time in comparison to other 1983 records. Recorded with Joe Moss' money at Stockport's legendary Strawberry Studios (while the band was still seeking a record deal), and with the band handling basic production duties, Rough Trade released this on spec when handed a copy of the finished record. As they only recorded "Hand In Glove" at Strawberry, they dug into their not-very-deep vault for the B-side, a stomping take on "Handsome Devil" recorded live at the Hacienda in February 1983.
Morrissey was still bemoaning this record's relative chart failure a year after release, begging gig-going punters to keep buying it.
The Smiths never sounded this raw again. While I never used to rate "Hand In Glove" (though always loved "Handsome Devil"), I have developed a growing fondness for this take ever since having to (repeatedly) audition it while working on the audio segment of this endeavour. I think this was the perfect first release for this band - immediately sounding the consummate studio band on the A-side, and a storming live entity on the flip.
The bonus track here, "Hand In Glove" recorded live at the Brixton Ace, was initially a radio promo track sent out by Rough Trade on cassette in late summer 1983, and finally saw official release on the long-deleted WEA "There Is A Light..." CD single in 1992. Not necessarily a stellar version or recording, nonetheless it's a key track in the archives and for that reason belongs here.
You will have to forgive me if you are looking for meaningful insight on Morrissey's lyrics, for these or any other tracks we may be featuring. I was always drawn to this band by Johnny Marr's guitars, and Andy Rourke's unparalleled bass work. I always thought the Moz as a bit of a character, never reading anything more into his lyrics than just that, they being lyrics because the band didn't want to only record instrumentals. So in discussing the songs, I'll tend to stick to what I can speak of best, usually the music.
2 "Reel Around The Fountain"
Rough Trade RTT136
Produced by Troy Tate
Summer 1983 (not released)
Tracks:
0 Reel Around The Fountain **new pristine Warners source** --- see below
1 Reel Around The Fountain
2 Jeane
3 Accept Yourself
4 Wonderful Woman
Sources:
0 from the new double LP bootleg featuring unreleased mixes/demos, sourced from Warner Strategic Marketing product
1, 3-4 from a tape containing the alleged "Final Mixes" of the abandoned Troy Tate 1st LP sessions
2 from "This Charming Man" WEA YZ0001CD1, 1992
Restoration:
Gentle EQ as needed, a smidgen of tasteful noise reduction if required, and very cautious, gentle peak limiting.
Artwork for this, and every other release we'll be featuring, was sourced from the amazing Vulgar Picture treasure trove of sleeve artwork scans (with permission).
Notes:
Summer 1983 saw the band repair to Elephant Studios, Wapping with Teardrop Explodes guitarist Troy Tate handling production duties of that "critical" first LP. As any fan knows, this session ultimately was abandoned, with the recordings scrapped and restarted with John Porter in Manchester that fall.
While the Tate project was still active, the plan was for the Smiths' 2nd single to be the Tate recording of "Reel Around The Fountain", backed by "Jeane". (Some think they were planning on releasing one of the BBC session versions of "RATF" as the single; however, Simon Goddard, in the wonderful book Songs That Saved Your Life, states otherwise - that it was the Tate recording that was planned for use. I trust Goddard on this one.) This got as far as the test pressing stage, at which point Johnny had come up with "This Charming Man" and Rough Trade decided that "TCM" would be the 2nd single instead.
Print ads were placed promoting the Tate "Reel Around The Fountain" single release, and as far as can be determined, the actual single was to be a 7" only. We are using the Tate recordings of "Accept Yourself" and "Wonderful Woman" as the extra tracks, to give an idea of what a Tate 12" would be like using the same songs ultimately used for the "TCM" 12" (coming up later on the blog).
This is a great fake single. I love the rawness of the Tate recordings; Tate managed to capture Mike Joyce's drums like no other producer did - besides the odd BBC session - in the band's entire recording career. They thunder! They boom! The band, in my humble opinion, committed a great error in binning the Tate recordings. We can only hope that someone, somewhere, decides to un-bin these and officially release them, in pristine condition. Until then....
******** UPDATE ********
Late December 2010 saw a surprise "release" of a double LP vinyl bootleg entirely comprised of unreleased, sometimes unmixed, rough takes, monitor mixes, etc from various Smiths sessions dating from the initial Troy Tate summer 1983 debut LP sessions, to the final album sessions with Stephen Street in spring 1987. Among this material was the final, as far as Warners knew, mix done by Tate of "Reel Around The Fountain". Needless to say a pristine, spectacular stereo transfer of this was sourced and used here.
I probably shouldn't, because it only raises expectations of a full release of the entire Tate session knowing Warners has it in this quality, but here's the mythical Track 0 (zeroth track?) as it really should replace entirely our original Track 1. You've never heard Tate's "Reel Around The Fountain" in this quality, and if I hadn't mentioned its lineage from vinyl, one would think I nicked the Warners half-inch master and went from there.
3 "This Charming Man"
Rough Trade RTT136
Produced by John Porter
(except 2 produced by Troy Tate)
(tracks 6-7 remix Francois Kevorkian @ Right Track Studios, New York)
October/December 1983
Tracks:
1 This Charming Man (Manchester)
2 Jeane
3 Accept Yourself
4 Wonderful Woman
5 This Charming Man (London)
6 This Charming Man (New York Vocal)
7 This Charming Man (New York Instrumental)
8 This Charming Man (Single Remix)
Sources:
1-4 from "This Charming Man" WEA YZ0001CD1, 1992
5-8 from "This Charming Man" WEA YZ0001CD2, 1992
Restoration:
Gentle EQ as needed, a smidgen of tasteful noise reduction if required, and very cautious, gentle peak limiting.
Artwork for this, and every other release we'll be featuring, was sourced from the amazingVulgar Picture treasure trove of sleeve artwork scans (with permission).
Notes:
As production was running up on the soon-to-be-abandoned "Reel Around The Fountain" single, the band was still busily writing new material. In a 24-hour timespan Marr came up with two classic tracks, shortly before a September 1983 Peel Session: "Still Ill" and "This Charming Man". Chuffed with the quality of these two new tracks, the band recorded them for the first time for Peel, and upon hearing "TCM", Rough Trade supremo Geoff Travis immediately new what the next single should be.
This was John Porter's first production with the band. It was also the first recording with Marr laying a million guitar tracks down on the recording; one can argue that had Porter not worked on this record, the Smiths - and specifically Johnny Marr - would not have ultimately received all the acclaim now given.
There are "Manchester" and "London" versions (we'll discuss "New York" in a moment) because immediately after the Peel recording session, the band and Porter attempted to record the single in a London studio. Not happy with the results, and with Geoff Travis wanting a more Northern sound, the band regrouped in Manchester a week later and re-recorded the whole thing. So the "Manchester" version became the well-known single, and the "London" version appeared on the 12" as a B-side. "Accept Yourself" and "Wonderful Woman" both came from the London sessions, while "Jeane" was a remnant from the Troy Tate sessions (apparently always being tagged as a B-side track).
New York producer Francois Kevorkian was then handed the multitracks to follow U2's lead in making "New York" versions for club airings; hence the two "New York" variants. While one may laugh at the ultimate dancefloor usefulness of these tracks, allegedly Morrissey and Marr despised them and blamed Travis for releasing this against their wishes. I don't buy it for a second, but that's revisionism for you. More reconstructions than remixes, I don't mind either NY variant, but as far as the canon goes, they're eminently disposable.
Tracks 3, 5, 7 and 8 are no longer officially available, as they last saw release on the now out-of-print 1992 WEA singles.
4 "What Difference Does It Make?"
Rough Trade RTT146
Produced by John Porter
January 1984
Tracks:
1 What Difference Does It Make?
2 Back To The Old House
3 These Things Take Time
4 What Difference Does It Make? (7 inch edit)
5 What Difference Does It Make? (Troy Tate abandoned version)
Sources:
1-3 from "What Difference Does It Make?" RTT146CD, 1988
4 edited from same
5 from a tape containing the alleged "Final Mixes" of the abandoned Troy Tate 1st LP sessions
Restoration:
Gentle EQ as needed, a smidgen of tasteful noise reduction as required, and very cautious, gentle peak limiting
Artwork for this, and nearly every other release we'll be featuring, was sourced from the amazing Vulgar Picture treasure trove of sleeve artwork scans (with permission).
Notes:
This, the band's third single, delved a bit deeper into their songwriting history for the title track. While the prior "This Charming Man" was a relatively brand-new song at the time it was released as a single, "What Difference Does It Make?" was amongst the first batch of songs Morrissey and Marr composed together, back in late 1982.
Featuring an immediate, grabbing guitar motif, this track was recorded initially for John Peel (and obtainable on Hatful Of Hollow), and then subsequently re-recorded both by Troy Tate (for the abandoned first LP sessions), and finally John Porter (what we have here as the A-side, and, later, as featured on their debut LP). The Peel version is more of a stomper, with a loose, heavy groove laid down by Mike Joyce. Most "experts" on the Smiths prefer the Peel version, and I count myself firmly
in that camp. It just has more "oomph", more power, it's just a better take on the song. The Porter/A-side version, featured here, is just "eh". I don't think the groove was quite captured in this take, and the guitars sound strangely neutered.
But, it is what it is.
The B-side tracks are infintely more interesting. "Back To The Old House" is a re-worked, re-arranged variant on the acoustic Hatful Of Hollow/BBC session version, and "These Things Take Time" most definitely should have wormed its way into the debut LP tracklisting. I know that I'm the most inept that ever slept, indeed.
We've chosen to bonus this single with a Tate recording of the title track. It's not as crystalline as the Tate "Reel Around The Fountain" single fantasy, but it's an interesting, and welcomed, re-interpretation of the song. It's notably in a different key than the Porter version, and Marr chirps right along on a harmonica in rhythm with his own guitar track.
It's hard to spice up conversation about this single. I've never really rated it as a stunner in the band's catalog, but there you are. Far more interesting are the various cover combinations, with the Terrence Stamp sleeve, then the Morrissey faux-Stamp sleeve, then Stamp with the band's name, Morrissey with the band's name, etc and etc and etc. I'll let our co-host, if he so chooses, carry on with that part of the discussion...
5 "Hand In Glove" - The Sandie Shaw Single
Rough Trade RTT130
Produced by John Porter
February/March 1984
Tracks:
1 Hand In Glove
2 I Don't Owe You Anything
3 Jeane
4 Hand In Glove (rare alternate mix)
Sources:
1-3 from "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out" (WEA YZ0003CD2, October 1992)
4 from The Smiths (Tokuma Japan 35JC-102, September 1984)
Restoration:
Gentle EQ as needed, a smidgen of tasteful noise reduction if required, and very cautious, gentle peak limiting.
Artwork for this, and every other release we'll be featuring, was sourced from the amazing Vulgar Picture treasure trove of sleeve artwork scans (with permission).
Notes:
Allow me to preface this with two basic incontrovertible facts: 1) I am not English, and 2) I am not a fan of 1960s English bubblegum pop.
To me - a Yank in the frozen tundra of the Great Lakes - this single is frankly an oddity in an otherwise nearly blemish-free catalog. I have no idea of the cultural import this single had at the time; were Brits driven to the record stores in teeming mad droves at the news a faded Sixties pop diva was replacing Morrissey on a 12"? I'm trying to think of an American analogue to this: Perhaps if Cher had quit, or dropped out of the limelight, after "I Got You Babe" and then 30 years later fronted Green Day for a single. Regardless, to me, this record has always had a big question mark superimposed on top of it. I frankly didn't get it when I first heard it, and I still don't get it now.
That said... Marr goes poppy on these new arrangements, and I have to say his simple, breezy take on "Jeane" perhaps is the quintessential backing for this song. When I reach for the acoustic to strum Marr, I often return to this arrangement. I don't think the "Hand In Glove" musical re-statement is better or worse than the classic; it's different, and Marr had to do something to match the tune (and also that for "I Don't Owe You Anything") to Shaw's vocals.
Track 4 came from an unnamed co-conspirator, ripped from a copy of the relatively (very) rare original September 1984 Japanese CD pressing of the debut LP; it along with three other tracks were unique bonus tracks on this CD. I do not believe this mix is available anywhere else; if anything, it's even more Marr-riffic than the common mix.
6 "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now"
Rough Trade RTT156
Produced by John Porter
March 1984
Tracks:
1 Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now
2 Girl Afraid
3 Suffer Little Children
4 Girl Afraid (live in Glasgow 2 March 1984)
5 This Night Has Opened My Eyes
** new **
6 Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now (12" extended mix)
Sources:
1-3 from "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now" (RTT 156CD, November 1988)
4 from NME Department of Enjoyment cassette (NME011, 1985, via the bootleg CD Asleep)
5 from Hatful of Hollow (ROUGHCD76, December 1985)
6 re-edited from 1 based on link shared by a reader
Restoration:
Gentle EQ as needed, a smidgen of tasteful noise reduction if required, and very cautious, gentle peak limiting.
Artwork for this, and every other release we'll be featuring, was sourced from the amazing Vulgar Picture treasure trove of sleeve artwork scans (with permission).
Notes:
The first Smiths single that earned them their "depressive" tag. Nothing spectacular about this; Marr's summery retro composition of the title track belies the subtle moping humor of Moz's lyric (which was written during a miserable first visit as a band to America for a New Years Eve gig in December 1983). "Girl Afraid" is a better track; in my humble opinion it's lasted better than the A-side. "Suffer Little Children" is simply a reprise of the same track on the debut LP, no more, no less. Due to the exposure this track received because of the relative high chart placing of this single, however, controversy arose due to its subject matter (the Moors Murders) despite the track having been available for some time as the final track on the debut LP.
Track 4 was taken from the bootleg CD Asleep, part of the Chelsea label's vaunted collection of otherwise-unavailable-and-rare outtakes, BBC sessions, and rare compilation tracks. It's raw and rough, but a nice version of the song.
Track 5 was/is the only officially available version of this track, recorded as part of a Peel Session for the BBC in September 1983, and was first made available on record as part of November 1984's Hatful of Hollow compilation LP. The studio version (from June 1984) was yet to be recorded at the time of the "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now" single release, and did not surface until December 2010 as part of the legendary Demos and Outtakes double LP bootleg.
*** addendum ***
Thanks to a kind reader who supplied a link to an actual rip (mp3 only) of an actual original-pressing 12" with the rare extended version of "Heaven Knows...", I've uploaded Track 6, a recreation of the same. Really it's only the "In my life..." segment repeated, but it's good to have nonetheless.
7 "William, It Was Really Nothing"
Rough Trade RTT166
Produced by John Porter
July 1984
Tracks:
1 William, It Was Really Nothing
2 How Soon Is Now?
3 Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want
4 How Soon Is Now? (withdrawn alternate mix)
Sources:
1-3 from "William, It Was Really Nothing" (RTT 166CD, fall 1988)
4 from "William, It Was Really Nothing" (Italy, Virgin VINX71 12" single, 1984)
(thanks to Steve)
Restoration:
Gentle EQ as needed, a smidgen of tasteful noise reduction if required, and very cautious, gentle peak limiting.
Artwork for this, and every other release we'll be featuring, was sourced from the amazing Vulgar Picture treasure trove of sleeve artwork scans (with permission).
Notes:
If this record was all the Smiths ever released as a band, they'd be legendary. This 3-track 12" collects three, easily, of the best songs ever written and performed by the band.
"William, It Was Really Nothing" is all a modern pop single isn't. There's no chorus, really - or should it be said the chorus lasts for 2/3 of the song? It's a hair over 2 minutes long, it's quick and to-the-point. The entire song nearly sums up Johnny Marr's passion for guitars. A real gem.
"How Soon Is Now?" - well, there's nothing I can add about this song that isn't already legendary. It's a shame this was initially wasted on a B-side, though the label did come to its senses (far too late, it must be said) eventually and properly released this some months later as an A-side in its own right.
"Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want" - the final track on the original single - is, along with "How Soon Is Now?", a contender for many fans' favorite Smiths track of all time. The late American "Brat Pack" movie director John Hughes loved it so much, he used it twice in his 1980s films - both as the Smiths original, and as a cover by the Dream Academy. Many had their first exposure to this track via the Pretty In Pink soundtrack LP (including yours truly), and it only grew from there.
The Italians, when given the masters for their own local release of this 12" single, somehow got their reels confused and initially released a highly unique rough mix of "How Soon Is Now?" instead of the final, approved take. While it doesn't start off terribly different (the guitars are mixed differently, but that's about it in the first quarter of the song), it quickly devolves into a most unique version. Moz gets to exercise his moaning organ a bit, and there's a great bit where the band comes to a complete stop with Moz clearly saying "OK?" to producer John Porter, and then a few seconds later the track fades back up to the final closing. There are other vastly different instrumental sections in the latter third of the song that make this a great listen as well. When made aware of their error, the Italians quickly corrected it before too many records hit the shops, and replaced it with the final, approved take.
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