Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Hello, Sailor!!!!

Lots of interesting stories in the new issue of MOJO this month -- as always, none of them really available online, alas -- including a list of the Top 50 greatest UK indie records of all time.

Guess what comes in at Number One? (Hint: Have I mentioned that I cried?)



I must admit to a certain ambivalence about The Smiths, although "This Charming Man" (1983) has always struck me as a splendid example of what can be done with some chiming guitars and the beat from The Supremes "You Can't Hurry Love." In any case, the MOJO piece has lots of fascinating backstory bits about how the song and record came together; I had no idea, for example, that said chiming guitars involved 15 overdubbed acoustic and electric tracks -- the latter played on a 1954 Fender Telecaster, NOT the Rickenbacker Johnny Marr is picking in the above video.

2 comments:

dave™© said...

I had no idea, for example, that said chiming guitars involved 15 overdubbed acoustic and electric tracks...

So do musicians still do that sort of thing?

steve simels said...

Interestingly, on the original (unreleased) version they did, some then trendy producer wouldn't let the drummer play on it -- he insisted on programming computer drums himself.

Eventually, though, they substituted the real guy playing a real kit.