The English Beat: What is Beat?
1983
IRS Records
Format I Own it on: Vinyl
Track Listing: 1. Mirror In The Bathroom 2. Twist & Crawl 3. Tears Of A Clown 4.
Can't Get Used To Losing You (Remix) 5. Doors Of Your Heart 6. What's Your Best Thing? 7.
Hit It 8. Save It For Later (12" Version) 8.Best Friend 9.I Confess 10. Too Nice To Talk To 11.
Get A Job /Stand Down Margaret
Vinyl greatest-hits package from the early 80's. I can tell you that before "The Complete Beat" made this redundant, this record was essential shit. It contained 3 non-album singles, an awesome live take of "Get A Job /Stand Down Margaret" and a handful of remixes that weren't available anywhere else. Lots of fond memories of sitting on the floor of my room listening to this one.
The three non-album singles: I believe I've covered "Too Nice To Talk To" elsewhere, but it really is one of my favorite English Beat songs. Darker and funkier than anything else they've recorded. I'm never really aching to hear "Hit It", since it doesn't have a great chorus that gets lodged in your skull (like so many of their other songs), but whenever it's actually on I find myself falling for its cool, angular funkiness. I like "What's Your Best Thing?" very much. It has such a bizarre mix that I seriously thought my speakers were missing a channel when I first heard it. It's like a dub version or remix of itself. The vocals are mixed very low, the drums really loud, then suddenly a big dry guitar or violin will appear at ear-splitting levels and overtake everything. The song is so sturdy that it bears out the interesting mix, at least.
I still bust this out from time to time to listen to the rarities in a vinyl format and I often find myself just letting the whole thing play. Great comp. Let's listen to "Too Nice to Talk To"...
The English Beat: 12" & Dub Versions
2012
Shout Factory! Records
Format I Own it on: Compact Disc
1. Hands Off... She's Mine (Extended) 2. Twist & Crawl (Extended) 3. Stand Down Margaret (Dub) 4. Too Nice To Talk To (Dubweiser) 5. Psychedelic Rockers (Dubweiser) 6. Doors Of Your Heart (Extended) 7. Drowning (Dub) 8. Hit It (Extended) 9. Which Side Of The Bed? (Extended) 10. Save It For Later (Extended) 11.What's Your Best Thing (Dub) 12. Cool Entertainer (Extended) 13. Jeanette (Extended) 14. March Of The Swivel Heads (Extended) 15. I Confess (Dave Allen Remix)
The minute they announced an English Beat box set, I whipped out my wallet . There was no way I wasn't getting this, and I went to the record store the day it came out. This was one of two bonus discs, a 78 minute monster packed with the band's dub versions and extended 12-inch mixes. And they certainly are...longer.
The thing with The English Beat, is that they took a very gentle approach with the dubs and remixes. The end of a vocal phrase echoed, an additional instrumental breakdown, some pushed up bass or subtle percussion. You almost forget that you're not just listening to a greatest hits comp. To the point where some of these appear on greatest hits albums and nobody bats an eye or says, "Hey! That's not the version of 'Save It For Later' I wanted!"
(For some reason I'm a huge fan of 70's and 80's dubs but despise 90's-current remixes. Why is that? Oh, yea! Cos 70's and 80's shit didn't just have a shitty, programmed techno "Oonce Oonce Oonce oonce" beat slapped haphazardly over everything. Look! You can dance to it now! It has an "Oonce Oonce Oonce" on it).
I listen to this quite a bit when I can't decide which Beat album I want to hear. A good mix of the big hits and more obscure numbers like "Psychedelic Rockers." Here's the extended "Save It For Later." One of my all-time favorite songs. No question.
English Beat: Peel Sessions & Live in Boston
2012
Shout Factory! Records
Format I Own it on: Compact Disc
Track Listing: Peel Session - November 5, 1979: 1. Tears Of A Clown 2. Ranking Full Stop 3.
Click Click 4. Mirror In The Bathroom 5. Big Shot Peel Session - September 22, 1980: 6.Too Nice To Talk To 7. Psychedelic Rockers 8. Monkey Murders 9. Walk Away Peel Session - March 29, 1982: 10. Spar Wid Me 11. End Of The Party 12. She's Going 13. Save It For Later 14.
Sole Salvation 15. Pato And Roger A Go Talk Opera House, Boston - November 19, 1982 16. Best Friend 17. Tears Of A Clown 18. Twist & Crawl 19. Get-A-Job/Stand Down Margaret
This is the second bonus disc (there was a different version that had a bonus dvd of the band playing the Us festival, but I don't have that version) featuring the various Peel Sessions the band did over the years. It also includes 4 live tracks from the same show that the version of "Get-A-Job/Stand Down Margaret" from "What is Beat?" originates.
No huge surprises here. The English Beat live sounds pretty the same as English Beat in the studio. They're very skilled and polished live musicians, hitting everything dead on song-after-song. It's certainly impressive, but again I often forget that I'm not listening to a very interesting hits compilation. By the way, I fucking love Peel Sessions. Getting to hear good bands hashing it out in a live setting with studio quality. What's not to love?
I kinda wish this set would have included the band's performance on the 1982 Kid Jensen radio show, where the band performed two new songs that could have probably appeared on their 4th album (which the liner notes tantalizingly discuss being tracked). Frustratingly, at the same time the box set was issued, there were deluxe import versions being sold that had these tracks, making this "The Incomplete Beat." Oh, well...
Here's the "Sole Salvation" Peel session...Enjoy...
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