2008/09/28

A gift from Flavio: Respond productions (due to very popular demand, believe me)!


(Something I did during an insomniac nite, last nite actually... :) Nothing special, maybe it's interesting for the single versions of Dr Love (bside of The House..) and Call Me cos they werent reissued on CD by Trattoria Japan. Here's some words I've written for those who missed the "Respond years"... no big deal LOLOL)

In 1982 Tracie Young, 17 years old, sent a tape in reply to an advert on Smash Hits. Couple of months later she was on TV, miming backing vocals side by side with Paul Weller for the last ever appearence of The Jam at ToTP. And later for the debut single of The Style Council! Respond Records "the british Motown" (hahaha) was born... In the next 3 years Weller wrote, or co-wrote, some tracks for Tracie's solo career, and also produced her records and sometimes played most of the instruments with the help of Mick Talbot.

So what we have? "Nothing Happens Here But You" (Weller) sounds really like a Style Council song "Cafe Bleu" era."(When You) Call Me" (Weller) was released as "Tracie Young" by Polydor just after Respond was closed and is a TSC song from Our Favourite Shop era.
"Far From The Hurting Kind" (Weller) I included the rarish demo version, the original was on the album of the same name, and it's Tracie's fave song, to the point she fought with Paul to have it released as a single, unsuccesfully. "I Think You're Lucky" (Weller/Young) released only in Japan in the 90s was probably meant for the second album, never published. "The Boy Hairdresser"(Weller) the B-side of her second hit single, another example of 'syntethic soul/pop'
"Doctor Love" (Weller) a song Paul gave to Bananarama too. Here's the B-side from the vinyl single, different from the album version. "Souls on Fire" (Weller/Young) 12" extended mix, was a Style Council backing track that Tracie liked and asked to finish. "Fingers Crossed" (Weller/Young) same as "Lucky". "Spring Summer Autumn" (Weller) is a cover of the TSC acoustic B-side. Bonus track of this collection the lovely 2008 recording of "Nothing Happens Here But You" made in a small radio station studio with just a keyboard and her voice. I still think this version deserves to be recorded properly and released!

Enjoy the cap



5 comments:

N.D. said...

Thanks, Capitano & Yann for sharing this great music...

HSB DaveB. said...

Nice one!! Looking forward to this indeed!!

Peace and SOUL,
Dave...

MartinV said...

thank you both for sharing.
very interesting.
best wishes
MartinV

sidollie said...

Thanks for this Yann & Flavio...

Andy.

Kenneth M. Walsh said...

Great post! How fun to see I'm not the only one up in the wee hours remembering our girl. A couple of years ago I made a two-disc CD of everything Tracie ever released (including those bonus tracks from the Japanese "Far From the Hurting Kind" and "Mama Never Told Me" with The Questions), but have since come across her version of "Harvest for the World" with Paul Weller and The Questions, plus that radio performance of "Nothing Happens Here but You" you also mentioned, so now I need to update them. In the meantime, I'm uploading the MP3s to my site. Please stop by if you're interested.