Version City Version

Punk trumpeter Terry Edwards and his band The Scapegoats have done countless brilliant jazz- punk cover versions. A pair of 12″ singles with covers of The Jesus And Mary Chain and The Fall are both essential. He has done Sex Machine, a Napalm Death medley and a wordless version of Five Years that is as moving as Bowie’s original. The Punk Tributes had versions of Bodies (Sex Pistols), New Rose (The Damned) and Version City (The Clash).

Version City

Version City isn’t necessarily the obvious choice for a Clash cover, especially when taken alongside Bodies and New Rose, both loud, fast blasts of 1977. It opens side six of Sandinista!, surely the least listened to side of any Clash record. That’s some people’s loss because side six definitely has its merits even if it could be mistaken for stoned, studio filler. Version City is a dubby rockabilly number, starting with slowed down and speeding up weirdness, plummy radio presenter voices and FX before Joe and the band come in (there is also some guest harmonica from Lew Lewis, an exile from Eddie And The Hot Rods). It concludes in a similar way. Terry Edwards takes the main melody and funks it up on his trumpet, riffing through the song, finding all sorts of edge and bite in it. In many ways Terry’s cover is as much the spirit of Sandinista! as the songs on The Clash’s own triple disc 1980 magnificence.

If I Could Just Hold You

The new album (The Something Rain) by Tindersticks is shaping up well. Nine minute opener Chocolate has to be heard to be believed and this song, Frozen, has Stuart Staples intoning increasingly desperately the title of this post, set against urgent backing and collaborator Terry Edwards’ trumpet squawks. I’ve never been a knocked out fan but this album has a load of songs that’ll be there at the end of the year.

Frozen

What A Mess

I always liked the look and idea of Gallon Drunk, even if listening to them could be a test to the ears. And that was the point I suppose- uncompromising, swampy rock that took in free jazz and punk and bumped into several other dark corners of music on the way. They were home for a while for Bagging Area’s favourite punk trumpeter Terry Edwards and frontman James Johnston also served in The Bad Seeds. This is a noisy, live version of their ‘classic’ Some Fool’s Mess, and seems a fairly good way to celebrate the arrival of December.

Some Fool’s Mess (Live in Chicago)

>I Never Thought I’d Need So Many People

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Another Bowie cover to follow yesterday’s Associates version of Boys Keep Swinging. We’ve had the odd Terry Edwards post here before, either from his e.p. of punk trumpet covers of Jesus And Mary Chain songs or his totally wired cover of The Fall. This is something else, a totally beautiful and entrancing cover of Bowie’s apocalyptic Five Years, done for a Peel Session in 1993. The playing is such that you don’t need to hear Bowie imploring ‘we’ve got five years, my brain hurts a lot’- it’s all there in the brass.

Five Years

>Temporary Close Down

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Over a week ago a reader, John Medd, commented that there have been too many Jesus And Mary Chain references here recently. Bagging Area is happy to take constructive criticism but time is up on the JAMC ban. In 1991 punk trumpeter Terry Edwards released a cracking e.p. called Terry Edwards Plays The Music Of Jim And William Reid, four trumpet led covers of Mary Chain songs. I posted Never Understand not long after this blog started. This track is Terry’s version of The Hardest Walk, where he finds more melody in Jim Reid’s vocal lines than anyone knew existed.

Long term readers will know that Mrs Swiss and I are the parents of a disabled child. He has a rare genetic disease, Hurler’s Syndrome, one of the MPS set of diseases, which has left him needing two bone marrow transplants before the age of two to keep him alive, various skeletal problems (and major surgery on his back and knees), severe learning difficulties and loads more besides. I.T., twelve now, is having his umpteenth operation on Monday to have a cochlear implant fitted. Born partially deaf in both ears any hearing he had in his left ear was destroyed by meningitis in 2008. The cochlear implant sends digital signals to the brain, a new type of hearing. If the op doesn’t work, he’s not lost anything really and if it does we may go ahead and do the same in his right ear where he still has some hearing, but copes with severe loss using hearing aids and lip reading. A cochlear implant has to destroy any natural hearing that’s left so we can’t take the risk of him losing everything by doing the right and the left ears in one go and it not working. They won’t switch the implant on for a few weeks, so it’s going to be a while before we know whether it’s worked or not, and then repeated trips to get the implant sorted and working properly. He’ll probably deal with it all fine- he usually bounces back pretty quickly after operations, and while getting used to the implant and a new way of hearing may take some time he’ll get to grips with it. It certainly won’t stop him talking. It’s the rest of us who get battered by these experiences, operations, hospital stays, new proceedures and equipment to get to grips with. Brain surgery obviously carries some risks also.

The Hardest Walk? It might not be the absolute hardest, but the walk from ward to operating theatre with a child who doesn’t want to go and is increasingly anxious, hates being anaesthetised and can’t fully understand what’s happening is far from the easiest walk, and neither is the walk out of the theatre afterwards leaving the anaesthetised boy behind who was kicking and screaming seconds earlier. No matter how many times I’ve done it, and it’s over thirty now, it gets no easier.

So, there won’t be much going on round here for a short while. Enjoy Terry Edwards, and see you in a few days.

01 The Hardest Walk.wma

Wasting Time In Numbers And Rhyme

Continuing with The Fall theme for no particular reason, this is Bingo Master’s Breakout. Not by MES and co, but by punk trumpeter Terry Edwards, whose ep covering Jesus And Mary Chain was a blast. I think this is from a Peel Session- it’s certainly no less confrontational than The Fall.

02 Bingo Masters Breakout.wma

Terry Edwards ‘Never Understand’

This is Terry Edwards’ barnstorming cover of Never Understand by the Jesus and Mary Chain. Instrumental version- JAMC drumming with sax and trumpet playing the melody and the noise. Terry Edwards has played with loads of people, including Gallon Drunk, and fronts or fronted the Scapegoats, and also covered The Fall (Totally Wired) and The Clash (Version City) among others. This is the best though- top track.

NeverUnderstand.mp3