In creative fields, there are few things that are more frustrating than being second-guessed. Musicians who really dislike being questioned about decisions made in songwriting are probably the last ones to allow leaks or to test out unfinished songs on live audiences prior to being finalized. And while it may be annoying, I don’t think there is anything inherently wrong in looking at demos or early versions of songs and noting the qualities that are lost when the songs are produced, recorded, and mastered for their use on an album.
One such instance that really set me off me was “C’mere” from Interpol‘s second album, Antics. In the year or so leading up to the album’s release, the band played a number of the songs for live audiences. Personally, I’ve always thought they were relatively dull live, and did not get to all that many of their shows. But lucky for me, Zoviet has long taken it upon himself to record many of their shows (Freed had once rumored to me that Zoviet may have been the first to record them live back in ’98 or ’99). So back in Fall 2003 I heard a version of what was at the time called “Strangers in the Night” or “Love Me Now.” I really liked it, but when the final version came out on Antics, my immediate reaction was, “what the fuck happened to the organ?” Usually when you record an album in the studio you add instrumentation rather than remove it. And in the case of “C’mere,” its not really such a subtle, bare-bones song that would merit it being stripped down. There is a bit of keyboard backing at the end, but for most of the song it sounds empty, especially when compared with the surprisingly full live recording. Instead of being one of my favorites, the lack of some simple harmony turned it into a pretty mediocre song.
: Interpol – Strangers In The Night (live) : (2003)
: Interpol – C’mere : (2004)
yes, i was there in the beginning. me, daniel’s girlfriend, paul’s brother, and a handful of other folks barely making a dent in the little shoebox that was Brownies. all they had out was the self produced precipitate ep, so i started recording the shows on minidisc so i could listen to what became one of my favorite bands of the moment. what i remember most about TOTBL when it was released was the unbelivable similarities to what they were playing live, to what they produced in the studio. Many would later critique that their following shows were ‘boring’ for that very reason. Some of those live recordings have made their way to the internet…