Too-Rye-Ay, as it should have sounded
- Brand: Unbranded
Description
The record’s co-producers] Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley were very successful at the time, they’d had a lot of hits with bands like Madness, so what they said mattered. They had the final say in how Too-Rye-Ay originally sounded,” Rowland says today. I didn’t mind so much when we played live, because I was in complete charge of the music and I knew we could give people a good show; when it came to performance I would just focus on what audiences were about to hear, not what they’d heard already. But I felt bad promoting it in the press, and even years later when talking to friends. They’d say, “Oh, I listened to Too-Rye-Ay again last night,” and my heart would sink a bit. You suggest that it sounds punchier now – but that’s only half the story, as it has a lot more dynamics and a lot more emotional depth. It sounds a lot more pure for want of a better term,” he says. “It’s a very musical mix. It lets the vocals breathe, and also we were able to deal with a few of the studio treatments and production techniques. They were of their time, but I didn’t like them, and they didn’t reflect the dynamic range of the music.” Norwegiancharts.com – Kevin Rowland & Dexys Midnight Runners – Too-Rye-Ay". Hung Medien. Retrieved 1 February 2022.
Platinum and Gold Singles 1982". Kent Music Report. 28 February 1983 . Retrieved 10 November 2021– via Imgur. The album’s cover has also been re-modelled, using the preferred image from the “Come On Eileen” single sleeve.Rowley 2018-08-22T11:58:18Z, Scott (22 August 2018). "New wave: A guide to the best albums". LouderSound. {{ cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list ( link) Since 1982 there have been a few different versions of the record. In 1996 it featured eight bonus songs, and in 2007, when a 25 year anniversary record was released, it included a 14-song live performance at the BBC. ‘Come On Eileen’ itself exists in many versions, some feature the solo fiddle playing the first line of the folk song ‘Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms’, and some begin with that inimitable bassline. Even the fact that these versions exist suggest Rowland couldn’t let it go. “The songs and performances are great, but I always felt the mixes could be better. It's my most successful album, but it doesn't sound as good as the others,” he told Retro Pop magazine. After “Come On Eileen” made him a star, Rowland initially enjoyed himself. “It chilled us out. We couldn’t have been like we were in 1980”. But the novelty soon wore off. “Being a well-known person was too intense. I discovered it’s another job in itself”. He stayed in Birmingham, which he says was a mistake: he was recognised everywhere. However, Too-Rye-Ay wowed the critics (“On this record, Rowland does the impossible – makes me believe he’s found some young soul rebels,” gushed The Village Voice’s Robert Christgau) and it tore up the charts – peaking at No. 2 in the UK and No. 14 on the Billboard 200, with platinum discs to follow. In fact, in 1982, you’d have been hard-pressed to find anyone who wasn’t deliriously happy with Too-Rye-Ay – except for Kevin Rowland himself. The first bonus disc houses the various B-sides and standalone singles. A possible album in its own right, you’re left wondering how the punchy Show Me failed to make the original LP, with the eerie monologue Love Part 2 yet another great Rowland plan for a better life.
Big” Jim Paterson has previously talked of Dexys line-ups never lasting more than a year, because Rowland was always thinking where to take things next. Equally, however, it is because Rowland embodies Dexys, and not just the Dexys “sound”, but in how that sound can be applied elsewhere. On 2016’s Let The Record Show: Dexys Do Irish And Country Soul – we were taken on a root through songs as diverse as Seán Ó Riada’s ‘Women of Ireland’, Diane Warren’s ‘How Do I Live’, Johnny Cash’s ‘Forty Shades Of Green’, and Joni Mitchell’s ‘Both Sides Now’ – it resembled a dialogue of sorts, a conversation worth listening to. So Rowland is – literally – correcting the record. Too-Rye-Ay, As It Should Have Sounded remixes the original recordings to present a more organic, purer version of the album’s string-led Celtic-soul sound. It’s not a radical overhaul – “one or two people said to me they can’t hear any difference”, he says, the inverse of his problem in 1982 when many didn’t hear much wrong with the original. Rather, it’s a subtle and nuanced refreshing that brings increased clarity and depth, Rowland’s impassioned vocals – a classic soul singer’s take on Bryan Ferry’s affectations – noticeably cleaner and clearer. “We’re not trying to make it sound ‘2022’. We’re still being true to what it was, letting the music speak for itself.” Dutchcharts.nl – Kevin Rowland & Dexys Midnight Runners – Too-Rye-Ay" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 1 February 2022. All the songs on the album were rearranged to add strings, which caused Dexys to re-record the 1981 singles "Plan B", "Liars A to E", and "Soon". During the rearrangement process, "Soon" was revised into the opening section of "Plan B"; since both songs were written by Rowland and Paterson, the merged songs are credited on the album simply as "Plan B". I knew there were other songs on there just as good as ‘Eileen’, but they hadn’t been realised properly.
Notes
We regret to inform you that the Dexys show at The London Palladium on …. is no longer going ahead. Additional discs of non-album singles and B sides, previously unheard out-takes and the full set from the band’s landmark show at the Shaftesbury Theatre, London, in October ’82 sweetens the deal even further, acting as de facto bookends charting the before and after of the album itself. But in the long run, whether one thinks the upholstering was unnecessary or serves an essential purpose, it won’t lessen devotees’ avowed intention to hum these tunes forever.
- Fruugo ID: 258392218-563234582
- EAN: 764486781913
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