Wednesday, 27 March 2019

Remembering...The Musical Legacy of Ranking Roger (21st February 1963 - 26th March 2019)

Ranking Roger (born as Roger Charlery)
Birmingham, England
21st February 1963 - 26th March 2019

I did not expect in my last bunch of posts to be doing a piece dealing with the loss of a musician who was actually the same age that I will be in a couple of months time (56)!

Below you will find lots of links to singles/albums and even a live show. Click on them to enjoy the musical legacy of one of England's most beloved entertainers. This is by no means an exhaustive list of everything he ever played on but it will give you a taster for a lot of the great music he has left behind. We honour him best when we keep playing the music he shared with us... loud and with lots of dancing!

Around 9pm last night I read of the sad news that Ranking Roger of The Beat had died. The Beat website and FB page had posted this simple message:

“He fought & fought & fought, Roger was a fighter.”
Sadly Roger past away a few hours ago peacefully at his home surrounded by family.
Roger’s family would like to thank everyone for their constant support during this tough time. More to follow in the coming days. RIP ROGER

It was very sad news indeed when you consider that in the past year he had been hospitalized with a suspected mini-stroke, had surgery upon two brain tumours and had been battling against Lung Cancer.

While he had been dealing with his various health issues he managed to complete work on his biography with his co-writer Daniel Rachel entitled 'I Just Can't Stop It: My Life In The Beat' and it is due for publication early Spring or Summer by Omnibus Press. I would think that they might move up the publication date in light of the current news of his passing.

He had also completed a new album by The Beat Feat. Ranking Roger entitled 'Public Confidential' that was released in January this year.

Public Confidential - The Beat Feat. Ranking Roger
DMF Records
Produced by Mick Lister and Ranking Roger
Released 25th January 2019



 Live at The Roundhouse - The Beat Feat. Ranking Roger
DMF Records
Released 8th June 2018

Bounce - The Beat Feat. Ranking Roger
DMF Records
Produced by Mick Lister
Released 30th September 2016

Selected Tracks from Bounce:
***********
 
Roger was not an original member of The Beat back in 1978 but his Punk band at the time in Birmingham (The Nam Nam Boys) played their first ever gig in support of the band and building on a friendship with the band he begun to "gategrash" their gigs and jump on stage and "Toast". 

He did this many times before officially becoming a member of the band and appeared on their debut hit single for Two Tone Records (it reached #6 in the UK), the Double A-Side Tears of a Clown / Ranking Full Stop (released in November 1979).

UK Chart #3

Singles from the Debut Album
UK Chart #9

UK Chart #4

UK Chart #22

Non Album Single:
UK Chart #7

 Wha'ppen (1981)
UK Chart #3

Special Beat Service (1982)
Select Tracks from the album:
UK Chart #47
UK Chart #45
UK Chart #54

What Is Beat? The Best of The Beat (1983)
Features the singles:
UK Chart #3
UK Chart #54

General Public
All The Rage (1984)
US Chart #26

Singles from the album:
UK Chart #60
UK Chart #95

Hand To Mouth (1986)
US Chart #86

Singles from the album:
Did Not Chart
Canadian Chart #83
Did Not Chart

After a long break General Public returned to the charts in 1994 with a cover of the classic Staples Singers song that appeared in the Soundtrack to the film Threesome.
 UK Chart #73
US Dance Chart #1

Did Not Chart

Single from the album:
US Chart #93
 
***********
Solo Albums
 


Other Collaborations
















Thursday, 21 March 2019

The S4L Radio Show #3 March 2019: This Could Be The Last Time


"Hang on a minute! Haven't you stopped doing the blog?"

I did say I was going to post a few more pieces before finally hanging up my blogging hat. So don't worry, you haven't walked into a world of Brexit-like indecision!! 😉

For the final playlist I thought I'd bring together a bunch of great new music with a few oldies thrown into the mix for good measure. New music from the likes of Edwyn Collins, The Cranberries, UNKLE, Eli Paperboy Reed, Melissa Etheridge, Suzi Quatro, Hayes Carll, Skinny Lister, Mekons, Gang of Four, Toyah and Paul Weller show off the diversity of sounds that are pounding my ears at present. Some oldies from The Sports, The Stones, Sparks, The Alarm, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, and Secret Affair round out yet another twenty track playlist. I hope you enjoy it.

Listen to the Playlist Here:


On The Playlist
Who Listens To The Radio - The Sports

The Last Time - Rolling Stones

Get A Grip (The Stranglers Cover) - Nouvelle Vague

from the new album 'Rarites'
 
Outside - Edwyn Collins
from the new album 'Badbea'
 
All Over Now - The Cranberries
from the final studio album 'In The End'
 
The Other Side - UNKLE feat. Tom Smith of The Editors
from the new album 'The Road: Part II Lost Highway'
 
99 Cent Dreams - Eli Paperboy Reed feat. Big Daddy Kane
from the new album '99 Cent Dreams'
 
Wild and Lonely - Melissa Etheridge
from the new album 'The Medicine Show'
 
Macho Man - Suzi Quatro
from the new album 'No Control'
 
Times Like These - Hayes Carll
from the new album 'What It Is'
 
Rattle & Roar - Skinny Lister
from the new album 'The Story is...'
 
Lawrence of California - Mekons
from the new album 'Deserted'
 
Paper Thin - Gang of Four
from the new album 'Happy Now'
 
The Number One Song In Heaven - Sparks
featured on the 40th Anniversary Edition of 'No. 1 in Heaven'
 
Sensational - Toyah
from the 2019 re-imagining of Toyah’s album 'In the Court of the Crimson Queen'
 
One Step Closer To Home - The Alarm
from the album 'Strength'. A new Remastered version of the album 'Strength 1985-86' has just recently been released.
 
Land of Hope and Dreams (Live) - Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band
from the album 'Live In New York City'
 
Movin' On (Live) - Paul Weller
from the new album 'Other Aspects - Live at The Royal Festival Hall'

The Parting Shot
When The Show's Over - Secret Affair
from the album 'Behind Closed Doors'


Tuesday, 19 March 2019

I Want To Thank You

Kind and Generous - Natalie Merchant

I wanted to take a moment to say a few things following the announcement yesterday that I will be winding up this Blog after 12 years (yikes! Has it really been that long?). 

My friend Wooders, a down to earth Yorkshireman whose words of encouragement mean a world to me told me yesterday that I shouldn't be bothered about numbers and should continue posting the blog and a few others have contacted me via Email and messaging services likewise to continue at it. While I am extremely grateful for that enouragement I just wanted to say that the number issue is actually one of many reasons for stopping but not really the main reason.

I have mentioned in the past that I have been having issues of concentration and sometimes struggling over a couple of days to do a post and that the culprit behind this is a by-product of my Epilepsy and the medications I have to take for controlling that. My natural choice would of course be to continue but the struggle to think clearly at times and the over-bearing tiredness that comes with exercising my mind too much when I am trying to write is something I don't necessarily want to always be experiencing. I hope that is something folks will try and understand.

So, in this post I wanted to mainly say a BIG THANK YOU to my friends who have supported me via this blog, and the many people around the world who have visited Soundtrack4Life and maybe found a piece of music that has thrilled their heart and has ended up being part of their very own Soundtrack4Life. Without you reading this I really don't think I would have gone on for 12 years!!

I would also like to offer a word of thanks to the bands/artists who have over the years been kind enough to agree to do an interview with me for the blog (You can see all the interviews here). I only wish that I had taken the time to do more because there are so many great artists/bands with stories to tell.

Thanks also should be extended to a few folks who have been a guest blogger (you know who you are) on Soundtrack4Life. Again I wish that I had been a bit more proactive in encouraging more to participate because it's always pleasant reading about music from someone else's perspective. Not only the guest bloggers but also those who have been kind enough to provide a quote I could use in a particular piece. To each and everyone of you I am extremely grateful.

This post will be #3190 and not a single one of them would have been possible were it not for the musicians, bands, artists, albums, live concerts, 7" Singles etc and to be incredibly cheesy and to totally rip the song out of context I say with those loveable Swedes called ABBA, "THANK YOU FOR THE MUSIC". Without the music this blog would have been nothing to write home about!

The artist that I have posted about on this Blog more than any other is Bruce Springsteen (Click here to see all 413 posts...that will keep you busy for a long long time!). Whether it be talking about live shows, promo videos, tours, his records and even particular songs. It's a strange thing trying to explain what a guy from New Jersey means to a boy who grew up in South East London and for the past 30 years has resided in Scotland but I hope that it's his music more than my reasons for liking him that is the reason that so many Bruce fans (and not necessarily Bruce fans) took the time to read each post and even share them with their friends and other fan groups.

The most read post on this Blog was a Bruce Springsteen one from 2014 where I basically put together a list of all the songs performed on the High Hopes Tour with links to each song (all 181 of them!).

The other band that I have posted a lot about over the years has been The Alarm (110 posts to be exact) and Mike Peters. I am sure that there will be more music from them this coming year that will continue to thrill me with wonder.

All manner of Musical Styles have been explored over the years from Rock 'n' Roll, Sixties Soul, Heavy Rock, Nu-Metal, Rock, Punk Rock, New Wave, Post-Punk, Mod Revivalist, Pop, Soul, Gospel, Country, Americana, the Blues, Reggae/Ska, even Classical has slipped into the mix! I hope that there's been a little something for everyone, in the end it's easy to put things in nice little boxes but I hope that folks have seen that it's actually the music itself and not the particular style that has been the thing that has spurred me on doing this blog.

So in finishing up this post, I can only repeat the words of the song posted at the begining of piece, the beautiful words of Natalie Merchant, "I Want To Thank You, Thank You!"

 

Monday, 18 March 2019

Beginning of the End?


I am probably not the only Blogger who has noticed a downturn in traffic to their Blog ever since Google announced the coming end of their service Google+

I got a lot of people discovering the Blog via that service and now with that being discontinued it looks like the only means of promoting the blog is on Facebook via my own profile page and various groups that I belong to on it and I have noticed that even via that platform the numbers are down.

I had never been really interested in the numbers, as when I started this blog it was mainly for me but then there was what seemed like an explosion of interest from across the globe and it held out an opportunity of being able to share some of the music that I have been very passionate about down throught the years.

Choosing the title of the Blog as Soundtrack4Life was a big thing as I felt the things that I wanted to share would be those records, artists and bands who have made a distinct impression on my own life.

So it's a bit sad after all these years to be contemplating winding it all up and stopping posting anything new. I won't actually delete the blog as someone out there searching around the World Wide Web might stumble upon it and find something that will delight their heart.

In the next couple of weeks or so you will probably see the last bunch of posts from me. I will no doubt post each one with a very heavy heart because this blog has been something that has been a real labour of love over the years but the fact that it is getting read by fewer people on a daily, weekly and monthly basis seems to me to be a reason to say a final farewell.

I'll finish up this first one with a cracker of a song from a band who are also saying goodbye this year, they are currently on tour with Stiff Little Fingers and getting a great send off around the country. Here's Eddie and The Hot Rods peforming on The Old Grey Whistle Test back in 1978 a storming version of the final track on their 1977 album 'Life On The Line'...It's 'Beginning of the End'.


Sunday, 17 March 2019

Revisiting Generation X - Generation X (1978)

Generation X - Generation X
Chrysalis
Produced by Martin Rushent
Released 17th March 1978
UK Charts #29



 
Personnel
Generation X
    Billy Idol − vocals
    Tony James − bass and vocals
    Bob "Derwood" Andrews − guitar and vocals
    Mark Laff − drums and vocals

US Version of the Album
Listen, The Insvisible Man and Too Personal were replaced on this edition with:

Single from the album
 A-Side: Ready Steady Go
B-Side: No No No
Released 7th February 1978
UK Chart #47

********

I did a piece on this particular album a few years ago but seeing that a number of links etc were dead on it I thought I would raise it back to life again on the 41st Anniversary of its release.


Generation X were there right there in 1976 when Punk began to explode in the UK. People seem to forget that Tony James, William Broad (Billy Idol) and John Towe were all originally part of Chelsea with Gene October. They jumped the good ship Chelsea after Gene had thought James/Broad were becoming too creatively dominant and so they abandoned October and took John Towe with them for good measure!  Derwood joined on guitar and Broad (who had changed his name to Billy Idol) took vocal duties and they played their debut on the 10th December at Central School of Art and Design in London and then on 14th December 1976 they played their second show at a new venue called The Roxy (the first of the Punk bands to do so). Towe left the band and Mark Laff (ex-Subway Sect) joined on drums in time for their signing to Chrysalis Records.

There always seemed to be a bit of jealousy regarding Generation X, especially among the male world of Punk and I think that had a lot to do with Billy and Co. being a darn sight more handsome than most bands around at the time! I always find it funny that some people don't really regard them as Punk but as some of of Bandwagon Jumpers (clearly forgetting their history!).

I loved the early singles, and the Peel Sessions they did in 1977. The first one in April included Day by Day, Listen!, Youth Youth Youth and Your Generation. John Towe was still drumming for them on that session. The second session from July 1977 included From the Heart, Rock On, Gimmie Some Truth and No No No. Mark Laff was on drums for this session.

As for the album I still think it stands up as great record. Personally I don't think there's a bad track on it. It was basically their live set so I was pretty much aware of most, if not all, of the songs when it was released. It was recorded over the space of a week at the TW Studios in Fulham. All the songs were written by Idol/James (except on the US release where Gimmie Some Truth was a cover of a song by John Lennon).
 
It maybe had a more Punky Pop edge to it that some people didn't like (which is funny because they had ditched Phil Wainman as Producer in favour of Martin Rushent because they felt he made them sound too Pop and they wanted a more harder-edged sound! Not totally sure they got that, but on their second album which is 40 years old this year, Valley of the Dolls - released 26th January 1979 and produced by Ian Hunter they certainly got a wee touch of it). 
 
I loved it the moment it came out and it's an album that still gets an airing in my house to this day.
 
Enjoy.

 

Tuesday, 12 March 2019

Revisiting Out of Time - R.E.M. (1991)- Revised and Updated

 ðŸŒŸðŸŒŸðŸŒŸðŸŒŸ
Out of Time - R.E.M.
Warner Bros
Produced by Scott Litt and R.E.M.
Released 12th March 1991
US Chart #1 *
UK Chart #1 **


#1 also in Canada, Italy, Austria, Holland and France
*Spent 109 consecutive weeks on the Billboard Album Chart and had two spells at the Top of the Charts
**Spent 183 weeks on the UK Album Chart and was on Top of the Chart for one week only



Limited Edition Free 7" 
  

Personnel
R.E.M.
Michael Stipe - lead vocals, bass melodica and arrangement on "Endgame", backing vocals on "Near Wild Heaven" and Texarkana"
    Peter Buck - electric and acoustic guitars, mandolin on "Losing My Religion" and "Half a World Away"     


Mike Mills - bass guitar; backing vocals; organ on "Radio Song", "Low", "Shiny Happy People", "Half a World Away", and "Country Feedback"; piano on "Belong"; harpsichord on "Half a World Away"; percussion on "Half a World Away"; lead vocals on "Near Wild Heaven" and "Texarkana"; keyboards and arrangement on "Losing My Religion" and "Texarkana"
    Bill Berry - drum, percussion, congas on "low", bass guitar on "Half a World Away" and "Country Feedback", piano on "Near Wild Heaven", backing vocals on Near Wild Heaven", "Belong"
 
  Additional musicians
    David Arenz – violin on "Radio Song", "Low", "Near Wild Heaven", "Endgame", "Shiny Happy People", "Half a World Away", and "Texarkana"
    Ellie Arenz – violin on "Radio Song", "Low", "Near Wild Heaven", "Endgame", "Shiny Happy People", "Half a World Away", and "Texarkana"
    Mark Bingham – string arrangements on "Radio Song", "Low", "Near Wild Heaven", "Endgame", "Shiny Happy People", "Half a World Away", and "Texarkana"
    David Braitberg – violin on "Radio Song", "Low", "Near Wild Heaven", "Endgame", "Shiny Happy People", "Half a World Away", and "Texarkana"
    Andrew Cox – cello on "Radio Song", "Low", "Near Wild Heaven", "Endgame", "Shiny Happy People", "Half a World Away", and "Texarkana"
    Reid Harris – viola on "Radio Song", "Low", "Near Wild Heaven", "Endgame", "Shiny Happy People", "Half a World Away", and "Texarkana"
    Peter Holsapple – bass guitar on "Radio Song" and "Low"; acoustic guitar on "Losing My Religion", "Shiny Happy People", and "Texarkana"; electric guitar on "Belong"
    Ralph Jones – double bass on "Radio Song", "Low", "Near Wild Heaven", "Endgame", "Shiny Happy People", "Half a World Away", and "Texarkana"
    Kidd Jordan – baritone saxophone on "Radio Song" and "Near Wild Heaven", tenor saxophone on "Radio Song" and "Endgame", alto saxophone on "Radio Song", bass clarinet on "Low" and "Endgame"
    John Keane – pedal steel guitar on "Texarkana" and "Country Feedback"
    Dave Kempers – violin on "Radio Song", "Low", "Near Wild Heaven", "Endgame", "Shiny Happy People", "Half a World Away", and "Texarkana"
    KRS-One – rapping on "Radio Song"
    Scott Litt – echo-loop feed on "Radio Song"
    Elizabeth Murphy – cello on "Radio Song", "Low", "Near Wild Heaven", "Endgame", "Shiny Happy People", "Half a World Away", and "Texarkana"
    Paul Murphy – lead viola on "Radio Song", "Low", "Near Wild Heaven", "Endgame", "Shiny Happy People", "Half a World Away", and "Texarkana"
    Kate Pierson – vocals on "Near Wild Heaven", and duet on "Shiny Happy People", "Me in Honey"
    Jay Weigel – orchestral liaison on "Radio Song", "Low", "Near Wild Heaven", "Endgame", "Shiny Happy People", "Half a World Away", and "Texarkana"
    Cecil Welch – flugelhorn on "Endgame"
********

I know I only did this a couple of years ago but there were a number of dead links etc and so in deciding to update them I thought I would fully revise the piece written back in 2017.

"The world is collapsing around our ears, I turned up the radio, but I can't hear it" - now that's an epic way to open an album! The world was doing exactly just that in 1991 with the collapse of the old Soviet Union. Gorbachov was ousted and Yeltsin became the new man at the helm. Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania and Latvia announced Independence from Russia. Operation Desert Storm would begin as the US Army marched into Kuwait to rid Iraqi invaders. Yugoslavia would crumble to pieces as Croatia, Slovenia and Macedonia seceded. Refugees were fleeing Albania and this forced the Government to adopt widespread changes to its policies. Bank of Credit and Commerce International was closed as Banking regulators from 69 countries shut down the BCCI claiming it laundered money, dealt in illegal arms, and was responsible for smuggling, fraud, extortion and bribery. billion was claimed to have disappeared within it's walls. BCCI was responsible for Iran-Contra transfers, providing nuclear weapons technology to Iraq, and secretly buying three American banks. The World Wide Web was launched with great fanfare connecting worlds via technology.

Fast forward 28 years and the "world" is still "collapsing". There's lots of trouble with Russia whether it be their invading other parts of their former land, or their meddling in the affairs of other countries through spying, hacking, trying to influence the outcome of elections in other nations and killing off former spies with poison on the streets of foreign lands! 


The Middle East is still a chaotic mess and the fight this time around is to get rid of Isalmic Extremist groups like ISIS. In Syria you have a government backed by Russia (yep, them again) trouncing the opposition (supported by the US and other Countries). People are still dying in Iraq via Car Bombs and ISIS led raids on towns. Refugees are everywhere, flowing from lands across the world seeking shelter and a new life in Europe, America and beyond. 

There has been a rising again of the Right across Europe with their facist hatred for anyone who appears different to them, and of course still in the seat of power in the USA is a President that has got there by hook and by crook, funded by the Alt-Right (who are basically well dressed Nazis!) and have their minions surrounding one of the most powerful offices in the world! On a almost a daily basis he lies about pretty much everything and a number of people connected to him have been charged with various crimes and hauled off to jail (whilst the President smears them as disgruntled employees who are only seeking his downfall).

The banking system is still an utter mess as well throughout the world! And the World Wide Web whilst offering many good things has become a place where one can learn how to become a terrorist as well as learn how to make a great apple pie!....Somethings just don't ever change do they?

Into that collapsing world came Out Of Time, the seventh studio album from R.E.M. It was the first #1 album in the US and the UK for the band. It has sold absolutely bucket loads across the globe since its release in 1991 (despite a rest from touring by the group) and whilst unloved by some due to its commercial success it's an album I still find a lot of joy listening to 28 years on.

What the band had begun when they signed to Warner Bros with the excellent Green album they continued with Out Of Time as they went from a Cult Band to an International Success across the globe!


David Fricke, writing for the Melody Maker said of the album, "Out Of Time is the kind of whisper that, with time, makes you want to scream with joy...A stunning baroque beauty fashioned from dark, frank lyric testimony...It's the album REM tried to make in 1985 with Fables of Reconstruction. The 'fun' quotient is higher here as well" (March 9th 1991).  Meanwhile Terry Staunton of the NME said in the March 16th 1991 issue that "Out Of Time is easily their most eclectic and wildly inspired album yet...The greatest rock 'n' roll band tag may have been uncomfortable in the past, but this album will not make it any easier to shift"

It all kicked off with the release of Losing My Religion as a single. Mike Mills said years later, "Without 'Losing My Religion', Out of Time would have sold two or three million [copies], instead of the ten [million copies] or so it did. But the phenomenon that is a worldwide hit is an odd thing to behold. Basically that record was a hit in almost every civilised country in the world." 


David Cavanagh, writing for Uncut's Ultimate Music Guide: REM wrote, that the song "scored three watermelons on pop's international fruit machine, and Stipe and REM could never be cult figures again".

The success of Losing My Religion and Out of Time broadened R.E.M.'s audience beyond its original college radio-based fanbase. When asked at the time if he was worried that the song's success might alienate older fans, Peter Buck told Rolling Stone, "The people that changed their minds because of 'Losing My Religion' can just kiss my ass." Michael Stipe's vocal for the song was done in a single take!

According to Stipe, in an interview with Gavin Martin for the NME back in 1991, Losing My Religion was not actually about Religion at all. When asked "How do you lose your religion?" Stipe responded, "That's a term I've heard used all my life; I thought it was a common term but obviously outside of the South it's not. People have asked me over and over again 'Are you a Catholic? Are you a Quaker?' But this has nothing to do with religion in this song. If one loses one's religion it's the same as being at the end of your rope or reaching the final straw and snapping...It's used casually - a waitress will say, 'I almost lost my religion over that table, they were such jerks.' To make it more serious would be an event so dramatic that it could cause you to question your spiritual beliefs."

Kate Pierson of The B-52's featured on the next single (she actually appears on another two songs on the album as well - Near Wild Heaven and Me In Honey). Shiny Happy People is not a song that is loved by the band at all. Infact, it became "so unstoppably popular that REM diswoned it in horror (and refused to perform it until Sesame Street in 1999)" (David Cavanagh, Uncut's Ultimate Music Guide). Stipe said, "I Hate That Song!" But it was a massive hit! In 2006, the song received the #1 position on AOL Music's list of the "111 Wussiest Songs of All Time". Due to the band's dislike of the song, it was one of their few Warner-released singles not included on their 2003 greatest hits album In Time. They did a version of it in 1999 for Sesame Street called Furry Happy Monsters. "It’s a fruity pop song written for children. It just is what it is," Stipe told the BBC’s Andrew Marr in 2016. "If there was one song that was sent into outer space to represent R.E.M. for the rest of time, I would not want it to be Shiny Happy People." It's actually quite funny reading an interview in the NME from back in 1991 and seeing what Stipe said about the song when the album had just come out, "It's the happiest song we have ever put out...I meant it as a happy song...I told Peter for two months that I wasn't going to write a chorus because I didn't want to blow the guitar line by singing over it. But he insisted that I did and it worked and the video, God, the video, is just the happiest thing I've ever seen...".

Near Wild Heaven was the third single released from the album. Now, I always get a bit of a grump when bands/artists release too many singles from an album and whilst this is the case with this one as a single I have to say that I actually really do like the song itself. It was a surprise that Michael Stipe was not singing the lead vocal, but Mick Mills does a pretty fine job I reckon. It wasn't released in the USA as a single but here in the UK it did creep into the Top 30 (stalling at #27).

The fourth and final single from the album was Radio Song. Although I'm not a big fan of Remixes I actually quite liked the Tower of Luv Bug Remix that was issued in the US and Germany. The single featured KRS-One, the rapper from Boogie Down Productions. Cavanagh said, that the "rapping on Radio Song sounds incongruously shoddy now". It was another Top 30 hit in the UK (stalling at #28).

I was listening afresh to the album last night and this morning as I was putting the finishing touches to this piece and was thinking about what are my favourite tracks on the album. Surprisingly it is actually none of the singles (though as I said I do like Near Wild Heaven). Belong, Half A World Away, Texarkana and Me In Honey are probably the ones I'd name as the best ones on the album and 'Shiny Happy People', no matter how much the band hate it, still has the ability to put a smile on your face as you wake up in a world that is still "collapsing around our ears" and eyes!
 ******************
Singles On Out Of Time
Losing My Religion:
12"
Released 19th February 1991
US Chart #4
UK Chart #19
CD Single 
   1 Losing My Religion (Album Version)    
2 Fretless    
3 Losing My Religion (Live Acoustic Version / Rockline)    
4 Rotary Eleven
Limited Edition CD for UK and Europe
1 Losing My Religion    
2 Stand (Live)    
3 Turn You Inside-Out (Live)    
4 World Leader Pretend (Live)

Live tracks recorded on The Green World Tour 
Shiny Happy People:
12"

B-Side: Forty Second Song / Losing My Religion (Live Acoustic Version)
Released 16th May 1991
US Chart #10
UK Chart #6
 Limited Edition CD for UK and Europe

 1 Shiny Happy People   
2 I Remember California (Live)   
3 Get Up (Live)   
4 Pop Song '89 (Live)
Live tracks recorded on The Green World Tour

Near Wild Heaven:
 12"
Released 5th August 1991
UK Chart #27
 
Limited Edition CD for UK and Europe
 1 Near Wild Heaven    
2 Tom's Diner (Live)    
3 Low (Live)    
4 Endgame (Live)
Live tracks recorded at The Borderline, London 15th March 1991
 
 
 Radio Song:
12"
Released 4th November 1991
UK Chart #28 
 
 
 Limited Edition CD for UK and Europe

 1 Radio Song    
2 You Are The Everything (Live)    
3 Orange Crush (Live)    
4 Belong (Live)
Live tracks: 2 - on Tourfilm; 3-4 on This Film Is On
 
***************
Released as 3LP Vinyl Set
4 Disc Box Set
and 2CD Set:
CD1 Remastered Album
CD2 Out Of Time Demos

CD2-1     Losing My Religion 1 (Demo)     4:00
CD2-2     Near Wild Heaven 1 (Demo)     4:09
CD2-3     Shiny Happy People 1 (Demo) 3:14
CD2-4     Texarkana 1 (Demo)     3:50
CD2-5     Untitled Demo 2     3:33
CD2-6     Radio – Acoustic (Radio Song 1 Demo)     4:15
CD2-7     Near Wild Heaven 2 (Demo)     4:34
CD2-8     Shiny Happy People 2 (Demo)     3:55
CD2-9     Slow Sad Rocker (Endgame Demo)     4:34
CD2-10     Radio – Band (Radio Song 3 Demo)     4:22
CD2-11     Losing My Religion 2 (Demo)     4:36
CD2-12     Belong (Demo)     4:17
CD2-13     Blackbirds (Half A World Away Demo)     3:26
CD2-14     Texarkana (Demo)     4:06
CD2-15     Country Feedback (Demo)     4:03
CD2-16     Me On Keyboard (Me In Honey Demo)     3:42
CD2-17     Low (Demo)     4:54
CD2-18     40 Sec. (40 Second Song Demo)     1:22
CD2-19     Fretless 1 (Demo)     4:52