Lloyd Cole

One of the great era-defining pop marketing innovations of the 1980's for me is the 12" Mix

Now in the digital age - it's amazing how many of these extended mixes have been forgotten and remain hidden away on a slab of dusty vinyl somewhere. Artistically they usually held very little merit - as the artists themselves were rarely involved and most considered them a vulgar bastardisation of their original art. Which means that when albums get reissued in their deluxe 21st Century editions, the lost 12" mixes sometimes don't get a look in.

But artistic preciousness aside, as a listener I absolutely loved them, and surely that was the point?

This chap has an amazing blog which concentrates almost exclusively on high quality vinyl rips of 80's 12" mixes and is a veritable treasure trove

http://burningthegrounddjpault.wordpress.com

However - be warned there is a LOT of Sheena Easton and Olivia Newton John involved over there so steel yourself.

But I digress - I know that Lloyd Cole is planning a companion volume to the Clearing Out The Ashtrays boxset
http://shop.lloydcole.com/products/cleaning-out-the-ashtrays
that concentrates on the Commotions period, but I bet he doesn't include the 12" mixes of the Easy Pieces singles.

It'd be a real shame as Brand New Friend and Lost Weekend both have great extended versions. Up until a few months back I didn't even know there was an extended version of the "flop" third single Cut Me Down, as I only owned the Double 7" edition, but I picked this up on 12" at a record fair for a couple of quid and lo - there it is!

Lloyd Cole & The Commotions - Cut Me Down (12" extended remix)

It's a text book example. Instruments dropped out on the extended intro, then the main part of the song, followed by a dubby interlude (just put some delay on the drums - that'll do..) and then a longer outro.

Despite the fact it didn't fare too well in the charts, I adore this song and Cole still plays it live in his "Folk Singer" Set (if you've not seen him play live in the past few years then I can't recommend the following CD more. It's excellent)

http://shop.lloydcole.com/products/the-whelan

I had to laugh when I saw him in Buxton last year as he explained that the beauty of doing acoustic versions of the old songs is that he can leave out the crap middle 8 if he sees fit and no one says anything. Hence you could say the version he plays these days is the artistically enhanced shortened mix..

Lloyd Cole - Cut Me Down (Acoustic - Live At The Whelan)

Hopefully I'll post up a few more of my favourite 80's 12" mixes in the future.