Popularity of non-single tracks from TFAOS

Mark L · Loudmouth

Popularity of non-single tracks from TFAOS

manatthetop · In the Long Grass

Keep it up and Sleep two great wee songs

Mark L · Loudmouth

Surprised that Nothing Happened Today is without votes. Surely not the duff track on TFAOS?

ArrGee · Back To Boomtown

Mark L wrote:
Surprised that Nothing Happened Today is without votes. Surely not the duff track on TFAOS?

My third favourite!

Jules · The biggest Geldof fan in the world, bar none!

I was considering Nothing Happened, didn't in the end. It's up there...

junkyard_smile · The Elephant's Graveyard

Mark L wrote:
Surprised that Nothing Happened Today is without votes. Surely not the duff track on TFAOS?

The Harry Hooper/toupee/spanish ole section ruled it out for me...liked it at the time but that section trivialises what could have been a great song.

The Rats were too jokey at times in the songs, but particularly in the videos and stage attire and failed to create a cool image that could have sustained a cult fanbase...one of the reasons the Clash are widely regarded as a great band and the Rats aren't, though of course we know different ;)

ArrGee · Back To Boomtown

junkyard_smile wrote:
Mark L wrote:
Surprised that Nothing Happened Today is without votes. Surely not the duff track on TFAOS?
The Harry Hooper/toupee/spanish ole section ruled it out for me...liked it at the time but that section trivialises what could have been a great song.
The Rats were too jokey at times in the songs, but particularly in the videos and stage attire and failed to create a cool image that could have sustained a cult fanbase...one of the reasons the Clash are widely regarded as a great band and the Rats aren't, though of course we know different ;)

I kinda agree with this. The bop shoo wops spoil nice n neat, the boing on half baked in diamond smiles is really daft and the whole of Having My Picture Taken gets more ridiculous on repeated listening With the reggae drum breaks and the varied spoken parts. When The Rats didn't dick around and just made songs without the elaboration they were far better.

As for The Clash, I find it funny that they have become a great band since 1990. Prior to that, they wouldn't have been mentioned in the same breath as say the Pistols or The Jam, and back in the 1970s I only knew one other person who had a Clash LP apart from myself. He had London Calling, and I had Give em Enough Rope, so we traded so we could record them off each other. Many teenagers at the time hadn't heard of them as they never did TOTP and didn't get much radio play. Ironically, I only caught them by chance when I heard Tommy Gun on a news item with the presenters bemoaning the music the youth of today were listening to. Of course I then had to get the album to hear how outrageous they were

Mark L · Loudmouth

Having my Picture Taken is excellent and fully deserved it's inclusion on Classic Rats Hits and last year's tour. I hope it features on this year's. I think 'gets more ridiculous etc' is way too harsh and the 'boing' after 'half baked' in Diamond Smiles is entirely in keeping with the intended sentiment at that point. But that's just my opinion on your opinion! Where I might coincide more with you is in relation to the Harry Hooper bridge. It did appeal at the time to a daft teenager and I should have grown out of it more, but I can see why others were heading for the exit doors around then and then went firmly through them when they saw the video for Graveyard.

clareontarget · She's So Modern

I must confess I really like 'Nothing Happened Today', including the mickey-taking bit in the middle. The generally mickey-taking attitude of the Rats is one of the things which make them different.

Mark L · Loudmouth

Interesting that Wind Chill Factor heads the field and wonder how this would have fared instead of Diamond Smiles as the follow up to Mondays?

manatthetop · In the Long Grass

Yeah Love this song as a kid when I would play it ,It always seemed to take me to place's. Just had that type of feel to it

ArrGee · Back To Boomtown

Mark L wrote:
Interesting that Wind Chill Factor heads the field and wonder how this would have fared instead of Diamond Smiles as the follow up to Mondays?

Probably worse. IMHO the only songs that potentially were singles were Keep It Up and Having My Picture Taken. At a stretch When The Night Comes. Realistically, there were two great singles on the album and that was it. The debut album didn't really have any other singles on it except possibly Joey. It always surprised me that she's gonna do you in was pencilled in as the first single. Tonic possibly had another three or four singles.

That said the rats didn't release many singles off LPs which was a good thing. Blondie seemed to release almost every track off an album as a single and stuck album tracks on the b side. What a swizz. At least you used to normally get a proper B Side with the rats and in the case of Late Last Night a better song than the A side.

Mark L · Loudmouth

I agree that either Keep it Up or Picture Taken would have made a great single. I honestly thought they may have been going for a fourth lift from Surfacing when I saw the former performed on Kenny Everett' show in the spring of 1980.

Like Skin on Skin, Keep it Up may have been considered as a single but rejected as 'inappropriate' which is the buzzword of this decade.

manatthetop · In the Long Grass

Agree some great songs on this LP Love Keep it up & Nice & Neat love they way the lines go on the Big G section.