http://weirddecibels.bandcamp.com/album/weird-decibels-15-the-lost-tracks
Bootlegs, B-Sides, Deluxe albums with previously unreleased songs I love them. You find tracks that your favourite band disregarded into the vault and wonder before slowly understanding why they didn’t make the cut. These tracks are the geeky guys that sit at the back of the class, the awkward souls who mean well but ultimately will be shunned by their peers.
We left three tracks on the cutting floor. They didn’t fit in with the alpha males of the Weird Decibels 1 class. A year later, blinded from twelve months of darkness The Lost Tracks emerged blinking from the CD cupboard into the light.
Bullet
A simple riff, a simple song
baby baby baby guess I’m out of diesel
we gotta find a place to rest and settle
spent our days just running around
anchor searched for bed but never been found
nobody knows when the bullet is coming
baby baby baby gotta understand my needs
you know its not money you know its not greed
couldn’t find a job in our birth town
don’t like the heat, wasn’t hanging around
chorus
baby got a place in a roadside hotel
we’ll bide here till all is well
baby baby baby we gotta pay the bill
but darling my credit is running low.
Nobody knows when the bullet is coming.
A young couple decide to leave town, the guy is fearful of many things, debt, death and if his woman is going to leave him. It reminds me of the Kings of Leon of whom I’m slightly bored. The track doesn’t leave third gear but I love the openness of the sound. Stu’s guitar at the end, the live feeling. I put up a half hearted fight to have this included on WdB1 as it offered a different tone, however it was not to be.
Buddy
Buddy can be heard on Weird Decibels 1, wait a couple of minutes after Industry fades and a secret acoustic version of this song plays. It was around 1am in the lodge I was full of whiskey and recorded vocals for Drunk Buddy, you can even hear the ice rattling in my glass. The lost version is the full band. I am a huge fan of the National so I guess I tried to marry their influence into our music which was never going to work. We never nailed Buddy despite playing it for months and it shows on the recording. I love the lyrics, a guy having sex with a married woman, he watches the riots (written around the time of the English disturbances) then heads out to a club where a younger woman shuns him at this point he reflects on his own life.
we were lovers, we were a dirty weekend
As I watched the riots below you phoned your husband
you talked of our dreams, you talked out of hand
as I lit a cigarette and got dressed
what you want is different to what I want
what you want is not the same
we were f**k buddies, I saw surprise on your face
I didn’t look back as I left
there was ash in the air, but the rain was sweet
I watched a woman flick back her hair
chorus
as she was dancing, I see the youth in her face
but she has no plans, no plans for me
I have everything I want, everything I need
but nothing satisfies me
chorus
Rusted
A real band divider this one, Greg, Derek they love it, Stu and I are not so sure. Rusted is a style of song we have written many times its classic Weird if you like. Of all the songs I took back to the mixing desk this was perhaps the poorest recording. a lot of editing was needed and the song lost its original feel. Wait! Don’t leave it yet! For the radio edit I cut my guitars which were awful, so Stu shines through and saves the recording. Greg and Derek hold a good rhythm as well, its a good song, it would’ve fitted well on our earlier albums. Included in the Lost Tracks is the full version of the song it will allow you to discover if i’m talking s***e or not. A slightly mixed up political some about lack of ambition and a kick out at our generation being called Thatchers children. During the writing of Rusted I came out with a middle 8 riff that didn’t fit, it was used as the intro riff for Psalm!! Every cloud!
Oh I only wanted to get by
not tread on toes
not fussed for flying
oh the guilt I feel
for not achieving
for not trying
oh the greed of this generation will starve its children
oh the greed of the corporation will starve our children
Oh we are conditioned
to want everything
and pay for nothing
Oh they call us thatchers children
I’m not a child
of that rusted old woman
I hope you enjoy The Lost Tracks, no band sets out to make bad music. Sometimes all the ingredients needed to make an album track don’t blend. So look after these wee souls, they are shy and a bit lost but with a touch of love they will find a place in your playlist.
Pabs
weirddecibels.com 