The Sound of 'Bona Drag' {Redux}

[dizzywhore_1804]

Overall what a disappointment.

The new songs are good, but I loved them in November when we first got to hear them (and I know we didn't pay for them blah blah blah but who other than hardened fans is buying this anyway?), the cover looks shockingly amateur, the booklet is dull.

The remaster sounds good, but ultimately totally unnecessary, and like the whole project seems an exercise in how to not light fireworks.

Either get on with a decent remaster/reissue project or not, stop doing such lame, half-hearted, money spinners.

The whole project really does need to just flop and go away.

 

[emma1979]

great stuff bona drag is one of my favs

 

[Orson Swells]

I thought Gannon sounds great in this remaster...he should have stayed longer!

Gannon was a potential Marr replacement in my eyes. I mean, he did write Ask after all...

 

[anonnymouse]

I find it funny that the guy who remastered Bona Drag is the same one who did the remastering for the Very Best of the Smiths comp in 2001. Wasn't that the one which everyone said was horrible?

As also the same blokes that have mastered a few other Morrissey LP's . Including "Years of Refusal". I seem to recall the only person who said the "Very best of" was "horrible" was Mr Marr. I heard from a very reliable source he was just pissed because he was looking for a backhander from Warners for blessing its release and didn't get one. Frankly I thought a good piece of the recent "Sound of the Smiths" was not as good sounding as the 2001 "Very Best of". But opinions are like arseholes I suppose.

I think the new Bona Drag sounds great meself.

 

[Orson Swells]

I think it sounds great... but I really don't like the way a lot of the tracks briefly segue into one another. Many of the tracks - when played in isolation - actually begin with a second or so of the previous track, which I find quite irritating...

 

[Leah]

Bona Drag - The Revisionist edition

I'm not particularly happy with the new edition of Bona Drag.

Not happy at all ladies and gentlemen.

The overall sound has been compressed to a rather acute degree, which reduces the seperation, clarity and dynamics of the individual instruments and vocal. This gives even the gentler songs a rather harsh sound which endears itself more to present-day chart music with absolutely no dynamic and mixing sense rather than the gentle and crafted recordings that composed Bona Drag.

But what really f**king got to me was the revisionist edit of the highlight song for me, 'Ouija Board, Ouija Board'.

I assume Morrissey never really felt happy with the 'rumbling table' verse and removed it, A pity really as that was the best part of the song! It's whimsical and very endearing.

I guess I could go in a huff and highlight the awful new mix of 'Everyday Is Like Sunday' but... ah well.

I've decided to create my own Bona Drag anniversary edition, and it will sparkle.

 

[Dave2006]

Re: Bona Drag - The Revisionist edition

I've decided to create my own Bona Drag anniversary edition, and it will sparkle.

Please share it when you finish.

Dave

 

[Leah]

Re: Bona Drag - The Revisionist edition

I shall, and I'll even include a tacky badge.

 

[Sim Tappertit]

Re: Bona Drag - The Revisionist edition

But what really f**king got to me was the revisionist edit of the highlight song for me, 'Ouija Board, Ouija Board'.
.

Well spotted! That is weird. Also odd how Piccadillly Palare now has the extra verse but nobody bothered to advertise as "previously unreleased version".

Very strange and maybe Morrissey is not happy either hence the cancelled interviews. This could spell the end of EMI's dreams of a big reissue series to come.

 

[Leah]

Re: Bona Drag - The Revisionist edition

I think he's just in a big cream puff over all the negative press.

The 20th anniversary Bona Drag is what I'd consider an alternate edition and not meant to supercede the original in the Morrissey canon. Though it's shockingly slapdash and it could've served as a potent reminder and introduction to new listeners of a younger, post-Smith Morrissey who was battling to have his name aligned with some of the era's best 45's.

Pity...

 

[Leah]

Y'all wait until you hear my shockingly revisionist unrevisionist 'Bona Drag 20'.

 

[Oso Blanco]

I've been having my personal Bona Drag edition for years, and this is the tracklisting:

01 Suedehead
02 I Know Very Well How I Got My Name
03 Hairdresser On Fire
04 Oh Well, I'll Never Learn
05 Everyday Is Like Sunday
06 Sister I'm A Poet
07 Disappointed
08 Will Never Marry
09 The Last Of The Famous International Playboys
10 Lucky Lisp
11 Michaels Bones
12 Interesting Drug
13 Such A Little Thing Makes Such A Big Difference
14 At Amber
15 Ouija Board, Ouija Board
16 Yes, I Am Blind
17 East West
18 November Spawned A Monster
19 He Knows I'd Love To See Him
20 Girl Least Likely To
21 Picadilly Palare
22 Get Off The Stage

I'd love to include some unreleased stuff there, but the sound of both the previously surfaced tracks as well as the tracks on the new Bona Drag is just too different.

 

[Born In 1975]

Moz will never be able to please everyone all the time but since people are listed their own BD versions, this is what I would have liked to have seen...

Disc 1
1.Piccadilly Palare (original)
2.Interesting Drug
3.November Spawned a Monster
4.Will Never Marry (unedited version from EILS single)
5.Such a Little Thing Makes Such a Big Difference
6.The Last of the Famous International Playboys
7.Michael’s Bones
8.Ouija Board, Ouija Board (not the new horrible edit)
9.Striptease With A Difference
10.Oh Phoney (original Langer/Winstanley mix)
11.He Knows I'd Love to See Him
12.Yes, I Am Blind
13.Lucky Lisp
14.Girl Least Likely To
15.At Amber
16.Get Off The Stage

Disc 2
1.Piccadilly Palare (original long mix)
2.Bed Took Fire (original Street mix)
3.Oh Phoney (this new mix)
4.East West
5.November the 2nd
6.Will Never Marry (edit)
7.Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before (live Wolverhampton)
8.Disappointed (live Wolverhampton)
9.Interesting Drug (live Wolverhampton)
10.Suedehead (live Wolverhampton)
11.The Last Of The Famous International Playboys (live Wolverhampton)
12.Sister I'm A Poet (live Wolverhampton)
13.Death At One's Elbow (live Wolverhampton)
14.Sweet And Tender Hooligan (live Wolverhampton)

I would have kept the VH related tracks for that album's eventual re-issue. I think this gives a more accurate picture of Moz's post-VH/pre-KU era.

 

[CrystalGeezer]

Re: Got my copy of Bona Drag today

I got my extremely rare and signed copy of skull 'n' bona drag this weekend.

 

[Harsh Truth]

Re: Bona Drag - The Revisionist edition

But what really f**king got to me was the revisionist edit of the highlight song for me, 'Ouija Board, Ouija Board'.

I assume Morrissey never really felt happy with the 'rumbling table' verse and removed it, A pity really as that was the best part of the song! It's whimsical and very endearing.

For me, 'Ouija Board, Ouija Board' ranks pretty low overall..... that said, the clipped parts are probably the highlight of the original recording. You are right in that Morrissey must have never liked it, as he also skipped those parts during the 2000 tour; the only tour that the song has ever been done in concert.

Absurd video, too.

 

[Leah]

That's his best video!

 

[Eraserhead]

Re: Bona Drag - The Revisionist edition

For me, 'Ouija Board, Ouija Board' ranks pretty low overall..... that said, the clipped parts are probably the highlight of the original recording. You are right in that Morrissey must have never liked it, as he also skipped those parts during the 2000 tour; the only tour that the song has ever been done in concert.

Absurd video, too.

Morrissey certainly wouldn't have performed the song on a 2000 tour if he didn't like it. I don't know why people dislike this song so much. They never seem to have a valid reason.

 

[Bluebirds]

Re: Bona Drag - The Revisionist edition

Morrissey certainly wouldn't have performed the song on a 2000 tour if he didn't like it. I don't know why people dislike this song so much. They never seem to have a valid reason.

For me its a B-side at best. Look at this for a list of A-sides and much like the puzzle spot the odd one out!

Suedehead, Everyday Is Like Sunday, Last Of The Famous, Interesting Drug, Ouija Board Ouija Board, November Spawned A Monster.

Yes I'm old-fashioned but singles you used to mean something back in the late 80s/ early 90s.
Its too lightweight for me.

 

[Worm]

Re: Bona Drag - The Revisionist edition

Morrissey certainly wouldn't have performed the song on a 2000 tour if he didn't like it. I don't know why people dislike this song so much. They never seem to have a valid reason.

The song is fey, corny, and unimaginative. "Destructors of it" has to be the most awkward line in any Morrissey song, ever. I'll tell you what else the song lacks: "Ouija Board" is utterly sexless-- flaccid, you might say. Compare it to "Playboys" and "Monster", the singles before and after it, and the song seems like a bathetic clown's soufflé, a treacly, emotionally sterile discharge of insincerity and tepid whimsy.

Other than that, it rocked.

(I actually do like it. )

 

[Leah]

Re: Bona Drag - The Revisionist edition

I find Playboy and November quite absent of charm and mostly cock waving in a time of second album crisis.

Leave Ouija alone, it's a lovely, whimsical plea for the dearly departed.