ET(aatb) 03: RTT136 "This Charming Man"

[Link removed 20 November 2012] (68.4 MB)

"This Charming Man"
Rough Trade RTT136
Produced by John Porter

(except 2 produced by Troy Tate)

(tracks 6-7 remix Francois Kevorkian @ Right Track Studios, New York)
October/December 1983

Tracks:

1 This Charming Man (Manchester)
2 Jeane
3 Accept Yourself

4 Wonderful Woman

5 This Charming Man (London)

6 This Charming Man (New York Vocal)

7 This Charming Man (New York Instrumental)

8 This Charming Man (Single Remix)

Sources:

1-4 from "This Charming Man" WEA YZ0001CD1, 1992
5-8 from "This Charming Man" WEA YZ0001CD2, 1992

Restoration:

Gentle EQ as needed, a smidgen of tasteful noise reduction if required, and very cautious, gentle peak limiting.

Artwork for this, and every other release we'll be featuring, was sourced from the amazingVulgar Picture treasure trove of sleeve artwork scans (with permission).

Notes:

As production was running up on the soon-to-be-abandoned "Reel Around The Fountain" single, the band was still busily writing new material. In a 24-hour timespan Marr came up with two classic tracks, shortly before a September 1983 Peel Session: "Still Ill" and "This Charming Man". Chuffed with the quality of these two new tracks, the band recorded them for the first time for Peel, and upon hearing "TCM", Rough Trade supremo Geoff Travis immediately new what the next single should be.
This was John Porter's first production with the band. It was also the first recording with Marr laying a million guitar tracks down on the recording; one can argue that had Porter not worked on this record, the Smiths - and specifically Johnny Marr - would not have ultimately received all the acclaim now given.
There are "Manchester" and "London" versions (we'll discuss "New York" in a moment) because immediately after the Peel recording session, the band and Porter attempted to record the single in a London studio. Not happy with the results, and with Geoff Travis wanting a more Northern sound, the band regrouped in Manchester a week later and re-recorded the whole thing. So the "Manchester" version became the well-known single, and the "London" version appeared on the 12" as a B-side. "Accept Yourself" and "Wonderful Woman" both came from the London sessions, while "Jeane" was a remnant from the Troy Tate sessions (apparently always being tagged as a B-side track).
New York producer Francois Kevorkian was then handed the multitracks to follow U2's lead in making "New York" versions for club airings; hence the two "New York" variants. While one may laugh at the ultimate dancefloor usefulness of these tracks, allegedly Morrissey and Marr despised them and blamed Travis for releasing this against their wishes. I don't buy it for a second, but that's revisionism for you. More reconstructions than remixes, I don't mind either NY variant, but as far as the canon goes, they're eminently disposable.
Tracks 3, 5, 7 and 8 are no longer officially available, as they last saw release on the now out-of-print 1992 WEA singles.