This vision Thing thing

THE place for your Sisters-related comments, questions and snippets of Sisters information. For those who do not know, The Sisters of Mercy are a rock'n'roll band. And a pop band. And an industrial groove machine. Or so they say. They make records. Lots of records, apparently. But not in your galaxy. They play concerts. Lots of concerts, actually. But you still cannot see them. So what's it all about, Alfie? This is one of the few tightly-moderated forums on Heartland, so please keep on-topic. All off-topic posts will either be moved or deleted. Chairman Bux is the editor and the editor's decision is final. Danke.
User avatar
mh
Above the Chemist
Posts: 8091
Joined: 23 Jun 2003, 14:41
Location: A city built on rock 'n' roll

Steve303 wrote::lol: Can you imagine being a teenager and forced to listen to dear old Mr Cohen? I have to say I do like him now I am (coughs) slightly more mature.

I think, however, it is a safe bet to assume favourites on Eldritchs stereo would be;
Joy Division, Iggy & The Stooges, Suicide and The MC5.

Case closed.(?)
Pere Ubu. Let's see - he was born in '59, so he would have been a teen from 72 to 79, so I assume we can add the usual suspects from round about then too.
User avatar
Thrash Harry
Utterly Bastard Filthy
Posts: 1577
Joined: 13 May 2003, 20:56
Location: Over The Hill And Far Away
Contact:

mh wrote:
Steve303 wrote::lol: Can you imagine being a teenager and forced to listen to dear old Mr Cohen? I have to say I do like him now I am (coughs) slightly more mature.

I think, however, it is a safe bet to assume favourites on Eldritchs stereo would be;
Joy Division, Iggy & The Stooges, Suicide and The MC5.

Case closed.(?)
Pere Ubu. Let's see - he was born in '59, so he would have been a teen from 72 to 79, so I assume we can add the usual suspects from round about then too.
I'd always assumed they were in his late teens/ when he got to University/ Leeds. I'm thinking more of early/ mid seventies. Judging by the above list, he didn't share the same tastes as my brothers who were more or less his contemporaries. Who would you call the usual suspects? Velvet Underground? Everyone claimed to be listening to them after punk happened. I don't buy it myself. Unless he started with Bowie and worked from there, (Lou Reed, Eno etc) in which case Ian Hunter and Mott The Hoople may be in there.
Go to sleep now, Francis.
User avatar
dead stars
Utterly Bastard Groovy Amphetamine Filth
Posts: 777
Joined: 15 Apr 2002, 01:00
Location: Lisbon

mh wrote:
Steve303 wrote::lol: Can you imagine being a teenager and forced to listen to dear old Mr Cohen? I have to say I do like him now I am (coughs) slightly more mature.

I think, however, it is a safe bet to assume favourites on Eldritchs stereo would be;
Joy Division, Iggy & The Stooges, Suicide and The MC5.

Case closed.(?)
Pere Ubu. Let's see - he was born in '59, so he would have been a teen from 72 to 79, so I assume we can add the usual suspects from round about then too.
Yes, but please name the usual suspects. You see, I was born in 72. I have no idea!
User avatar
dead stars
Utterly Bastard Groovy Amphetamine Filth
Posts: 777
Joined: 15 Apr 2002, 01:00
Location: Lisbon

Steve303 wrote:
I think, however, it is a safe bet to assume favourites on Eldritchs stereo would be;
Joy Division, Iggy & The Stooges, Suicide and The MC5.
Joy Division weren't around in 1974! :eek:
And by 78/79 Eldritch was 19/20 already, too late for teenage angst. :wink:
Besides, no, I don't really imagine Eldritch listening to Joy Division at any age.
User avatar
dead stars
Utterly Bastard Groovy Amphetamine Filth
Posts: 777
Joined: 15 Apr 2002, 01:00
Location: Lisbon

dead inside wrote:
Something interesting though is that I simply can't listen to F&L&A anymore. I mean, I can listen to the songs in a gig or bar but I don't listen to it at home anymore.
It was, and still is, bloody depressive!
People can say it was all about the clothes and smoke but it wasn't. The depressive lyrics had a lot to do with the labelling of the Sisters with the goth movement.

Floodland has a depressive background too but a lot more subtle.

But the time of Vision Thing Eldritch managed to cast that gloominess away - at what cost, dearests, at what cost! Almost convinced me it wasn't my band anymore.
But the truth is you don't get depressed simply by listening to it, something I suspect is bound to happen with First&Last.
So i can admit by the time of Vision Thing Eldritch managed to become hard rock and not goth.

The future (present)... Well, the new songs... Let's face it, the depressive lyrics are back.
The only way Eldritch is going to get rid of the goth label is to write "happy" songs.
One final remark: The new lyrics are depressive in an even more mature and subtle way than "Floodland", but that only reminds us that we're older and, therefore, have another reason to feel depressed...
User avatar
Thrash Harry
Utterly Bastard Filthy
Posts: 1577
Joined: 13 May 2003, 20:56
Location: Over The Hill And Far Away
Contact:

dead inside wrote:
Steve303 wrote:
I think, however, it is a safe bet to assume favourites on Eldritchs stereo would be;
Joy Division, Iggy & The Stooges, Suicide and The MC5.
Joy Division weren't around in 1974! :eek:
And by 78/79 Eldritch was 19/20 already, too late for teenage angst. :wink:
Besides, no, I don't really imagine Eldritch listening to Joy Division at any age.
And judging by the notes in the Suicide CD I finall got round to buying recently, they probably didn't get over here til punk either. Interesting that they mention the guys who later became Soft Cell coming into their dressing room. Has Eldritch ever mentioned any association with Soft Cell? I know Marc Almond was at Leeds Poly around 1979/ 80? And never heard of MC5 but Google tells me they were 69/ 70, so they and Iggy Pop are in the right time frame. We know he liked Gary Glitter, so you've also go to be talking Slade, T Rex, The Sweet etc. Slade In Flame. Seen it? There's a coffin in it. :wink:
Go to sleep now, Francis.
User avatar
Thrash Harry
Utterly Bastard Filthy
Posts: 1577
Joined: 13 May 2003, 20:56
Location: Over The Hill And Far Away
Contact:

dead inside wrote:
Something interesting though is that I simply can't listen to F&L&A anymore. I mean, I can listen to the songs in a gig or bar but I don't listen to it at home anymore.
It was, and still is, bloody depressive!
People can say it was all about the clothes and smoke but it wasn't. The depressive lyrics had a lot to do with the labelling of the Sisters with the goth movement.
You see where I'm coming from then. :D
Go to sleep now, Francis.
User avatar
Scardwel
Slight Overbomber
Posts: 1096
Joined: 28 Jan 2002, 00:00
Location: York

Here you can vote for Vision Thing as the Greatest Rock Album of the 90s.
(You can pick a maximum of three.) https://www.loudersound.com/features/vo ... of-the-90s
fractalsister
Road Kill
Posts: 24
Joined: 12 Mar 2004, 16:50

Scardwel wrote:Here you can vote for Vision Thing as the Greatest Rock Album of the 90s.
(You can pick a maximum of three.) https://www.loudersound.com/features/vo ... of-the-90s
Voted.

Ridiculous selection, though. Hey Stoopid was in there but not The Last Temptation, no Pandemonium, etc.

Picked Oasis and Bon Jovi as the other two, as a form of protest.
kali2020
Road Kill
Posts: 3
Joined: 18 Apr 2020, 04:41

Does anyone have more info regarding the other master version of this record? I remember reading somewhere that they trashed the more polished version because what they thought the earlier version sounded better. I'd be curious to hear the discarded master.
I know people usually look down on this record but in my eyes it's almost as good as Floodland.
User avatar
sultan2075
Overbomber
Posts: 2354
Joined: 04 Mar 2005, 19:17
Location: Washington, D. C.
Contact:

To my knowledge those mixes have never leaked, Kali.
--
The most successful tyranny is not the one that uses force to assure uniformity but the one that removes the awareness of other possibilities, that makes it seem inconceivable that other ways are viable, that removes the sense that there is an outside.
User avatar
Pista
Cureboi
Posts: 17575
Joined: 25 Jun 2006, 15:03
Location: Lost In A Forest
Contact:

Hello kali2020 & welcome to Heartland :)
Cheers.
Steve
Just like the old days

TheCureCommunity
kali2020
Road Kill
Posts: 3
Joined: 18 Apr 2020, 04:41

@Pista
Thanks!

@sultan2075
That's what I thought. Hopefully we'll get some sort of archival release some day (but I guess these master recordings still belong to the label)
User avatar
Drsisters
Utterly Bastard Groovy Amphetamine Filth
Posts: 662
Joined: 26 Jan 2002, 00:00
Location: Europe

Never Leaked ?
You can find some of the other mixes as B-Sides.

Vision Thing (Canadian Club Edit)
When You Don't See Me (Remix)

I am quite sure that these ones came from the binned mixes that wasn't used for the album.
Andrew Eldritch Dour Festival 1997: Yeah, We take any request... As much as we ever do.
User avatar
czuczu
Overbomber
Posts: 2191
Joined: 24 Oct 2005, 14:11
Location: UK

I thought that, last we heard, another band found the tapes in a cupboard at Puk.
Isn't the consensus that WYDSM was one of the overproduced mixes but the epic VT remix was produced after the completion of the album. Confirmed by Tony James at the time :/
User avatar
mh
Above the Chemist
Posts: 8091
Joined: 23 Jun 2003, 14:41
Location: A city built on rock 'n' roll

My understanding is that half of the finished mixes were replaced with earlier "monitor mixes". The VT "Canadian Club" mix was a later, post-release mix, which was essentially confirmed on one of the FB groups quite recently.

There was also a story at the time about Von deliberately increasing the time to make the LP so that the band would have less time to rehearse for the live shows.

Yes, I think consensus is that WYDSM is one of the mixes which were replaced. I suspect that Detonation Boulevard and Doctor Jeep are at least two of the other tracks which had their mixes also replaced; they certainly sound rougher than the rest of the LP. Ribbons, Something Fast, More and I Was Wrong are all almost certainly unreplaced mixes, and my own feeling is that Vision Thing could go either way depending which way you squint at it.
If I told them once, I told them a hundred times to put 'Spinal Tap' first and 'Puppet Show' last.
Post Reply