Saturday, October 31, 2020

Mr. Jones: 40th Anniversary



Happy Anniversary to The Psychedelic Furs' third single "Mr. Jones", which came out on this day in 1980. The song was produced by Ian Taylor and its b-side was "Susan's Strange", a track that later appeared on North American versions of The Psychedelic Furs. In 1981 "Mr. Jones" was included on Talk Talk Talk but as a completely different recording. For many years the original single version had never made it on to any Psychedelic Furs album, but in 2001 it was finally featured on the Furs' compilation Greatest Hits and eventually became a bonus track for the 2002 remaster of Talk Talk Talk.

As I mentioned on one of my posts from a year ago, the single version of "Mr. Jones" has more of a poppy, radio friendly feel to it while the Talk Talk Talk version is more loud and in your face, with honking saxophones and screeching guitars. I have a feeling The Psychedelic Furs were probably unhappy with how the first version of "Mr. Jones" sounded and so that's why they recorded the song again.

Both versions of "Mr. Jones" are awesome but if I have to choose which one I like more I have to say the single version. Maybe it's because it's the first version I heard but the album version's really great too. Happy 40th Birthday to this cool song!


"We are going far away
We're going for a ride
Mr. Jones has got a plan
If you just come inside"




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