My Psychedelic Furs CDs #17

Here Came The Psychedelic Furs: B-Sides & Lost Grooves (1994) (Columbia/Legacy CK 57889)

"The 'beautiful chaos' that The Psychedelic Furs created on record and on tour between 1981 and 1989 is now part of the musical fabric of the times. Committed to attitude over ambition, they never shrank from their mission to bring the listener 'somewhere else.' This collection of live versions, b-sides, dance (re)mixes and promo tracks showcases the band at their absolute best."

Track Listing:

1. Aeroplane (Dance Mix)

2. Another Edge

3. Badman

4. Birdland

5. Goodbye (Dance Mix)

6. I Don't Want To Be Your Shadow

7. Heartbeat (7" Remix Version)

8. Mack The Knife

9. New Dream

10. Here Come Cowboys (12" Remix-Edit Version)

11. Heartbreak Beat (Extended Mix)

12. Angels Don't Cry (7" Remix Version)

13. Shock (Shep Pettibone Mix)

14. President Gas (Live)

15. No Easy Street (Live)

Behind the Albums: Here Came The Psychedelic Furs: B-Sides & Lost Grooves

Richard Butler (on not being happy with Columbia releasing the album): "Those songs weren't lost. They were thrown away. It was like they went through our garbage for it." (Unknown source, 1990s/2000s?)

Behind the Songs: Mack The Knife [Cover]

Photo: David Corio

Richard Butler: "Well, we're not new wave and we're not punk. I mean, we do three really slow songs – 'Sister Europe', 'Imitation Of Christ', and 'Sex' [an unreleased song]. We also do 'Mack The Knife' – that Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill song – that was written years ago. I don't think we can be classed as 'new wave.'" (Slash 1980)

Richard Butler: "We don't really do cover versions. 'Mack The Knife' is the only cover version we'd do." (Overview 1981)

Interviewer: "How did the idea to cover 'Mack The Knife' come about?"

Richard Butler: "We were on tour and we heard it by a guy called Bobby Darin, have you heard of him? It's from a Bertolt Brecht play, The Threepenny Opera and the way Bobby Darin sang it, it sounded syrupy. It shouldn't be done syrupy. It should be done more sneering and if you've seen the play, it's a very seedy type of song. We thought it should be done in more of a seedy way...or at least a bit more aggressively. So, we thought, we don't like Bobby Darin going down doing this version, so we'll do one."

Interviewer: "You achieved what you were after... it's sleazy."

Richard Butler: "Thank you!" (Overview 1981)

Richard Butler: "I did an album of Kurt Weill songs last year [Lost In The Stars: The Music Of Kurt Weill, 1985], where everybody was asked to do one track each. So they got in touch with me and I said I'd like to do 'Mack The Knife' because I'd done it before, on a B-side years ago. But they said 'Sorry. Sting's got that one, but what we have got is "Alabama Song",' and I was kind of dubious about that one because a lot of people before had said 'you sound like David Bowie' and I knew Bowie had done it before. So it was like the acid test doing that, but I don't think anybody could say my version sounds remotely like his, so [__] 'em." (One Two Testing 1986)

Richard Butler (on working on the Kurt Weill tribute album): "I first wanted to do 'Mack The Knife' because I think it's a good vicious song but they wanted me to do 'The Alabama Song.'" (i-D 1987)

John Ashton (on performing the cover during the 1980 Peel Sessions): "The idea was to get on and to stay on for as long as possible. I think Duncan [Kilburn] and Richard came up with this as an idea for a cover. It was originally 8 minutes +. It was edited severely!" (Should God Forget liner notes, 1997)

Behind the Songs: Aeroplane

Richard Butler: "That was made up because of people like Bow Wow Wow saying, 'We don't want to worry about the world's problems. We want to celebrate.' So we decided to write a song you can dance to about the bomb dropping. I just like the absurdity of seeing a floor of people dancing to a song about a bomb dropping." (Creem 1983)

John Ashton: "The line in that which always gets me is 'I'm coming down if you want me.' That's sort of like saying well, the bombers are flying around in the sky, but we can make them stop—if we want to. At least, I'm assuming that it's possible." (Creem 1983)

John Ashton: "We lumped ['Love My Way'] in with the demos that we were doing [for Forever Now], and none of the record companies saw it [as being a single]. They saw 'Aeroplane.' They saw a version of 'Alice's House' that we did that they liked a lot, which came later." (Popdose 2012)

Tim Butler: "If I can remember way back to Forever Now, Todd [Rundgren] did a dance mix of a song called 'Aeroplane.' He'd never done a dance mix before. It was a bit strange. But it was an experiment." (Westword 2013)

Behind the Songs: I Don't Want To Be Your Shadow

Interviewer: "What else lyrically for you stands out on [Forever Now]?"

Richard Butler: "I always liked the mood of 'Sleep Comes Down' a lot, that was always very dreamy. 'No Easy Street' I also liked a lot. And there was a track that never made it onto the album, called 'I Don't Want To Be Your Shadow,' which I always loved the feeling of as well. In those days it was always, if you've got ten songs you don't need any more." (iJamming! 2001)

Behind the Songs: Birdland

Richard Butler: "'Birdland' is just me being bloody-minded. Birdland's where Miles Davis got beaten up, where Charlie Parker used to play." (New Musical Express 1988)