Cloudcuckooland Show Notes

Well, the Cloudcuckooland podcast has been in the ether for a little while so it’s time to have some show notes. The idea of the show notes is to expand on the things we talked about in the podcast, to address things or add things we may have forgotten or to provide links. In Cloudcuckooland’s show notes, we provide a bit more information on the different releases for Cloudcuckooland across the globe and different versions of the singles.

We talk about the many different versions of Cloudcuckooland.

Let’s start with the UK. In the UK, the album was originally released on independent label Ghetto. Later on, Ghetto was sold to Virgin and later issues of the album were released on Virgin records. The vinyl and cassette release finished with The Price. CD versions had God Help Them as a bonus track, which was originally a track included on the CD single version of Pure.

In the US, the tracklist is different again. On all versions God Help Them is omitted, and UK B-side Fools (from Pure) is included. CD and cassettes gain an extra track in the form of another UK B-side Frenzy (from Joy). The CD version includes the 1990 re-record of All I Want.

The Japanese absolutely loved a compact disc and wanted as many songs crammed onto the CD as possible. So the Japanese CD market always demanded bonus tracks on albums and Cloudcuckooland was no different. Had the same running order as the UK CD, but adding Fools, Frenzy and Persuasion (All I Want B-side).

We talk about the different version of Joy. The American audiences were treated to a remix of the song, with the drum machine intro removed, some extra frilly programming bits, some slicker production and some slightly different vocals at the end. Mat and I prefer it and reckon it should have been the version on the album. Included on the CD single is an instrumental version (all bar some backing vocals) entitled “Bonus Mix”.

As mentioned in the podcast, All I Want was re-recorded for the single release. Re-recorded in March 1990, there was a single release just about everywhere. I own just about all of them. A video was recorded for the UK and the US had a different, psychedelic video. Mat and I don’t agree on which is a better version.

We also talk about the All I Want Club Mix so you don’t have to. Here it is.

We also talk about Love Explosion having a different version as found on a demo cassette Mat has simply entitled “Ian Broudie”, with the general consensus (including those within the band) that it’s Ian singing. And here he is trying out his inner Paul Simpson or Mac. You’re dying to hear it, aren’t you? Well, it’s on the Lightning Seeds fan channel and you can listen to it here:

The sharp eared among you will notice different lyrics.

More on Love Explosion – the cover that Mat mentions that he can’t find any evidence for has been found. It was by the Three O’ Clock, still classed as written by Ian Broudie and shares more a lot more with the demo than the finished Lightning Seeds song. In fact the version on Cloudcuckooland is quite different lyrically. Still got those sodding bongos, though.

As an aside, this is the compilation I first heard Pure on. With hindsight, there’s some cracking tunes on there, but at least half of them do not constitute as rock ballads. Or even rock! Goes to show Virgin would put out any old compilation just to sell a few records. No doubt this was repackaged about 18 months later as “The Best Driving Album In The World”.