I Could Be Dreaming: the Belle and Sebastian song-by-song, album-by-album thread

I do recall some quite petty stuff even earlier on, though generally most people I met through there (London meet ups were reasonably frequent) were nice.

 

Didn't know that. Anyone know why ?

 

They didn't want anyone to know what they looked like!

 

Most such forums are ghost towns these days: still valuable info can be found on them. It’s a pity about nastiness in the fan community. I think that happens in quite a lot of fandoms: The Beach Boys fandom is by far the worst I’ve seen In this regards.

 

Yea, I don't get it. If your a fan and you don't like where things are going move on. Why become a troll ?

 

I was thinking about this recently. I guess social media has taken the place of forums like that to an extent. Same with fan run band websites. There used to be a good number of B&S fan sites (and fanzines), all lost to the sands of time.

 

4/5

 

I think "String Bean Jean" suffers from comparison with the 2 masterpieces of melody that come before it on the EP, and whenever I listen to it I always enjoy it more than I was expecting to, and yet it somehow never comes to mind when I sing (to myself) my favourite B&S songs when out on a run.

Stuart's voice seemed to perfectly suit the melodies and style of the songs from this early period, before there was more lavish production on some of the later albums.

4/5

 

I'm afraid String Bean Jean pales a bit amongst its contemporary material. It's OK though, and I don't skip it when it comes on, so 3/5.

 

String Bean Jean: 4,5/5

I love the punkish-surf guitar opening riff (wich repeats over the chorus too). Anyone else thinks the main riff in The Offspring's The Kid's Aren't Alright sounds kind of a rip-off?

 

5 for dog and state, 4 for jean

glad to see this thread, hope to have time to post more in the coming weeks

 

Our votes for "String Bean Jean"
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5-2
Average: 4.0286

 

Today's song is "Belle and Sebastian", credited to Belle and Sebastian for writing and production; in reality written and produced by Stuart Murdoch.

Spotify: Belle & Sebastian
Lyric is HERE

Due to the title it's a little hard to search for alternate videos/streaming platforms; I hope that at least one of the above works for you.

This song was also part of the 4-song demo that Stuart Murdoch made at Beatbox music course; this is the demo that eventually won him the course contest and also secured him a record deal with Jeepster Records. The demo tape was released in 1997 as Dog On Wheels and was later included in the Push Barman to Open New Wounds collection.

 

The line-up for this song was:

Stuart Murdoch: vocals, acoustic guitars
Stuart David: bass
Gerry Campbell: piano
Brian Nugent: flute
David Campbell Drums

Other musicians credited on the Dog ON Wheels EP were Mark McWhirter, Michael Angus and David Mackenzie, but what instruments they played and on what songs is unknown.

Tomorrow, I'll hold up the Dog On Wheels as a whole and then, on Wednesday I will begin with songs from Tigermilk.

 

Here more than ever do I hear the technical limitations of the studio where it was recorded and the speed that the tape was recorded (four songs in one day.) However, as before, it all lends to the charm of the sound and a slicker sound might not have improved it much.

It's another lovely melody with a lovely and sad story; perhaps like the "State I Am In" there's a recurrent theme of a lifestyle getting out of control: Sebastian crashing his car in the rain perhaps the moment he hits rock bottom. But I don't feel the song is tragedy: I don't get the sense that Sebastian has died in the car crash, but rather it's functioning as a wake-up call (and a bit of a piece of gossip for the people who know the couple Belle and Sebastian. It's a bit less wordy than "State I Am In" and it also has a bit more heart, I think -- a strong sense of sympathy. There's something vaguely Morrissey-like about Stuart Murdoch's songs but there's a slightly brighter, less judemental vision of life in his characters: they are simple, peaceful people, not set against the harsh world and reacting, but rather existing in a world all their own: they are just beautiful and ordinary matters of fact.

4.7/5

 

Key bit of this song for me has always been the run out lyrics:

But you will
Fellow, you are ill
You'd better take a weight off of your mind and listen
To what other people say
Cause things are going wrong your own way

I’m never going to say anything bad against any of the first 4 EP tracks, I love them all (though Century of Elvis I could do without)

 

I agree with this. My favourite part of the song.

4/5

 

"Oh Sebastian wrote his diary that
He would never be young again
But you will
Fellow, you are ill"

My take on this is that Stuart may have written in his own diary about how he was feeling during his CFS/ME illness, that he was old before his time, but got encouragement from others that he would recover from the illness.

I like the song and the sentiments, and Stuart's fey vocal delivery suits the mood perfectly.

4/5

 

Our vote for "Belle and Sebastian"

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Average: 4.2333

 

Today, we can talk about the Dog On Wheels EP. Tomorrow I'll begin with Tigermilk.

 

"Dog On Wheels" is a rather singular entity: basically just a solo demo tape (albeit with Stuart David on every track), released as a bona fide Belle and Sebastian EP after they had found a certain level of fame. You can't really compare it with EPs, like, say Chronic Town or anything. It was an archival release when it was released in 1997.

On it's own merits it's easy to see why it was the cassette that launched Stuart Murdoch's career. Every song is simply excellent, with a couple of masterpieces on it that remain career highlights.

4.9/5

 

It is my intent to cover spin-off bands and other projects during the course of this thread: including, especially Looper and Isobel Campbell's career. (So be warned! I go all in.)

One thing that I am not going to hold up separately though is Stevie Jackson's pre-Belle and Sebastian band the Moondials. The Moondials won the same contest that Murdoch won for the Beatbox course, only they won it the year before.
On the strength of that, they released one EP, Can You See? in 1995. (They had apparently had another demo EP before that, but it has not been released.)

Since I'm not holding up any songs for rating today, I'll post a few of their Youtube videos below -- Stevie Jackson's jangling guitar work is shimmering and sublime; Murdoch was keen to have him in his band because he knew his virtuosity and experience would make him a good musical foil for his songs.

 

Can you See? - The Moondials

 

I Could Be Dreaming - the Moondials

 

Tomorrow I'm going to start with Tigermilk.

Tigermilk was recorded on a shoestring budget at CaVa Studios from March 4th-6th 1996; half of the first day was taken up by setting up mikes and all; interestingly, band leader Stuart Murdoch insisted that the drums be miked with only two mikes: on the bass drum and above, the way sixties bands had recorded. There was a day for overdubs and day or two was taken to mix the album.

The album was produced by Stuart Murdoch and engineered by Gregor Reid. Due to the extreme haste of the recording, it was decided that the tracks would be recorded live, with a few overdubs; even most of the lead vocals were recorded live. The songs were mostly recorded in the running order that they came out in, it seems; with one notable exception: one of the songs was a solo demo recorded some time before. More on that later.

The core six members of the band at this point were:

• Stuart Murdoch: vocals, guitar, piano, programming
• Stevie Jackson: guitars
• Richard Geddes: keyboards, piano
• Isobel Campbell: cello
• Stuart David: bass
• Richard Colburn: drums

Future member Mick Cooke (another Beatbox coursemate) played trumpet on three tracks, but he seems not to have been in the band yet and it must be noted that at the time Stevie Jackson was insisting that he wanted to play with Stuart on the album and live but did not want to be considered a band member yet. Other musicians, many from the Beatbox course which the two Stuarts had been attending, contibuted various parts -- I will highlight those during individual song entries.

At the time, the core six had only played one gig together, at a bar. As a result they weren't really a band; they don't seem to have even rehearsed much together or known each other too well. Instead Murdoch’s method of preparing for the album would be to rehearse with individual members one-by-one, teaching them the parts that he heard in his head, but also letting them come up with their own ideas.

Thus the rather shambolic, loose sound of the band on the album was basically because they really were flying by the seat of their pants for the most part, playing live, with minimal experience and minimal rehearsals and doing their best. By the end of the album's three days of recording Belle and Sebastian had been forged into a band by the intensity of the experience.

Before they had recorded the album, there had already been interest from Jeepster Records, an independent, London-based label; and loose plans were made to record their second label for them in August 1996.

The initial pressing of the album, which was released on 6th June 1996 by Electric Honey records was only 1000 copies. Sales, were, of course, necessarily limited. However the album generated interest from influential radio shows like the John Peel Show and others and the band were playing on the BBC Radio by June 1996; and perhaps more importantly it brought the band to the attention of Seymour Stein at Sire Records who expressed interested in signing the band to the American label that Murdoch's heroes, the Smiths, had been with.

The album was later re-released in 1999 on various labels: Matador in the USA, Jeepster in the UK, Delabel in Europe.

According to Wikipedia Tigermilk has sold 124 000 copies to date. It's been highly critically acclaimed and was included in the book 1000 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. The lead track "The State I Am In" was ranked #17 in Pitchfork magazine's Top 200 Tracks of the 1990s.