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

Tigermilk is the beginning of a three-album run of some of the best music ever created.

For the next three albums every song will be a 5/5 from me.

But anyway...
The State I Am In...5/5

 

I think Tigermilk is my favourite B&S album. It's haphazard nature is a lot of its charm.

Think I love all the tracks with maybe the exception of Electronic Renaissance.

I think I know its my favourite, because it's the one I can never delete when freeing up space on my Walkman. It's one of those albums I never get sick of, and I listen to it often when out on solitary hikes and bike rides.

 

I completely agree, and I've always wondered why 3 of the songs were omitted from Tigermilk.

Paul Whitelaw's book "Just A Modern Rock Story" gives an early Tigermilk track list as:

Electronic Renaissance
Dog On Wheels
The State I Am In
The Disenchanted Pony
Sleep The Clock Around
There's A Place I Want To Be
Belle And Sebastian
She's Losing It
String Bean Jean
Rhoda

I have no definite dates on all this, but this track list was presumably after winning the contest, so between then and 4th March Stuart must have written most or all of the 7 songs not on that list that ended up on Tigermilk. So maybe he was more excited by his new songs than the older demos, or maybe it would have been harder to develop the demos into genuine 'band songs' than to write new songs with the band.

Whatever the reasons I still find it baffling that "Dog On Wheels" (at least) was not included on Tigermilk.

5/5 for the "Dog On Wheels" EP

 

Interesting.

According to Stuart David's book (and I've read Just a Modern Rock story too: some great information, but man does Whitelaw's writing annoy me: tries too hard to be cool) Murdoch briefly considered opening the album with "Electronic Renaissance" and brought it up at a band meeting at the cafe (the one where String Bean Jean worked); most of the band didn't react, but David, who along with Isobel and Stevie seem to have been the only ones who had the ego to argue with Murdoch, told him flat-out that it would ruin the album if he didn't open with "State I Am In" as he'd planned at the time of recording. Earlier, though before it was recorded, he may have had other ideas.

 

ER best works in a live setting. I think I used to have the same view until I saw it live for the first time.

 

is the Disenchanted Pony an alternative name for My Wandering Days given its appearance in the lyrics?

Also as far as I know, There’s A Place... has never made it into public

 

"Disenchanted Pony" pre-dates "My Wandering Days", as the latter was written after Murdoch met Isobel in 1996, according to the Whitelaw book. Also David definitely mentions it as an early song.

 

I'm glad it's not just me who thinks this - he tries to make it sound as if he has known the band members personally from childhood.

And what are those fantasy pieces at the start of the chapters about ? Where Whitelaw pretends he was at some rehearsal or gig or whatever, and describes the atmosphere and what the band was feeling ? Bizarre.

 

I remember one passage in which he's talking about Brit Pop and he writes this sentence that goes on and on and on for ever ranting about the Tories....it ends hailing the "rock star prime minister" Tony Blair. One sentence. .

 

Is anyone here from Glasgow, and remembers the original Missing Records in Wellington St.

It used to be the go-to place for picking up B&S music, gig tickets and other stuff.

I remember buying a hideous orange t shirt which bore the legend Belle & Sebastian Support the Work of the Clydeside Hunt Saboteurs.

The Hidden Glasgow Forums • View topic - Missing, Wellington Street - demolition

 

I've not read it since it was published, but doesn't he have a very obvious "anti-Isobel" stance as well?

 

I'm still reading it, don't spoil it! Just kidding.

So far, I wouldn't say so. She comes off as pretty strong-willed, but no more so than Stuart D or Stevie. Apparently she and Stevie didn't get on at all.

he does mention that as a child things had to be her way or she wouldn't do it, which might be his idea of subtle foreshadowing.

 

The Stuart David book is MUCH better written, but only covers the first year, year and half.

 

Sorry!

 

Yes, he's a natural storyteller in the way he describes events, and he's quite self-deprecating and genuinely funny without trying too hard.

 

Naw, I was joking. I know she burns down King's Landing.

 

I may need to go and dust off my copy of Tigrrmilk as it gets discussed but what I can say is 'The State That I Am In' is a majestic, captivating piece of narrative songwriting. Based on this alone, Stuart Murdoch established himself as an elite songwriter. 5/5.

 

Our votes for the Dog On Wheels EP

1-0
2-0
3-0
4-0
5-2
Average: 4.95

 

Today's song is "The State I Am In", written and produced by Stuart Murdoch and engineered by Gregor Reid.

Spotify: The State I Am In
Alternate YouTube link below, in case that one doesn't play.

A bit awkward to hold this song up again after having just held it up five days ago, but I think that the version on here is sufficiently different from the demo that it warrants it's own discussion.

This was the first song on Belle and Sebastian's debut album, and the first song recorded at the sessions. An instrumental version was recorded originally without a vocal, but the result was lacklustre and the song was recorded with a live recording, as with most of the songs on this album.

Unusually, Chris Geddes did not play keyboards on this song according to Whitelaw's book; but was played by Gerry Campbell, a Beatbox tutor who had played keyboards on the original demo. There is both an organ and a piano on the track. I do not hear cello, unless it's doubling the bass.

If that's true than the line up of this song is:

Stuart Murdoch: vocals, acoustic guitar
Stevie Jackson: lead guitars
Stuart David: bass
Richard Colburn: drums

with Gerry Campbell: keyboards


As mentioned above, "The State I'm In" was ranked #17 on the Top 200 Tracks of the 1990s list by Pitchfork Magazine.

 

...and others being the Graveyard Shift (Mark Radcliffe and Marc Riley's night time radio 1 show); when they liked something they could become obsessive, and The State I Am In was one such obsession. I must have heard that song 10 times before I heard any other Belle and Sebastian song, although once was enough to know I wanted that record.

 

And probably couldn't get it! Or were you able to pick up one of the fabled first pressings?

 

I’ve always liked the version where his voice sort of cracks at “impressed”.

Off the top of my head I thought it was from the 1996 BBC Radcliffe/Riley sessions but having just quickly listened I don’t think it is.
Anyway, great song.

 

I remember the Wellington St branch opening (in 1998 I think) and there being 3 branches of Missing for a while until the original Oswald St one closed. My clearest memory of the Wellington St one was the awful smell in the basement! Was worth putting up with though, as I got a ton of great records there.

 

As I mentioned above, both versions of "The State I Am In" are more or less equal to me; I do love the crystal clear, shimmering sound of this; Stevie's guitars and the organ really sound great to me: and I do greatly prefer the drum sound of this to the harder, louder version of the earlier version,: I really think that Belle and Sebastian had a great drum sound in those days, due to Murdoch's insistence on miking it sixties-style. It's one of my favorite things about their sound, in a way, well that and the clearly live feel of the music. David's more rounded bass guitar contrasts with the harsher sound of the demo too.

Belle and Sebastian have a way of drawing the listener in: most bands sort of reach out into my world, but they bring me into theirs. It's some sort of magic. I feel like their audience was sort of pre-formed for this: like there was an audience just waiting for a band to come and make music that expressed their inner worlds.

The gentle humor of the Dylan-esque narrative of the song is charming and I was thinking yesterday about the detail of the priest who writes a book inspired by all the confessions of his parishioners called "The State I Am In" -- what a great idea for a book! But therés more to it than that, there is some sort of sympathy with the havoc that the sinner wreaks upon himself and others; somewhere in between the tug of sin and righteousness there is this confusion, this lost wandering of the soul and I think that this song is singing to that wandering of the soul, soothing it with gentle humor and real feeling.


Murdoch's voice is very Donavan-like, and although he doesn't seem to feel there's much influence, he's probably the most Donovan like music I've heard. I really think Donovan is very underrated in the big picture of things (maybe not in Scotland, maybe they are sick of him there); but to be clear, I don't feel like he's son of Donovan, but rather something concurrent with Donovan, a peer in a sort of cosmic magical folk universe where even the drab or depraved glistens with a sort of dewy, green beauty.

Obviously this is a masterpiece and both versions have different charms: like the last one I give this the full-fledged light green 5/5; it is so quintessential.

 

At that time I used to go to Piccadilly Records in Manchester every Monday before school, so I was able to get it, yes. £8.99 well spent I think!

I'm not sure there was all that much hype about it to be honest, as whilst Radcliffe and Peel had played it, the band hadn't done any press, so they hadn't been in the likes of the NME and Melody Maker, which mattered back then. I'd likely have been more worried that the first Tiger single would have sold out than I was about Tigermilk ha ha.