In one of the numerous Split Enz documentaries, Noel Crombie explained that the band's intention was to use the equivalent word in the local language as the title in each territory it was to be released in, but it became problematic to actually execute the idea.
Not remixed - re-recorded. The shared songs ('Walking Down A Road', 'Titus', 'Stranger Than Fiction', 'Time For A Change') are all new versions, and the version of 'Matinee Idyll' is also a newer version than the original single. The newer versions add Robert Gillies on woodwinds and brass, and are without Wally Wilkerson on lead guitar. Both have their high points that aren't on the other (the NZ/AU version has the truly superb 'Amy (Darling)' while the international one has 'Late Last Night' and 'The Woman Who Loves You'), but I'm leaning towards preferring the international version, just because I like Gillies' brass, and Phil Judd has toned down his creepy vocal style.
Your friend is wrong on one count... Manzanera didn't remix anything. Those songs were re-recorded. I think both albums have their merits. For the songs which appear on both, the performances are livelier on Second Thoughts, (which, of course, is the U.K.'s version of Mental Notes). But the original Mental Notes has a moodier and more mysterious aura to it. And for the songs which DON'T appear on both, I think I like the ones on the original Mental Notes better.
Traipsed into the crazy world of Split Enz through this forum (I think) last year. "Time and Tide" blew me away, and I particularly enjoy the multitudes of YouTube videos of them performing (they were as eccentrically visual as well as musically). Anyhow, I uploaded this to YouTube in an attempt to 'correct' the terrible sound of the CD releases of "Time and Tide". Wish they'd do a good remaster of that and most of their back catalogue...
I'll be sure to tell him. No bugger likes a wrong smart-Alec . Deffo sounds as though I need to investigate the 'foreign' version though. Ta.
Late Last Night on the 45 is similar but a different recording to the version on Mental Notes/Second Thoughts. The version of Spellbound on Beginning of the Enz has Tim singing while the Mental Notes version has Phil. Time For a Change on the flip side of Late Last Night is a live version from the Reefer Cabaret but (according to people who were there) the vocals and piano introduction are rerecorded.
Look just buy 'Mental Notes' (NZ/AU) and 'Second Thoughts' (the UK version of Mental Notes) they are both excellent in their own way.
On the Australian Mental Notes the title song goes into the final repeating groove and plays forever but on the cassette it's got an actual ending.
from dyzrythmia to time and time is a great run of albums. waiata (or corroboree in oz) was probably the peak
I have both the 1991 and the 2006 remaster of Corroboree. I think I prefer the 1991 release over the 2006, mostly due to the mix on "I Don't Wanna Dance". As much as I like True Colours I would rank Corroboree ahead of it, and both of them behind my favorite, Time and Tide.
New song-by-song discusson of all things Finn here: Stranger than Fiction, Larger Than Life: the Finn Brothers song-by-song discussion thread
Resurrecting this thread to ask a discographical question that doesn't really fit in the song-by-song thread. I was assembling a singles playlist for Split Enz and on consulting Discogs I got distracted by the messy saga of the 'Six Months in a Leaky Boat' edits. There are a baffling number of them released in different territories, if the labels of the singles are to be believed. But are they to be believed? The three 'versions' I was familiar with were: Album Version 4.21 - the most common version on compilations, but as far as I can tell the only single it appeared on was the UK 12" "Long" Version 5.21 that incorporates 'Pioneer' as an extended intro - this also appears on several compilations, in the sense that 'Pioneer' is often programmed before the album version, and was released on the B-side of the Canadian 7" as 'Pioneer / Six Months in a Leaky Boat'. (This combination was very common of New Zealand radio at the time.) Australian Single Version - Edited down to just under 4 minutes. The single gives the running time as 3.53, but I think it's slightly shorter than that (my version from the Enz of an Era compilation is closer to 3.50) So far, so good. But then I looked at the singles from other territories and found the following running times noted on the labels (all commercial 7"s unless noted): New Zealand: 3.11 UK: 3.11 Europe: 3.05 US - 7" Single: 3.05 (the label actually seems to read 2.05, but the discogs entry 'corrects' this) US - 12" Promo: 4.11 Canada: 3.28 Japan: 3.28 At a stretch, the 3.05 and 3.11 edits could just be timing approximations of the same version, I suppose, but it's weird that the different timings appear on labels in multiple countries (South Africa also claims to have a 3.05 edit). Can anybody with the respective singles confirm or deny that those timings are accurate? To throw a spanner in the works right away, I checked my original NZ single and, despite the label giving the track time as 3.11, it plays the familiar Australian c. 3.50 edit. So at least one of those label timings is bogus!
That particular leaky boat wants an overhaul !! Great idea would be to put out a 12" come Record Store Day, collecting all the versions
