Stranger than Fiction, Larger Than Life: the Finn Brothers song-by-song discussion thread

At first glance, “Let’s rock” feels like a simple by-the-numbers show-off-the-band live tune but it’s Split Enz so it was probably meticulously rehearsed.

I love the song’s versatility including the excellent dramatic inclusion on the Anniversary live album. It feels like it would have made for a great interaction between the audience / band even if it is a little tounge-in-cheek... I guess it really would have shown both parties “True Colours”.

4.666

 

Today we'll talk about some live bonus tracks that were released either on the reissue of Mental Notes or the compilation Oddz and Enz

Those songs are:
129 (Live)
Lovey Dovey (Live) --both from the Mental Notes reissue--I'm not clear which ones on youtube are the ones on the reissue, which I do not have.

Under the Wheel (live)

Amy (Darling) (live)--from Oddz and Enz
Split Enz - Amy (Darling) [Live]

 

I have little to say about these live versions, other than I'm glad they exist and that I have heard them. They sound very similar to the studio versions.

The band sounds much tighter than you'd expect from such sprawling songs and there is an winning energy to the proceedings.

 

Okay. Nightmare Stampede was a really popular live song. (at one show I saw they started with it) it was really theatrical. There was a bit where Noel played the harmonica, Tim hit him and Noel spat out a mouthful of teeth.

The band stopped playing Maybe pretty soon after the single failed (they brought it back on the Dizrythmia tour). Their set list was basically most of the Mental Notes album, Nightmare, True Colours, Lovey Dovey, The Woman Who Loves You, Sweet Dreams, Late Last Night and Matinee Idyl, but they mixed it up they hardly played the same set in the same order two shows in a row (at the Total Theatre they played Time For a Change as an encore without Stranger than Fiction another time they played Titus and Phil kept on playing the mandolin until Jonathon stopped on his bass and segued into Matinee Idyl). I never heard them play True Colours or Nightmare with Wally. Tim recited poetry between songs and they had tapes of monks chanting and stuff. The sound guy was obsessed with Steely Dan and always played the album with Dirty Work on it while the roadies were setting up the equipment. Also the live version of Time For a Change on the flip of Late Last Night is heavily overdubbed. The vocals and the keyboards at the very least.

 

"Amy (Darling)" and "Lovey Dovey" were both recorded in Melbourne on 12-30-75 and were initially released on the Various Artists' A-Reefer-Derci! live album in 1976. "129 (Matinee Idyll)" and "Under The Wheel" were also recorded at this same show but did not see release until 1992 on the gold box set in the "Oddz & Enz" disc. One additional track from this show was also released, albeit with studio overdubs: "Time For A Change" was on the b-side of the band's next single release, "Late Last Night" in early 1976, and this same version was later also included on A-Reefer-Derci!

I quite like the live version of "Amy (Darling)", but am not as keen on the live version of "Lovey Dovey", at least as compared to the original 1974 studio recording that was later released on The Beginning of the Enz. The live take on "129" is different from the original b-side but closer to the way it was performed on the band's second LP. I like it. "Under the Wheel" suffers from poorer sound than the other tracks, for some reason, even though they all come from the same concert. Pretty similar to the version on Mental Notes, and not as full a production (obviously), which makes it seem somewhat lacking in comparison to the studio recording.

 

That might explain why Neil Finn hates Steely Dan! Neil was sometimes the support act for the early Enz.

The live Enz tracks mentioned above were all re-recorded in the studio due to problems with the original live recording.

 

Fantastic info from Mylene, Robcar and Jaffaman!!

 

Today we will begin discussing the tracks from Second Thoughts, which was released as Mental Notes, in the rest of the world.

The songs will be:

1. Late Last Night
2. Walking Down a Road
3. Titus
4. Lovey Dovey
5. Sweet Dreams
6. Stranger Than Fiction
7. Time for a Change
8. Matinee Idyll
9. The Woman Who Loves You

(bonus)
Another Great Divide

 

Today's song is "Late Last Night."



"Late Last Night" was written by Phillip Judd and released as a single in March 1976. The link here is to a video of the single version of the song. The Phil Manzanera produced version was on the album. We can discuss both versions here.

"Late Last Night" barely clipped the Australian charts, peaking at #93, perhaps evidence that the dynamic and entertaining live shows Mylene has talked about was having an effect and creating some new fans.

 

"Late Last Night" was hard to swallow when I first heard it. It's by far their least digestible single, in my opinion, that they had released up to this time. But a few listens reveal it's whimsical charmsand I've grown to like it quite a bit. The lyric, about, I suppose, some one night stand is pretty upbeat and typically clever.

I prefer the single version, which, alas, I've never really heard anywhere but YouTube, unless it was on my long-lost "Australian compilation" which I had back in the nineties, bought on YouTube. But I'm so used to the album version, that the single version is a breath of fresh air: literally, it sounds airier and far less dry than the album version, and I've always enjoyed the bird-cries and ocean ambience that the album give me; it always took me to a tropical sunny place in the South Sea.

And yet....I don't love this song. I think it's worth a good 3.9/5: It's interesting and pleasant enough, but it just doesn't grab me as much as I'd like.

 

Lovey Dovey and True Colours were definitely more popular live songs than Late Last Night. It was hard to fathom them releasing that as a single at the time. Now I love it. 5/5

 

I mean, "bought on import."

 

Well, I suppose they might have felt that "Lovey Dovey" was a bit old and "unfresh" for them. Though that didn't stop them from recording it again.
A new composition from Judd was maybe more exciting.

Now that I think of it, "True Colours" is catchier than "Late Last Night".

 

“Late Last Night” got a lot of airtime on New Zealand radio if I recall correctly.

There are two home demos near the end of Enzology episode 2. The first just has Phil Judd on main vocal and guitar with Tim on backing vocal. Includes an extra verse! The second is with the band.

 

The video, directed by Noel Crombie, was made in the same complex as the music recording. Armstrong Studio, later named AAV, did the lot.

 

And here is the re-recorded version (in London with Phil Manzanera of Roxy Music producing) of "Late Last Night" that opened the Second Thoughts album. Personally, I prefer the single version that they recorded in Melbourne (I think). Looks like they re-used the original video clip for the album version.

 

I really like "Late Last Night" (both versions, but I prefer the earlier single version). It's charming and fresh sounding to me and the video captures much of the early Enz' theatricality. I enjoy the cabaret setting, which matches the music rather nicely. This is a 4/5 for me, and it was their most successful single to date.

 

Here is the "live" version of "Time For A Change" that was initially on the b-side of the "Late Last Night" single. Not a great quality rip, but I'll put it here for the sake of completeness. Not sure how much of this was re-done in the studio (guessing a lot of it), but the base live recording was from the same show as most of the earlier live tracks we discussed (Melbourne, Dec. 30, 1975).

 

Thanks!

 

The talk about the live tracks made me search out something I wrote in the Frenz Forum in 2004, having just compared the original Ormand Hall rough mix recording with the released tracks:

It turns out that "Under the Wheel" on "Oddz and Enz" is the only track on that CD that wasn't re-recorded in the studio. It is the original live recording from the Ormond Hall. All the other Reefer Cabarets on the "A Reefer Derci" LP, "Oddz and Enz" CD and the "Time for a Change" b-side were completely re-recorded, including "129" with its feedback.

So that answers one question and brings up another. Did they leave the feedback on "129" for authenticity or because they didn't have time to get it off?

I'm guessing the live "Time For a Change" from that concert didn't make the CD because of the rough sound quality on the keyboards and Tim's microphone... even though it too is a studio re-make.

 

Well, that explains why the sound quality of “Under the Wheel” is so different from the other “live” tracks. Good to know my hearing isn’t completely gone yet!

 

I saw them at the Wellington Town Hall and I remember the version of Nightmare Stampede that night. When it ended the audience was stunned into silence and then broke out into long applause. Nothing had ever been heard like that before! You have to admire the ambition of the band to put all of that together. I really wish they had made a studio version, but alas it doesn't appear as though they did. The live version on "Oddz and Enz" isn't great, TBH, - it's slightly tinny sounding. The sound live was HUGE.

 

I read somewhere that the guy getting drunk in the video was a teetotaler. He had to imagine was it was like to be drunk.

 

It’s Chunn, I believe.

 

The two tracks from Auckland Town Hall were recorded on a portable cassette recorder in the audience. The Wellington show you saw, on the same tour, was recorded by a fan but the sound quality is even more distant.