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

Yeah geez, that arrangement sort of sucks. Goes to show how much agony it can be finding the right arrangement, signalling the intention musically, and also being commercial while bringing out the best in the song. No wonder Neil Finn was quite highly strung during much of the Crowdies' career (reportedly). Would drive you nuts if it was a hard-won 'glory' song after song, which it seems to have been in the early Crowdies recording history.

 

There's a live version of this song from long before Together Alone came out that is more like this one, but not electronic, that is AMAZING - I think it was an early 90s WOMAD festival... Johnny Diesel was there as well... In any case, that version of the song is killer. This one, meh. I can't score it because I'm too hung up on the live version that I've not heard in ages.

 

I'd love to hear that live version...

Here's a live one from the Mullanes era...pretty noisy...And, yes, probably better than the disco-ey version. A bit punky.

 

That's interesting, but it shows them trying to find some way to arrange that song. I'm glad that they persevered as when we get to TA WotS will get a big 5/5 from me. I'm not sure that the punk WitS works for me any better than the disco one does. A sideways step, but interesting.

 

A live recording of the song from the same tour very nearly made it to the Deluxe CD. I had it on the proposed track list for years but, if I recall correctly, Neil thought it was rediculously fast and didn’t care for it so we used the demo instead.

 

Ha, I'd never heard the WotS demo before (not having the deluxe albums yet) and it sounds like an awful boyband cover version compared to the mellow Together Alone track. Mind you, as much as I love the song, I never felt it quite fitted on Together Alone, but more of that later...

2/5 for the demo

 

I'm glad we got the demo. A decent quality live version from the era might be better, but this one is at least very very interesting; the tranformation is almost shocking.

 

I love that lyric, and suspect that anyone who doesn't has never stumbled home at dawn in last night's clothes.

(And we're very much in the minority. but we actually still get a weekly milk delivery in glass bottles!)

 

Our votes for "Walking ON the Spot [demo version]"

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Overall: 2,3667

 

Today's song is "Now We're Getting Somewhere [studio demo]," written by Neil Finn and produced by The Mullanes in Melbourne in 1985 after they had returned from their trips to London, New York and LA to drum up record label interest.

I'm not entirely sure about the line up: I assume, since they are in London this is Finn, Hester and Seymour, (and Craig Hooper ?) . This song was part of the "second demo" tape that helped them clench the deal with Capitol.

This song would later be reworked by Neil Finn and Mitchell Froom into a radically different song for Crowded House.

 

Here is the song on Spotify:
Walking On The Spot - Studio Demo

 

I thought we were going to discuss the studio demo of "Something So Strong"? Not that the order really matters. Or we can just talk about it when we get to the album version.

Regarding the studio demo of "Now We're Getting Somewhere", the chorus is in place but the verses are entirely different. If I recall correctly, the final album version used the chorus from this track and the verses from a different song that we will be discussing shortly. I believe it was Mitchell Froom who suggested to Neil that he take the strongest parts of the two songs and blend them to create a superior song. This isn't my preferred method of songwriting, but it seemed to work for Neil on a number of occasions. Froom was absolutely correct. The only part of this demo version that stands out is the chorus. The rest is entirely forgettable. So, 3.0/5 (all for the chorus).

 

Another interesting exhibit of Mitchell Froom's profound influence on Neil's music. The verses, with it's jumpy rhythm, funky bass, light percussion is definitely in the vein of See Ya Round and in fact, it reminds me of the Neil demos that we played from that album in the fact that there are recognizable elements of a later song embedded in a completely different song.

The verse is energetically played , but the vocal melody is not there, and I suppose the lyric was unfinished at that point. The music tells a fairly clear story of release from tension and stress through sex, I suppose.

The tension in the music is relieved when the chorus starts. The chorus is one of Neil Finn's best, really.

Froom and Finn would later take the chorus and wed it to another song for the verses) ("Stranger Underneath Your Skin" which we'll talk about tomorrow) but this is still a song in its own right, unfinished lyric aside. The bass-line of the chorus would also appear again in "In the Lowlands" from 1988.

Personally, I like the song as it is here, but the later 1986 version is so much better that I can't rate this one too highly -- It's interesting in comparison and another example of Neil's songwriting process, though. I'll give it a 2.9 on it's own merits.

 

I thought I'd put it off. To be honest, I listened to it last night and the prospect of discussing it felt really boring --predictable. I feel like the demo peters out and feels more "sketch-like" than I remembered. If you want me to hold it up for discussion, I certainly will, otherwise I learning towards just linking to it in discussion of the "final" version. I'm open, though.

 

This version of Now We're Getting Somewhere would probably be fine once recorded and arranged more in line with the final album style, but it does pale in comparison with the final version. 2/5

 

The chorus catches the ear even on this early version, but there are also long periods of boring nothingness.

Interesting again to see how a song developed though.

2/5.

 

I'm going to be inconsistent and fall prey to evaluating this in light of the final version. The verse might work best with another chorus. Or, that could be just because I'm so used to hearing the chorus with another verse. They still seem incompatible. Sometimes I hear a verse and it builds expectation for the chorus, but here the verse just sounds a bit annoying.

I have no problem with this method of songwriting. If Neil didn't cobble bits and pieces together, then we'd have missed out on some good music. And, it's not like he does this for all his songs. Listening (now) to the album version, the song doesn't sound cobbled together - the verse and chorus work together fine. Maybe that's because I'm so used to it.

If I had heard only this song without having heard the album version, I think I'd interpret it to be a good chorus ruined by the verse and not like it for that reason.

I'm between 2 and 3, but think that I'll go down to:

2/5

However, a much higher rating awaits the final album version of the song.

 

Holding it for the final version gets my vote.

 

Yes, I think the parts in the album version go together so well melodically, it's surprising that they weren't written together. I imagine that Neil and most songwriters write a lot like this though; certainly Brian Wilson worked this way, and Lennon and McCartney often cobbled their own songs together and so on.

 

....but that chorus is simply irresistible, demo or not. Even if the lead in verse is hardly noticeable, that chorus gives you so much to look forward to and just elevates. 4/5

 

I can't in good conscience rate this because the demo-y vibe is so, so bad. If this was the sort of thing that they put out there, how did they get a deal, and how did we end up with such an amazing first album? I'm flummoxed.

That chorus though -- it saves it.

 

I guess it's all about this chorus, "Don't Dream It's Over" and the connection to Capitol Records through Gary Stamler. But the words of the people involved at Capitol lead me to think this was one of the better demo tapes they had received, and they seem to have thought the songs just needed the right producer. I think there's a cool vibe on most of the songs, personally; though it doesn't sound particularly commercial.

They did say that "Don't Dream It's Over" was buried deep in the demo cassette and that many of the executives it was peddled to likely never got that far.

 

Threw me when I first heard it. that sort of "I know this....." feeling. Not a favourite. 2/5

 

I probably won't be able to post for a week or so, so I hope it's ok to post comments for the songs that we have coming up...

Stranger Underneath Your Skin - Obviously this later became part of Now We're Getting Somewhere, but I think it actually sounds better here. By that I mean that I prefer Neil's way of singing on this demo than on the released version. 3/5.

Left Hand (live) - I guess this is the Here We Go Again version? Not bad at times, pretty tuneless at times. 2.5/5.

Grabbing By the Handful (live) - Very raw, but shows them to be not a bad live band at all. If Craig Hooper listened to the song upon release, the comment about being around for a long time might have provoked a wry smile. 2.5/5.

Recurring Dream - A good production, a nice bright sound and a better song than some on the debut album. 4/5.


Spiritual Hunger - An utterly wretched production which is almost renders the song unlistenable now. It does improve slightly as it goes on, but the keyboards, drums and female vocals kill it for me. 1/5.

Don't Bury My Heart - The production again does its best to ruin a reasonable song, but this is an improvement on the opener. Still nothing special though. 2.5/5.

Timmy - It's something of a shock, looking back now, to listen to Tim singing such cheesy stuff. I would love to say that this album has been unfairly maligned, but another horrible production drags this one down again. 1.5/5...

 

Our votes for "Now We're Getting Somewhere [studio demo]

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Average: 2.58