LYRICS:
I Have Been To Heaven And Back
Pointlessly excluded from the US version The Mekons Rock'N'Roll by big
labelniks, this version was re-recorded by Kenny Sluiter at Kingsize
Sound Laboratories, Chicago in November 1998 with Baron Von Trumfio on
guitar
The Ballad Of Sally
Recorded by Brian Pugsley during the So Good It Hurts sessions at Berry
Street, London November 1987. Mixed by the Mekons and Kenny Sluiter at
Kingsize, Chicago, November 1998. Kevin Lite (he wrote this for Sally)
plays guitar and Jon plays bass.
This Funeral Is For The Wrong Corpse
(full version)
A shorter version of this song appears on The Curse Of The Mekons (an
album which was never released in the USA). Recorded by enthusiasts
somewhere in Europe, sometime in 1990. Lu plays bass, Captain Conker &
Ken Lite sing and the horn section is Metal Fatigue featuring John Hart:
trombone, Gavin Sharp: sax & Neil Yates: trumpet.
Oranges And Lemons
This route 66 of London's East End was recorded at Stinkpole studios,
Chicago during the 1996 Democratic National Convention for Rudy & Gogo's
Rockin' Kiddie Caravan a CD produced by Barry B. The Man From Atlantis
benefitting The National Center For Family Literacy. Everybody sings.
Ring O'Roses
Recorded at Cold Storage in Brixton early 1989 by Ian Caple. A different
version of this song appeared on the British release of The Mekons
Rock'N'Roll on Blast First Records. Lu plays bass, drumming by Rosebud.
Gill & Vicky
This instrumental was recorded by John Gill at Leadersound in Halifax,
West Yorkshire during the sessions for Devil's Rats and Piggies in the
spring of 1980. Andy Gill (no relation) from the Gang Of Four and Vicky
Aspinall from the Raincoats dropped by while the Mekons were sleeping on
top of each other under the mixing desk. Jon drums & Tom plays bass.
Now We Have The Bomb
Orignally written for the Mekons United book and CD (1996) this version
was recorded live at WNUR in Evanston, August 1997. Tom plays piano.
You Wear It Well
The Mekons performed this Rod Stewart hit at the Glastonbury Festival in
1988.
Betrayal
Recorded by Rob Worby in his attic on Harehills Avenue sometime in 1988
with John Gill playing melodian. From Greetings 8 Italian 12 inch
single on the Materiali Sonori label which also contains live tracks and
an early version of Only Darkness Has The Power.
Orpheus
Originally written for the Mekons United Book and CD (1996) this version
was recorded by Kenny Sluiter at Kingsize, Chicago in November 1998 with
Baron Von Trumfio on guitar.
Roger Troutman
Written and recorded round at Paul Griffiths house in Leeds on a Monday
night in early 1982 during the Mekons Story sessions. Don't try and call
Roger, he moved.
Circle City (Mekons vs. Peace Love Hooligans)
Football = Art = Capitalism
We bring peace and we bring love
We will name the real hooligans
Bosses, police, judges and politicians
"I live for Leeds United"
Come on lads let's do it come on
Originally recorded during the 89-90 championship season as a tribute to
the team that drove the Nazis from the Elland Road terraces and brought
the First Division football back to Leeds. The Peace Love Hooligans (Big
Mick Rogers and Hutchie Hutchinson) tackle Jonny, Tommy and Chopper
Goulding (on hi-hats) at Ian Caple's Stoneroom in West London sometime
in early 1991. Released by Stolen Sounds on its Knowing Where It All
Leeds compilation, November 1991.
Cowboy Boots
Recorded at Cold Storage in Brixton early 1989 by Ian Caple. Lu plays
bass, drumming by Rosebud.
Lucky Star
Recorded at Kingsize, Chicago sometime in 1994 with Baron Von Trumfio
(who also plays synth) for the Knitting Factory's 1995 Outloud CD
benefitting the human rights and freedom of lesbians and gays.
Axcerpt
Recorded by young Phil at Lion Studios in Leeds late 1995 for Touch &
Go's Lounge Ax Defense and Relocation Fund CD. The Mekons would like to
thank Sue, Julia and all at the Lounge Ax for some lusty nights on
Lincoln Avenue.
Born To Choose
Recorded at the Stoneroom in West London summer 1992 with Ian Caple for
Rykodisc's 1993 Pro-Choice benefit CD Born To Choose. John Langley plays
drums.
Unknown Song
Recorded on cassette by Terry Nelson of Chicago at Topic Studios, North
London very late at night, late in 1983 during the sessions for Trouble
Down South which appeared on Fear & Whiskey. Dolf Anonymous plays
guitar, Jacqui Callis sings, John Gill steers the ship and Terrie from
the Ex is talking.
Reviews
Review of
Pt. 1 and 2
Once table scraps, now a damn
fine buffet, ranging from superb songs done dirt by label politics to
intelligent songs that never erupt to an outtake from The Mekons Story,
which is kind of like saying a reject from the Bad News Bears ("Roger
Troutman," not a Zapp reference, worth preserving). Tastier oddments
include the ghostwritten autobiography of Sally Timms, a Rod Stewart
cover, well-conceived donations to Rock for Choice, and a techno-rock
football cheer. A Minus
By Robert Christgau: Village Voice, May 26 - June 1, 1999 Consumer Guide
here's the
chumbawamba review by Boff:
Hen's Teeth -I Have Been To Heaven And Back
The first in a two-CD series of "lost fragments of unpopular culture',
this is a collection of Mekons odds and ends swaying manically between
the last few Mekons guises, stylistically chaotic and equal parts
shambolic and perfectly formed.
If you're familiar with Mekons albums you'll (simply) die (honey) for
the out-takes and compilation tracks which sometimes surpass the
original versions; trainspotters. "This Funeral" with an extended horn
section tagged on the end. "Oranges And Lemons" recorded for 'Rudy &
Gogo's Rockin' Kiddie Caravan' (Oh I wonder why I never saw it around)
and "Lucky Star" all sweetness and light, whoah there they put a
synthesiser on it.
But hey, wait. For anyone who never knew about Mekons, listen intently
to their version of 'You Wear It Well', the old Rod classic. Phew. That
sexy Tom Greenhalgh and his stumbling shambling arse-kicking
gravel-eating backing band. That's some version. The whole entire cost
of the CD is worth it for this song alone.
"Now We Have The Bomb" says 'An accident sits down with me for
breakfast'.That's Sally singing, she's with Sarah and Suzie on the
death-ride to nowhere and if that's an accident then it fell butter-side
up. Revelries of dance and wine! We can listen to this record whilst we
fight against the tides of rotten patriarchy. That's what the lyrics
say.
And the booklet you get is just beautiful, what a lovely bunch of
people.
So good it hurts (ouch). I've been wanting to use that line in a Mekons
review for ages, and now I finally got the chance.
From:
No Depression , #2, July-August 99:
Fifteen-odd years into the digital age, and I still don't know what to cal these damn things
- odds and sods, scrap piles, dung heaps. But no matter what you call them,
these collections of outtakes, soundtrack contri-butions, EP cuts and other artistic
detritus are as ubiquitous to the CD era as the indigestibly encyclopedic box set and the
filler-bloated 76-minute CD.
Even the best of the lot -the Archers Of Loaf's The Speed Of Cattle and Nirvana's
Incesticio spring to mind - are hopelessly sloppy, testing the listener's patience and
programming skills. Fittingly, for a band never beholden to the virtues of consistency or
professionalism, the Mekons' entry into the field quickly proves itself to be one of the
few keepers among a rather dubious pack.
I Have Been To Heaven And Back may be the band's liveliest release of the '90s - their best
being 1991's hopelessly defeated The Curse Of The Mekons. The lead and title track,
inexplicably withheld from the U.S. release of Rock 'N' Roll and re-recorded for this
collection, initiates a headlong charge barely impeded by the playfully ambivalent 'The Ballad
Of Sally' (featuring the indelible chorus 'nothing, nothing, nothing') and an extended
workout on the Curse track 'This Funeral Is For The Wrong Corpse'. These opening tracks,
all originally recorded during the Mekons' late-'80s/early-'90s peak, high-light the band's
strengths: Jon Langford's powerful, earnest bellow, SalIy Timms' lovely but oddly detached
vocals, an ensemble sound always threatening self-destruction, and lyrics never afraid to
flaunt their anger or intelligence.
As might be expected, the album can't possibly fulfill the promise of this opening salvo;
too many tracks come off as failed experiments, songs normally buried at the tail end of
those 7~minutejobbers. But even the dullest tracks display a clumsy charm - an amateurish,
disjointed reggae groove, a hopelessly compromised stab at dance-oriented rock. And, unlike
so many other such collections, Heaven And Back yields its share of epiphanies -
'You Wear lt Well' not the least of which, a ragged-but-right cover which makes dear their
debt to the boozy British pub rock of Rod Stewart, Ronnie Lane and the Faces.
The album doses on another strong run. 'Born To Choose', with its baldly precise lyrics
fueling a barely~ontrolled fury, revisits the band's obsession with body-as-capital; and
'Unknown Song", a lovely, mourn-ful lullaby, showcases the underrated fiddle of Susie Honeyman.
Perhaps the most heartening thing about Heaven And Back is the strength of the
post-Curse material. Since the battle-with-out-a-war of FearAnd Whishes, the Mekons have
struggled against the century's secret demons, first heroically, then stoically,
finally out of a sense of duty. The post-1995 tracks on Heaven And Bach - re-recorded songs,
United outtakes and benefit fodder - display a spirit and drive rarely evident in the band's
recent 'official' product. It would be a shame if this scrap pile of memories and mementos
ultimately proves a funeral shroud rather than the ashes before rebirth. Facing the dawn of a
new millenium that promises menaces more real than phantom, we need our anti-heroes more than ever. 'There's trouble down South / Metal keens through the air...'
Scott Manzler
From: http://www.culturevulture.net/Books/Mekons.htm
I Have Been to Heaven and Back
and
Where Were You?
Mekons
Ever since there have been rock critics, there have been critics' bands. The Velvet Underground set the standard: their every move was met with an avalanche of good press, yet they never sold any records. It's an insult to cults to call them a cult band - Jim Jones had more followers than the Velvets ever had.
The Mekons have been the critics' band par excellence for over twenty years now. They've released three undisputed masterpieces and a dozen other good-to-great records, all to universal critical acclaim. Their concerts are legendary. And no one outside of the music press knows they exist.
A short history, then: the Mekons were Leeds, England's first punk band. In 1978, they released the most extreme single of punk's classic era ("Never Been in a Riot," which sounds like it was recorded by very angry eight year olds), followed by the era's most tepid debut LP. For their first five years, they shedded personnel weekly (1982's The Mekons Story lists forty-two members) and changed styles with each new release (cacophony led to inept funk, then to arty synthesizer pop). The only consistent factors were the literacy and wit of their songwriting.
After a brief sabbatical (they fled the racist violence that overwhelmed Britain's punk scene under Thatcher), they re-emerged in 1985 with Fear and Whiskey, that decade's best album (now available on CD as Original Sin ). The lineup had finally stabilized around singer/guitarists Tom Greenhalgh and Jon Langford, and they had turned into, of all things, a great country band. Their late-'80's albums (Edge of the World and Mekons Rock'n'Roll , both recorded after the addition of singer Sally Timms, are the other peaks) achieve a remarkable synthesis of Hank Williams and the Clash. Their songs had always been concerned with the way politics impinge on everyday lives; the bleak, plainspoken poetry of country & western provided them the means to take on Thatcher's Britain. And like Hank, they countered every dolorous ballad with a gleeful, drunken romp.
After five years of consistently brilliant records, they stumbled badly in the early nineties. Live, they remained peerless - no other band can match their warmth, fun and power onstage - but each new album was duller and less focused than the last. Half the band now lives in Chicago, which can't help matters, and most are involved with side projects. (Langford's other band, The Waco Brothers, has been far more interesting lately than the Mekons, largely because he seems to be saving his best songs for them. And his weekly comic strip, Great Pop Things - his nom de comique is Chuck Death - remains the sharpest rock criticism on the market.)
And now, right when one might expect the Mekons to finally give up and fade away, they have rebounded with their best work in a decade. In the space of two months, they've released two collections of stray tracks and alternate versions of classic material. I Have Been to Heaven and Back and Where Were You? both include tracks from their entire career, but focus on their late '80's glory years.
Heaven and Back is the better of the two, largely because of its title track, recorded for (but inexplicably left off the American release of) Mekons Rock'n'Roll . It's one of their best songs, a surging rocker about lost friends that's worth the price of the CD alone. Other highlights include Sally's abortion rights anthem "Born to Choose" (which, in typical Mekons style, includes as counterpoint a snatch of "Cut That Child in Half," Greenhalgh's far more conflicted account of the issue); a glorious, beer-drenched version of Rod Stewart's "You Wear It Well"; and the raucous "Funeral," Langford's reaction to the fall of socialism ("This is my testimony, a dinosaur's confession: how can something really be dead when it hasn't ever happened?"). There are some failed tracks (for all their success at reinventing genres, reggae has never been the band's strong suit) and indulgences, but this is a wonderful introduction to the Mekons.
Where Were You? is more uneven, mainly because it draws so heavily from the '90's. It still has great moments: early versions of "Memphis, Egypt" (in which the Mekons dance on the grave of rock and roll, to the tune of a great rock and roll song) and "1967 Revisited"; covers of Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues" and the Kinks' "Fancy"; and two charming early '80's excursions into rockabilly.
It's rarely a good sign when a band's best record in years is a collection of older material. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, though: the last time the Mekons retired with a compilation, they roared back with Fear and Whiskey. They probably won't ever match that achievement - records that great come along all too rarely - but this is a band that routinely surprises. I can't wait to hear the next chapter.
- Gary Mairs
From Inkblot
The onstage mayhem depicted on the cover of I Have Been To Heaven And Back illustrates why, 14 years after I first took in a Mekons show, I keep coming back. Their's wildness and foolishness, sex and silliness, big rock gestures enacted with simultaneous mockery and faith. And given how many of the Mekons' singles are missing in action, the disc's title gave me momentary hope that the whole world would finally be able to get ahold of their brilliant early seven-inchers and great EPs like The English Dancing Master.
But this is no mere live record or singles collection; the former would be quixotic (their's no way any record is going to import that chaos into your living room) and the latter too obvious. Instead it's a troll through the band's vaults which covers their history from 1981 (represented by a brittle instrumental that features members of the Gang of Four and the Raincoats) to the present (live radio performances of songs from the unjustly overlooked book/CD Untitled). In between are rerecordings of songs lost in major label limbo, outtakes, live tracks, compilation contributions, and soccer chants in a myriad of styles; disco, drunken country, glistening pop, and bruising rock and roll.
The Mekons are old and smart enough to know better than to believe that music can change a thing, and defiant enough to do it anyway. This collection lacks the coherence of the Mekons' best albums (Fear and Whiskey, Hello Cruel World, Rock And Roll, The Curse of the Mekons). But it's still a stirring overview of the work of one group that's always fought the good fight "against the tide of rotten patriarchy, tide of tricks and greed and lies" ("Orpheus") with honor and intelligence, but is also capable of playing drunken Rod Stewart covers. So buy it, and then write the Mekons a letter demanding that singles compilation.
If you lThe onstage mayhem depicted on the cover of I Have Been To Heaven And Back illustrates why, 14 years after I first took in a Mekons show, I keep coming back. Their's wildness and foolishness, sex and silliness, big rock gestures enacted with simultaneous mockery and faith. And given how many of the Mekons' singles are missing in action, the disc's title gave me momentary hope that the whole world would finally be able to get ahold of their brilliant early seven-inchers and great EPs like The English Dancing Master.
But this is no mere live record or singles collection; the former would be quixotic (their's no way any record is going to import that chaos into your living room) and the latter too obvious. Instead it's a troll through the band's vaults which covers their history from 1981 (represented by a brittle instrumental that features members of the Gang of Four and the Raincoats) to the present (live radio performances of songs from the unjustly overlooked book/CD Untitled). In between are rerecordings of songs lost in major label limbo, outtakes, live tracks, compilation contributions, and soccer chants in a myriad of styles; disco, drunken country, glistening pop, and bruising rock and roll.
The Mekons are old and smart enough to know better than to believe that music can change a thing, and defiant enough to do it anyway. This collection lacks the coherence of the Mekons' best albums (Fear and Whiskey, Hello Cruel World, Rock And Roll, The Curse of the Mekons). But it's still a stirring overview of the work of one group that's always fought the good fight "against the tide of rotten patriarchy, tide of tricks and greed and lies" ("Orpheus") with honor and intelligence, but is also capable of playing drunken Rod Stewart covers. So buy it, and then write the Mekons a letter demanding that singles compilation.
A good review is on
SonicNet 
I Have Been To Heaven And Back