Manic Street Preachers - Stars And Stripes - Little Baby Nothing (US Mix)

And now, finally... the four songs remixed for the US release of The Manics "Generation Terrorists"!

I've always hated the sound of the original "Generation Terrorists". The mix wasn't all that, covering all the songs in far TOO MUCH 'big stadium band' reverb and those 'drums'! Upon finding out that the drums were merely a drum machine that Sean programmed (he did quite well to be honest, but it doesn't cover up for the awful synthesized imitations of drums that the best of drum machines could make in those days) I had to track down the US mixes.

For the American release of "Generation Terrorists" the record company over there decided to butcher the album to make it more to the 'taste' of the American audience. Not such an awful thing considering the filler the album could've easily shed, but songs such as "Born To End" (a great "GT" song if you ask me!) got the axe for the title being too... hmm... 'depressing sounding'?! Seriously, who makes these decisions!

They chopped off any spoken intros to most if not all the songs, took away all the quotes from the artwork apparently and... released four songs with REAL drum tracks! UPDATE: Wikipedia now states that the live drum tracks were laid down by American drummer, Zachary Alford) (PREVIOUS INCORRECT INFO ASSUMPTIONS: I'm assuming Sean laid down real drum tracks to enable James to start laying down the guitars, bass and vocals while Sean programmed the drum machine(apparently the whole album was pretty much Sean and James doing all the parts) and this is probably where the real drum tracks came from.)

"Slash 'N' Burn", "Nat West-Barclays-Midlands-Lloyds", "You Love Us" and "Little Baby Nothing" all got the "real drum mix" treatment and it gives us punters a taster of just how good "Generation Terrorists" could've been. As per with US mixes, it's all a bit bombastic, a bit TOO bombastic perhaps but nevertheless it's the best these tracks have sounded!

The four remixed tracks were released on a Japanese mini-album called "Stars And Stripes: Generation Terrorists US Mix" along with the two versions of "Repeat" and "Crucifix Kiss" from "Generation Terrorists" and "Democracy Coma" which was originally the b-side for the "Love's Sweet Exile/Repeat" single (and what a b-side it is!) I have only put the remixed songs up as the rest are the standard versions available elsewhere!

I've still to get a true US copy of "Generation Terrorists" but I did manage to get the "Stars And Stripes" CD and recommend it to anyone wanting to hear the remixed tracks! Search Amazon, eBay, eil, etc etc!

ENJOY!

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Manic
• Street
• Preachers
• Stars
• And
• Stripes
• Generation
• Terrorists
• US
• Mix
• Richey
• James
• Edwards
• Dean
• Bradfield
• Nicky
• Wire
• Sean
• Moore
• Little
• Baby
• Nothing

[zararity]

@rulation Glad you found these and think they're amazing! I know I did the first time I heard them!

[rulation]

amazing!

[zararity]

@room37 My pleasure! Had to upload them when I noticed they weren't up here already. Easily the best versions of these songs!

[room37]

Wow, these are great to hear... all of them definitely sound a lot, lot better with the live drums. Thanks for uploading!