BigSteve wrote me offlist regarding the little discussion around Roxy Music’s “Angel Eyes”:
Here is the disco version of “Angel Eyes”, if you want to post it to the blog. It’s amusing enough in its own way, but it can’t hold a candle to what I think of as the “real” version of the song. And I think it destroys the momentum of the first side of Manifesto.
Here’s the version he speaks of, the one that’s now the standard version on all CD versions of this album:
Roxy Music, “Angel Eyes (‘UK disco version’)
According to the These Vintage Years site, the original version has the rocking feel that BigSteve speaks of; this “disco” version was released as the single. There was also an extended dance mix of the song that was released and and unofficial 8-minute-plus version that is out there somewhere.
You can here the original version of the song, as well as a rare alternate mix of “Virginia Plain”, at Planet Mondo. Enjoy!
Well that’s weird. I bought Manifesto on CD. It’s in a box somewhere, but I’m pretty sure it was labeled as part of the remastered series that came out around the turn of the century . The mp3 in my Itunes is the disco version.
I’m not sure where I got the idea that it was a British/American thing. These websites say the rock version was on ‘initial pressings.’ I wonder why they didn’t just put both versions on any re-issue.
The happy ending is that I looked on Amazon. and they have the re-mastered version. Using the track sampling feature I was able to ascertain that this version of the album indeed has the rock version, and I was able to get an mp3 for 99 cents. Totally worth it.
RTH to the rescue. Thanks much.
Wow! That disco version sucks ass in a major way. Maybe it’s because I always had the album version, but I remember people saying how awful that song was, and I thought if you had liked Roxy so far, that should have fit in pretty well. that sounds like some terrible remix done on one of those cd singles.
Thanks for the linky – great version isn’t it, very Euro sounding..
Have you checked out Marco Pirroni’s new band The Wolfmen like Roxy Music meets The Sex Pistols
Check out – Cecilie
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=_rNVdRw97Rw
or their blog…
http://thewolfmen.blogspot.com/