Don Letts, Stratetime Keith, Steel Leg & Jah Wobble - Steel Leg v Electric Dread
Not insanely obscure, but insanely great... I've never seen this posted anywhere, and of course, no one's ever had the presence of mind to give it a proper reissue (save the crisp transfer of "Haile Unlikely" which appeared on 2004's unfortunately rote Death Disco compilation). Thus, I'm forced to do my part.
Apologies for the rough rip; the customary 320 kbps, but taken from a transcription I'd made on a woeful turntable in the late 80s. (I've very wickedly used the comp version of "Haile" for this upload, as the corresponding grooves on my original 12" platter are bisected by crevasses.) Sleeve pix were taken by me, earlier today. This isn't a NWW list-derived Estonian electro-zeuhl flexi sent only to Soviet submariners and Belgian tax accountants in 1971, but it's pretty damned essential just the same.
Don Letts, Stratetime Keith, Steel Leg & Jah Wobble - Steel Leg v Electric Dread
(Released December 1978 by Virgin Records as VS-239 7"/12".)
Availability: way, way gone.
01 Steel Leg
02 Stratetime and the Wide Man
03 Haile Unlikely by the Electric Dread
04 Unlikely Pub*
* (Beware - you'll encounter a brace of annoying skips at the end of "Unlikely Pub"; please forgive. I really need to make a better copy of the EP. In the meantime, should anyone be moved to supplant this one-legged, half-mad transcription, please, the [frequency] floor is yours.)
(Sorry about the dire rear sleeve snap - I'll take a better one and post it tomorrow. Promise.)
Personnel:
Don Letts, Keith Levene, Jah Wobble, and, depending on the source, either Vince Bracken or John Lydon.
Absolutely no need to remind any of you about the time, the place, the thrust, the conjunction. This was today, writ very fucking large 29 years ago.*
By slathering drunks.
* (Should you ask me, I'd tell you we're still well behind the present...)
(Approx. 35 MB, ripped at 320 kbps, compressed to RAR.)
Get it here.
---
---
Best,
TS
Apologies for the rough rip; the customary 320 kbps, but taken from a transcription I'd made on a woeful turntable in the late 80s. (I've very wickedly used the comp version of "Haile" for this upload, as the corresponding grooves on my original 12" platter are bisected by crevasses.) Sleeve pix were taken by me, earlier today. This isn't a NWW list-derived Estonian electro-zeuhl flexi sent only to Soviet submariners and Belgian tax accountants in 1971, but it's pretty damned essential just the same.
Don Letts, Stratetime Keith, Steel Leg & Jah Wobble - Steel Leg v Electric Dread
(Released December 1978 by Virgin Records as VS-239 7"/12".)
Availability: way, way gone.
01 Steel Leg
02 Stratetime and the Wide Man
03 Haile Unlikely by the Electric Dread
04 Unlikely Pub*
* (Beware - you'll encounter a brace of annoying skips at the end of "Unlikely Pub"; please forgive. I really need to make a better copy of the EP. In the meantime, should anyone be moved to supplant this one-legged, half-mad transcription, please, the [frequency] floor is yours.)
(Sorry about the dire rear sleeve snap - I'll take a better one and post it tomorrow. Promise.)
Personnel:
Don Letts, Keith Levene, Jah Wobble, and, depending on the source, either Vince Bracken or John Lydon.
Absolutely no need to remind any of you about the time, the place, the thrust, the conjunction. This was today, writ very fucking large 29 years ago.*
By slathering drunks.
* (Should you ask me, I'd tell you we're still well behind the present...)
(Approx. 35 MB, ripped at 320 kbps, compressed to RAR.)
Get it here.
---
---
Best,
TS
Comments
Happy you're digging the Steel Leg EP. I was utterly toppled when I first heard it... PiL, both individually and collectively, had such enormous promise. Their colossal flaws, alas, proved too powerful a force to overcome. I saw them twice in 1980 - just blindingly fucking great. Then I saw the Pop Group and Keith Hudson back-to-back a few months later in NYC. Eyes scorched for life.
Anyhow, sincere thanks re your generous appraisal of Tonal. No other recordings were made for the EP, as it was a compilation of leftovers. "Premonitory (B)" was a re-recorded composition from the Black Art album, "Snake" had been excised from Wigmaker due to time constraints, and "Volponi" and "Six Voices" were from '97, but dawdling about, homeless. All soon happily snarling under one corrugated roof.
Hope this finds you well.
Best,
TS
Okay, I see. Man, I LOVE "Volponi Museum". So tight.
Jason played in Wyfe, if I recall correctly, along with Mike Green, Billy Taylor, Fred Ware, maybe others. Debby Richardson and I had an extremely short-lived duo called Wild Chrysanthemum - we did at least one gig with Wyfe, somewhere in Athens, maybe? Or, Atlanta? Fuck, it's been a long time. But, to answer your question, Jason was never in POI. A friend of friends, etc.
Thanks re Volponi - we offered the song to Boston, but Delp complained about the surfeit of high notes. Now he's dead, doubtless full of regret at the end.
TS
thank you, thank you, thank you, and thank you.
Best Wishes,
TS