Compare And Contrast: The Dead Only Quickly X3
I’m guessing on some dates here, as I’m not in much of a mood for fact-checking after spending more time than expected writing about pig’s blood. If your reason for visiting this blog is to read my quality, journalistic writing instead of just to download free music, let me know and I’ll re-edit this piece to make it a better read.
Oh, and I’m assuming that you’re aware of Stephin Merritt’s various projects.
The original version of “The Dead Only Quickly” came out in 1996 on The Gothic Archies‘ fucking-ridiculously-hard-to-find-at-the-time EP, Looming In The Gloom. A couple years later, the song ended up as a B-side on The Divine Comedy’s single for “The Certainty Of Chance”. With it’s minute-long length, the song ensured that the CD single (along with its poorly-chosen A-side) would not be worth the 10 bucks that most import singles cost back then (and the other B-side was an instrumental – what the fuck, man?). Being both a massive Divine Comedy and Stephin Merritt fan, though, I had little choice. And since you can now buy a copy of the single for ONLY $299.88 at this site, maybe it wasn’t such a bad investment after all.
The Divine Comedy version was released even though frontman Neil Hannon had already recorded a version for the upcoming album by The 6ths, Hyacinths And Thistles. My guess is that Hannon (a huge Stephin Merritt fan, as his 3 prior covers of Magnetic Fields’ songs would attest) grew impatient with that album’s continuing delays, had some woodwinds lying around, and said, “Fuck it, I’ll do one myself”. I’m fairly certain this is exactly how that happened.
After seeing The Magnetic Fields perform several of the songs that ended up on Hyacinths And Thistles at a lovely show in New York in 1997, my hopes were high for the album. It ended up being a bit of a disappointment, though, as the album seemed a bit flat and underproduced. Plus, it had Marc Almond on it, which is always a bad sign. However, that album’s simple, piano-led version of “The Dead Only Quickly” has turned out to be my favorite of the three.
Here are all the versions. It should take you about three-and-a-half minutes to listen to all of them.
The Gothic Archies – The Dead Only Quickly
The Divine Comedy – The Dead Only Quickly
The 6ths (featuring Neil Hannon) – The Dead Only Quickly
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