One Song, Many Versions: Perfect (004)

This post follows up on the “Ready Steady Go” post in which I namedropped some of the titles of songs I will soon confront the Alpha Boys with. Today I will dedicate a whole post to one of these songs. It’s called “Perfect”. There are a lot of quite different versions of it somewhere on my hard drive. I’d like to aquaint you with some of them. In the lyrics I compare my loved one with some international superstars, saying things like: “You may not look as good as Gwyneth Paltrow but you’re perfect to me”. Now, if you plan to unmask it as a simple modern day version of Shakespeare’s sonnet 130, “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun”, you got me here. Just a little hint for literary critics, teachers and students looking for an exceptional thesis.

The Braces Versions of “Perfect”

In The Studio

Did I write “Perfect” for The Braces? Or for Joe Scholes, the acoustic escapade? I can’t say now. I just know it was one of the songs The Braces started to record in 2004 at Jan Loewenhaupt’s Neustart Studios. From the same sessions as “Vitamin U”, “Memories” and “Serial Lover”. The latter three songs landed on “With A Heart Full Of Ska”, the limited edition album that was released in Japan in the wake of me joining Alpha Boy School on their tour in early 2007. “Perfect” was the song that didn’t make it, it was never even finished. The reason: My idea for the Braces version of “Perfect” was to have a beat quite similar to some of Sly & Robbie’s riddims for Chaka Demus & Pliers in the mid 1990s, digitally programmed but with old school flavors. Critics could say that the idea went only as far as to rip off one of Sly’s beats. In any case, I had something mechanical, programmed as a beat in my mind. But as you may guess, we had a drummer, a good one, who was not in favour of the idea. He was in favour of playing something that sounded programmed, but was played live nonetheless. I did not see the point, the sessions did not go down well. Some time after the recordings he decided to leave the band and although we never talked about it, I’m quite sure that our discussions over “Perfect” were one of the reasons for him to say: “No more” (or something to the same effect).

Live In Rosslau 2004

So the only time a version of “Perfect” by The Braces got recorded was live. Luckily we had played the song at the so-so-great Ska Festival in Rosslau in 2004. We shared the bill with the Aggrolites, who were quite new to European ears at that time, and we played AFTER them. Why this was so and what happened backstage and why I made friends with Brian Dixon from The Aggrolites and how I was later so bitterly disappointed by him (me: melodramatising), should be revealed in another post. Remind me in two months if I have forgotten in the meantime. So, the day seemed near “perfect”. We actually played quite well, the sun was shining, food & drinks backstage had been brilliant. The only way to spoil the recording was to make a totally dull announcement during the song intro, which I actually achieved. Painful, but then again no one prevented me from saying: “This song is called “Perfect”, it’s about you.”

[audio:http://www.joescholes.com/wp-content/uploads/audio/Perfect Versions/perfect_ live_in_rosslau.mp3]

Joe Scholes Versions of “Perfect”

The “Me and My Guitar” Version

“Perfect” is one of the songs I played at every goddamn acoustic show that I did until today (about 9). Partly because it’s quite fun and easy to play, and partly it’s an uplifting counterpoint to the sad slow burners that seem to dominate my set. I remember strumming “Perfect” at a friend’s birthday party, and someone later asked me whether I had written it especially for the occasion. Actually I hadn’t, and being in high spirits again, I took the question as a compliment. When I think about it now, I could as well have been offended, for the lyrics had taken me a lot of time to write and were neither not rushed together on the underground on the way to the party. Well anyway, the acoustic version goes like this.

[audio:http://www.joescholes.com/wp-content/uploads/audio/Perfect Versions/Perfect (Voice And Guitar.mp3]

The Acoustic Rock Steady Shot

The acoustic version could be streamed on Joe Scholes’ my myspace site for a while. I do not know Victor Rice personally, but I know that he is very good producer, and after I had commented on some of his works on his myspace, a conversation evolved in which he said: “Perfect is a good song, is there a rock steady version? No problem. Good idea. I went into the Marquee Studios of my good friend Gregor Pottmeier. And we made such a version, it was all vocal rocksteady, sampled sounds of opening and closing guitar case, hit the case hard and soft to get different sounds for a beat and voila, there was a third version of “Perfect”. I sent Victor the link, but I guess he had already moved on to other spheres.

[audio:http://www.joescholes.com/wp-content/uploads/audio/Perfect Versions/Perfect.mp3]

Is this the end? I’m afraid not. The odds are my friend Ganjan has a fourth version of the song. He had some studio time at a booth in Köln-Ehrenfeld and asked me if I wanted to voice a riddim for him. I just took the “Perfect” lyrics. Never heard anything from it yet. Maybe later.

For next week I promise a similar post on the song “Ballerina Valerie.” I will get more personal than ever before and revealing the long kept secret about who this song is about. To leave you with a questionaire: Her name is not Valerie, but all the letters of her name are in the word “Valerie”. See you next week, don’t forget to share.