The Gang of Four - To Hell with Poverty - Non-Album Tracks (1978-1982)

If you're not familiar with the Gang of Four, you should check them out. They didn't sell a lot of records back in their 1970s and 1980s heyday (except for their fluke hit single "I Love a Man in a Uniform"), but their musical style has been highly influential. Their first two albums, 1979's "Entertainment!" and 1981's "Solid Gold" are considered classics, and their third album, "Songs of the Free," is pretty good as well. Rolling Stone Magazine lists "Entertainment!" as one of the 500 best albums of all time. But they had a bunch of excellent songs that didn't get on any of those albums. So here's a stray tracks collection gathering up all their worthy songs that didn't make it on their albums from their classic years, 1978 to 1982.

In my opinion, there are two things that make the band stand out. One is the guitar playing of Andy Gill, which was somehow simultaneously abrasive and melodic. The other is the political nature of their lyrics, which was very unusual at that time. One Rolling Stone Magazine writer called them "probably the best politically motivated band in rock and roll."

Seven of the songs here are from EPs or singles that were released back in those years. They contain some exceptional songs, like "To Hell with Poverty" and "Capital (It Fails Us Now)." Some other songs were released as singles and such, but I haven't included those if versions appeared on their studio albums, even if those versions were somewhat different. However, I have included an alternate version of "Contract," a song on the "Entertainment!" album, because this version is significantly different, with most of the lyrics in particular being changed. 

I've also included a bunch of rarer songs. Most of these were taken from the 2021 box sex "77-81." That contains lots of demos and rare tracks, but frankly in my opinion, most of those are only of marginal interest. Some suffer from poor sound quality, while others are embryonic versions of songs the band improved upon later. But the songs I considered worthy are included here. Two are covers done in concert ("Rosanne" by the Mekons and "Sweet Jane" by the Velvet Underground). 

The first five songs here are all originals that weren't released at the time. For two of those, "Information" and "Blood Free," plus the cover of "Rosanne," the vocals were recorded quite low in the mix. So I used the sound editing program Spleeter to separate the songs into tracks and then boost the vocals. (Note by the way that the "77-81" box set calls "Information" "Song One" and "Blood Free" "Song Two," but their correct names are known from other versions that were played in concert.) There are a few other rare songs that I didn't include here, because the sound quality was too low, or the songs themselves simply weren't that good.

PJ over at his blog "Albums I Wish Existed" posted an album of Gang of Four rarities that's very similar to this one. Due to that effort, I wasn't going to post anything. But thanks to the release of the box set mentioned above, some material has come to light that makes that different enough from PJ's version to merit interest, I think.

I've included three bonus tracks. All three sound pretty good. I've included a live version of "Blood Free" because this is a rare original by the band, and this version sounds about as good as the studio version I've included. I had a hard time deciding which one to include, so I've added both. The other two bonus tracks are live songs included on the 1982 EP "Another Day / Another Dollar." I don't think they're essential stray tracks, but they're here for anyone who wants everything from that EP that wasn't put on one of the band's albums.

This album is 48 minutes long, not counting the bonus tracks.

01 Elevator (Gang of Four)
02 Silence Is Not Useful (Gang of Four)
03 Information [Edit] (Gang of Four)
04 Blood Free [Edit] (Gang of Four)
05 Hold Up My Weekend (Gang of Four)
06 Contract [Alternate Version] (Gang of Four)
07 It's Her Factory (Gang of Four)
08 Armalite Rifle (Gang of Four)
09 Rosanne [Edit] (Gang of Four)
10 Sweet Jane (Gang of Four)
11 To Hell with Poverty (Gang of Four)
12 Capital [It Fails Us Now] (Gang of Four)
13 History's Bunk (Gang of Four)
14 Lord Make Me a Cowboy (Gang of Four)
15 The World at Fault (Gang of Four)

Blood Free [Live] (Gang of Four)
Cheeseburger [Live] (Gang of Four)
What We All Want [Live] (Gang of Four)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15602713/Gango4_1978-1982_ToHllwithPovrty_atse.zip.html

The cover art is simply the original cover of the "To Hell with Poverty" single. (It was released as a single in some countries as well as part of an EP.) However, I made some changes. For one thing, I erased the name of the B-side, which was written near the bottom of the cover. I also could only find a low-res version of the original cover, so I used some Photoshop tricks to sharpen the picture and generally clean it up.