Thursday, December 21, 2023

Squeeze - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: 1977-1979

I've been posting albums at this blog for over five years now, and there still are tons of great musical artists that I haven't posted anything for yet, or only a little bit. The British band Squeeze is a case in point. I like them a lot, and I have many albums to post, but so far all I've posted are a couple albums from lead singer Glenn Tilbrook's solo career. So let me start to rectify that by posting a series of BBC albums.

Squeeze's first release was an EP in 1977, and then the full-length album "Squeeze" in 1978. This was a strange start for the band, because both the EP and the album were produced by John Cale, a former member of the band the Velvet Underground, and he pushed the band into a musical style they weren't comfortable with. That's often the case here, since many of the songs are from that first EP and first album.

The first four songs are from a BBC studio session in 1977. The session was hosted by famous BBC DJ John Peel. He was a key early supporter when they started out, but he lost interest after they got famous (which was part of a common pattern for him). 

The next two songs, tracks five and six, are from a short BBC concert in early 1978. I've only included two songs because the sound quality of that concert is merely good, not excellent, and most of the songs were done at other BBC sessions. But I had to at least include "Take Me, I'm Yours," since it's their first hit and most popular song from this time period.

The next four songs, tracks seven through 10, are from another John Peel BBC studio session in 1978. 

Finally, the last two songs are from an appearance on the BBC TV show "The Old Grey Whistle Test" in 1979. Both of those songs came out on the band's second album, "Cool for Cats." There are more key songs from that album, but sadly it seems they didn't make any other BBC appearances in 1979.

All the John Peel sessions songs, tracks one through four and seven through 10, have been released on the official album "The Complete BBC Sessions." But the others are still unreleased.

This album is 39 minutes long.

01 Cat on a Wall (Squeeze)
02 Model (Squeeze)
03 All Fed Up (Squeeze)
04 Sex Master (Squeeze)
05 Take Me, I'm Yours (Squeeze)
06 Backtrack (Squeeze)
07 Bang Bang (Squeeze)
08 Ain't It Sad (Squeeze)
09 I Must Go (Squeeze)
10 The Knack (Squeeze)
11 Slap and Tickle (Squeeze)
12 It's So Dirty (Squeeze)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16068402/Squze_1977-1979_BBSessonsVolum1_atse.zip.html

The cover photo is a promo photo from around this time.

1 comment:

  1. Superb share. Thanks so much. We saw them in 78 supporting DR Feelgood. They almost blew them away. Squeeze played a heavy duty set of extremely loud pub rock. A brilliant gig that I have never forgotten. I also have the packet of three EP. This was a different Squeeze to the band they became
    Thanks again

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