There was a time in the sixties when songs were getting longer and many singles had a "long version." "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vita" and "Light My Fire" are the canonical examples. FM radio was starting to define itself as distinct from AM radio by playing the long versions. And one could advertise one's cogniscenti status by listening to the long version. I suppose EPs came to play something of the same role, as against LPs/CDs in the eighties. It all seems kind of quaint now.

The thing about the long versions was that a pop song had a certain kind of narrative. There's a kind of transformation after the bridge--when you hear the chorus again, but it's changed somehow, it's like an epiphany, right? So the long versions had to figure out how to tell a story in a different format. They might go through a dark-night-of-the-soul episode or build up to some sort of ecstatic climax, but there was always something. Except "Crimson and Clover"--the long version of C&C was just episodes kind of mashed together, wavering in and out. There's *less* drama than the original--it just floats along, like proto-dub. Oh, here's a thing; oh, here's another thing; oh, now it's the first thing some more... It feels like it could go on indefinitely, like that other sixties icon, the lava lamp. Great song.

One of the all time greats, C&C is. I used to DJ (mostly hip hop) and I always used to close the night with this song. Based on the reactions to it, we're not alone in our love for this tune.

Great writeup of a great track. Well done.

A friend of mine in San Francisco sent me a Mirah CD along with Joanna Newsome some time ago. I?m afraid in my single-mindedness I cast poor Mirah aside to languish unlistened to. Hearing this lovely pick will make me give her another shot. Then again, in my defense it wasn?t really fair of Miss D?-- to pit those two against each other. Mirah didn?t even have chance.

And who doesn?t turn up the car stereo when Crimson & Clover comes over the radio? It?s unimpeachable.

Good post, Jordan.

Great songs. And for what it's worth, I prefer Mirah to Joanna Newsom by a very large margin.

Also, on the lack of ID3 tags: The Mirah song's off of You Think It's Like This, But Really It's Like This. Crimson And Clover is from the album Crimson And Clover.

some great posts here!
keep up the good work!

I guess that's the song Elliot Smith was refering to in Baby Britain ?

"the light was on but it was dim
revolver's been turned over
and now it's ready once again
the radio was playing "Crimson And Clover"
London Bridge is safe and sound
no matter what you keep repeating
nothing's gonna drag me down
to a death that's not worth cheating"

Right ?

There is a few seconds, when that guitar is kicked into high gear and it sounds very, very similar to "How Soon is Now?" I've never noticed before.

Thank you for posting the long version of this track. I disagree with the "episodes" person above: the middle section presents three very different guitar solos: first, a pedal steel (or something like it) playing a pretty straight little lick, then a wah-wah guitar soloing rather more agitatedly, and finally a distorted, snarling little number which (in contrast with its tone) plays in a very regulated little manner (with wah-wah in countepoint)...until at 3:47, it erupts in a little frenzy of notes, as if forgetting itself, before returning briefly to its settled state, and then there's the big build-up you mention. One other thing: Rhino "fixed" this on the reissue I have - but when I first heard this song as a kid, the guitar solo section was a little flat in pitch relative to the rest of the song - which meant that when that two-note riff you mention comes back, not only was it modulated upward a half-step as intended, it was in a whole different pitch-ballpark entirely. It just about lifted you out of your chair is what it did. The way Rhino should have fixed it was to fix the flattening at the entry of the guitar solo (the steel), but leave the microtone rise afterwards - in other words, raise the pitch of the ending part just a hair.

Interesting. I'll have to try to hear it that way. Having grown up with the "short" version, I always felt the long version sounded "wrong," too structureless and lacking the drama of the short version. Eventually I heard it as *pleasantly* structureless, but it still sounds to me like the three guitar episodes were just dropped in from nowhere.

--the "episodes" person

The whole Crimson & Clover album is really great. "Crystal Blue Persuasion"? "I Am a Tangerine"? Classics. I wholeheartedly recommend the whole thing.

Tommy James and the Shondells had a ton of great songs. Also on the psych-pop tip is "Mirage" whose chord progression was supposedly inspired when TJ accidentally played the tape of "I Think We're Alone Now" backwards. "Hanky Panky" -- their first hit -- is a great garage rocker. There's a bunch of great stuff.

The story of "Hanky Panky" is amazing, too--recorded in 1963, released locally, does nothing; then three years later, long after the Shondells have broken up, suddenly it becomes a fluky hit in 1966 in Pittsburgh; James flies to Pgh, puts together a local pickup band, calls them the Shondells and rockets to fame.

(2fs--nice site.)
with some hot green tea.
Its healthy, soothing and tasty!