The Only One's fourth single, 1979's Trouble in the World, is taken from their final album, Baby's Got a Gun. As the splendid picture sleeve may imply Peter Perrett's now channeling Jim Morrison AND Lou Reed (AND hanging out with Johnny Thunders - Perrett played with his fellow addict, on Thunders' solo album, So Alone. Here's the two of them stumbling through the "I'm Not Your Stepping Stone.")While "Trouble in the World" contains all those Only Ones trademarks; the gritty vocals, the supple rhythms and those the sneaky guitar solos, it never seems to outshine the better LP tracks, like "The Happy Pilgrim" or "Oh Lucinda". Looking at their measly handful of singles, it almost seems as if their record company sabotaged them after the failure of "Another Girl, Another Planet".
The Only Ones - Trouble in this Life
"Your Chosen Life" is a non-album track and is a little listless.
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I'll be honest here.....I never really got into these lot at the time. I liked Another Girl Another Planet like the rest of planet earth but I just didn't bother with them after that. My loss. Years later I discovered them again. My gain. Thanks for this one Jeffen.
ReplyDeleteAnd they said the Monkees couldn't play their own instruments.
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to that BBC collection Jeffen. Thanks for adding to my music obsessive misery!
Longy
ReplyDeleteGlad to be help you get re-acquainted with the Only Ones. They're one of those late seventies bands that seem to grow on you as you age and suffer.
CPB
Feeding the obsessive beast is MRML's our raison d'etre - hopefully they'll be a tiny, tiny run on Only Ones CD's this week.
I own this single & on my copy T.I.T.W. is a different take from this or the album version with a choir doing backing vocals...
ReplyDeleteThanks for the heads-up.
ReplyDeleteYou wouldn't happen to have a rip of the single version would you?
No not at this time...
ReplyDeleteAll I have is the vinyl...
But I'll put it on my list for a pal that'll be digitalizing some stuff for me...
Both mixes of "Trouble In The World" are very good. People who only know "Another Girl Another Planet" from this band missed some of the best songs (and guitar solos) of the post-punk years. Perrett's voice and subject matter are big stumbling blocks for the masses, of course, but anyone into slightly more challenging music should dig deep into their three studio LP's, at least.
ReplyDeleteHas anyone seen the single version, with the backing vocals? It's a great song but the chirpy female vocals on the single version add a whole new, ironic, dimension to the song...
ReplyDelete