Mike Scott & The Bootlegs: Isis (Demos, 1978)

(The above photo is of Another Pretty Face)

Mike Scott came to public attention as leader of new wave band Another Pretty Face, whose "All the Boys Love Carrie" achieved NME single of the week in 1979. Of course, he gained significantly more attention in  the eighties as the leader of The Waterboys (whom Scott describes as "myself and whoever are my current traveling musical companions.")

Before all that, Scott, along with a  band called the Bootlegs, recorded a set of demos in 1978 that betrayed a love of artists like David Bowie, Lou Reed (see "Pale Blue Eyes" here) and Bob Dylan. Intriguingly, Scott & his bootlegs choose to cover "Isis" a dense epic Dylan co-wrote with psychologist Jacques Levy for the 1976 album, Desire. Rather than use the laid-back Desire arrangement (not to be confused with pummeling live versions of the Rolling Thunder Revue tours), Scott & co. treats "Isis" like an outtake from the Highway 61 sessions, though they do add very un-Dylan-like 'ba-ba'ba's'' to stand-in for the harmonica.




Mike Scott & the Bootlegs
Taybank Studio, Ayr, Scotland 1978-09-04

1. So Hard to Explain
2. The End
3. Death in Venice
4. My Mafia
5. Pale Blue Eyes
6. Ask the Angels
7. C'mon Everybody (partial)
8. Isis
9. What Can I Do (cut)

İzleyin: Bob Dylan - Like a rolling stone

So tell us what you make of the different version of Isis and of Mike Scott's work in general in the COMMENTS section (where you'll find the MS & B Demos).



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