Another great effort. Very revealing of the Time And Tide album sessions and shows the band in gradual decline as a functioning, close unit. More hilarious and candid recollections too.

JIMMY & THE BOYS: They Won't Let My Girlfriend Talk To Me [hit cover of Tim's 1978 songwriting demo]
Lost For Words [Music Farm demo, 1981]
Something To Do [Music Farm demo, 1981]
Remember When [Music Farm demo, 1981 - Next Exit B-side, 1983]
Dirty Creature [demo]
Log Cabin Fever
Log Cabin Fever [demo]
Fire Drill [demo?]
Small World [demo]
Giant Heartbeat [demo]
Giant Heartbeat [album version w/count-in]
Dirty Creature
Small World
Hello Sandy Allen
Pioneer
Six Months In A Leaky Boat
Six Months In A leaky Boat [demo]
Haul Away
Make Sense Of It
Take A Walk [live, 1982 - Living Enz version preceeded by Tim's on-stage banter]
Dirty Creature [live, 1982]
Fire Drill [live from Hamilton, Ontario, 1982]
Giant Heartbeat [live, 1982]

PLUS...
*Excerpts from Time And Tide interview LP, 1982
*Excerpts from Eddie Rayner interview, 1982
*Excerpt from Radio Fouveaux radio contest with Tim and Neil, 1982
*Excerpt from interview with Tim, 1982

quote:

Originally posted by Semi-Detached:
[qb]shows the band in gradual decline as a functioning, close unit[/qb]

Nice touch to finish with the "giant heartbeat is fading". Semi - I didn't pick up that things were unravelling until right at the end of the programme. Rather, the group seemed to be saying that they were at their peak during this period, but that success somehow was to become the "kiss of death" - to be revealed in greater detail no doubt next week.

"Enz Of An Era" is a pretty revelatory title indeed for the next release after Time and Tide - I wonder if that particular favourite of mine will get much of a mention in the next programme.

Creatively the band weren't (yet) in decline, but after Waiata, it would seem that the seeds of a very gradual disintegration were about to be sown. One can sense the band's lack of interest in fruitlessly chasing major international success and acclaim, hence Time And Tide being described as a self-indulgent work by Tim.

What was the Log Cabin Fever demo like? Just Neil and accoustic???

RE the creativity, there's an interview w/ Neil somewhere from Crowded House days where he mentioned that after True Colours it became clear that within the group the members had different ideas about what kind of music they should be making. He didn't go any further than that unfortunately but given the tone and the context, I assumed he meant that some where happy to be more a straight-forward pop band while others wanted to be less mainstream.

The 'Log Cabin Fever' demo was low-fi with Neil singing in a guarded, sketchy vocal style. He's accompanied by acoustic guitar (possibly filtered through an amplifier?) and drum machine. In my mind, the starkness of this early rendering of the song has a more menacing feel than the album version.

In the 1'18" excerpt, the following lyrics are featured...

"Downstairs in the cellar
Drums are beating
Wounded, no discomfort
Emotions bleeding
Time to waste away in conversation
Head long to the ocean
Will I sink or swim?
Time to waste away in conversation
Try to face the day
My private passion is eating me away"

I'd love to have a CD of Time And Tide-era demos!!!

I wonder which UK critic it was who labelled the album "Tame and Tired"?

Here's the official list:

THEY WON�T LET MY GIRLFRIEND TALK TO ME (Jimmy & The Boys)
LOST FOR WORDS (Nigel & Tim demo, Music Farm, 1981)
SOMETHING TO DO (Nigel & Tim demo, Music Farm, 1981)
REMEMBER WHEN (Nigel & Tim demo, Music Farm, 1981) #
DIRTY CREATURE (rehearsal/demo 1981)
LOG CABIN FEVER *
LOG CABIN FEVER (Neil home demo 1981)
FIRE DRILL (Neil home demo -brief instrumental- 1981)
SMALL WORLD (Nigel & Tim demo, Music Farm, 1981)
GIANT HEARTBEAT (Neil home demo 1981)
GIANT HEARTBEAT (rough mix with guide vocal 1981)
GIANT HEARTBEAT *
DIRTY CREATURE +
SMALL WORLD *
HELLO SANDY ALLEN *
PIONEER +
SIX MONTHS ON A LEAKY BOAT +
SIX MONTHS ON A LEAKY BOAT (Enz rehearsal 1981)
HAUL AWAY +
MAKE SENSE OF IT +
TAKE A WALK (live, Sydney July 1982) **
DIRTY CREATURE (live, Sydney July 1982)
FIRE DRILL (live, Sydney July 1982)
GIANT HEARTBEAT (live, Sydney July 1982)
GIANT HEARTBEAT (rough mix 1981)

# taken from �Rear Enz� CD
* taken from Time and Tide vinyl LP
+ taken from Spellbound CD
** taken from The Living Enz vinyl LP

Plus
Tim & Neil interview from Time and Tide i/v disc 1982
Eddie, Tim & Neil interviewed by Ian Magan on Fouveaux Radio 1982
Stage banter from Sydney 1982 and Hamilton, Ontario 1982

Thanks, Gav, for reminding me what that familiar guitar riff was from on Neil's demo. "Fire Drill" - of course! I'd been thinking it eventually appeared in a Crowded House song but was on the wrong track entirely. I've had "Fire Drill" playing in my head much of this morning. Not a great song as a whole, but has some excellent parts and was played and sung with a lot of energy in concert.

The tape I have of the "Time and Tide" rough mixes also includes early versions, with barely audible guide vocals, of "Take A Walk", "Fire Drill", "Lost For Words" and "Never Ceases To Amaze Me". "Never Ceases" is interesting in that it's just Noel and Tim laying down a very basic idea of the song. I didn't include it in Enzology, though, as I know how much most of you dislike the track... and this version's nowhere near as good.

Jaffaman,
i noticed the use of the vinyl 'time and tide' album and have heard your public opinions of the cd release.
how do you get the best out of your vinyl releases, does rnzi have really good record players?
for those of you born in the last 20 years records were 12" bits of 'vinyl' that sounded and looked good.
ta!

For the "Time and Tide" LP, I did have to EQ up the high frequencies a bit to match the tracks on "Spellbound". I left the bass frequencies flat, as I don't really have the right gear to do that properly without making it muddy. My LP (won in a radio competition in 1982) was in good nick, so no declicking was necessary.
RNZ's Technics turntables are way past their best days, but the one I used wasn't bad... as long as its power wasn't left on overnight. If it gets too hot, it starts playing backwards.

That would be great for listening to all the secret messages on the Beatles albums!! Did you find any on Time and Tide? :-)

Gniht a fnif t'ndid, on.

I forgot to mention that the Technics turntable uses a Shure cartridge and stylus. I don't know what type of pre-amp it is. I'm currently not in the studio so can't check. More techy info about Enzology audio transfers at http://www.frenzforum.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=2;t=000664

For "Time and Tide" I didn't have access to the Apogee converters.

Enzology Episode 8: Time and Tide is now available for download at www.radionz.co.nz/enzology . At the moment the streamed version isn't linking properly but the podcast download works fine.

Ugh, the podcast still isn't updating for me. I've subscribed from the beginning and even when I click "update podcast" in iTunes, no new episode is added like it has in the past. Oh well, I can be patient.

The best thing to do is download from the podcast manually from www.radionz.co.nz . That way we get more hits! Aside from that self-serving bit of advice, the episode 8 podcast is definitely on the iTunes NZ site but I see Enzology isn't showing up on the Split Enz page anymore.

The broken link to the streamed version on the Enzology website has been fixed.

Thanks, I'll try that tonight when I get home and see if it works.

This time period was certainly their "hayday" in Canada. I can't believe that they played in the city next to my hometown (namely, Hamilton) and I was unaware of it. I do have an old VHS tape of the show, which I treasure, but it would be fantastic to have the memories of actually being there.

Been listening to the Jimmy and the Boys version of Tim's "They Won't Let My Girlfriend Talk To Me", and Jimmy's voice sounds like a mix between Tim Finn and Phil Judd.

Could this have been a Phil Judd hit?

I found that the rss page was the best one for dl'ing the eps.

http://www.radionz.co.nz/podcasts/enzology.rss