Peter Murphy may be known to many as the "Godfather of Goth," having fronted one of the earliest bands of the Goth rock genre, Bauhaus, in the early 1980s, but he's still going strong as a solo performer. He just recently released his latest studio album, Ninth (counting a live album in 2001, it is indeed his ninth record), and today celebrates his birthday - 54 years on this day.
Cherry Red and Beggars Archive Group have seen it fit to honor the beginning of that legacy with a deluxe reissue of Should the World Fail to Fall Apart, Murphy's first solo album, released 25 years ago in 1986.
Murphy's debut record featured eight original tracks as well as two covers, Magazine's "The Light Pours Out of Me" and Pere Ubu's "Final Solution." Singles included "Blue Heart," "Final Solution" and the non-LP cut "Tale of the Tongue." While it never found a home with either the record-buying general public or fans of Bauhaus (who were to hear something only slightly similar to that band's output), it marks a significant step in the singer's solo career.
The album is augmented with a bonus disc of 14 B-sides and remixes - including one which has never been heard before. Beggars Archive, in prepping the master tapes to lend to Cherry Red for mastering, found that a tape box claiming to hold one of the original 12" remixes for the title track in fact had a "superb, lengthy previously unreleased mix" contained therein. The whole set is due out on July 22; track lists and a pre-order page are after the jump.
Should the World Fail to Fall Apart: Deluxe Edition (Cherry Red CDBRED507, 2011)
Disc 1: Original LP (released as Beggars Banquet BEGA 69 (U.K.), 1986)
- Canvas Beauty (Romance Version)
- The Light Pours Out of Me
- Confessions
- Should the World Fail to Fall Apart
- Never Man
- God Sends
- Blue Heart
- The Answer is Clear
- Final Solution
- Jemal
Disc 2: Bonus tracks
- Canvas Beauty (Up Version)
- The Light Pours Out Of Me (Original Version)
- Confessions (Remix)
- Should the World Fail to Fall Apart (Version)
- Stay
- Tale of the Tongue (12" Version)
- Blue Heart (12" Version)
- The Answer is Clear (Version)
- Final Solution (Club Mix)
- Jemal (Version 2)
- Canvas Beauty (Fast Mix)
- Tale of the Tongue (7" Edit)
- Final Solution (Full Version)
- Final Solution (Third and Final Mix)
Disc 2, Track 1 released on Beggars Banquet 7" BEG 162 (U.K.), 1986
Disc 2, Tracks 3 and 10 released on Beggars Banquet 12" BEG 179T (U.K.), 1987
Disc 2, Track 4 is a previously unreleased alternate mix
Disc 2, Track 5 exact origin unknown
Disc 2, Track 6 released on Beggars Banquet 12" BEG 174T (U.K.), 1986
Disc 2, Track 7 released on Beggars Banquet 12" BEG 162T (U.K.), 1986
Disc 2, Track 8 released on Beggars Banquet 7" BEG 143 (U.K.), 1985
Disc 2, Tracks 9 and 13 released on Beggars Banquet 12" BEG 143T (U.K.), 1985
Disc 2, Track 11 released on Beggars Banquet 12" EP SOVE 2359 (CA), 1986
Disc 2, Track 12 released on Beggars Banquet 7" BEG 174 (U.K.), 1986
Disc 2, Track 14 released on Beggars Banquet 12" BEG 143TP (U.K.), 1985
The Cherry Red website does not list "Canvas Beauty (Romance Version)" in the tracklist for the first disc -- which really worries me. Do you know something the rest of us don't know?
Turns out that as well as the already listed exclusives that this release features (i.e. previously unreleased mix of 'Should The World Fail To Fall Apart' and cover of Bowie's 'Stay') there is another surprise - the 'Club Mix' version of 'Final Solution' is actually a previously unreleased mix and NOT the same as the 'Club Mix' released on the original 12" single and the Japanese 'Compositions' CD boxed set.