Yes to You Said No!

35 Days 17 hours  and 2 mins to go

You Said No 

 

('b' side to Hypocrite)

The ‘b’ side of Hypocrite, You Said No, was also a big number for the band, it was our first attempt at reggae rock, recorded not long after writing it. Later it would be played twice in a row live, we would play it first in a dub format improvising as we went along with only excerpts of vocals every now and then and, without a gap would enter the second version with the lead vocals and backing vocals as it was on record. This was what we called ‘Dub rock’ and it was a favourite with our audiences for many years. It was a high point in our set and we often finished with it.

As a tale of unrequited love, it was always strange in those days, as the girl who it was written about was often at our gigs standing in the audience listening to it. I naively thought it might win her over. But it didn’t.

I was initially disappointed with it on our single because for one reason or another (I cannot recall why) it was quieter than the ‘a’ side. You’d flip the single over, drop the needle into the groove and was underwhelmed with what came out until you raised the volume a bit, very annoying. However we corrected that when it released on the Newtown Neurotics singles album 45 Revolutions Per Minute and on any subsequent release on CD (some of which can be found here).

Recently, Hypocrite/You Said No was re-released on vinyl (link to it here)l but both tracks had been re-mastered and enhanced to improve the quality and so on that version, the volume was same both sides. So now you know how to tell an original copy from a re-released one.

I always loved playing You Said No and this early version of it, now with enhanced sound is a joy to me now. BTW, the YouTube is not the enhanced one.