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anthology123
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| Posted: 14 February 2007 at 10:43am | IP Logged
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I noticed there are two versions of this song. One with a cold ending and the
other with a drum coda. Which version was the 45 version, or was it neither?
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aaronk
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| Posted: 14 February 2007 at 11:11am | IP Logged
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The longer 5:00+ version is the 45 & LP version, according to the database. The shorter 3:30+ version is the DJ edit. (The DJ version starts off with five or six seconds of music and goes into the first verse "It's poetry in motion...")
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Paul Haney
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| Posted: 14 February 2007 at 2:14pm | IP Logged
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I only heard the shorter version in my radio world back in 1983. In fact, I was kinda disappointed when I bought the 45...didn't really care for that extended drum ending.
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Todd Ireland
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| Posted: 15 February 2007 at 9:30am | IP Logged
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Agreed, Paul. I always found the extended drum ending pointless.
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crapfromthepast
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| Posted: 15 February 2007 at 10:05am | IP Logged
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The UK 7" has the shorter 3:40 version.
For quite a while, the only version a US customer could buy was the 5:09 version. I bought the 45 when it came out, thinking it was the version I heard on the radio. Nope. So I bought The Golden Age Of Wireless on LP. Not there either. It wasn't available in the US until a mail-order compilation called Formula 45 came out (Sliver Eagle Records, 1988), which was later repackaged with artwork featuring OJ Simpson and retitled 1st and 10.
I had the good fortune to interview Thomas Dolby last year, and asked him about his early pop work. He said that his first album, The Golden Age Of Wireless, originally didn't have "She Blinded Me With Science" or "One Of Our Submarines" on it. That version of the album featured the single "Europa And The Pirate Twins," and had run its course in the UK and US. Thomas submitted two new songs to EMI ("Science" and "Submarines"), and EMI released them as a 7" single in the UK. Thomas's US label, Harvest, was experimenting with the EP format at the time (like Duran Duran's Carnival, which featured the new track, "Hungry Like The Wolf"). EMI commissioned extended versions of those tracks and three others from the original Golden Age, and put out the EP Blinded By Science, and the accompanying 7" of "Science". Both featured the 5:09 edit. When "Science" took off, they tacked it onto The Golden Age Of Wireless and rereleased it in the US, where it did quite nicely. There are 3 different pressings of Golden Age on LP, all with different track listings. The one that made it to CD was the last release, featuring the 5:09 edit of "Science". Thomas said he had little control over what was released where, and remarked that the music was marketed "like toothpaste". I got the impression that not a lot of thought was applied to which version made it onto the US 7".
In the late '80s, I ran across a German pressing of the Golden Age CD that featured the 3:40 edit of "Science" (plus a guitar-driven version of "Radio Silence" which has since never made it onto CD). I held it in my hands and played it in the store, so I know it exists, but I didn't buy it. Oops! Never seen it since. Obviously, the 3:40 has come out on dozens of other CDs since then.
Edited by crapfromthepast on 15 February 2007 at 10:07am
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anthology123
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| Posted: 15 February 2007 at 6:00pm | IP Logged
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Funny on the comments here about the two main versions of the song. I like
the intro to the 5:00+ version, but prefer the cold ending of the shorter
version. For people here who know the song, do you think it would be
possible to create an edit that has the 5:00 version, but has the ending of
the shorter version?
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aaronk
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| Posted: 15 February 2007 at 6:15pm | IP Logged
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Absolutely! Just paste the last note of the short version onto the longer one at 4:20. Of course, the song would no longer be 5:00; it would run about 4:21 or 4:22.
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anthology123
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| Posted: 23 February 2007 at 3:59pm | IP Logged
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I'll have to give that a try, I'm still a beginner with the editing tools (PEAK),
but I'll see what I can do.
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Todd Ireland
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| Posted: 12 August 2008 at 2:08pm | IP Logged
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Regarding Thomas Dolby's "She Blinded Me with Science", the database currently states that commercial copies are all 5:09. Abagon reports that the actual 45 run time is 5:07, not 5:09 as stated on the record label. I know we're only talking about a marginal two second difference, but the 5:07 time is a little more in line with the song's 45 version appearances in the database.
Edited by Todd Ireland on 12 August 2008 at 2:13pm
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mjb50
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| Posted: 26 February 2022 at 12:03pm | IP Logged
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My partner grew up in San Diego and only remembers hearing the short version on radio, although this would've been late '80s by the time she heard it.
Meanwhile, I grew up in southwest Ohio and only heard the long version. They'd always let at least some of the ending play, sometimes almost all of it. Now, whenever I hear the short version, I find the guitar-based intro to be kinda lame, and the ending jarring. I know the meat of it is basically the same, but when stripped of those elements, it just feels too much like just some silly pop song. The long version's intro & ending impart a more serious and slightly off-kilter new wave vibe. Also I was just a nerdy kid who couldn't get enough of anything "computery".
Anyway, I don't have anything to add. I just wanted to express some love for the long version, and mention that in some regions, the long version was the radio version.
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AdvprosD
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| Posted: 26 February 2022 at 1:46pm | IP Logged
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mjb50 wrote:
My partner grew up in San Diego and only remembers hearing the short version on radio, although this would've been late '80s by the time she heard it.
Meanwhile, I grew up in southwest Ohio and only heard the long version. They'd always let at least some of the ending play, sometimes almost all of it. Now, whenever I hear the short
version, I find the guitar-based intro to be kinda lame, and the ending jarring. I know the meat of it is basically the same, but when stripped of those elements, it just feels too much
like just some silly pop song. The long version's intro & ending impart a more serious and slightly off-kilter new wave vibe. Also I was just a nerdy kid who couldn't get enough of anything
"computery".
Anyway, I don't have anything to add. I just wanted to express some love for the long version, and mention that in some regions, the long version was the radio version. |
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mjb50, I'm kind of curious about this version. Do I understand that the long version has the long drum coda and the number of stuttering samples as well?
On my personal note, I find the stutter sample fun at times, but really disliked it when used on this song. I assume it's because I didn't remember ever hearing it
presented this way on the radio. When I picked up a few different CDs, they frequently seemed to never fail to use this version. Not my personal preference. :)
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mjb50
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| Posted: 26 February 2022 at 11:15pm | IP Logged
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AdvprosD, yes, the long version, which is what's on the US 45 and EP, is as you describe. There's about 50 seconds of mostly instrumental intro plus some exclusive muttering from the scientist, whereas the short version just has a brief guitar intro and gets right into the vocals. Once the vocals begin, the two versions are basically the same, although there are differences, like the stuttering "science! i-i-ience!" at 1:45 (it's just in that one spot), and the echo on the falsetto backing vocals is different, and then of course the drum coda.
I admit that the stutter edit is dated and unnecessary, but it doesn't ruin the song for me. Overall, it's just a better song in its longer form, in my opinion. The short version just feels too stripped down, with too much of its "atmosphere" removed.
That said, usually I find songs sound better in their shorter versions. I much prefer the video/45 version of Men Without Hats' "The Safety Dance", for example, whereas the relatively plodding but arguably more spacious-sounding LP/12" version seems to be at least as popular, if not the only version some people ever heard on the radio.
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AndrewChouffi
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| Posted: 27 February 2022 at 5:48am | IP Logged
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I believe the 'DJ edit" was the actual tape submitted to
the label (Venice In Peril/EMI) by producers Tim Friese-
Greene & Thomas Dolby; a club remix (not sure who created
it) became the U.S. commercial 45. Anyone please correct
me if I'm wrong!
Andy
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NightAire
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| Posted: 16 March 2022 at 9:41pm | IP Logged
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mjb50, you are not the only one.
In Tulsa, the way I remember it, is K107 playing the long version.
The synth intro, to me, was a better talk-up ramp for the DJ to speak over than the short single, and when I first heard the electronic drums at the end jumping from left channel to right channel and back again, I was mesmerized.
I bought the Capitol LP of "She Blinded Me With Science" and got the version I loved.. with the bonus of no DJ fading the drums early!
The first time I heard the DJ edit, on Retrospectacle, I was shocked. As you said, the "meat" was there but somehow it now sounded like another throwaway pop song... and I love Thomas Dolby!
Years later I worked for a friend who had a mobile DJ company. It was the first time I saw "Blinded By Science." (The cover is hysterical, BTW.)
CFTP, that guitar version HAS made it onto CD. You'll find it on the extended remaster of The Golden Age of Wireless (which thankfully is not brickwalled). You can hear it at Amazon.
Edited by NightAire on 16 March 2022 at 9:42pm
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Topic: She Blinded Me With Science
