Self Plagarism by Chris

[DJC]

Just an idle observation of mine ( as a ture devotee of Chris Rea music for over 23 years )...

He does tend to plagarise his own songs, a bit like a magpie stealing things but in this case he is taking from himself ( no bad thing ).

By this I mean, has anyone else noticed in his recent Blue Guitars project how often he had revisited his own "back catalogue" for some new songs?

Many of the examples are to be found on the "Celtic Blues" CD eg:

Lucky Day is a re-working of the same song from te 1986 On the Beach Album which was a more jazzier sound with different lyrics. The new version is great.

Celtic Blue also borrows heavily from the track "Nothing to Fear" from the album God's Great Banana Skin.

Too Far from Home takes a large part of the intro' track Espresso Logic from the album of the same name.

Also, if you are a real Chris Rea devotee, you will find that the backbeat / rythmn on the song 'Til I find my True Love's name - is broadly the same as the song "Reasons" from the 1984 album - Wired to the Moon.

Obviously the song Catfish Girl on the CD of Louisiana Blues is the same as from the Stony Road album and somewhere there is also another version of the song - Mississppi , which was also on Stony Road but originally on the King of the Beach album !

Don't get me wrong, I think the fact that he re-visits these songs is not only a great idea ( to re-perfect his own material ) but also a good metaphor for the blues themselves, which are, after all, a sort of re-working of previous material with different styles.

Also, those of you who have listended to him as long as I have, will know it is not the first time he has done this sort of thing - going back to the self titled Chirs Rea Album of 1982 the song "If you choose to go" was re-worked later in the 1987 album Dancing with Strangers as Que Sera.

Also there is the re-working of the original "Let's Dance" which was on a mini LP in 1986 from the On the Beach Album ( a real jazzy / bluesy version) which became the famous sinlge from the Dancing with Strangers album.

Also the song New Times Square from the awful Road to Hell Pt 2 album is a re-hash of the song Blue Cafe from the album Blue Cafe from 1998.

Anyway, enough of that - I think it is a good thing - what do others think ?

Also - what about a top ten favourite track listings, my own would be:-

1. Nothing's Happening by the Sea
2. It's all gone
3. Daytona
4. Wired to the Moon
5. Chisel Hill
6. On the Beach ( album version 1986 )
7. Joy of Christmas
8. 'Til the Morning Light Shines on my True love and me
9. Out of the Darkness
10Catfish Girl

Best Album ( if you had to pick one ) - On the Beach

Best Concert ( seen 14 ) - 1988 Christmas - Drving Home for Xmas Tour, Glasgow, Dec '88).

Over to you.

Cheers

[elangelo]

Just an idle observation of mine ( as a ture devotee of Chris Rea music for over 23 years )...

He does tend to plagarise his own songs, a bit like a magpie stealing things but in this case he is taking from himself ( no bad thing ).

By this I mean, has anyone else noticed in his recent Blue Guitars project how often he had revisited his own "back catalogue" for some new songs?

Many of the examples are to be found on the "Celtic Blues" CD eg:

Lucky Day is a re-working of the same song from te 1986 On the Beach Album which was a more jazzier sound with different lyrics. The new version is great.

Celtic Blue also borrows heavily from the track "Nothing to Fear" from the album God's Great Banana Skin.

Too Far from Home takes a large part of the intro' track Espresso Logic from the album of the same name.

Also, if you are a real Chris Rea devotee, you will find that the backbeat / rythmn on the song 'Til I find my True Love's name - is broadly the same as the song "Reasons" from the 1984 album - Wired to the Moon.

Obviously the song Catfish Girl on the CD of Louisiana Blues is the same as from the Stony Road album and somewhere there is also another version of the song - Mississppi , which was also on Stony Road but originally on the King of the Beach album !

Don't get me wrong, I think the fact that he re-visits these songs is not only a great idea ( to re-perfect his own material ) but also a good metaphor for the blues themselves, which are, after all, a sort of re-working of previous material with different styles.

Also, those of you who have listended to him as long as I have, will know it is not the first time he has done this sort of thing - going back to the self titled Chirs Rea Album of 1982 the song "If you choose to go" was re-worked later in the 1987 album Dancing with Strangers as Que Sera.

Also there is the re-working of the original "Let's Dance" which was on a mini LP in 1986 from the On the Beach Album ( a real jazzy / bluesy version) which became the famous sinlge from the Dancing with Strangers album.

Also the song New Times Square from the awful Road to Hell Pt 2 album is a re-hash of the song Blue Cafe from the album Blue Cafe from 1998.

Anyway, enough of that - I think it is a good thing - what do others think ?

Also - what about a top ten favourite track listings, my own would be:-

1. Nothing's Happening by the Sea
2. It's all gone
3. Daytona
4. Wired to the Moon
5. Chisel Hill
6. On the Beach ( album version 1986 )
7. Joy of Christmas
8. 'Til the Morning Light Shines on my True love and me
9. Out of the Darkness
10Catfish Girl

Best Album ( if you had to pick one ) - On the Beach

Best Concert ( seen 14 ) - 1988 Christmas - Drving Home for Xmas Tour, Glasgow, Dec '88).

Over to you.

Cheers

I think there's a sense beyond this self-plagarism as you call it, 'cause you know that JazzeeBlue label is Chris' first chance to write the music in a way he wanted to. I wanted to correct you, the song in 1982 was not "If you Choose to Go", but "When you know that your love has died". As for "Celtic Blue", there's also a theme from "Josie's Tune" (1987); On Latin Blues CD, "Keep On Dancing" is from 1999, "That's how I know it's you" has the same melody as "All Summer Long" from "King of the Beach". "My Blue World Says Hello" corresponds to "Give that Girl a Diamond". I find it a nice quest for the fans, and I feel that I REALLY understand the song since I've heard that song from 1982 for example.

[Chris]

Just an idle observation of mine ( as a ture devotee of Chris Rea music for over 23 years )...

He does tend to plagarise his own songs, a bit like a magpie stealing things but in this case he is taking from himself ( no bad thing ).

By this I mean, has anyone else noticed in his recent Blue Guitars project how often he had revisited his own "back catalogue" for some new songs?

Many of the examples are to be found on the "Celtic Blues" CD eg:

Lucky Day is a re-working of the same song from te 1986 On the Beach Album which was a more jazzier sound with different lyrics. The new version is great.

Celtic Blue also borrows heavily from the track "Nothing to Fear" from the album God's Great Banana Skin.

Too Far from Home takes a large part of the intro' track Espresso Logic from the album of the same name.

Also, if you are a real Chris Rea devotee, you will find that the backbeat / rythmn on the song 'Til I find my True Love's name - is broadly the same as the song "Reasons" from the 1984 album - Wired to the Moon.

Obviously the song Catfish Girl on the CD of Louisiana Blues is the same as from the Stony Road album and somewhere there is also another version of the song - Mississppi , which was also on Stony Road but originally on the King of the Beach album !

Don't get me wrong, I think the fact that he re-visits these songs is not only a great idea ( to re-perfect his own material ) but also a good metaphor for the blues themselves, which are, after all, a sort of re-working of previous material with different styles.

Also, those of you who have listended to him as long as I have, will know it is not the first time he has done this sort of thing - going back to the self titled Chirs Rea Album of 1982 the song "If you choose to go" was re-worked later in the 1987 album Dancing with Strangers as Que Sera.

Also there is the re-working of the original "Let's Dance" which was on a mini LP in 1986 from the On the Beach Album ( a real jazzy / bluesy version) which became the famous sinlge from the Dancing with Strangers album.

Also the song New Times Square from the awful Road to Hell Pt 2 album is a re-hash of the song Blue Cafe from the album Blue Cafe from 1998.

Anyway, enough of that - I think it is a good thing - what do others think ?

Also - what about a top ten favourite track listings, my own would be:-

1. Nothing's Happening by the Sea
2. It's all gone
3. Daytona
4. Wired to the Moon
5. Chisel Hill
6. On the Beach ( album version 1986 )
7. Joy of Christmas
8. 'Til the Morning Light Shines on my True love and me
9. Out of the Darkness
10Catfish Girl

Best Album ( if you had to pick one ) - On the Beach

Best Concert ( seen 14 ) - 1988 Christmas - Drving Home for Xmas Tour, Glasgow, Dec '88).

Over to you.

Cheers

------------

A few thoughts, if I may ad, on Chris Rea's theme in his songs. Well, yes, he keeps on repeating himself. Chris admitted it on several occasions. He said that he, kind of, "remakes songs, mixes them together and repeats certain phrases", but that's exactly what musicians do. Someone once stated that he "plays to satisfy himself and as a result ends up satisfying everybody", who likes his music. I think that's the case with Chris Rea, too. It's not that easy to remake a song, to arrange it in a different style. It's hard work. The only way to check whether that work was done correctly is to see people's reaction.
John Cale, better know as JJ Cale, said that "music that you hear is the soundtrack of your life. Musicians make music to feed it into people's lives, to help them along or to give them blues, or whatever."
That's more or less explains pretty nicely what Chris Rea does.
Best regards,
Chris

[elangelo]

A few thoughts, if I may ad, on Chris Rea's theme in his songs. Well, yes, he keeps on repeating himself. Chris admitted it on several occasions. He said that he, kind of, "remakes songs, mixes them together and repeats certain phrases", but that's exactly what musicians do. Someone once stated that he "plays to satisfy himself and as a result ends up satisfying everybody", who likes his music. I think that's the case with Chris Rea, too. It's not that easy to remake a song, to arrange it in a different style. It's hard work. The only way to check whether that work was done correctly is to see people's reaction.
John Cale, better know as JJ Cale, said that "music that you hear is the soundtrack of your life. Musicians make music to feed it into people's lives, to help them along or to give them blues, or whatever."
That's more or less explains pretty nicely what Chris Rea does.
Best regards,
Chris

I agree, and it's not that I think it's bad, as I said. But I don't really think that it's so hard to remix the song, because as you might know each album track has many variations that the band tried out and that we're never gonna hear. "Dancing down the Stony Road" had twelve, I guess (that's what Chris said on that DVD in Blue Guitars set). The only thing I'm curious about was if Chris used old samples from 1993 and 1994 on Celtic Blue (Guitar solo from Nothing to Fear) and Too Far from Home (intro from Espresso Logic) or he just played it again. But it's hard to play identical...