Rat Patrol 2LP acetate

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BadReplicant
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Re: Rat Patrol 2LP acetate

Post by BadReplicant »

Welp, just wanna say that while I can't believe I didn't know this surfaced, y'know, a *year* ago, I'm elated to finally be hearing this material at this quality. Although this is just my second post, I've been a lurker here off and on for a long time. I'd just randomly started thinking about the Rat Patrol mixes again and wondered if perhaps anything had popped up since I last visited this site, and THERE IT WAS. :lol:

Even if there's never a 'proper' release, this is so much better than I'd imagined I'd ever hear the remaining unreleased mixes of Mick's. I agree with the sentiment expressed by many before that Inoculated City is one of if not the standout, and was the track I'd been most hoping to hear a better quality version of for years. Had always been my favorite track on the album, and being able to hear it like this now is just amazing. Also, would like to nominate Topper's additional hi-hat parts on Know Your Rights as the best single detail to fixate on in any of the tracks. :mrgreen: Thanks so much to the members here who make it possible for other fans to be able to hear this stuff, you guys are awesome.

I made an entire custom extended version of CR like ten years ago with a great deal of editing and doctoring done to most of the tracks to try and get a little closer a version with this clarity/completeness. It was a bit like a hybrid of the sensibilities of both versions, almost like if CR had been released as a double album but still not quite as unabashedly out there as RP. I thought about sharing it here but never got around to it, kind of wish I had now. Just for the hell of it, here's some artwork I had made for it (before knowing the right spelling) ;)
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danbot
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Re: Rat Patrol 2LP acetate

Post by danbot »

BadReplicant wrote:
10 Jul 2022, 4:52pm
Welp, just wanna say that while I can't believe I didn't know this surfaced, y'know, a *year* ago, I'm elated to finally be hearing this material at this quality. Although this is just my second post, I've been a lurker here off and on for a long time. I'd just randomly started thinking about the Rat Patrol mixes again and wondered if perhaps anything had popped up since I last visited this site, and THERE IT WAS. :lol:

Even if there's never a 'proper' release, this is so much better than I'd imagined I'd ever hear the remaining unreleased mixes of Mick's. I agree with the sentiment expressed by many before that Inoculated City is one of if not the standout, and was the track I'd been most hoping to hear a better quality version of for years. Had always been my favorite track on the album, and being able to hear it like this now is just amazing. Also, would like to nominate Topper's additional hi-hat parts on Know Your Rights as the best single detail to fixate on in any of the tracks. :mrgreen: Thanks so much to the members here who make it possible for other fans to be able to hear this stuff, you guys are awesome.

I made an entire custom extended version of CR like ten years ago with a great deal of editing and doctoring done to most of the tracks to try and get a little closer a version with this clarity/completeness. It was a bit like a hybrid of the sensibilities of both versions, almost like if CR had been released as a double album but still not quite as unabashedly out there as RP. I thought about sharing it here but never got around to it, kind of wish I had now. Just for the hell of it, here's some artwork I had made for it (before knowing the right spelling) ;)
I'm in the same boat, BadReplicant. Frequent listener, first time caller. I had been away from this site for a while and came back about a month ago to find out about the updated version of Rat Patrol. It's a huge improvement soundwise and has stirred up all things Clash again for me.

Mark^Bastard
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Re: Rat Patrol 2LP acetate

Post by Mark^Bastard »

For me Rat Patrol has taken the spot of my favourite Clash album, unseating Sandinista!

Sandinista was my favourite for a good 20 years so that's no mean feat!

BadReplicant
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Re: Rat Patrol 2LP acetate

Post by BadReplicant »

It’s really a vast improvement. Sandinista will always be my favorite, but this is a much more worthy and logical follow up to it, and could easily take second place for me. The through lines and evolution from one record to the next in songwriting and production are more evident and gratifying. I’m still so struck at how much more sense each track seems to make in these forms and this running order. More artful, vibrant and striking. I’d always enjoyed listening to the previous bootleg versions, but this just makes the big picture clearer than ever.

Kory
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Re: Rat Patrol 2LP acetate

Post by Kory »

BadReplicant wrote:
11 Jul 2022, 1:54pm
It’s really a vast improvement. Sandinista will always be my favorite, but this is a much more worthy and logical follow up to it, and could easily take second place for me. The through lines and evolution from one record to the next in songwriting and production are more evident and gratifying. I’m still so struck at how much more sense each track seems to make in these forms and this running order. More artful, vibrant and striking. I’d always enjoyed listening to the previous bootleg versions, but this just makes the big picture clearer than ever.
This is how I think about it too. I often wonder how the legacy of the band might be different if they had put out RP as a double set. Should I Stay and Casbah are both there in roughly the same form, so they'd still have had those singles to get big off of, but they'd now have even more experimental cred. It wasn't as important then, but it sure is now.
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danbot
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Re: Rat Patrol 2LP acetate

Post by danbot »

Kory wrote:
11 Jul 2022, 2:18pm
BadReplicant wrote:
11 Jul 2022, 1:54pm
It’s really a vast improvement. Sandinista will always be my favorite, but this is a much more worthy and logical follow up to it, and could easily take second place for me. The through lines and evolution from one record to the next in songwriting and production are more evident and gratifying. I’m still so struck at how much more sense each track seems to make in these forms and this running order. More artful, vibrant and striking. I’d always enjoyed listening to the previous bootleg versions, but this just makes the big picture clearer than ever.
This is how I think about it too. I often wonder how the legacy of the band might be different if they had put out RP as a double set. Should I Stay and Casbah are both there in roughly the same form, so they'd still have had those singles to get big off of, but they'd now have even more experimental cred. It wasn't as important then, but it sure is now.
It’s like Sandinista! in that the more I listen to it, the more I hear. The longer versions of Sean Flynn and Straight to Hell are great, especially in the context of the whole record. Starting the album with Straight to Hell works really well, too. It kind of reminds of the ‘81 shows where they start the show with Broadway. Of the tracks from the acetate, the versions of Car Jamming and Innoculated City are my favorites. What a difference. It knocks me out that The Clash went from White Riot to Rat Patrol in 5 years … with so many great stops in between. Evolution indeed.

Mark^Bastard
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Re: Rat Patrol 2LP acetate

Post by Mark^Bastard »

I prefer every one of Joe's vocal takes on Rat Patrol. I like the exhaustion of it, it makes for a much better final album.

Heston
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Re: Rat Patrol 2LP acetate

Post by Heston »

Mark^Bastard wrote:
11 Jul 2022, 10:43pm
I prefer every one of Joe's vocal takes on Rat Patrol. I like the exhaustion of it, it makes for a much better final album.
Have to disagree. His original vocal on Ghetto Defendant was one of his worst ever imo, but the retake was one of his best. Not surprised Glyn Johns asked him to redo it.
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danbot
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Re: Rat Patrol 2LP acetate

Post by danbot »

For me, RP shows the evolutionary step between Sandinista! and BAD. The editing/mixing and use of samples/sounds-effects progresses from album to album. I hear it first on the Dirty Harry mix of Mag 7 - not to mention the funkiness of that track. On RP, there's Inoculated City for sure but also the way the 'Know Your Rights' lyric is looped 3x, and some of the sound effects on Car Jamming, too. Kosmo's Travis imitation and Joe's vocals on SISOSIG fit the theme as well.

BadReplicant
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Re: Rat Patrol 2LP acetate

Post by BadReplicant »

Heston wrote:
12 Jul 2022, 10:32am
Mark^Bastard wrote:
11 Jul 2022, 10:43pm
I prefer every one of Joe's vocal takes on Rat Patrol. I like the exhaustion of it, it makes for a much better final album.
Have to disagree. His original vocal on Ghetto Defendant was one of his worst ever imo, but the retake was one of his best. Not surprised Glyn Johns asked him to redo it.
I used to prefer the CR vocal takes far and away over the RP ones, though they've grown on me a bit more having heard them more clearly in context with everything in this quality. I do think the RP vocal for Know Your Rights, while not superior, suits that particular mix more than the CR take would. I agree that the CR vocal for Ghetto Defendant is definitively better, though.

TrashCityRocker
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Re: Rat Patrol 2LP acetate

Post by TrashCityRocker »

Found today browsing on EBay. Japanese RPFFB single LP labeled “Combat Rock unreleased version”.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/234594430789?m ... media=COPY

Having trouble reading what track 6 is

matedog
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Re: Rat Patrol 2LP acetate

Post by matedog »

TrashCityRocker wrote:
01 Aug 2022, 2:39pm
Found today browsing on EBay. Japanese RPFFB single LP labeled “Combat Rock unreleased version”.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/234594430789?m ... media=COPY

Having trouble reading what track 6 is
Looks like "Unknown Titled." I think it's the same tracklist as CR, so that would just be STH.
Look, you have to establish context for these things. And I maintain that unless you appreciate the Fall of Constantinople, the Great Fire of London, and Mickey Mantle's fatalist alcoholism, live Freddy makes no sense. If you want to half-ass it, fine, go call Simon Schama to do the appendix.

TrashCityRocker
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Re: Rat Patrol 2LP acetate

Post by TrashCityRocker »

Just found another listing of this same release.
Track 6 is “unknown tittled” so it really could be anything. Seems exclusive to the Japanese market. Both sellers ship from Japan
https://www.ebay.com/itm/124926984476?m ... media=COPY

Edit: matedog beat me to it lol
No Overpowered by funk then huh?
Last edited by TrashCityRocker on 01 Aug 2022, 2:52pm, edited 2 times in total.

YoungParisians
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Re: Rat Patrol 2LP acetate

Post by YoungParisians »

"Unknown Titled" ?

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Hello? Go ahead, man. Yeah I'd just like to say, um, lets have some music now, huh? Ok, ok...thank you.

InthePouringRain
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Re: Rat Patrol 2LP acetate

Post by InthePouringRain »

Thanks to all of you, I've put together my own version of the original mix of Rat Patrol from Fort Brag. What a great record! The extended "Inoculated City" is probably the highlight of the record for me. But I'd like to point out something that no one seems to have noticed so far in the thread: some of the sides of the album are criminally short.

Side one: 20:55
Side two: 16:44
Side three: 13:17 (!!)
Side four: 15:55

Side one is the normal length of an album side in 1981/82, side two and four are pretty short but acceptable nonetheless, but side three is way too short at only thirteen minutes. That way, disc two clocks in at 29 minutes, which would be acceptable for an album in 1962 but probably not 1982 :mrgreen: especially considering they were earmarking "Overpowered by Funk" and "Long Time Jerk" for a bonus "12 single and a B-side.

Wasn't "Train in Vain" also meant for a bonus single before being added to London Calling at the eleventh hour? I'd hope they did the same thing and just thrown "Overpowered by Funk" into the end of side three in order for it to have a more respectable length. I mean, why bother with a bonus disc when there's plenty of space for the song in the record as it is?

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