[The Best Of Love Songs - Collection (25 CD).rar
Gildo Santiago
So, I was angrier than a wasp in a box about the Moby debacle with the Bioshock limited edition. One of 2K's multiple attempts yesterday to avoid the flaming pitchfork treatment from furious fans was to release the game's impressive score for free. Still not what I wanted - there's a bunch of frankly awesome, vintage 1950s songs in the game, including Beyond The Sea, Papa Loves Mambo and, uh, How much Is That Doggy In The Window. The stuff that should have been on the much-loathed soundtrack CD, in other words.
I've been trying to work out myself where in Bioshock's install directory these fine vintage ditties lurked, and how to extract the songs in question so I can listen to 'em without the distraction of screaming Splicers in the background. I'd just about given up when I read this post on the official forums. A summary of how to get the songs playing whenever you want 'em to follows after the jump.
So, extract MusicPlayerEX somewhere handy, then run MusicPlayerEX.bat. Then browse to your Bioshock install directory (most likely C:\Program Files\2K Games\Bioshock), and go to Content\Sounds_Windows. Find the file called 'streams_music_common_audio.fsb' and drag it into the main bit of MusicPlayerEX. You'll see multiple tracks listed - and you can just play them from there with a double-click if you're not bothered about getting them into another music player or onto an iPod or something. They won't have any names at this point, though.
To turn the tracks into a more everyday format like MP3, things get a bit complicated - both pratically and legally speaking, depending on which country you currently dwell in. I'm pretty sure it's fine, but to be on the safe side (and to save me finding a lawyer to check it's OK with at 1am on Sunday), I'm gonna defer entirely to the thread on the official forum for this part. So, tough titties if that thread is killed by 2K word-assassins, - I'm guessing it'll stay though, as really it's all in the name of celebrating the game. I can tell you that the method works. I can also tell you that, though others have had success, I couldn't rip directly to MP3, only to WAV, so had to manually change the tracks into an iPod-friendly format with iTunes.
If it does all work out for you, you may want to rename the tracks so you can tell what they are. Here's a mostly complete list of the gibberish filenames (ignoring the phrase 'Music License' at the start of each) and what the songs actually are.
Lamer Bigband - Beyond the Sea - Bobby Darin
Lamer - La Mer (aka Beyond The Sea Instrumental) - Django Reindhart
Papalovesmambo - Papa Loves Mambo - Perry Como
Thebesthingsinl@ - The Best Things in Life are Free - The Inkspots
Waltsoftheflower - Nutcracker - P.I Tchaikovsky
Wrapyourtrouble - Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams - Bing Crosby
Yourethetop - You're the Top - Cole Porter
20thcenturyblues - 20th Century Blues - Noel Coward
Howmuchdoggy - How Much Is That Doggie In The Window - Patti Page
Beimirbistduscho - Bei Mir Bist Du Schon - The Andrews Sisters
Brothersparedime - Brother Can You Spare A Dime - Bing Crosby
Dannyboy - Oh Danny Boy - Mario Lanza
Godblesschild - God Bless The Child - Billie Holiday
Itsbadforme - It's Bad For Me - Rosemary Clooney
Justwalkingrain - Just Walking In The Rain - Johnnie Ray
Nightday - Night and Day - Billie Holiday
Ifididntcare - If I Didn't Care - The Ink Spots
Worldweary - World Weary - Noel Coward
Thepartysover - The Party's Over - Noel Coward
Jitterbugwaltz - Jitterbug Waltz - Fats Waller
Pleasebekind - Please Be Kind - Frank Sinatra
Ithadtobeyou - It Had to Be You - (Priscilla Lane, Danny Thomas, or Dolley Wilson?)
Liza - Liza - Django Reinhardt
Riserapturerise - Rise Rapture, Rise - Ken Levine/Irrational
Phew. Of course, if all this seems too much like hard work, at least now you know what the tracks are so you can go buy 'em from iTunes or somewhere. Me, I'm gonna flow 'em into the officially-released orchestral score to make a custom Bioshock soundtrack to listen to whenever I suffer Rapture withdrawal. I'm a geek like that.
There's no need for backstory or explanation about this seminal Krautrock crew in these quarters, I expect. This four disc boot is a variable compendium of the incandescent and the not-ready-for-primetime (but then you'd expect that from rehearsal and soundcheck audio, no?). Anyone who's ever wondered what that post-Damo one-off trial run with Tim Hardin as vocalist sounded like need speculate no further (he appears on the track "Rehearsal"), though the results are as stillborn as you might expect and a low point of the set. 25 minutes of 1968 recordings set the stage here, with "Upduff's Birth" offering a fascinating window into the development of the musical portion of "Mother Upduff". With a group of magi as lofty as Can, even impromptu extemporizations have a real inherent fascination and those into the myth will find much to savor here. Disc two's 70+ minutes of Damo-era jams are a highlight of the set and lovely things to behold; especially the latter, a deadly 36 minute version of a two minute throwaway cut from "Unlimited Edition". Disc three is an equal eye opener: 59 minutes of otherwise unobtainable collaborations with Japanese avant chanteuse Phew; her wild, whacked and often Damo-like exhortations being overdubbed onto pre-existing recordings, if I'm interpreting the scant liner notes correctly. Whatever the case, this is a real gift for those who can't get enough of Phew's amazing collaborations with Can members over the years; the disc capping with an album length slab of desolate abstact weirdity, it's freaked out and frostbitten tone lending it a sound like some lost Vanity Records release from the early 80's. For 1975, it's intensely startling work. The 1975-77 period covered by disc 4 (in some ways, my favorite era, but then I'm the sort of loony that maintains that they peaked with "Out Of Reach", so what the hell do I know?) is unfortunately frequently pretty ropey sound quality wise, though the audio quality improves significantly for the latter half of the disc; the liquidy sizzle that's so much a part of why this era of Can is unimpeachable for moi coming across with ferocious vividness on the tracks, "Spree" and "Chairside Thumper".
Get disc 1 pt. 1 Here
Get disc 1 pt. 2 Here
Get disc 2 pt. 1 Here
Get disc 2 pt. 2 Here
Get disc 3 pt. 1 Here
Get disc 3 pt. 2 Here
Get disc 4 pt. 1 Here
Get disc 4 pt. 2 Here
I like Out of Reach, too. I pulled out the CD version I have of it and just realized (!) it has pops and appears to be a rip from vinyl. The label is Thunderbolt Records/Magnum Music Group from the UK, no date, but I prob'ly bought it around '90. Am I correct that Can has repudiated this album and does that make mine some kind of pirate CD?
Keep up the good work!
--tom moody
Tom,
They've repeatedly repudiated this album. There was however (I believe) a legit issue of this on CD before the official repudiation edict/historical re-write through omission came about. I've never understood their disavowal of it or the overall bad rep Out Of Reach has gotten. They've maintained the stance that the "real" Can music is all about things being pared back to the essentials and that they got too good at playing their instruments, to the detriment of Can's music. Buncha absolute nonsense, if you ask me. I love virtually all their stuff, but the way Irmin's technicolor oil slick of effected synths slather all that "wrong overplaying" is an act of unholy brilliance from my vantage point and the best fusion of the world's of acid rock/prog and disco this side of Massiera. "Seven Days Awake" may be one of the most potently psychotropic things I've ever heard. It's been reserved for the peak of many a trip...
Somehow this comment from yesterday got lost (or is still awaiting moderation?)
>>Yes, it struck me when I heard it today (after a long hiatus) how close it is to the Byrne/Eno Bush of Ghosts sound--the heavy funk grooves with ethereal electronics and atmospherics hovering over and around.
They are dopes to repudiate it. In retrospect it was clear that they were paving the ground for the "'80s sound"--whereas the early ones that all the purists love hark back to the '60s and "roots jams."
My personal favorite is Landed, which straddles the earlier and later periods and is unique in some ways. It has excellent lyrics (Half Past One, Red Hot Indians), some of their best musique concrete-y stuff (Unfinished) and I love the heavily filtering on many of the songs. (I also like Karoli's vocals, it's how you know this is a German band and not just more eccentric Pink Floyd or Grateful Dead.)
But the later work needs its cult and I'm happy to join you in singling out Out of Reach as a candidate for major reinterpretation. Irmin, Hildegard, are you listening? (I also like Rosko Gee's singing and think the Pauper's Daughter is a great song.)
--tom moody
Yes, Rosko was/is a great singer with a thoroughly sweet voice, great bass tone & player too...but who will speak up for the final eponymous LP inc the classic 'All Gates Open', wonderful blue-skied wide-open West-Coast-of-West-Deutschland optimism?
thanks for the Can goodies. Anyone abkle to point to any classic Rosko dates?
what i recall about Out Of Reach is that the band's general dislike of the lp was caused by the notion that they (reportedly) did not function as a whole at the time - there were some individually penned songs on the album rather than "pentangular" action. i also like that lp and i agree that the "Can" album is great. anybody likes Rite Time? i love it.
many, many thanks for sharing this collection, i'm beginning downloading it - Darek/Poland
Thanks for this great compilation, and thanks to Stu for the invaluable info he provided...
Like some of you guys mentioned above, I do like Out of Reach (except for some relatively boring parts) and "Can" albums, actually whatever these guys did back in the '70's (and most of the '80s, as much as I heard, in their solo stuff...) I myself am not very keen on Rite Time, mostly because of its digital and somewhat cheesy sound... Yet, there's almost not one thing I don't like from their '70's albums and bootlegs (thanks for them, too!) These guys really had the magic back then. It's really hard to understand why some Can fans dismiss the aforementioned albums.