Metamatic Forums John Foxx John Foxx The Golden Section 2008 re-master

Forgive me if I'm confused.
We haven't got a thread yet to discuss this album specifically?

It's going to be an interesting one for me as this is the album that I play least among John's work.

Wings And A Wind I've always particularly struggled with. This new edition is going to include the extended version from the 12" single?
Which makes the 'shorter' version a rarity then, still only available on the original 7" vinyl? Probably for the best...

It will be especially good to hear what A Long Time might have gone on to sound like.

There's clearly an enormous amount of thought gone into these track listings. Thanks guys - super stuff.

You'll find Rob's response here :

http://www.ultravox.org.uk/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=2;t=000560

It is the 12" version on the reissue.

Chris

Is it a different version from those on Metamatic 1993 and The Garden 2001? There's no mention of it being any different in Rob's tracklist thread.

Yes, it's a completely different recording of A Long Time. It's set to be the third track on the second disc of the forthcoming edition of The Golden Section - see below...

John Foxx : The Golden Section : Disc One
01. My Wild Love
02. Someone
03. Your Dress
04. Running Across Thin Ice With Tigers
05. Sitting at the Edge of the World
06. Endlessly
07. Ghosts on Water
08. Like a Miracle
09. The Hidden Man
10. Twilight's Last Gleaming

John Foxx : The Golden Section : Disc Two
01. Endlessly (single version)
02. My Wild Love (early version) previously unreleased
03. A Long Time (alternative version) previously unreleased
04. Annexe
05. Sitting at the Edge of the World (alternative version) previously unreleased
06. A Kind of Wave
07. Twilight's Last Gleaming (early version) previously unreleased
08. Running Across Thin Ice With Tigers (extended mix) previously unreleased
09. A Woman on a Stairway
10. The Lifting Sky
11. Shine On Me previously unreleased
12. Young Man
13. Wings and a Wind
14. The Hidden Man (alternative version) previously unreleased
15. Dance With Me
16. Endlessly (extended mix) previously unreleased

Rob

Ah! Sorry... I was looking at the listing for The Garden. :rolleyes: Silly me.

...in which case, I'll also be very interested to hear it.

Out of John's four albums from 80 to 85, this sadly is one of two that I'm unlikely to want to play through, in fact I've not heard The Golden Section since 85, I don't even own it on the previous CD release, and never felt any inclination to do so.


That said though, I did see John on tour with it at the time, and it has some tracks on it that I love as much as anything else I've loved in John's eclectic output, but it was definitely the first of Johns solo albums that I found myself not liking every single track on, some I warmed to, but others just never felt quite right for me.


My number one favourite track off this album is 'Ghosts On Water'. Other tracks I would want to hear again include: 'Someone', 'Sitting At The Edge Of The World', And 'Twilights Last Gleaming', and I actually preferred the original version of Endlessly and was hoping the whole album would continue in a more psychedelic vein.


Let-downs for me start right at the opening with 'My Wild Love', and then 'The Hidden Man', both are too Rock and Roll for me! and 'Running Across Thin Ice With Tigers', it just annoys me!


Having now heard the original version of 'Like A Miracle' on the Metamatic 07 CD2, much as I enjoyed the album version I actually kinda prefer that earlier one now, with maybe the exception of the Yazoo quality to it, (I’m probably now searching in my mind for a composition lying somewhere between the two versions)


Despite the golden face of John on the cover (never liked this cover from that period), I always think of The Golden Section as a winter album, as I recall listening to ‘Like A Miracle’ 12inch in the dark 4.30pm afternoons of October/November.


With the exception of a few tracks, I’m very much looking forward to CD2 with the alternate and unreleased material.
‘The Lifting Sky’ is a great track, really should have been on the album.

I felt the same. I was 100% behind his solo career (except perhaps for "Pater Noster," which I thought was silly self-entertainment) up to this LP. I hadn't minded the touches of Beatles-y psychedelia before, but with "TGS" they started to overwhelm everything else, and the lyrics started to turn into schoolboy exercise-book scribbles. It seemed like he had a lot of ideas that weren't coming to fruition, and I didn't like the direction he was headed. (My fears were confirmed with "In Mysterious Ways," after which I gave up on him altogether for about 20 years!)

Yep! I recall wondering at the time if someone had drunkenly issued him a challenge along the lines of, "Hey, try writing a song with this title, I dare ya!" And, erm, maybe he was drunk when he took up the challenge, too.

I was a bit embarrassed to have my college friends see the LP in my collection -- what with John Foxx looking all pin-up pretty-boy glamorous on the cover it was difficult to convince people to take him seriously. Of course, the contents of the record didn't help matters all that much, either.

Unlike "IMW" I suspect I might be more forgiving of "TGS" upon rehearing and reassessing it, so I am definitely looking forward to purchasing the remaster and to checking out the CD2 material.

Totally agree with you there. I always felt this album had that 'autumnal-wintery' feel about it. Here come the dark afternoons just around the corner ....

Must admit core memory, I find it difficult anyone could feel let-down by 'The Hidden Man'! It's 'classic' Foxx for me! But hey! Swings and roundabouts ....

Always loved the production of this album though.

...ha, it really embarrassed me too! I kept it at the back of my Foxx collection

have to admit that 'The Hidden Man' has some merits for me, no, I'm not back-tracking honest its just the production of it here, it could have been a really great song on The Garden if done in a similar style