Why is Underdogs not on the SATT reissue?

[River Boy]

Originally Posted by PaulTMA

Luckily no one mentioned Heaven 17 during the making of JPFL, then.

Not sure what you mean. Marlon JD? Or surely not the whole album?

[PaulTMA]

Originally Posted by River Boy

Not sure what you mean. Marlon JD? Or surely not the whole album?

Peeled Apples' chorus and verse of Heaven 17's Temptation. Thought it was commonly recognised to be a very close call so didn't feel the need to specify...

[Dancing Kirby]

If they still sold millions, I doubt there’d be a song they weren’t sued for. Bruce Springsteen would have a case against International Blue, Boney M for Distant Colours.

It’s no coincidence that Tolerate was the last time someone went after them.

A benefit of not being able to sell enough to oust The Greatest Showman is that they can carry on plagiarising to their heart’s content.

Anyway, the reason for Underdogs being removed is embarrassment. Whether it’s embarrassment over the cheap copy and paste editing or Nicky’s lyrics, it’s difficult to tell, but combine the two together and even Happyfeet knows the score a decade later.

The real mystery will always be how Jim agreed to sing it in the first place. Although in his defence he obviously couldn’t bring himself to sing the chorus twice...

[jl45]

Boney M for Distant Colours.

You know Rivers of Babylon was a cover, they didnt write it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NcbyzqILd8

Why is Underdogs not on the SATT reissue?

I asked both Nicky and Sean, neither of them replied to me. They also ignored my questions about the singer on the last time i saw paris and the current location of Jenny Saville's Strategy.

[junkymotown]

I really never got the dislike for Underdogs... listened to it again today, and it's a great tune! True, "The Edit" is there... but it doesn't ruin the song for me. I dunno, it's a fun couple of minutes... nothing more, nothing less

[Porco]

I always mostly liked Underdogs, just not the bad edit (or the sweary outro tbh). I think removing the song entirely was an over-reaction personally, a fixed version of the track would have been preferable to me.

That said, I do think Welcome to the Dead Zone is a great track and worthy of being on the album.

[Jimi A]

I got the feeling they were just generally embarressed by the song for being misjudged, with the line 'people like you need to fuck, need to fuck people like me' and 'This one's for the freaks' was maybe a bit too derogatory to the fans and didn't really reflect how they felt about themselves.

[Porco]

Originally Posted by Jimi A

I got the feeling they were just generally embarressed by the song for being misjudged, with the line 'people like you need to fuck, need to fuck people like me' and 'This one's for the freaks' was maybe a bit too derogatory to the fans and didn't really reflect how they felt about themselves.

I never saw the 'freaks' bit as derogatory at all. I think to do so you have to completely ignore the context of the rest of the lyrics, which makes it very very clear they are using the phrase empathetically (e.g. people who are called 'freaks' by others), if not actually sympathetically (including themselves).

The 'people like you...' lines I don't like cos I think it's just a bit clunky, a bit too much. I'm not opposed to swearing in songs where it works, but I don't think it really did there, IMHO.

[PaulTMA]

They should have replaced it with a cover of Morrissey's 'Papa Jack'.

[Jimi A]

Originally Posted by Porco

I never saw the 'freaks' bit as derogatory at all. I think to do so you have to completely ignore the context of the rest of the lyrics, which makes it very very clear they are using the phrase empathetically (e.g. people who are called 'freaks' by others), if not actually sympathetically (including themselves).

The 'people like you...' lines I don't like cos I think it's just a bit clunky, a bit too much. I'm not opposed to swearing in songs where it works, but I don't think it really did there, IMHO.

I personally don't find it insulting either. I think that they were taking their ques from My Chemical Romance's Black Parade (which Nicky often spoke about positively in interviews at the time) and were trying to write something that was similarly unifying between band and fans. But in subsequent interviews, he seemed to imply it was a bit wide of the mark.

Plus, it was pro-tooled to death and ended up having clunky stop/starts on an album that was largely quite flowing and organic.

Personally, I would have kept the 10th year edition the same as the original. Kept it the same, 'warts and all'. But, lets see if we're having the same debate after the boxed set is released in another 9 years time.