I have several songs where I think they could have done better on the album version.
This includes a lot of Mink Car:
- Bangs - Snapping Turtles had the more John-y lyrics in my opinion.
- Man, It’s So Loud in Here - The first demo just had more soul, in my opinion. I get they were going for Pet Shop Boys pastiche/parody, but I really liked the general 80s vibes of the original demo.
- My Man - There’s a demo that has some better compositional choices in my opinion.
- Another First Kiss - I prefer the one from Severe Tire Damage by leaps and bounds.
Another addition is I like the Severe Tire Damage version of They Got Lost more than the Long Tall Weekend version.
I’ve never listened to a live version of Istanbul, and I am now questioning my life choices.
After hearing it some many times and it being the song most associate with the band, I’d always skipped over it. I always felt it just needed a smidge more compositional complexity, and the live versions deliver it.
I think because it is such a simple song that they’ve played so much, they can easily play around with it. They usually have Dan Miller play a semi-improvised acoustic guitar intro (Miller Time), and they add an extended outro.