Status Quo: Thirsty Work deluxe edition

"Thirsty Work - The Re-Filled Edition"

This is how I christened the deluxe edition. Alas, it turned out that the glass is maybe not half empty, but only half full. Let me explain.

When I threw together lots of ideas for how the later Status Quo albums could be reissued, I firmly had the 2-CD template in mind. For a start, the deluxe digipacks only have space for two discs. "Never Too Late" was an exception, but still. "Ain't Complaining" (which accommodated the third disc by having it shoved into a pocket of the cardboard) was not possible without including 3 CDs, since the b-sides and 12" mixes took up almost an entire disc, and it seemed a given to include the live gig from the BBC too. Encouraged by this, I supplied the powers that be with a 3 CD tracklisting for "Rock 'Til You Drop", and two alternative versions of "Perfect Remedy" – one 2 CDs, one 3 CDs – the latter was OK'd, with some changes. (The digipacks also are laid out accordingly, like "Never Too Late" was.) I really should've done the same for "Thirsty Work" but I was possibly afraid that there might not be interest in 3 CDs covering that album. With hindsight, a stupid idea, but I thought it'd be best to just cover live versions of the new songs and be done with that.

I was also blissfully unaware of the fact that the whole Royal Albert Hall concert existed in professional sound quality. This would've also smoothed over the fact that live versions of "One Man Band" and "Rock 'Til You Drop" are now sadly missing from the "Rock 'Til You Drop" deluxe edition, as I explained in my previous post, as those songs were still in the set in 1994. Including it in full would've led to some problems though: Quo only played "Restless" from the new album at that point - "Going Nowhere", "Soft in the Head", "Rude Awakening Time" and "Queenie" all slipped into the set some months later. So how could you cover those songs AND include the full Albert Hall gig? The only possible solution would've been adding yet another CD (unlikely) or shoving some bonus tracks onto disc 1 (which might've worked out, but so far the deluxe editions have avoided this – I even had to point out that disc 1 of "Rock 'Til You Drop" should reproduce the CD, not the LP...).

That's not to say that there wouldn't have been better options. Sadly, I figured it out way too late, when my drafts were already OK'd. It would've been good to include the full Stockholm broadcast (60 minutes) on a third CD, then add a couple of rarely played live songs in various versions ("What You're Proposing", "One Man Band", "Queenie", "Rock 'Til You Drop", "Restless") to disc 2 and 3. Now that would've been an all-around interesting set, even for people who aren't so hot about "Thirsty Work".

What was also dropped (and accounts for the free space left) is the four songs with Manchester United. Those weren't necessary, but I thought they would be an interesting addition. Apart from the original singles, these tracks have only been released on the 4-CD edition of "Pictures - 40 Years of Hits", and that only included the two a-sides, not the respective b-sides. It's worth pointing out that "Come On You Reds" actually gave Quo their second (and last) UK #1 hit, twenty years after "Down Down"… despite there being a lot of football fans in England that support other teams! Of course, both "Come On You Reds" and "We're Gonna Do It Again" are re-workings of existing Quo hits ("Burning Bridges" and "Again and Again"), which helped their success.

All is not lost though, we're still missing a reissue of "Live Alive Quo" and I've long suggested reissuing it in a similar box set style as the box set version of the 1976 Live! album. This could contain the full 1994 gig (across two discs) and/or Knebworth 1990.

I also realized that while I'm relatively (relatively!) good at thinking like a fan, I was certainly not approaching things from a marketing perspective. Although it might be annoying for devoted fans, the sad fact is that a casual buyer is much more likely to pick up a CD if it contains a couple of the "greatest hits", i.e. "Rockin' All Over the World", "Caroline", "Whatever You Want" or "In the Army Now". Of course, the deluxe editions of "Ain't Complaining" (four versions of RAOTW!), "Perfect Remedy" and "Rock 'Til You Drop" tick those boxes, even if almost by accident. (I'm also not sure how many of these deluxe editions actually make it into stores. I've not seen many of them – in fact, I had to order virtually all of these online.) But as I said before, it's a Catch-22 – or to be more bluntly, like doing a puzzle… knowing fully well that a) you have too many pieces and b) some of the pieces might simply turn to dust after you've already completed the puzzle!!

Of course, it doesn't help when you rely on dodgy sources. In this case I'm unfortunately partially responsible for two typos on the outer package, which embarrasses me a lot. If you find them, you get the chance to win an imaginary bottle of whatever that is on the cover…! It's also something I've been thinking about a lot recently. Maybe I should have never gotten involved at all? Undoubtedly, there are other Quo fans who could've done a better job. It does make me feel like I'm out of my depth. On the other hand I'm glad that some things have come out pretty well (the Ain't Complaining deluxe edition is perhaps the best example) and that I could also push some projects that are rather dear to Quo fans (including one that might come out later this year, if all works well).

So, the deluxe edition of "Thirsty Work" still has advantages over the 2006 remaster. Two non-album b-sides (one being a Leonard Cohen cover!) that didn't fit on the 2006 reissue, four alternate versions/mixes of album tracks, and four live recordings of "Thirsty Work" songs (alas, "Queenie" couldn't be salvaged). That's ten new bonus tracks, and if you only have the original album, you can add the five bonus tracks that already appeared on the 2006 remaster. Just as with "Rock 'Til You Drop", Status Quo actually recorded enough music for a double LP (84 minutes!), but curiously elected to cram almost an hour of songs onto one vinyl 12", in the exact same order as the CD, and use the rest as b-sides.

Needless to say, if you don't like the album… this isn't for you. But although it's definitely not without weak spots, I think "Thirsty Work" might actually be underrated. It shows the band trying out some new ideas, some successful, some others not so much. (Andy Bown's synth sounds are sometimes really not so beneficial to the overall experience.) The album was extremely long for a vinyl LP (almost an hour!) and it would've been good to throw off some of the inferior tracks. Alas, given that "Sherri Don't Fail Me Now" and "Restless" were released as singles (both poor choices IMO, and not representative of the album as a whole) I think it would've once again led to the better cuts dropping off as b-sides.

An interesting tidbit: The so-called acoustic mix of "I Didn't Mean It" (which still contains a lot of electric guitars), alongside the earlier Steve Wright radio session (once earmarked for the deluxe edition of "Perfect Remedy"), had been Quo's only concession to the MTV Unplugged craze of the 90s. Quo unplugged? No way! Unthinkable! Well, it just took until 2014, and then all things went "Aquostic", so much that the band even claimed to stop working as an electric band and to continue only acoustically. Even then, I thought that was a load of bollocks, and it turns out I was right…

(I actually wanted to link the version from Aquostic II but couldn't find it on YouTube!)

On a sad note, Bernard "Bernie" Frost, Francis' main songwriting partner during this period (actually from 1978 'til 1999), died on August 4, 2019. He co-wrote a lot of songs across these three albums – if I'm not mistaken, it's a whopping 22 tracks! This set of deluxe editions is dedicated to him. It's especially poignant because "Sorry", the last track on "Thirsty Work" and recorded by Demis Roussos (backed by Rossi/Frost) many years earlier, was written for Bernie's wife Sylvia, whose grief over Bernard's demise is shared by Quo fans all over the world. So long, Bernard…