The other Quo side of the 80s

Status Quo gave up their identity as a guitar-driven hard rock band for a very insipid keyboard-led 80s sound. That's what a lot of fans are saying, and even the band seem to have taken up this narrative. Rick Parfitt said there was no weight to what the band was doing, Francis Rossi dissected "Ain't Complaining" in his autobiography. If you only listen to the LPs, you might agree with this viewpoint. But if you listen to a song like "Lean Machine", you'll quickly realize that this is not the full picture.

What is this? Okay, the intro has some unfortunate synth sounds, but right from the get-go you are attacked by guitars. There's Rick's gritty voice and even a harmonica solo by Andy Bown! And what was the fate of this totally satisfying rocker in the best Quo tradition? It was a non-album b-side! That's right! And only if you got the 12" or CD single of "Ain't Complaining", you had a chance to hear this song.

It's by no means an exception. Virtually all the single b-sides that the "new" line-up released in the wake of "In the Army Now" are really good and often better than several album tracks. Four of them ("Don't Give It Up", "Late Last Night", "Long Legged Girls" and "Halloween") were simply taken from Rick's never released 1985 solo album "Recorded Delivery", on which Parfitt had collaborated with future Quo rhythm section John "Rhino" Edwards and Jeff Rich for the first time. Though it's worth noting that "Late Last Night" had been demoed with Quo in the late 70s (alongside "Keep Me Guessing", "Invitation" and "One by One") and "Halloween" might've ended up on "Ain't Complaining".

The other tracks are pure Quo though. It might've been an incentive to get fans to buy the singles too, but for anyone who didn't, the 80s really were a hard time being a Quo fan. When you listen to "Lonely", "Keep Me Guessing", "Lean Machine", "The Reason for Goodbye" or "Rotten to the Bone", you have to wonder why such Quo-typical tracks were deemed not good enough for the albums. I suppose there was a lot of commercial thinking involved – a lot of "suits" telling Eric Clapton his album wasn't commercial enough, telling Quo "Burning Bridges" was not a good song (until the same guy raved about it, when he heard it being performed live) and that they had to record "I Know You're Leaving" because, I don't know, "In the Army Now" was a Dutch ballad and you could repeat that success if you just got the same ingredients?

Even the songs that are more in line with Quo's then-current output are often at least as good as the average album track. Take "Heartburn" – what an amazing song! Yes, it's totally 80s, but it succeeds in setting a dark and exciting atmosphere. The melodic "That's Alright" was a song that had already been released by Rossi/Frost on the b-side of their second and last 12" single. It should've been an album track on "Flying Debris" - but the album wasn't even released. Quo's re-recording was the b-side of the "Ain't Complaining" single. It should've been an album track on "Ain't Complaining" – but dropped from the tracklisting, even though an early demo version of the album still included it. Originally, the album shouldn't even have been called "Ain't Complaining", but "The Fighter". (More on that later.)

All of these songs have thankfully found a place on the 2006 remasters (most of them) and the more recent deluxe editions (all of them). There IS also a collection of b-sides from 1995 called "The Other Side of Status Quo", and it looks to be a rather good collection, but not without some issues: Two songs are simply album tracks that were used as single b-sides, two others are edits/remixes of LP tracks, and some great tracks such as the aforementioned "Lean Machine" or "The Reason for Goodbye" are missing, not to mention all four non-album tracks from the "Rock 'Til You Drop" era ("Dead in the Water", "Mysteries from the Ball", "Better Times", "Heavy Daze") – which is especially a shame because there had been no space for them on the 2006 remaster. Also, "The Fighter" wouldn't be included anyway since it wasn't even released at all in 1988. But it's a beautiful song and was subsequently re-recorded by Francis Rossi for his first solo album. Quo's rendition saw the light of day on the 2001 box set "Rockers Rollin'", was then included on the 2006 remaster and on the 2018 deluxe edition of "Ain't Complaining", which adds two work-in-progress mixes of the same song that have never been released before.

As mentioned above, there is a bootleg containing a demo version of the whole "Ain't Complaining" album from when it was still called "The Fighter". This was considered for the deluxe edition, but eventually dropped because of space issues. Although there would've been enough space for the few tracks that are markedly different from the LP counterparts, but oh well…

Anyway, this is the running order of the demo. It's interesting to see just how different the listing was – you can program yourself a playlist or burn a CD with the finished versions:

1. Another Shipwreck
2. Don't Mind If I Do

3. The Reason For Goodbye

4. One for the Money

5. Ain't Complaining (with drum intro)
6. Cream of the Crop

7. Everytime I Think of You

8. The Greatest Fighter

9. Magic (unproduced vocals)

10. The Loving Game
11. That's Alright
12. Lean Machine

Andy Bown's "Another Shipwreck" might just be my favourite song on the album, so opening with it doesn't seem like a bad idea. Curiously enough, both "Bridges" songs are missing, but so is the insipid "I Know You're Leaving", as well as the other big ballad "Who Gets the Love". If I had to choose the best songs from the sessions to make my own personalized "Ain't Complaining", I'd have included "Burning Bridges" but not "Cross That Bridge", and "Who Gets the Love", but not "I Know You're Leaving" (one ballad is really enough, and Pip's song is easily the better one). But I'd have dropped "One for the Money" and "Everytime I Think of You", both of which seem to have been considered important columns of the LP. I suppose one reason why "One for the Money" was always there is because it's one of the few Rick vocals on here; after singing five tracks from the "Army" sessions, that was quite a lack of Rick (and with "Lean Machine" dropped, there were only two Parfitt vocals left on the LP). Still, I don't think it's a particularly good song, and certainly doesn't sound like Quo!

All things considered, if you want to be complete, I think there's no way around the deluxe editions. "In the Army Now" has one non-album song that wasn't even on the 2006 remaster, "Rock 'n' Roll Floorboards", which should've been the b-side to the cancelled "Naughty Girl" single, as well as four otherwise hard-to-get remixes. "Ain't Complaining" adds four extended remixes, again pretty rare. "Perfect Remedy" has a Parfitt/Williams track that hasn't officially been released until now. "Rock 'Til You Drop" for the first time includes the non-album b-sides (the 2006 remaster had no space for bonus tracks), and "Thirsty Work" now has all seven b-sides (the 2006 remaster only had five) and four alternate mixes/versions. More on all this next time…