Barbara Manning - Super Scissors (3-disc set)

As longtime readers of this blog can readily attest by way of my many posts over the years, I'm a huge Barbara Manning fan.  As such, I've been meaning to post her magnum opus, the three-disc Super Scissors comp, for forever... but I could never come up with the words to properly introduce this music here.

Fortunately, someone already did so - the paragraphs below are taken from the liner notes to this set, written by the lead compiler:

I can still recall, quite clearly, falling in love with these Scissors recordings during the first week of November 1987. I'd just moved to San Francisco days before and I'd made it my mission to track down Barbara Manning - whose songs and voice had captivated me on the album she'd recorded previously, 28th Day.

Barbara and I had a couple of mutual friends and one of them gave me her number. I called, and was invited over to hear some "demos". Already being a fan, as well as a taping fanatic, I showed up with my own "dubbing deck" and proceeded to copy about two-thirds of what later became the Lately I Keep Scissors album. During the course of the evening, Barbara got me very stoned and a little bit drunk. I eventually stumbled home with my gear, and woke up the next morning already under the spell of these recordings. I immediately plugged in my headphones and began playing these songs over and over.

It didn't take me long to feel that these songs and the performances - the plaintive vocals, the haunting feel of the music - were on the level of my heroes Sandy Denny and Nick Drake. Initially, Barbara hated me comparing her to these "folkies". She saw herself much more on the indie-rock side of the fence and after she turned me onto some Flying Nun recordings, I could certainly hear the influence of The Chills, The Verlaines, etc. on her work. However, I felt vindicated about a year later when Martin Phillips of The Chills did an interview upon which he spelled out his love for a lot of the folk music that I'd been trying to turn Barbara onto. That said, she was into Krautrock long before I even knew the meaning of the word.

After a bit of arm-twisting, I convinced Barbara to let me release these recordings on my new Heyday Records label. She said, "okay,", as long as she could record a new song called "Never Park." Since most of the recording for the album had already been done, we went into Greg Freeman's studio just a few times for a couple of overdubs and mixing sessions. Greg always treated vocals like an instrument, meaning he kept them buried among the other instruments, and Barbara was self-conscious about her voice (wanting it lower). So, if I contributed anything to the production of Scissors, you can credit me with making sure that her vocals stayed up in the mix.

It's important to remember that Scissors was originally

recorded without any plans for release - it was really just a case of Barbara having some cheap studio time and a handful of friends willing to help out with a batch of songs that she'd stockpiled. In my mind, Lately I Keep Scissors is one of those great debut solo albums of an artist stepping out on their own, away from their previous band, like Van's Astral Weeks, Lennon's Plastic Ono Band, et al. It also shares an edgy dose of reality with those albums; Barbara makes personal statements about her life, its ups and downs, all captured on tape for the rest of us to mull over, be moved by and enjoy. Like many of my favorite albums, it's an uncomfortable but elating listening experience that leaves me numb, no matter how many times I hear it.

Of course, Barbara's earlier band, 28th Day, was not anywhere close to groups like Them or The Beatles in fame, but you get my point. What really blew me away when I first heard these recordings, was that Barbara didn't realize how good they were - nor did the general public have any idea what would eventually be unleashed on them - that cassette tape that I had dubbed felt like a million in prizes. The fact that she wasn't famous didn't make the recordings any less important in my obsessive mind. After Scissors was released, artists such as Robyn Hitchcock, Sonic Youth and Yo La Tengo acknowledged it. Soon, Barbara's moody songs and ethereal voice began weaving their own special path that would lead to recordings for bigger and hipper labels: Forced Exposure, Sub Pop, and Matador - as well as high profile gigs and international tours.

By the time of One

Perfect Green Blanket, I was being told to keep away from the studio and keep my mouth shut, although I was still allowed to hear demos as they were happening. I suggested that both the home demo of "Sympathy Wreath" and the studio recording be used for the final album. Barbara got a 4-Track machine after Scissors was released, and several demos (and songs recorded just for fun) that she taped at her San Francisco apartment on Lyon Street during this time are included as bonus tracks on the One Perfect Green Blanket CD. One of the highlights for me is hearing her sing "Cheap Holiday Song" by the obscure but legendary San Francisco band X-Tal.

The Barbara Manning that created the music on these CDs was a beautiful young tigress - the energy and magic she evoked on stage was incredible and for several years I never missed a gig and recorded many of them. Barbara in general is not a fan of her own live recordings, and the handful of live material included here reveal some of the songs that she was playing during the time of One Perfect Green Blanket (occasionally during tours with her sister Terri) that were never recorded in the studio. There are also a couple of "Flying Nun" cover versions represented here, and Barbara makes these songs her own.

For the audiophiles out there, you'll be pleased to know that all songs from Lately I Keep Scissors and One Perfect Green Blanket have been remastered from the original reel to real master tapes and transferred carefully to digital format. Frankly, these recordings have never sounded as good as they do now - as we used the best of both analog and digital technology. Scissors sounds better than ever before, while I hear a slight muddiness on One Perfect Green Blanket.

For the hardcore Manning fans (which you must be or you wouldn't have bought this box set) is Disc Three - filled

with previously unreleased songs and recordings from the Scissors sessions. To be honest, I dragged my heels a few times since first announcing this project, but the advantage of having taken so much time is that we kept finding more tapes. When Barbara showed up one day with a previously unknown reel-to-reel tape of Scissors outtakes, I thought I'd pass out from excitement. Until then, I'd been working from cassettes made after each recording session. After a lot of listening, the songs that made the final grade were either ones that didn't get included on Scissors the first time around or were radically different than the released version.

Just shy of two decades since first hearing these Scissors songs, my love affair with Barbara's music continues - ad she's still making records that will spellbind and entrance you. Actually, now that I think about it - Barbara's career (and life) has lasted longer that the icons that I first compared her with.

Barbara gave me free reign as I worked on this collection - so if there's anything you don't like about it, please send the complaints to me. And if there's anything that blows you away, all the acclaim belongs to her. It's her art, her music, her voice, the magic is all hers - she's got everything she needs, she's an artist, she don't look back - she can take the darkness from the night time and paint the daytime black.

Pat Thomas *
Oakland, CA
May 2006

Here's the lineup and track selection for each disc:

Disc 1 - Lately I Keep Scissors:

1. Scissors
2. Breathe Lies
3. Somewhere Soon
4. Talk All Night
5. Make It Go Away
6. Never Park
7. Every Pretty Girl
8. Mark E. Smith & Brix
9. Something You've Got (Isn't Good)
10. Prophecy Written

Disc 2 - One Perfect Green Blanket (with previously unreleased bonus tracks):

1. Straw Man
2. Smoking Her Wings
3. Don't Rewind
4. Sympathy Wreath
5. Green
6. Lock Your Room (Uptight)
7. Someone Wants You Dead
8. Sympathy Wreath (Demise) Or ODE2WOP
9. Walking After Midnight
10. Green Home (Demo Version)
11. I Wish I Could Tour
12. Cheap Holiday Song
13. Lock Your Room (Uptight) (Home Demo Version)
14. For Pity's Sake (Live)
15. On on and One (Live)
16. Winter Song (Live)
17. Optimism Is It's Own Reward (Radio Session)

Disc 3 - Previously Unreleased Outtakes & Demos:

1. Scissors (Acoustic)
2. Make It Go Away
3. Every Pretty Girl
4. Mark E. Smith & Brix (Alternate Version)
5. Something You've Got Isn't Good (Acoustic)
6. Prophecy Written (Electric Version)
7. Wires Cages Fences and Gates (Without Drums)
8. My Name Is Not
9. Song for Trish
10. Someone Wants You Dead (Acoustic)
11. Make It Go Away (Alternate Version)
12. Wires Cages Fences and Gates (With Drums)
13. On on and One (Home Demo)
14. Reverse Disguise (Home Demo)
15. Scissors (I've Been Working on the Railroad) (Home Demo)

So here, for your listening pleasure, is the legendary and hard-to-find Super Scissors set, featuring some of the early work of Bay Area indie icon Barbara Manning.  I've been enjoying this set for years, and I think the entire comp is a winner! Have a listen, enjoy, and as always, let me know what you think.

Please use the email link below to contact me, and I will reply with the download link(s) ASAP:

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* - Interestingly, and if I'm not mistaken, this is the same 'Pat Thomas' who currently serves as Kendra Smith's manager, and who wrote the David Roback tribute in Variety last month that I referenced in the previous posting...