Jack O'Hagan and William Laird - Our Grand Game: Australia's National Football Song

 

This is a song called Our National Game written Jack O'Hagan of Along The Road To Gundagai fame and sung by William Laird who I couldn't find any info on.

Now not much is know about this old timey tune except that it was written and recorded in 1949 under commition by the Australian National Football council. The name of the song is also up to debate as I've seen it be called Our National Game, The National Football Song, Australia's Own Football Song, Our Grand Game (all infro from 3 1949 newspaper articles I found on Trove).

Now a complete version of this song doesn't exist online anywhere (trust me I've looked) so what I've done is combine the start of the tune from the 100 Years of Australian Football VHS by the AFL that I had at home and the rest of the song is from the VFL on Flim part 1 DVD by the NFSA that I borrowed from my university's library.

So for the first time here is the song complete (although it sounds like the song fades out early, so maybe there is more. So unless someone has the song on a 78" or something we will probably never know), enjoy.

Listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6z0ZadsxDE8

Download: https://mega.nz/file/uQEyRTAY#EfbocSCiMH_ssO98hRhQlUzZM54yCq9wD4C8KYrTdeQ

The Byrds - Sweetheart of the Rodeo (Roger and Gram share vocals)

 

The Byrds' Sweetheart of the Rodeo is not only one of The Byrds' best albums but one of the best and most influential country albums of all time. However as the story goes many of the tracks had new member Gram Parsons singing on them and for contractual reasons 3 of the songs had to get new vocal takes by Roger McGuinn replacing the original done by Gram.

The 3 songs in question are The Christian Life, You Don't Miss Your Water and One Hundred Years From Now. Thankfully some CD reissues of the album included the Gram's vocal takes as bonus tracks and Byrds Nyrds will argue about who sung it better until the cows come home.

However being the "I'll have my cake and eat it too" sort of individual, I though why not have both Gram and Roger singing on the songs. So I edited together the different masters so that Gram and Roger take turns singing the verses to those 3 songs.

I also added the outtake All I Have Are Memories because It's probably my favourite of the album and it fits in well, while making the album a nice even 12 tracks.

I also would've added other outtakes like Lazy Days which is another favourite of mine but it's more rocky style clashes ironicly with the laid back sound of the album, so Lazy Days will have to wait for a future Byrds project.

1. You Ain't Going Nowhere

2. I Am A Pilgrim

3. The Christian Life

4. You Don't Miss Your Water

5. You're Still On My Mind

6. Pretty Boy Floyd

7. Hickory Wind

8. One Hundred Years From Now

9.  All I Have Are Memories

10. Blue Canadian Rockies

11. Life In Prison

12. Nothing Was Delivered

Download: https://mega.nz/file/uJVWDLiL#rx8aINSu7yHsU8hYBwlPobhqUDKsmhrti3_3FyFCiog

Oasis - Be Here Now (Spin's Rethink)

 

So this is my own re-edit or alternative version or rethink (as maybe Noel would put it) of Oasis's Be Here Now album. My reason for doing this is simple when I was a teenager I picked up the Chasing The Sun 3CD version of the album and loved it, but over the years my tastes have changed and somewhat matured and the albums problems became more and more glaring.

Problems such as all the songs being way too long, the production being way overblown and weak songs ending up on the album while there was stronger B-sides. So I've attempted to fix these issues to certain extent by errr... cutting them down to size *ahem* now some may think my edits are sacrilege and maybe they are but for me, it makes the album listenable (that probably says more about me than anything). I think I was lucky that the overblown production did a good job at hiding my edits. The song choice was inspired by trying to make Be Here Now a bit more like Morning Glory and The Beatles White Album, heavy rock songs counterbalanced by nice acoustic songs and lyrically the album is a bit more cohesive as well. (You may have to ajust audio levels slightly song to song sorry.)

A little history of the project, I've always wanted a redone version of Be Here Now since I heard Noel's Rethink of DYKWIM but it wasn't until I heard vivanexistsithink's Be Here Now reimagined and Shakermaker's rethink that I thought I'd give it a go my self. I started the project during Febuary of 2024 but then didn't finish it because life got bussy and it wasn't until October 2024 that I finished off the project. A very detailed liner notes is down below. I hope you enjoy listening and any feedback is welcome, just keep things civil. : )

Be Here Now                                                       3:05

I Hope, I Think, I Know                                       4:23

Stand By Me                                                        4:28

Flashbax                                                               5:08

Stay Young                                                           4:58

☆

D'You Know What I Mean?                                5:32

(I Got) The Fever                                                4:11

The Fame                                                           3:44

Don't Go Away                                                    4:48

Going Nowhere                                                   4:39

My Big Mouth                                                     4:57

☆

All Around The World                                         3:49

It's Gettin' Better (Man!!)                                    6:28

Download: https://mega.nz/file/bF1DRDIB#-mE_EwNO38ls94sHnXsiO5EHikmj1pqVfdInLD6slIY

Detailed liner notes for those interested:

 

Be Here Now - This edit originates for the Feb sessions, I wanted it to start the album off becuase it's a good opener (like at the fantastic Gmex concert) and I wanted the toy piano loop to be a running theme though the album (more on that later). The song is too long so I cut it down but I did create a loop from the toy piano loop to use at the end and it worked rather well.

I Hope, I Think, I Know - Be Here Now does straight into IHITIK, didn't make any changes on the song as it's probably my favourite song on the album.

Stand By Me - Another from the Feb sessions of the project, this went though a lot of different edits to make the song shorter, 7 different edits in total with the 7th being the one here. I did like my 6th edit as it was shorter but this one felt more natural. The songs now about a minute and a half shorter and it's much better for it.

Flashbax - I tried making it shorter as it's 5 minutes long but couldn't do it in a natural way. So I gave up and just used the original.

Stay Young - One of my favourites, I was going to leave it as the original but I came across a mix from the film The Faculty during the Oct sessions, which takes off some of the layers. So for fun I made an edit that uses The Faculty mix up until the end of the first chorus and then switches to the original mix. I got The Faculty mix from here: https://blonderazorblade.blogspot.com/2020/06/oasis-promos-god-knows-voliii.html

Star 1 - The idea for the "Star" tracks was to help breaking up the album in the same way that Morning Glory had the [Untitled] tracks.I started it in the Feb sessions but didn't finish it until October. I started by having the Be Here Now toy drum loop but then going in to the feedback from the DYKWIM Mustique Demo and then it finshes with the jazz from the end of Magic Pie.

D'You Know What I Mean? - I was going to leave this as the NG's Rethink from the Chasing The Sun edition but sometime in the middle of the year I was watching Vinny from Vinesause and he said that it was a good song but way way way too long and I agreed. So that stuck in my mind until I started the project back up again in Oct. I tried making edits to shorten the song but they were a bit cruddy sounding. However, one day I was browsing the Live4Ever forums and one comment reminded me that the video version of NG's rethink on Youtube was a shorter edit, so I used that one. I did add the feedback intro back on the front of it and faded the feedback at the end early. All an all it's 2 minutes shorter and I like the song much better now.

(I Got) The Fever - I had the track list sorted in the Feb sessions and the only song change in October was the addition of this song. Why? That chorus is amazing! So I really cut the bollocks off this song. Now it's pretty much the first verse, chorus, guitar solo and then chorus but the chorus is the best bit so who cares. The intro edit is a bit on the dodgy side, I added the intro form IHITIK from Mustique because the original intro didn't sound right after DYKWIM. At the end I added a little edit of Angel Child as a surprise, in the same way that at the end of Cry Baby Cry is Can You Take Me Back? (It's that bloody Beatles white album thing again).

The Fame - Prehaps the most controversial of my edits, in Feb I faded the song halfway though the guitar solo but it sounded good. However it was nagging on my mind that I did miss the final chorus were Noel is doing all those great inflections. So in October I moved the final chorus in the middle to replace the middle chorus and stuck the solo on the end and faded it. It's all a bit topsy turvey but it worked out in the end.

Don't Go Away - No need to mess with perfection. It's the original album version.

Going Nowhere - Same as above, kept it original.

My Big Mouth - Not my favourite but I do love that pre-chorus and a good song to bring the energy back up, this is the live version from Knebworth because it sounds better.

Star 2 - This is from the Feb sessions, it starts with the toy piano loop like Star 1 but then it goes into the plane noises from the Mustique demo of DYKWIM and then into Trip Inside (not the real one but what else do I call it). It's a nice little melancholy interlude.

All Around The World - Back in Feb my sister asked me why I was making an edit of this song. To demonstrate my point I played her the song. She enjoyed it for the first 3 minutes but by the 9th it felt like an never ending hell. So the song is now a great little 3 minute pop song, cutting 5 minutes of shit from the end of it.

It's Gettin' Better (Man!!) - I struggled to decide wheter to use the Knebworth or Air Studio version of this song. I decided to go with the Air Studio version. What you loose in sound quality, you gain in keyboards.

Hidden Track/Edit Piece - I wasn't going to include the All Around The World (Reprise) but back in Feb I was mucking around with it and loved what happened. It starts with the toy piano from the end of the Mustique demo of All Around The World before the start of the Reprise starts. The reprise goes into the na na na's of the main song before it fades out and the door from the reprise slams the door shut on the album. This hidden track is probably my favourite bit on this album lol.