The Little Red Rough Trade Songbook

 Tav Falco photo by Deck Reeks

Here's a twist: Rough Trade releases of cover songs. "Lola" by The Raincoats might be the best-known example. Or maybe it's the Slits' version of "Man Next Door", or Stiff Little Fingers' transposition of "Johnny Was" from Trenchtown to Belfast. 

There are proto-punk classics here from the Velvets, Stooges, Seeds, Troggs, Stones, and Roxy Music; as performed by Cabaret Voltaire, Dr. Mix & The Remix, Shockabilly, and Spizzenergi.

Two songs were written by Mayo Thompson, who was a key figure for Rough Trade from 1979 to 1982. Mayo produced records for The Raincoats, SLF, Scritti, and others. He played guitar for Pere Ubu. And he led a new lineup of The Red Crayola (with fellow RT artists Gina Birch, Lora Logic, Epic Soundtracks, and Allen Ravenstine).

So it's fitting that Galaxie 500 performs The Red Crayola's "Victory Garden" and Mayo himself sings "Horses" (from his 1970 album Corky's Debt To His Father) with Pere Ubu. Galaxie 500 also covers "Final Day" by Young Marble Giants. Weekend (with Alison Statton from YMG) plays her former bandmate Stuart Moxham's song "Carnival Headache". 

Rough Trade released Sandie Shaw's version of "Hand In Glove". And then there's the cover that was allegedly the "last straw" for Johnny Marr: "Work Is A Four-Letter Word". Perhaps he had a few choice four-letter words for Moz before leaving The Smiths. I don't know too much about these things.

Rough Trade was able to release new music from Robert Wyatt because Wyatt's major label contract did not prohibit him from recording other artists' songs. Thanks to this loophole we have Wyatt's breathtaking versions of "Biko" and "At Last I Am Free" (as well as the rest of the singles compiled on Nothing Can Stop Us, and the 1984 EP Work In Progress).