'Haven't We Been Here Before?' by the New Pornographers. Both A New Song And An Old Song.

Both a reworking and the original version! Is that what you call a paradox?

Here is a song called ‘Haven’t We Been Here Before?’. It might sound familiar to some of you. ‘We’ve Been Here Before’ is a song from Whiteout Conditions, the New Pornographers album from 2017. This one:

That version is much more subdued, quiet, meditative, and it has a different verse, a different form. Truth is that it originally sounded like this version that I’m posting here today! When we were shopping around songs to labels, this was one of the songs we sent out, a mix very much like this, this and Play Money and Whiteout Conditions. It felt like a classic sounding New Ps track. Like something we’d do. The soaring Neko vocals in the chorus, the big drums, synths sparkling all over the place. Listening to it now, I ask myself why we changed it. I really like this version. That’s what this is all about, this online space here. It’s about the way music changes along the way. For better or for worse, like a marriage.

So what happened? One day at JC/DC in Vancouver, we were working on the levels of the vocals, the mix of the harmonies between myself, Neko and Kathryn. Listening to the isolated vocals, Dave Carswell turned around in his chair (You know Dave! He’s been playing with Bejar on all these recent stripped down Destroyer shows, so now you can picture him, sitting in front of a mixing console, turning around in his chair…). Dave said “Oh yeah, this is what it should sound like!” or something to that effect. I agreed, it did sound really good. I felt like we had enough upbeat songs, which might seem a ridiculous thought to you but that was my thinking. I’ve always wanted to change things up as much as possible, knowing that there was a sound I naturally gravitated towards. When I saw an off ramp, I was going to take it! Problem was that the verses didn’t work in psychedelic ballad form, but that was easy to fix. Write a new verse! It’s my job! I know how to do that. That’s how we ended up with the version of the song that went on the album.

Didn’t think much about it for years. Last week, or was it 2 weeks ago, I posted a version of Brill Bruisers that I’d just recorded. It started me thinking about the idea of reinventing songs, new arrangements, new tempo, new key, new vibe. That made me think of this song. We’d released the reinvention, nobody knew the original version! I started searching through the vaults, and it is a very nice feeling to find a very nearly completed song just hanging around in an old hard drive.

Just between you and me, haven’t really talked this through with any label or management, my plan is to put out a New Pornographers retrospective (greatest hits?) that is all new versions of old songs. John Denver re-recorded all the songs on his greatest hits album and that album was huge. There is precedent here. Rock and roll still respects precedent, I’m assuming. So this is the first unofficial release of one of those songs. It still needs the Kathryn vocals, they somehow got misplaced. I’ll put them in later. One of the main reasons I wanted to create this Substack was to have a direct line to fan’s ears. The plan is to rework, realize and release more of these along the way, only on this here Substack. When enough of them are done, put them all together on a record that may only be available here, just like this cream colored vinyl album on Matador Records, the one that is only available to paid subscribers, members of my Substack vinyl club! (You know the one):

Or maybe someone will want to put it out in a wider release. Same difference to me. It’s a fun project. Nothing is written in stone. If a song felt too slow on the album, record it faster! Maybe we came up with a better harmony vocal idea through the years, playing the song live so much. Record it! This version I’m posting might be finished, it might not be finished. I suppose we won’t know until it gets a “proper release”. Maybe the original demo version was better! Release it! I’ve said too much.

Anyway, here it is, ‘Haven’t We Been Here Before?’ by the New Pornographers