I started writing about this record last year when I wrote about Volumes 1 & 2 and 3 & 4 but completely forgot to finish it off. Volumes 5 & 6 are a strange bag of things, Vol 5 features a huge opener in the form of You Think I Ain't Worth..., full-on punk-rock on both I'm Dead and an early version of Punk Rock Caveman which found greater fame as a Queens song. But the problem with Vol 5 is that they ruin it with Letters To Mommy, a terrible joke song that doesn't even stand up to being a hidden track on the end of an album. Not only is it shit, it goes on far too long too. I get that they were probably high when they thought it'd be worth including but it just ruins the flow entirely. Goin' To a Hangin' is nothing to get excited about either.
Vol 6 similarly has its highs and lows; A#1 is just a classic stoner tune and Like a Drug might be my favourite across the whole series. It's smooth and unlike anything else - if all the experimental songs sounded like that I would be very happy. Rickshaw is quite fun too. But then there are songs like Take Me To Your Leader, which the series would be better without.
One of my complaints about this series of, admittedly slightly shitty, bootlegs/reissues is that the sleeves are paper thin. I've never seen an LP on such flimsy cardboard. However, my copy of Vol 5 & 6 has a further annoyance in the form of a large defect in the vinyl at the start of I'm Dead - it looks like a bit of something got caught in the pressing and has left a dent in a few grooves (see the picture below). It's a shame it had to be there, and not a few millimetres further out and ruined Letters To Mummy instead
If I had to sum up the six volumes of the Desert Sessions that I'm familiar with, I'd say that there is a lot of shit that could be culled easily but you'd then be left with one (long) album of incredible songs; the good songs are so good its a shame that they're surrounded by some really bad ones. The problem is, of course, that on vinyl it's not so easy to skip the bad songs (especially when you're already changing the record so often) so I basically don't listen to these records very often. It's a shame because there really are some great songs and I don't give them the time I should.
Format: 12"
Tracks: 10
Cost: £13 new
Bought: Spillers
When: 04/11/08
Colour: Blue
Etching: None
mp3s: no
