Clandestine Curations: The Greatest Hits of Dan Sartain
Clandestine Curations is an ongoing series in which I make a bootleg greatest hits compilation for an artist that doesn't have one.
The Greatest Hits compilation seems to be a much maligned concept. I both understand why that is the case and also hate that is the case. I have about 15 greatest hits CDs in my car at this exact moment. Sometimes all you need from a band is their hits (see: Phil Collins, Creedence Clearwater Revival) and sometimes a band’s hits are the best jumping off point from which to dive into their deep catalog (see: Johnny Cash, David Bowie). If you're not a "Big, Rich Rock Band" you don’t usually get to release a greatest hits compilation. So, I'll be making them on behalf of the overlooked, underappreciated or otherwise passed over.
Today: Dan Sartain, a rocknroll troubadour from Birmingham, Alabama
First, a disclaimer: In many ways, 2020’s live album Dan Sartain vs Sun Studios could be considered the actual Greatest Hits of Dan Sartain (it’s one of the few good things to come from that cursed year.) That said, in true hipster fashion, I made this playlist before that release, so I’m ploughing ahead with my version anyway. There’s only about 4 songs that overlap between them, so there is no reason you can’t enjoy both.
Dan Sartain is probably the only artist in my collection about whom I can confidently say that I everyone I have ever played his music for has enjoyed what they heard. Coworkers, friends, car companions, radio show listeners, strangers on the street (ok, maybe not them). Case in point: Dan Sartain was the first artist that I played on my first ever radio show…and the last, because time is a flat circle.
There’s something for everyone in his catalog and there’s something about his music that people just seem to easily respond to. I do want to acknowledge that maybe I’m a little biased, as when we’ve run into each other over the years, I’ve always had a great relationship with Dan (which, it should also be acknowledged, is not the case for everyone.)
Like many things that came into my musical awareness in the Early-Aughts, Dan Sartain came from the magical world of Swami Records. Word on the street was Dan had slipped some demos to someone in Rocket From The Crypt when they were rolling through Alabama on tour and that’s how he ended up on the label. (To this day I still don’t know if that’s apocryphal or not.) From there, not only did Swami put out his breakout record, Dan Sartain vs The Serpientes, but an all-star Sw@mi crew played on and produced most of that record. That’s an easy way to get a built-in, pre-existing fanbase to mobilize behind you, even if your record isn’t killer, which it of course is.
From there, it’s been a fascinating to follow Dan’s journey, as he ‘got big’ in the UK with the backing of a major-indie label (One Little Indian, home to Bjork and others), then endured a fallow period during some tough times before a gradual return to the scene in the last couple of years. If you read Issue 1 of the Negative Progression ‘zine, you may recall that I praised Arctic Monkeys for zigging when people wanted them to zag. I love that approach in general, and I liked that Dan has done that over the years of his work, spanning the genres and digging into whatever he wanted to: rockabilly, rocknroll, indie-rock, punk, electro, western.
If Dan really never releases a new song again, which he has claimed before, and retires as an active musician, he still leaves behind a legacy (of hospitality) that will not be forgotten by those who heard it, which I’ve done my best to ensure is as many goddamn people as possible.
I now present to you, unofficially released via YouTube on my imprint label Chapterhouse: Whitehead Records…THE GREATEST HITS OF DAN SARTAIN.
1. Love Is Black (Join Dan Sartain) – One of a series of Sartain instrumentals named Love Is (color). I always think of this as a ballad for a lonely cowboy? (Maybe someone should send this to anxious millennial cowboy Adam Page?)
Fun Fact 1: This was the first, and best, bed music from the “Chris Whitehead Show on Preston FM”.
Fun Fact 2: We used this as background music while the guests assembled at the Whitehead-Meek-Whitehead wedding.
2. Walk Among The Cobras, Pt. 1 (Dan Sartain vs The Serpientes) – I think some people would chose PCB ’98, but for me, this is THE jumping in point to the Sartain catalog. The Cobra series being kind of the defining legacy for Dan.
Sidebar: the snare drum sound on Serpientes is killer. I wish John Reis produced more records.
3. Walk Among The Cobras, Pt. 2 (Dan Sartain vs The Serpientes) – How do you top Cobras Pt.1? With the absolute classic that is Pt2. If I only get one Dan song for the rest of time, it’s probably this one. The overlaid vocals (“I walk the thinnest line”) on the final chorus/outro are perfectly excellent and in my ears echo both Johnny Cash and, hear me out on this, Neil Sedaka.
4. Replacement Man (Join Dan Sartain) – I always felt like Join took the raw golden nuggets of Serpientes and smelted them into gold bullion. Probably at the record labels request? This is the single you want on such an album. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, cuz it’s a great record and my recommended “start here” album. Fun video too, featuring some Swami-World notables, including Swami John himself.
5. Atheist Funeral (Dan Sartain Lives) - If Join had some of that record label polish on it, Lives has all of it. We are pretty far from the raw sounds of Serpientes at this point. We’re in the “recording for Jack White” and “taking expensive looking photographs” phase of the operation here…not that there is anything wrong with that. Anyway, I always thought this was the standout non-Cobra track from this era.
6. Perverted Justice (Hungry End 7” single) – This is one of those songs that absolutely rips yet somehow ends up as a B-side on a single released on a small label. I guess it just never ‘fit’ onto a record? Especially as it comes from the aforementioned, more label-friendly Lives era?
7. Marfa Lights (Dudesblood) – Dudesblood is a low-key contender for my favorite Dan Record. It has a little bit of everything he’s ever done on it, and all of it is done really well. The percussion sounds - brought to you by D.J. Bonebreak of legendary LA punk band X - on this record are so good! Who talks about percussion sounds? No one, ever. Which is how you know that these are great! That one part on this song that sounds like a squeaky gate that needs be lubricated? Percussive Perfection!
Sidebar: I also think this song is also how I learned that there’s a weird art town in the middle of the West Texas desert?
8. Walk Among The Cobras, Pt. 3 (Dan Sartain vs The Serpientes) – “Featuring the White Apes” are four words that - assuming you know who they are - either excite you or annoy you, depending on your opinions on Gar Wood’s band-within-a-band. To quote my old pal Gavin “they sound like music you’d here in an opium den”. I think he meant that as a compliment? Anyway, I’m in the pro-White Apes camp, and backing up Dan here is probably the best they’ve ever been.
9. Walk Among The Cobras IV (Dan Sartain Lives) – As noted, if Lives is a record for the label, then Cobras 4 is a song for them too. I know this because Dan said as much when I shouted it as an option when he was taking suggestions during a live show at the Mad Ferret in Preston, a show I could write a whole other post about. He just played Cobras 2 instead. But, yet again, nothing wrong with that, as Cobras 4 is the best song on that record. This man can write a hit when asked to.
10. Fuck Friday (Too Tough To Live) – This song is perfect. It’s 1:25 long and still finds time for a guitar solo. I should write about it in the One Perfect Song series. Does anyone know to whom I write to request that the lyrics to this song be entered into the Library of Congress as a highlight of this American artform we call “punk rock”?
11. I Wanna Join The Army (Too Tough To Live) – I have an ‘official bootleg’ cassette version of Too Tough To Live which came out a little while before the official release and this was my favorite song on this record when I first heard that tape. And like Dan, I also dig the GI Bill!
12. Indian Massacre (Too Tough To Live) – The rule of threes dictate a third song from Too Tough be included in this compilation. You can pick any of them, really. I chose this one. It’s the longest song on Too Tough, clocking in at a marathon 2:06.
13. Dudesblood (Dudesblood) – Maybe this is just me, but when the first words you hear on an album are “Fucked in the face by a chainsaw” then you know you are off to the races. As noted, Dudesblood is a Smorgasbord of Sartain and this song is one that best reps the Too Tough era.
14. Walk Among The Cobras (Century Plaza) – If you’re going to truly span the genres then I can see why you would want to do an electro album. (It also doesn’t require a band, which makes sense in the context of this era of the Sartain meta-story.) Century Plaza is the ultimate “Marmite” album, but I dig it and I thought reworking Cobras in this way was a great idea. The WHOO! at the end is in the top tier of the whoo pantheon. (See also: Ric Flair, John Reis, Mike Krol.)
15. Pass This On (Dudesblood) – a cover of an obscure Swedish electro-pop song. The original doesn’t do much for me but Dan’s version is one of my favorite things he’s ever done. More great percussion and the vocals really, really shine here. “I’m in love with your brother…What’s his name?”
16. Crimson Cinema Of Death (Legacy of Hospitality) – I was never sure why this one isn’t called Love Is (color), as it seems like it would fit into that series. Perhaps because Love Is Crimson was on Serpientes? Nomenclature aside, this is a perfect curtain closing tune, so how better to this compilation?
Until next time, feel free to sound off in the comments about your favorite Sartain songs and why I’m a doofus for not including them.
If you liked this, maybe tell a friend?
What a great read......but I dare that "Mr moonlight" is his most slept on song. The vocal panning is mesmerizing.