Lost a Whole Year » Third Eye Blind Writings

Home
Writings

June 8, 2009:

Single edits. Radio edits. Just where do they begin and end? Although much has been said about the implications of the issue, Billy Joel's statement in the lyrics of "The Entertainer" was probably the most succinct: "It was a beautiful song, but it ran too long. If you've going to have a hit, you got to make it fit, so they cut it down to 3:05."

The album version of Third Eye Blind's "Semi-Charmed Life" is 4:28 long. The version on the U.S. CD single is 3:42, with the entire "When the plane came in she said she was crashing" section (and the words "crystal meth" around 1:24, for that matter) edited out. Neither is the version I remember being played on the radio years ago: That version dispensed with the "extra" verse, but left the crystal meth fully intact. Interestingly, aside from the obvious differences, the album and single versions sync up perfectly with each other: With a little bit of wave editing on the computer, I can combine parts of both together to create a bit-perfect representation of what I heard back in the day.

Contextually, it's worth noting that amphetamine abuse was such a geographically-isolated phenomenon in the 1990s that where I lived (in West Virginia, of all places) the lyrical references surely flew over everyone's head. There, the powers that be were far more concerned with clumsily splicing the "goddamns" out of "Losing a Whole Year:" I call this the "J104 edit," and my nostalgia over that plays back with hilarity in memory.

Although "Semi-Charmed Life" is probably the most notable case where a single version or radio edit of a song differed significantly from the album incarnation, it's not the only case. A production effect-laden remix of "Graduate" existed; though it was relegated chiefly to B-sides. The Blue track "Anything" featured a promotional single edit that was actually 46 or so seconds longer than its album counterpart; although since the extended length was created chiefly by looping over parts of the song, it really wasn't all that exciting. Most other "edits" of Third Eye Blind songs are practically identical to the original versions, though; apart from a bit of periodic trimming here and there.

That was the case of the "Jumper" single, which expurgated sections of Kevin's solo for a running time of 4:08. That was also the case of the version of "Blinded" I heard (unfortunately, very rarely) in the summer of 2003, which cut the "When I See You" outro to a minimum. I don't own the latter song on any physical single; although I did actually take it upon myself to tape it from the radio to whet my appetite a few days before the respective album, Out of the Vein was released in stores.

One bit of single/album difference that confuses me to no end, however, rears itself on the European "Never Let You Go" single. It features two versions of that respective song: A "radio version" and an "LP version;" both of which are the same length and both of which sound; for all intents and purposes, alike: About the only clue that the versions aren't identical is the fact that the two tracks don't synchronize perfectly with each other in a wave editor. There might be an extremely subtle difference in EQ, or perhaps the tape for one version was running an imperceptibly-split second faster than the other; but as far as any definitive theories go over the differences, your guess is as good as mine.

The 2006 Collection compilation featured full-length album versions of every featured track. Although it's fair to say that these are the definitive versions of each song, I can't help but think that it would have been enjoyable for the single and radio airplay-edited versions to have been included instead...for just a bit of variation and nostalgia.

©2009 Andrew Turnbull.
Last update June 8, 2009.