As is often the case, one song leads to the conception of another and consequently 'Stripped' spawned the extra track 'Breathing In Fumes' which was achieved by speeding up the backing track and adding a new bass line, new vocals and different musical parts. This was quite a radical re-working for its time and perhaps the forerunner to a remixing style that would become much more commonplace in the '90s.
The B-side, 'But Not Tonight' (which also ended up as an extra track on the LP) became the focus of some attention:
"Its rightful position was as the B-side to 'Stripped' and I always felt that including extra tracks at the end of an album CD disrupted the flow of the LP. The reasoning was to give value for money but they should really have remained on their intended formats only." Additionally, in what was already a common battle ground between band and US record company, 'Stripped' was completely overlooked by the Americans as a single release in favour of 'But Not Tonight' (for which a video was shot) - an incredible decision considering the chalk and cheese nature of the two tracks. For a 12" version of 'Stripped' (and in a move almost unique to DM during this period), it was decided to experiment by commissioning an 'outside' remix (Highland mix) by a soon-to-be DM collaborator, Mark Ellis - better known as 'Flood'. Alan explains: "Remixes were devised as a marketing strategy and instigated almost solely by ZTT and Frankie Goes To Hollywood's 'Relax' in the early 80s. DM's attitude was that we had to make remixes in order to compete, although Mode tracks were always recorded with the LP version in mind. From there we would either edit down for a 7" version or expand for a 12"." |