The longest unzipping of my life!

June 5, 2006 11:35 AM

What version of Poe's "Hey Pretty" do I have?

I have a version of Poe's "Hey Pretty" that's of, ah, uncertain provenance. It's one of the versions with her brother Mark Danielewski reading from his House of Leaves with Poe coming in on the choruses. I know of the "Drive-By 2001 Mix," but that appears to be about 3:45 long. This one is right at six minutes, and I'd really like to get a better version of it. Allmusic.com and various Poe-related sites have been less than helpful. Any suggestions?

posted by kimota to media & arts (10 comments total)

Not sure. The CD version and the Drive-By Mix that was made for 94.7 KNRK/Portland for radio play were both around 3:45.

I'm very curious where you got yours, and as a huge Poe fan I'd love to listen to it.
posted by SpecialK at 11:49 AM on June 5, 2006

Is it possible it was a live recording? I seem to remember at a concert she did intersperse a recording of her brother reading from the book. He wasn't there - in fact , she had no band, just a DJ who was playing vinyl cuts off of Haunted. This was just before the album came out, and I remember being surprised that the version of Hey Pretty she was doing was so different from the tracks I got from uncertain-provenance.com ;) If it was a live recording, then I'd doubt a better copy exists.
posted by hoborg at 3:38 PM on June 5, 2006

LOVE that version! On my iTunes, it's listed as "Hey Pretty (Bonus Track)" off the Haunted album. Since I will also not be discussing precisely where I got this file (and my iTunes and the rest of my computer are currently not speaking to each other), I'm afraid I can't really help you much. Assuming something more authoratative doesn't come along before then, I could ask my girlfriend, as I believe she has the liner notes and such. I'll check back here later tonight and see what the word is...
posted by schwap23 at 4:18 PM on June 5, 2006

It definitely wasn't on the standard issue USA-release CD, which I am holding in my hands right now and have listened to dozens of times. The track on this CD is 3:45 and there's no bonus track.
posted by ikkyu2 at 6:55 PM on June 5, 2006

Hmm, longest version I have is 4:14, and is from 08/14/2001. It's pretty damn clear, though. I.... uuuhhhh.... know someone who could seed the show for you if you know of an MP3-friendly tracker.
posted by Afroblanco at 8:08 PM on June 5, 2006

After work today, I'll scrutinize the three versions I've got to list the differences and see whatever else I can do. Thanks for the comments so far!
posted by kimota at 5:13 AM on June 6, 2006

The more official name for it is: "Hey Pretty, Drive-By 2001 Mix"

It shows on this amazon listing:

posted by schwap23 at 9:40 AM on June 6, 2006

OK, apparently I can't post links. Go me. I found the (above, invisible) link by searching on Amazon for Poe, Haunted. It's the last track listed, but there is no 'listen' option. I'm still pretty sure that's it.
posted by schwap23 at 9:43 AM on June 6, 2006

Okay, upon scrutinizing my three versions of the song, I've determined a few things:

One, my '6 minute version' was really just the same as the 4 minute version but apparently was a malformed MP3 that sent whatever played it merrily onto the next song right at the 4 minute mark (the option to do this wasn't set, so I'm guessing it was just poorly ripped).

I've got a 3:45 version that I thought was the Drive-By Mix. It includes a few "do you get the gist of the song now"s that aren't in the four minute version. The first chorus begins with Mark going "I heard her say" that's also not in the 4 minute version. Its ending is a lot different; it lacks pretty much exactly this snippet from the 4 minute version that somebody's posted.

So, now, any idea what this 4 minute version is, and where is it available? (Allmusic.com lists the versions available on Haunted as being 3:45 and 3:46 in length.)
posted by kimota at 5:10 PM on June 6, 2006

I've since found out what my version of the song was; there were a number of promo CDs put out for House of Leaves and Haunted. One was "Listen To The House, Read The House (Don't Be Scared)," and the track is properly titled "Just Another Drive (Hey Pretty)".
posted by kimota at 12:22 PM on August 18, 2006