I knew I'd get what I ask for

Reading over the news item in Pitchfork that Gang of Four will be re-recording some of their older songs, I had the same reaction that I would imagine almost anyone who loves those songs had: why not just leave well-enough alone? The knee-jerk reaction is almost always that moves like this are just pathetic cash-ins for those artists who have run out of ideas, and that now we face the One Bad Apple Syndrome, where songs we've loved for years are ruined by rotten and redundant reworkings.

But after my grumbling first reaction, I remembered something that I was mulling over this weekend: that it seems that the pressure to get a recording absolutely right the first time around, to have no shot at improving something except perhaps on a live album or with a remix (which you would not be "allowed" to do yourself) seems, if not wrong, then a shame. As infuriating as it may be to be a fan of some of the '50's and '60's jazz singers, where you have to plow through piles of studio and live versions to find the reading of the song that's really great, it still seems like the way to do it. Just because something's been done once, why is it off-limits for you to take another stab at it?

As though Sparks aren't cool enough, this is one of the best things about them: they remixed/covered their own songs. When that album came out, it got lambasted as over-the-top self-indulgent, but I love the idea. If Sparks love their own songs, why shouldn't they be able to try to improve on them? Why should they have to accept the first versions as the ones that live on forever?

So good luck to Gang of Four. I probably won't buy it, but they have my blessing. Which I know means the world to them.