Last week, The Waterboys announced the release of Atlantic Rain: The Lost Fisherman’s Blues Recordings, three discs of music culled from almost 400 reels of tape captured during the sessions for the band’s 1988 album Fisherman’s Blues. You can listen to an amped-up version of Too Close to Heaven taken from it below…
The announcement might have come as a particular surprise to fans who assumed that 2013’s mammoth, six-disc, 122-track compilation Fisherman’s Box: The Complete Fisherman’s Blues Sessions 1986-1988 had given us the final word on the band’s salt-sprayed masterpiece. As he tells MOJO below, bandleader Mike Scott was as surprised as anyone to find he had even more material sat on the shelf…
Many of us thought Fisherman’s Box had given us everything we were going to hear from these sessions - were you always aware that there was even more stuff still in the vaults?
No. I honestly thought I’d found all the good stuff when I compiled Fisherman’s Box in 2013.
When did you go back to the tapes? Were you surprised by what you found?
The old Chrysalis catalogue was sold by EMI to a new company called Blue Raincoat, who have been very proactive with archival releases. With them, I did two Waterboys box sets, one each based around the albums immediately before and after Fisherman’s Blues [2024’s This Is The Sea-charting 1985 and 2021’s The Magnificent Seven, which focused on 1990’s Room To Roam]. Blue Raincoat were interested to know if there was any more Fisherman’s Blues material, and when they checked the archive tape list, they spotted several dozen multi-tracks from that era with no song titles, only notes like “jam” or “soundcheck”, or no notes at all. They got them digitised and sent me the sound files. When I listened to them, I found all kinds of forgotten recordings, stuff I don’t even remember playing, cover versions, some originals, alternative takes, beautiful instrumental improvs.
Are there songs here you’d wished you’d included in Fisherman’s Box, or even on Fisherman’s Blues
Damn right. Original album should have been a double or triple.
What was it like hearing the tapes back? Did it take you back to that time and place and what you were trying to achieve back then?
It was a joy. So much wonderful music made by one of the best bands I’ve ever had. The only bittersweet aspect of it is that the original 10-song album showed only a sliver of what we were capable of. This new compilation redresses the balance.
At the time you were recording so much music, how were you keeping track of everything?
Well, that’s just the thing. We didn’t. We used to play live in the studio - vocals included - and could lay down as many as eight or ten songs in a day. The stack of tracks built up until there were over a hundred, though at the time I wasn’t counting. No surprise, then, with hindsight, that a lot got missed and lost.
Is there any more unreleased music from the era we might still get to hear?
I can now say with confidence that I’ve heard everything we recorded in the studio for Fisherman’s Blues, and of course, this isn’t all of it. But this is the best of it. What remains is unfinished scratch songs, comedy numbers, and instrumental jams. I’ve shared some of them on our Patreon page, but I don’t think there will be any more official releases from this lode.
Atlantic Rain is out July 17 on Chrysalis Records.
ORDER: Amazon | Rough Trade | HMV
Tracklisting:
1. Too Close To Heaven (soul version) (5.32)
2. Come Back To Galway (8.51)
3. The Man With The Wind At His Heels (7.15)
4. And Then The Gods (2.47)
5. Light Shine On Me (3.14)
6. Endless Store (5.39)
7. This Land Is Your Land (studio version) (4.55)
8. Saints And Angels (1988 version) (4.41)
9. I Can't Feel At Home In This World Anymore (2.35)
10. Knockin' On Heavens Door (3.54)
11. Honky Tonkin' (2.04)
12. No Expectations (3.03)
13. When Doves Cry (3.16)
14. Angel Flying Too Close To The Ground (4.59)
15. Killing My Heart (full length) (5.27)
16. Bob And Anto's Soundcheck (1.07)
17. We Will Not Be Lovers (live take) (7.58)
18. Lost Highway (double version) (7.59)
19. The Good Ship Sirius / The Ship In Full Sail (2.31)
20. Mister Saxman (4.11)
21. The Waves (6.36)
22. The Last Jam (long version) (6.12)
23. Night Falls On Windmill Lane (1.18)
24. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (13.27)
25. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise) (6.54)