It is a strange fact about James, that their most famous song (and arguably one of the most famous songs of the whole nineties) originally appeared as a radically different, twice-as-long, rinky-dink indie release in 1989, two years before its far more well-known re-recording soared to number two in the UK charts.
"Sit Down", in its 1991 form, joined a long-ish and honourable tradition of commercially underachieving indie hits of the 80s, that were suddenly picked up, re-recorded or remixed, and became hits in the early 1990s (other examples include "There She Goes" by the La's, "Shine On" by the House of Love, "Can You Dig It?" by the Mock Turtles, and even "Wrote for Luck" by the Happy Mondays).
The other strange fact about "Sit Down" is that, unlike all these other reissued indie anthems, its original version has been deleted for nearly two decades. It has never been re-compiled, reissued or reassessed. "Sit Down (1989 Rough Trade Version)" remains one of the great overlooked gems of James' back catalogue.
Originally created in 1988, "Sit Down" - according to legend - sprang spontaneously from a jam session. The song was picked out, and the band played it (with Tim singing lyrics equally inspired by Doris Lessing and Patti Smith, apparently) until they all fell about laughing at the ridiculous commerciality of the melody. The song was then unveiled initially as a session track on the Andy Kershaw Radio Show in late 1988, before becoming a regular part of the "Ya Ho" tour. James were always aware of the song's commercial potential, and were reluctant to release it on such an unforgiving label as Sire.
However, following the departure of drummer Gavan Whelan, and the band's departure to Rough Trade distribution and the "One Man Clapping" album, James returned to the studio to record "Sit Down" for the first time. New members were rapidly drafted in, including David Bayton-Power installed on drums and Mark Hunter on keyboards (replacing long-time partial James member, his friend Mick Armistead). It was possibly this new five piece James who went into the studio to record "Sit Down" in spring 1989 (there is no run-down of personnel on the sleeve). Hunter certainly claimed his "audition piece" had been the piano outro of the track - although whether the drumming is Bayton-Power or a drum machine is debatable. Saul Davies and Andy Diagram joined James (forming the famous seven-man line up) in summer 1989, following the release of "Sit Down".
The original version of the track is remarkable in a few ways. Firstly, it sounds like it could have fitted reasonably comfortably on "Strip Mine" - but not on "Gold Mother". It's a sprightly WOMAD-inflected anthem, half of which has the same structure as the hit version from 1991. And the other half an elongated break-down, complete with echoey sampled vocals, a thudding bassline, and one of James' roadies singing in a high-pitched voice the words "Lester Piggott" (who may, or may not, appear on the sleeve) as a coda at the end.
Issued by Rough Trade Records in June 1989 (to which they were signed, possibly, in the hope that the "new Smiths" of 1985 might also prove to be the "new Smiths" of 1990), "Sit Down" was available as a 7", 12" and a 3" CD. This last, rather bizarre format was briefly fashionable in the late 1980s, presumably under the premise that just as vinyl singles were smaller in circumference to vinyl albums, CD singles would be correspondingly smaller than CD albums (by 2 inches rather than 5). The CD single of "Sit Down" (RTCD225, upped below at 320kps) rather undermines this item, be featuring all four tracks from the 12" single, but not the 7". A truncated version of "Sit Down" (with the familiar lyrics re-arranged to the point of indesipherability) was issued only on the 7" and as a promo video, featuring Booth Gott and Glennie dancing round chairs and with sheep.
This rarer version, mastered from video, can also be found in the below rar file.
http://www.protectlinks.com/118136
And that, for me at least, is the end of the story. Quite simply, there is NO better version than the original. The hundreds of thousands of more people who bought the 1991 mix are just wrong - or, more likely, have never had a chance to hear the lightness of touch of the original mix. But in its own way, the re-release and its ascendency to number two (kept off the top spot by Chesney Hawkes, of course) was a testament to the slow-burn appeal of the original, as more and more rapturous gigs in 1989 and 1990 brought the song an amazing cult appeal, with (as Stuart Maconie once pointed out) the only sedentary dance craze in the history of pop music other than "Oops Upside Your Head".
The 1991 version is frankly far too common to upload here - plus, if you can't find it to download within about five seconds of this site, then you really shouldn't be allowed on the Internet. Produced by Pixies cohort Gil Norton, its a far denser mix, replacing the folky, male backing vocals of Glennie and Gott with an almost Philadelphia feel with Martine McDonagh's female vocals. And, of course, it was a masssive, massive hit.
"Sit Down" was re-visited one final time, in 1998, with a new, almost Glitterbeat remix by Apollo 440 (aka the Stealth Sonic Orchestra, fresh from their own chart visits with tracks like the theme to the 1997 movie "Lost In Space"). This strange, bouncy remix rose to number 7 in the charts - and was promoted with a "Top of the Pops" appearance which featured Robbie Williams as a (temporary) member of the band.
A promo CD, which is actually reasonable easy to find on collecting sites or Ebay, was released (SIT1CD) which featured two further versions of the track - another, otherwise unreleased mix by "The Boilerhouse Boys" and a subtly different version of the 1991 mix with an extended intro and less reverb on the vocals. These mixes can be found here:
http://www.protectlinks.com/118138
And finally, here's the (so far) only commercially-available cover of "Sit Down", recorded live by Voice of the Beehive in 1991, and released on the CD single "Perfect Place":
What is with this protectlinks? I was "redirecting" for over a minute & decided the hell with it.