Hear an early demo of The Strokes song ‘You Only Live Once’
The Strokes—whether they’re rattling off a riff that can lift knackered converse off of the stickiest dancefloors or lulling us into a state of inert reminiscence, they have a way of harnessing energy and atmosphere that even Nikolai Tesla would’ve been impressed with. By keeping it simple they craft something mystically difficult to fathom.
Take, for instance, their classic debut album, Is This It. The effect of the record goes beyond anything that can be clearly identified and put to print. The depth of the album is not in the lyrics, subject matters, or any profound innovation; it lingers in the obfuscated sonic reaches of energy and atmosphere. The closest you can come is to say that it sounds like a band seizing the zeitgeist in some weird spiritual sense like indie alchemists.
That same implacable magic stretches to their bootlegs too. The beauty of the bootleg or rarity, and, in turn, this article with a bit of luck, is that they can creep out from the shadows of your favourite artist’s back catalogues as a brand new song, just like a birthday gift that got lost in the post. What’s more, when you open the package, it reveals something new, offering just a little more illumination of what the artist was working on at the time.
Sometimes a deep cut trumps the latter permutation that follows, ‘You Only Live Once’ is a fantastic single from The Strokes, but there are similar indie-rock classics lingering in their records that are more than capable of conquering it. The original demo, however, is a wonder to behold.
‘I’ll Try Anything Once’ defines the inherent appeal of deep cuts in general. It stands out as a far more withdrawn and vulnerable song than the fresh indie joys that make it to record. With Nick Valensi tentatively tapping about a sort of mellowed melancholic melody on piano and Julian Casablancas purring out the best lyrics that he has ever written, the song almost seems fated to be shrouded in the ethereal darkness of demos where creativity quietly creeps into illuminated existence.
It is in this shrouded realm that Casablancas purrs with the bittersweet hard truths of life that are branded onto the sensibilities of listeners. He’s not the only person to have listed it all like this, but not many have done it with such simultaneous beauty and concision. It is not just one of the most beautiful indie bootlegs of all time, but one of the prettiest tracks ever, period.
