Bootleg Retrospective

hideThis article has multiple issues. Please help or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages) This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (July 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) This article does not cite any sources. Please help by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources:  –  ·  ·  · scholar · JSTOR (October 2010) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Bootleg Retrospective
Compilation album by The Slits
Released	March 17, 1980
Recorded	various homes and stages, 1977-1979
Genre	Post-punk
Label	Y Records
The Slits chronology
Cut (1979) Bootleg Retrospective (1980) Return of the Giant Slits (1981)

Bootleg Retrospective is a compilation album by The Slits. The album is officially untitled. It is also referred to as Y (its record label), Y3LP (its serial number), Y3Lp—The Official Bootleg, (On a Japanese RCA Victor reissue), and, in Greil Marcus' book "Lipstick Traces," A Boring Life, or Once Upon A Time In A Living Room.

The album consists of lo-fi demos and live performances, mostly, in all likelihood from 1977-9, preceding the sessions for 1979's Cut album. Two recordings, "Face Place" and "Or What Is It?", are skeletal, incomplete sketches of songs which appeared in finished form on 1981's Return of the Giant Slits album. A 30-second section of "Bongos on the Lawn" appears at the opening of the promotional video for "Instant Hit" from the Cut album.

In spite of its rough and informal appearance, the album was an authorized release compiled by the Slits, who were signed to Y Records at the time. It was released by Y Records, on or around March 17, 1980, and was distributed by Rough Trade Records.

Track listing[]

All tracks written by Viv Albertine, Tessa Pollitt, Arianne Forster (a.k.a. Ari Up) and Paloma Romero (a.k.a. Palmolive)

Side one[]

1. "A Boring Life"
2. "Slime"
3. "Face Place"
4. "No. 1 Enemy"
5. "Vaseline"

Side two[]

1. "Or What Is It?" (a.k.a. "Or What It Is?" on Return of the Giant Slits)
2. "Bongos On The Lawn"
3. "Let's Do The Split" (a.k.a. "Vindictive" on The Peel Sessions)
4. "Once Upon A Time In A Living Room"
5. "No More Rock n Roll For You"/"Mosquitoes"

A CD re-release by Japanese RCA Victor uses the wrong song titles on several of the tracks; this is verifiable by comparing the titles with other appearances of these songs on various studio and live Slits releases.

The performance titled "No More Rock n Roll For You" is a May 30, 1977 live encore co-performance with the bands Subway Sect and The Prefects, from the California Ballroom in Dunstable [1]. This track is included on Vic Godard and the Subway Sect's compilation Twenty Odd Years as "We Oppose All Rock And Roll/Sister Ray"; it features extensive lyric quotations from the Velvet Underground song "Sister Ray".

Personnel[]

• Ari Up - vocals
• Viv Albertine - guitar
• Tessa Pollitt - bass guitar
• Paloma Romero (a.k.a. Palmolive) - drums
• Nina Hagen - vocals on "No. 1 Enemy" (uncredited)
• Additional vocals/instruments on "No Rock N Roll for You" by Vic Godard/Subway Sect, and members of The Prefects

References[]

Release date/press release confirmed in Punk Diary: The Ultimate Trainspotter's Guide to Underground Rock, 1970-1982, George Gimarc, p. 307.