Private Life: The Compass Point Sessions

Background

Grace Jones recorded three albums with Sly and Robbie, Wally Badarou, Barry Reynolds, Mikey Chung and Uziah "Sticky" Thompson, aka the Compass Point Allstars, a studio band named after the legendary Compass Point Studios, Nassau, Bahamas during the period of 1980–1982; Warm Leatherette, Nightclubbing and Living My Life. Private Life: The Compass Point Sessions includes a selection of tracks from the recording sessions for those albums. It collects what is generally regarded to be Jones' best work and also offers a well-researched essay included in the album sleeve. The album includes two previously unreleased songs from the Living My Life sessions: "Man Around the House" and a demo recording of Johnny Cash's 1963 classic "Ring of Fire". Other rarities are "Living My Life", a single-only song, not available on any previous album, and Joy Division's "She's Lost Control", released only as the B-side for "Private Life".

Private Life: The Compass Point Sessions contains long and extended version of Jones' hits, and although the CD booklet claims that these have not been issued before, most of them have in fact appeared on numerous CD re-issues around the world. Other tracks were remixed or re-edited by the PolyGram/Universal engineers in 1998 for this particular compilation, instead of using the many existing long or extended versions by original producers Chris Blackwell and Alex Sadkin that were released on vinyl in 1980–1982. The track "Living My Life" appears as an edited remix by Paul "Groucho" Smykle—dating from 1986, which the liner notes fail to mention. Another anomaly on the album is that it concludes with "Slave to the Rhythm", a track which was recorded in 1985, in London and with British producer Trevor Horn. Also the mix used, here renamed "Hot Blooded Version", is again an alternate 1998 re-mix/re-edit of the original 12" version entitled "Blooded".

For the Brazilian edition of the album, the "The Best of" title was added to the original artwork.

Track listing

Disc One

1. "Private Life" (Long Version) – 6:17
2. "Private Life" (Dub Version) – 8:04
3. "Love Is the Drug" (Long Version) – 8:38
4. "Breakdown" – 5:29
5. "Warm Leatherette" (Long Version) – 5:35
6. "The Hunter Gets Captured by the Game" (Long Version) – 6:44
7. "I've Done It Again" – 3:50
8. "Pars" (Long Version) – 5:41
9. "Pull Up to the Bumper" – 4:33
10. "Use Me" (Long Version) – 6:10
11. "She's Lost Control" (Long Version) – 8:23
12. "She's Lost Control" (Dub Version) – 8:38

Disc Two

1. "Walking in the Rain" – 4:28
2. "Cry Now, Laugh Later" – 5:01
3. "Nightclubbing" – 5:04
4. "The Apple Stretching" – 7:05
5. "Nipple to the Bottle" (12" Version) – 6:54
6. "My Jamaican Guy" (12" Version) – 7:01
7. "Feel Up" – 4:02
8. "I've Seen That Face Before (Libertango)" – 4:30
9. "Demolition Man" (Long Version) – 4:56
10. "Unlimited Capacity for Love" – 5:44
11. "Ring of Fire" (Demo) – 3:56
12. "Man Around the House" – 4:12
13. "Living My Life" (7" Version) – 3:31
14. "Slave to the Rhythm" (Hot Blooded Version) – 8:18

Note: 1998 re-edits of "Private Life", "Pars", "Use Me", "She's Lost Control" and "Walking in the Rain" are included.