Primal Scream - Come Together

We all have those songs that send shivers down the spine no matter how many times we hear them, right? In my personal music tastes, Come Together is firmly near the top of said list! At 10:25 in length, it is very much one of the centerpieces of Primal Scream's acclaimed Screamadelica album and its also the longest track on the record. It was the first song to be recorded for the groups seminal Screamdelica album and comes in two versions. There's the original version mixed by Terry Farely which featured Bobby Gillespie singing and it featured on American versions of the album (the full length of that particular mix clocking in at 8:06 with a shorter version being released as a single). The superior version in my opinion though is the more commonly known version which is a largely instrumental based gospel house track which was produced by Andrew Weatherall. The UK version doesn't feature Bobby Gillespie singing during the track at all, the only two different vocals to be found in the song are an excerpt of a speech given by Jesse Jackson at the 1972 Wattstax concert in Los Angeles. I know it wasn't written for the track, but the line in the speech "Today you will discover gospel, and rhythm and blues, and jazz.... all those are just labels. We know that music is music!" is one of my favourite lines in a piece of music ever. The second set of vocals is a repeated female vocal line, gospel in style, of "Come together as one" which lasts for the second half of the track. It's quite a simple arrangement really, the first four minutes or so see's the track building up, until it breaks down when the gospel vocals kick in. The part were they do kick in is absolutely beautiful though and not only is it maybe the highlight of an incredibly good album, its also one of my favourite moments in any song ever. The message of the song is incredibly simple, but its also very beautiful I think. I love how the arrangement isn't overly complicated, it makes the message of the song that much more powerful. A gorgeous song from an amazing album!