Sixteen Days/Gathering Dust in an EP released by This Mortal Coil, a supergroup on the 4AD label, headed up by label founder and president Ivo Watts-Russell. It was released in 1983, after Ivo had tried to convince Modern English to record a medley of "Sixteen Days" and "Gathering Dust," two of the band's early songs with which they closed out their live sets. The band declined, but Ivo decided to assemble a group of musicians to record the medley. Members of Cocteau Twins, Colourbox and Modern English itself, along with vocalist Gordon Sharp of Cindytalk made up the band that recorded the title track of the EP.
Elizabeth Fraser and Robin Guthrie of the Cocteau Twins recorded the intended b-side, a cover of Tim Buckley's "Song to the Siren." Ivo was pleased enough with the results that "Siren" was made the A-side of the 7" release.
Ivo has expressed displeasure with how the "Sixteen Days/Gathering Dust" medley turned out, and it has become somewhat of a rarity. A 4AD compilation EP, only available through the iTunes Music Store in 2006, was the only re-release of the song until it was included in a box set of all This Mortal Coil recordings, entitled Dust And Guitars, that 4AD released in 2011.
Famous quotes containing the words sixteen, days, gathering and/or dust:
“If you think that nobility consists of having sixteen ancestors rather than merit, great Prince, then you may—and you may also praise or condemn me.”
—Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872)
“Love is cheap. You can buy it anywhere. Lives are cheap. It’s money that’s dear. You have to work days and sit up nights thinking how to make money.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)
“This was once
a city among men, a gathering together of spirit.
It was measured by the Lord and found wanting.”
—Robert Duncan (b. 1919)
“The sun rarely shines in history, what with the dust and confusion; and when we meet with any cheering fact which implies the presence of this luminary, we excerpt and modernize it.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)