The Strokes – Rare Version of “You Only Live Once” With Different Lyrics

As I write this (on Feb. 11 at approximately 1:00 p.m CT), The Strokes are getting together in New York City to start working on a follow-up to First Impressions of Earth.

To pay my respects to the best rock ‘n’ roll band on the planet, I figured that I should share some rare material from The Strokes that I’ve accumulated since First Impressions of Earth was released.  The following is the first such video.

Before you click play, here are a few details about what you’re about to hear:  This is a primitive version of The Strokes’s “You Only Live Once,” which one can hear with Julian Casablancas’s lyrics.  The band recorded the following version of YOLO during their Zane Lowe sessions, and it is fantastic.

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Also, be sure to check out the The Strokes Countdown tab for all of ISIX’s news on The Strokes and their upcoming album.

The Strokes Getting Back Together On Feb. 11 @ 2:00 p.m.

The Strokes are getting back together on February 11 at 2:00 p.m. to get started on their fourth album.

I must editorialize for a moment, and say: Thank God.  I can only listen to the 39 songs on the band’s three albums so many times.  But now, with all of the band in a good place from both a family and health perspective, the “saviors of pop” are officially coming back.

“We’re getting back together for the first time in two years, and it’s very exciting,” Albert Hammond Jr. told Rolling Stone. “We’re just going to start working on songs. I mean, sounds — we don’t even have the songs. We got to get back to playing first.”

One would have to think that the recording process this time around, compared to that of First Impressions of Earth, would be much faster.  The band has had three years to write new riffs, lyrics and melodies.  And the last time that Julian Casablancas, the band’s singer and main songwriter (he wrote all the tracks on Is This It and Room on Fire), got this type of time was before the industry-changing Is This It.

With that being said, Hammond says The Strokes are simply getting back together in mid-February.

“Right now, it’s just February 11th at 2 o’clock we’re going to the studio to hang out and play music,” Hammond said. “I just know the date and time.”

The most underrated thing that fans of The Strokes should keep an eye out for (and check back here daily to learn more about) is who the band picks to produce the record.  My guess is that the band, and this is purely speculation, goes forward from what First Impressions of Earth was, in terms of the sound, and doesn’t revert back to the primitive style of their first two records.

All that I hope is that The Strokes don’t turn into The Killers and use saxaphones in the attempt to copy U2 and Bruce Springsteen.

UPDATE: Starting on Feb. 11, Is This It X will post unknown/unheard tracks from the band each weekday until the songs run out.  Do you want to hear the Alone Together demo?  You Only Live Once with Julian Casablancas’ original lyrics?  How about a version of Hard to Explain that sounds like a Christmas song?  If so, check back on Feb. 11.

In the meantime, enjoy Triumph the Insult Comic Dog interacting with The Strokes…