Blur: Classic Or Dud

Well, it's like "Bad Head", the song/tune/etc is all fine, but by verse two he's just repeating verse one with some of the words switched round, and ends with getting "a touch of flu", I think "Damon, why did you bother? Oh yeah, that's right, you didn't!"

Beery slurs

now life's a

Blur

I completely agree that lyrics aren't Damon's strong point. For me the most fascinating aspect of his songwriting is the way that he manages to weld catchy melodies to unorthodox chord progressions. I think, overall, his keyboard playing is the most underrated thing about him in the sense that I very rarely hear it being talked about - the aforementioned 'Badhead', for example, and the harpsichord on 'Clover Over Dover'...

agreed

When the first LP came out I had a job writing ad copy for an American music mag - and they gave me a tranche of Damon's lyrics as if they were GREAT ART, to help me write the Blur-b. MegaLOLs shared with the boyfriend at the time about the Geeeenius of Damon as I declaimed lyrics down the phone in 'grade school teacher recites poetry' voice.

Please more britpop era salacious gossip and hearsay. Wife and I getting much lols from stories about Damon being a tit.

Re: the aforementioned "drink pepsi" line - that line has always rankled with me, and it annoys me further that it happens so early on, during the mood-setting intro bit of the song. However I do genuinely like the Annie Hall bit later on.

And if Suzy is talking about Leisure there, yeah, his lyrics were epically bad on that. Here's a quote from Select's big song-by-song Blur feature from '95:

In 12 songs, the word "you" appeared 82 times; he used "day"/"say"/"play" rhymes on a shameless 35 occasions.

And of course, there's "Kazoo, kazoo, you are mine / Why do you turn your back on me?"

The first time I listened to Leisure I got one of the worst horrible splitting headaches I've ever had in my life, and I blame it at least in part on the lyrics.

hes gotten miles better at fitting his words into nice-sounding lines. in fact, i would say hes now good at it. i always found it weird that he tended to be better at it with choruses than verses. no one has ever been worse at it than the manics imo

Best lyrical moment on "Leisure," courtesy "Slow Down":

"Aaaaa...aaaa...aaaaaaahhh
Ooooo....ooo....ooooooo"

Admittedly that was always during the part of the song where I assumed they were parodying Ride, which seemed spot on.

haha i never mind lalas or oohs. im a huge ride fan also

I don't mind Leisure's lyrics so much because he's so obviously not trying.

Turrican OTM about Albarn's keyboard work. As a young enthusiast I'd boggle at his credits -- the range of them.

i find it really really interesting that damon and brett had this (perhaps one-sided) half subtextual half explicit fight going over who was more gay? it kind of blows my mind. "i'm gayer than brett anderson" as a brag from the lead singer of one of the most popular bands in the world. totally just generic old macho one-upmanship, but interesting that that's the form it took

I felt, in retrospect, all of the Suede album was about Justine going off with Damon and Brett doing a "yeah, he's so pretty might fancy him myself" winding-up..

so did Brett ever experiment with men or were his claims part of his shtick?

he described himself as "a bisexual who's never had a homosexual experience" bitd iirc

yeah that's what I'm referring to

so did Brett ever experiment with men or were his claims part of his shtick?

If the Love & Poison book is anything to go by it's a resounding no.

I have that MM issue around where he said that, I should dig it up.

tbh always got the impression that brett's "bisexuality" was similar to girls who 'lez up' in front of dudes but aren't actually remotely lesbian. brett always seemed attracted to playing with most pedestrian ideas of congression (cf having junkie chic models in their early videos) which is why they've been mostly zzzzz to me

on a related note, saw bernard suede in my local supermarket a few weeks ago, he has a very brett haircut

(ps above when i wrote congression i meant transgression)

I think I saw Brett in PadStation about 6 months ago. Nice suit, totally normal looking.

(Wasn't sure at the time, but he had the 'ohno he's seen me, oh oh' look about him, but hey whoever...)

(then I saw him interviewed on some "the way we were" type show, and it was definitely him)

Well, he's a new dad as of about two months ago.

Think Brett was just trying to express a kind of "well, who can say if one is 100% straight" statement but it just came out like "i'm a twat"

The cover of the issue that comment appeared in:

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l9b3d6taqc1qbqb1do1_500.jpg

From an interview just last year...

When you said you were a bisexual who has never slept with a man was it more about empathy with your fellow man?

Brett Anderson: That’s exactly what it's about. In fact that statement - which has come to haunt me, was taken completely out of context and I was actually talking about songwriting and how I use my imagination to go within other people's bodies. I'm basically a writer, but people always think songs are written in the first person and I'm a writer of fiction sometimes.

"People call their dongs 'inflatable ones,' yes?"

It's alright Brett, nobody actually believed you.

And also wrt to the magazine cover that Ned posted above, from a Cash For Questions interview with Q Magazine in 1999...

How much would you pay for the negatives of that first Suede picture with you in the stripey top and Justine wearing the tracksuit bottoms?

Brett: Ha ha! Why, have they got it? Is that from a photographer? I don't think that photo is that bad. There are some worse ones. There's a cover of the Melody Maker where I was with the girl from Silverfish, and I'd pay quite a lot for those negatives.

I don't think I realized until just now how much Brett looks like a floppy-haired version of Pete Campbell.

The one time i saw Suede play, a couple New York boys went onstage and kissed Brett.

I think I've already mentioned the Blur show where I dry-humped the guy in front of me for an hour... He was a real 'power bottom.'

I don't think I realized until just now how much Brett looks like a floppy-haired version of Pete Campbell.

More like 'tall Peter Tatchell':

http://www.suffolkhands.org.uk/files/1/Peter%20Tatchell_0.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwOipTXvNNo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cc12dU1u0Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ds-miAJnQjE

Oh, and...

http://www.nme.com/news/damon-albarn/76364

Albarn went on to say that he gave up the drug with the aid of just two aspirin tablets

?

Indeed. He's receiving a kicking on NME's Facebook page at the moment over that.

xxp every word of that interview makes me want to punch a wall

No, he fucking didn't. He went to Harley Street and got his blood rinsed.

This will be the same Damon Albarn that went to town on Courtney Love and Brett Anderson's habits in interview and then asked for the transcript after publication because he didn't even try to put that info off the record and got all mardy about it.

It really is a complete fucking journalistic failure on behalf of whoever wrote that news story that they didn't even remotely call that aspirin bit out as bullshit or provide any kind of alternative voice, like, you know, someone who knows anything about medicine, in that story.

He really does continue to get a free pass in a way that is grossly disproportional to his talent.

Somewhere in Marin County, Justine Frischmann is facepalming.

Was his pre-Seymour band called Evil Gazebo

He really does continue to get a free pass in a way that is grossly disproportional to his talent.

this.

xp Why would they call him out? It's not a thinkpiece. It's just a straight report of the juiciest quotes from the Q interview.

I was surprised too. Personally I'd need at least four aspirin.

Was his pre-Seymour band called Evil Gazebo

― PaulTMA, Thursday, March 27, 2014 7:35 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

HAHA!!

how easy is it get your 'blood rinsed'? not being sarcastic i just wonder if this is available on the NHS or is it one of those rock stars only deals?