Blur tracks poll - the RESULTS thread

xp oooh yes please

AA - Blur are basically a convergence of these two bands. You need both of them in your life.

I thought I knew Blur well and ended up realizing I wasn't as familiar with them (at least by song titles alone) as I thought I was. A Boo Radleys poll might as well be conducted in Arabic, because I won't know ANYTHING (even though there was a time I listened to them semi-regularly). XTC or Pavement (or maybe even The Cure) would be good general interest options, but I'm about to be occupied with the 50s Tracks poll and I need to let my brains rest up.

AA - Blur are basically a convergence of these two bands. You need both of them in your life.

?!!!!!! Onto it.

Dunno where the Boos fit it, but Blur and Pavement were members of a mutual admiration society for the last half of the 90s.

Must have missed both Pavement's and BR's cockerney roll out the barrel knees up mother brown apples and pears phases.

I think I appreciate mid-period Blur for the same reasons I love the Boo Radleys - fantastic anthemic singles, really solid albums, silly/crazy b-sides, songs about longing and despair masked by chirpy instrumentation and big choruses. Think I rate the Boos slightly over Blur, but both were equally important to me in their times.

Must have missed both Pavement's and BR's cockerney roll out the barrel knees up mother brown apples and pears phases.

― England's banh mi army (ledge), Friday, 3 June 2011 11:02 (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

Ah yes, that famous Blur album where they covered only Harry Champion songs and played everything on honky tonk piano.

http://images.wikia.com/lyricwiki/images/a/a9/Blur_-_Sunday_Sunday_(Version_2).jpg

This one.

AA - things to start with:

Boo Radleys - Giant Steps
Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain

Start with those IMO and work around. Both are from circa '93, both are sophomore albums where the band moved on from their initial shoegaze/lo-fi phase into their own particular sound. Both are also top five albums of the '90s for me.

Okay, I might do a Boos poll, but I'm not a very good statistician

I read that as do a Bros poll - would be right into that

I find it funny that so many people base their perception of Blur on a couple of b-side parodies from an EP that came out during a lull in popularity for the band. Damon really got slagged off for being "mockney", but listen to pretty much any band and listen to those accents - Liam Gallagher's a case in hand, emphasising his Manc tones to the point of preposterousness.

both are sophomore albums

a) SECOND albums!
ii) Giants Steps is the Boo's third.

Cheers DL, I'll get stuck in.

xpost
yeah, but no one's got Ichabod & I ('cept me of course) so I count Giant Steps as the second album.

I thought sophomore meant 'second' or 'after the debut' (?) - forgive me if I've been using this word incorrectly all my life.

no, it does, i just hate it! we have a perfectly good word for 'second' already.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Single artist polls I'd like to see:

a. Bowie
b. Kate Bush
c. Pet Shop Boys and related productions
d. St Et.

Especially PSB and St Etienne as they're similar to Blur in that they have so much scattered around in odd places, b-sides, soundtracks etc and would be more difficult to predict than Bowie or Bush.

no one's got Ichabod & I ('cept me of course)

I have

Me too.

My copy is weird though - the sleeve looks genuine, but the record itself has a slightly-outsized hole in the middle and no label. Actually I think it got stolen a couple of years ago.

I saw one of those for Lou Reed's "Take no prisoners" album, they are for putting into jukebokes, possibly.

(the hole is the wrong size for those 45rpm adaptors, I believe)

CTRL+F for "Pulp" - no results. Can we do a Pulp one?? :D

NoTime - thank you! Going to rock out to the playlist ASAP!

At the height of the PAvement phase, Blur were also spending a bit of time with Weezer and this Gary Numan cover was the result which I haven't heard in a few years but I remember as kind of fun/silly (aka exactly why I loved Blur so much)

http://youtu.be/A9FQdYEq2nA

That link says Blur & Weezer but it was technically Blur & Matt Sharp.

aw i missed the last couple of days and also my type-y in-ny thing has gone weird also fuck you some dude also fuck you b-side massive also i haven't read this shit also what the fuck has happened to my interface will be smaxking the kids round the head also fuck you b-side massive anyhoo top poll well done NBS

6 Badhead 340
14 To The End 238
16 Trimm Trabb 220
21 Yuko & Hiro 190
23 He Thought Of Cars 181
25 Death of a Party 168
27 Oily Water 149

pleased to see all of ^ these make the top 25 (er,27). if I'd remembered to submit a ballot, each would have had a little extra momentum. coolest surprise was seeing Badhead land just outside the top 5. That would have been my #1, I think, unless I decided to go w/ He Thought of Cars.

digging a a lot of the b-sides I had not heard (or had forgotten). b-sides I would have rated highly: Peach, Magpie.

I generally like how eclectic the bottom half of this list turned out, tho I'm a bit o_O @ all the love for various noodly clunkers from the detritus half of 13.

this was my list btw:

blue jeans
all your life
popscene
this is a low
beetlebum
sing
tender
young and lovely
resigned
end of the century
theme from an imaginary film
trimm trabb
polished stone
1992
advert
he thought of cars
you're so great
girls and boys
bone bag
so you
tame
battle

all the love for various noodly clunkers from the detritus half of 13.

eating my words as I listen to some of these for the first time in forever.. some have aged much better than I'd expected (optigan 1, 1992)

i resent the use of the word noodly but they are all shit no doubt

imo Blur (album) was always the bridge between britpop and 13. They knew where they wanted to go but hadn't yet the balls to go all the way.

They wanted to go a bit rubbish? ;-)

gaaaagh

This was my ballot (I think - I might have swapped one or two around, but I can't be bothered to double check):

1 Badhead
2 Coffee & TV
3 Beetlebum
4 Bugman
5 Mellow Song
6 Oily Water
7 Caravan
8 Clover Over Dover
9 Country Sad Ballad Man
10 End Of A Century
11 Out Of Time
12 To The End
13 Tracy Jacks
14 It Could Be You
15 Death Of A Party
16 For Tomorrow
17 Miss America
18 Magic America
19 On The Way To The Club
20 Resigned
21 Jets
22 This Is A Low

1. Yuko & Hiro

2. Out Of Time

3. Chemical World

4. End Of A Century

5. Coffee & TV

6. This Is A Low

7. On Your Own

8. He Thought Of Cars

9. Tracy Jacks

10. Entertain Me

11. Badhead

12. Best Days

13. Tender

14. Magic America

15. We've Got A File On You

16. There's No Other Way

17. London Loves

18. It Could Be You

19. Beetlebum

20. Stereotypes

21. Girls & Boys

22. For Tomorrow

The Good, the Bad & the Queen: POLL (relevant)

As a result of doing this poll, I've temporarily* fallen out of 2011 and I can't stop listening to Blur.

*I hope

Me too. It's so great!

Me too! That's the single best thing about this poll.

aaaaagh xp

:D

Yeah i've been playing them a lot since this poll too. Along with all the talk of a possible Boo Radleys poll and my Suede reissues arriving in the post I've completely gone back to the 90's this week. It's been kind of great.

Glad it's not just me

Just got two tickets for the Olympics closing gig in Hyde Park. Woo-hoo

Yes, I have 4 tix.

:*( happy for you guys

I need to break out some NO hits, and a Specials disc, for the kids' terms of reference.

No surprises to see that 'This Is A Low' was up there in this poll, it's always been somewhat of a fan favourite, although it wouldn't even make my Blur Top 20.

holy fuck

http://blur.co.uk/blur21/

and furthermore..
4 CDs of Blur rarities:

Gathering together a massive 65 previously unreleased tracks (in all over 3 ½ hours of previously unreleased material) the four rarities CDs exclusive to The Blur Box are a treasure-trove of tracks selected from the Blur vault and band member’s own archives. The rarities discs start with Seymour (Blur’s previous band name) demos and rehearsals showing the track writing process of early Blur songs, as well as the earliest known recordings of many other Blur classics. Continuing chronologically into the Modern Life Is Rubbish era, CD two of the rarities includes demos of tracks that never went on to be fully recorded and have remained unheard to this day (Beached Whale and Pap Pop) and the aborted Andy Partridge (XTC) session, recorded for Modern Life Is Rubbish before the band returned to the producer of their debut record, Stephen Street. CD three of the rarities covers the Parklife and The Great Escape era, bringing together more demo versions, a snap-shot of a band enjoying themselves in the studio with the two takes of Rednecks, the Alex James penned Alex’s Song now returned to its intended speed, the never fully recorded or released Cross Channel and the vocal version of previously instrumental Eine Kleine Lift Musik, entitled here as Hope You Find Your Suburb. The fourth and final CD of Blur rarities covers the remainder of the band’s career, presenting for the first time a jam from Mayfair Studios of the track Battle, a Bill Laswell session at Sarm Studios (which gives the first indication of the direction Damon would later take with Gorillaz), the infamously named Sir Elton John’s Cock, other never-developed session recordings and a collection of later non-album released Blur tracks.

CD15 - RARITIES 1 (SEYMOUR & LEISURE ERA):
1. Dizzy (Seymour Rehearsal & Demo)
2. Mixed Up (Seymour Rehearsal & Demo)
3. Birthday (Seymour Demo) *
4. Sing (To Me) (Sing Demo) (Fan Club Single)
5. Fool (Seymour 4-Track Demo) *
6. She’s So High (Seymour Rehearsal) *
7. Won’t Do It (Demo) (Fan Club Single)
8. I Know (Falconer Studio Demo) *
9. Repetition (Falconer Studio Demo) *
10. High Cool (7” Master) *
11. Always (I’m Fine Early Version) *
12. Come Together (Demo) (Fan Club Single)
13. I’m All Over (Demo) *
14. Wear Me Down (Demo) *
* PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED

CD16 - RARITIES 2 (MODERN LIFE IS RUBBISH ERA):
1. I Love Her (Alt Version) *
2. Popscene (1991 Demo) *
3. Beached Whale (4-Track Demo) *
4. Death Of A Party (Demo) (Fan Club Single)
5. Pap Pop (4-Track Demo) *
6. Pressure On Julian (Demo) *
7. Colin Zeal (Demo) *
8. Sunday Sunday (Demo) *
9. Never Clever
10. Advert (Demo) *
11. Star Shaped (Demo) *
12. She Don’t Mind (Blue Jeans demo) *
13. Coping (Andy Partridge version) *
14. Sunday Sleep (Sunday Sunday Andy Partridge Version) *
15. 7 Days (Andy Partridge Version) *
16. Kazoo (Turn It Up Early Version) *
17. The Wassailing Song (The 7” Giveaway at Hibernian Club, Fulham)
18. When The Cows Come Home (demo) *
19. For Tomorrow (Mix 1 – Early Demo) *
20. Magpie (Early Demo) *
* PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED

CD17 - RARITIES 3 (PARKLIFE & THE GREAT ESCAPE ERA):
1. Parklife (Demo) *
2. Clover Over Dover (Demo) *
3. Jubilee (Demo) *
4. One A Minute (One Born Every Minute Demo) *
5. Badhead (Demo) *
6. Far Out (Electric Version) *
7. The Debt Collector (Demo) *
8. Trouble In The Message Centre (Demo) *
9. Rednecks (Take 1) *
10. Rednecks (Take 2) *
11. Alex’s Song (Demo) *
12. Cross Channel Love (Home Demo) *
13. Ernold Same (Demo) *
14. Saturday Morning (Demo) *
15. Hope You Find Your Suburb (A.K.A. Eine Kleine Lift Musik Vocal Demo) *
16. Rico (Fade Away Demo) *
17. Bored House Wives (Entertain Me Early Version) *
* PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED

CD18 - RARITIES 4 (BLUR, 13, BEST OF & THINK TANK ERA):
1. Beetlebum (Demo) *
2. On Your Own (Mario Caldato Jr Mix) *
3. Woodpigeon Song (Original Full Length) *
4. Battle (Jam, Mayfair Studios 11 August 1999) *
5. Caramel (Ambient Version) *
6. So You (Alternative Version) *
7. Squeezebox (Music Is My Radar Alternative Version) *
8. Jawbone (Black Book Alternative Version) *
9. “1” (Bill Laswell Session, 2000) *
10. “3” (Bill Laswell Session, 2000) *
11. Sir Elton John’s Cock *
12. Avoid The Traffic *
13. Money Makes Me Crazy (Deepest Darkest Devon Mix)
14. Don't Bomb When You’re The Bomb *
15. Nutter *
16. Piano *
17. Kissin’ Time
18. Fool's Day
19. Track tbc
* PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED

Andy Partridge versions of Modern Life.. tracks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So amazing. I never did get their first box set...