"This Is Happening": the third album by LCD Soundsystem

presale was a joke. pretty much sold out within 2 minutes.

All those people waiting in line at Mercury Lounge in 10 degrees this morning was a joke.

brrrrrr

"This 10 Degree Weather Is Happening": waiting in line to see the final concert for the third by LCD Soundsystem

http://sickmouthy.wordpress.com/2011/02/10/the-original-bits-arent-good/

smh. do you people really only enjoy the first two minutes of this song? it's just the build up for the good part.

also horribly wrong about bittersweet symphony

My appreciation of Dance Yrself Clean isn't ruined by The Pool. I think it would be nicer if the bands LCD are stealing from were credited but lots of things would make this world nicer. Not a big deal.

Is that all at me? Because I definitely don't only enjoy the first two minutes of DYC, nor meant to express that anywhere; it's my favourite off TIH, and one of my favourite LCD tracks fullstop.

Horribly wrong about BSS in what regard? I don't think I expressed an opinion regarding its quality...

xpost.

What would be excellent is if just after the farewell show JM released a compilation of all the tracks that he'd homaged/lifted so that obscure folk like The Pool could get some recognition and $$$, LCD fans would discover some good stuff, and the whole obvious-referencing side of LCD could be taken to its logical (and most candid) conclusion.

I'd certainly buy a copy of that mythical compilation.

Re: Nick's blog, I remember a sampling special on Radio 1 where somebody (Jo Whiley maybe?) told the whole story of the lawsuit and said the Verve had been outrageously swindled and that the song BSS sounded nothing like it really. Then she played The Last Time and for a few seconds I assumed it was BSS. It was so blatant, and so demolished the DJ's argument, that I actually laughed out loud.

That compilation idea is great.

I don't think the orchestral version of the stones song is particularly interesting. Don't think that were it released on a 90s stones album it would end up being one of the biggest hits of the decade. the verve made something out of not much - and while bss might fall apart without the sample it's far from the only thing the song is built on. it's got nothing to do with the vocal melody. xp

Bitter Sweet Symphony doesn't really HAVE a vocal melody.

If you stripped the vocals off BSS and mixed/mastered it in a 60s rather than 90s fashion, you'd have the start of the instrumental version of The Last Time, looped.

Just because you play the same drumbeat rather than outright sampling it doesn't mean it's not still the same drumbeat. Even Mccabe's guitar doesn't add much in terms of melody / layering / structure / texture / etc. I love BSS, think it does something amazing, but it's totally and utterly built on that sample / steal.

violins add a lot!

And the main violin hook is from The Last Time, as I recall, as are the main violin chords.

But then I remember hearing the orchestral version of The Rolling Stones’ The Last Time for the first time, the Andrew Loog Oldham version that Bittersweet Symphony sampled. I’d read something which suggested that all The Verve had borrowed was a chord sequence played by the string section, that the drum pattern and main string hook, the two most vital identifying parts of the song, were their own work, Ashcroft’s own work, and the sample was buried and barely audible, and that it was pure avarice that made Loog Oldham seize songwriting credits for himself, Jagger and Richards.

Rubbish. That whole sweeping string hook, the double-thwack rhythm of the drums, the stately pace, the swell and poise of Bittersweet Symphony all came directly from The Last Time.

Sorry dude but this is just factually incorrect, I just listened to the Loog Oldham track again and the most obvious memorable and distinctive hook in BSS (the violins over the top) aren't there. The drum beat is different as well.

(We shouldn't be having this discussion, or even the "what is musical theft?" discussion in 2011, but that's by the bye).

(Probably not, no.)

Just listening to it again on Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6Y9qQnIPdk), and 48 seconds in the drumbeat, after wandering around a bit, falls into the same double-thwack pattern. The main string sequence is there but not the actual riff, to be fair. The bells, though, are totally ripped off both by McCabe's guitar line and, in the extended version, by the bell-laden middle section. The bassline's the same too. The piano line at about 1:40 is ripped off too.

Which is all to say that they steal more than just a tiny inconsequential bit that you'd never notice.

had this argument a million times but one thing no one ever seems to remember is that tge Stones ripped the Last Time off from the Staples Singers btw.

uncredited too!

Haha, I didn't know that!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1jGF-6bFpI

(early gospel Staple Singers some of the best music ever btw)

I like to think JM would be amused at this thread devolving into a general discussion of plagiarism.

never knew that about the last time, that adds a hilarious dimension to this

pretty sure Allen Klein knew about it fwiw

Oldham Orchestra track is about 1 million times better than the Verve rip. Primarily because there's not idiot sputtering about how hard life is when you're a millionaire.

In fairness, he wasn't actually a millionaire when that song was recorded, far from it probably.

again with the all musicians are millionaires thing

I'm pretty sure that prior to BSS Richard Ashcroft was not particularly rich

xp

Oh come on, don't you remember those press photos circa A Storm In Heaven with the band gathered in Sir Ashcroft's drawing room? He wore a fine top hat and monocle back in those days.

Is the rest of that andrew loog oldham orchestra album any good?

Regardless of whether he had a million dollars in the bank at that point or not, his tale of woe over a stolen track rings hollow.

why?

"tale of woe"? what song are you listening to?

surely the "slave to money" line is made even MORE ironic given the background/history of the song

Millionaires are only allowed to sing about how happy they are being millionaires. That's pop law.

This is derailing the discussion further, but ok, i'll explain. BTW, I realize this is a personal hang-up and not a universal argument, so I don't expect you to agree. It's the same problem I have with Trent Reznor and Morrissey. In the early days I could buy their anger and isolation but once they got huge, that type of lyric just didn't make sense. I greatly prefer instrumental music to vocal tracks as well, so there's that too. But in BSS I translate the chorus 'it's a bittersweet symphony, this life' to 'it sucks to be a rockstar doing tons of coke and banging groupies'.

yeah but you can't find a good melody for that sort of lyric

look at Kanye now.

To be fair, BSS was the song that made Ashcroft a massive coke-snorting groupie-banging rock star (if he ever banged groupies). (As opposed to banging the girlfriends of guys in bands he was touring with / ripping off.) They really weren't huge before that song.

yeah thats why i dont understand brotherlovesdubs comments

It makes more sense if BLD is an American; the impact of that song was such that I assumed they'd been massive in the UK for a while and I was just now noticing them.

yeah I dunno this image of Ashcroft is totally wrong/made up sorry

also just seems odd to me to assume that all lyrics (esp by someone like MORRISSEY wtf) are somehow first-person narratives

History hit number 8 in the charts after they split, but they really weren't big.; that was their only hit I think Dickie just acted as if they should be.

Similar talk of author-as-narrator-(or-not) in the PJ thread.

I think it's touching, the belief that people wit fame and money don't feel angry and isolated, especially someone with a personality as toxic as Morrissey.

Optimistic:

http://cgi.ebay.com/2-TIXs-4-2-LCD-Soundsystem-132-MSG-/290525489357?pt=US_Tickets_all_in_one&hash=item43a4ab28cd

I prefer instrumentals to vocal tracks. That's the bottom line here.