Blur tracks poll - the RESULTS thread

(xp: cheers, Moka)

So the same amount of people voted for 'sing' as 'century', 'sing' had 3 first place votes to none for ' century' yet ended up with less points. 'Century' must have got a fair few top 5's.

The top three are well, well clear of the rest:

3. Beetlebum
(19 votes, 469 points)

When I first heard 'beetlebum' on the radio i was really disappointed, of course turns out they'd faded it out after 3 mins. The last 2 mins of it are so so great!!

It's a faultless record. It's also the least-successful #1 of all time. Fact.

When I first heard it I was astounded. I think it's the only Blur single I bought. I just played it over and over until the album came out.

The video is so beautiful as well.

So glad to see Beetlebum get recognition. For years I thought it was just me. Was it that people expected template britpop and didn't get it?

Anyway, such a sublime piece of songwriting.

Oh YES! The video!

Beetlebum is one of the greatest number one singles I can think of, it deserves to be this high.

Hope that For Tomorrow is number one.

This was the actually the first Blur song I ever heard (caught the video late one night on MTV), and I worked my way back from there. Huge turning point in the course of my musical tastes.

The first time I heard (of) it, I wondered if it was a Spike Jones reference...

(I was going to post a youtube of the video I have on VHS, but it seems not to be on!)

Not this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAXnqjUfal4

No, Spike Jones'"WilliamTell", it goes into a horse race commentary, and the knackered old nag that eventually wins is called Beetlebum (or Feedlebaum, or some such)

http://www.ballardian.com/images/drew_westway.jpg
http://nwsix.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/primrose-hill2.jpg

2. For Tomorrow
(18 votes, 2 first places, 490 points)

http://www.fatbadgers.co.uk/Maps/seaareas.gif

A top 3 of 2 opening tracks and a closing track. Beetlebum & For Tomorrow are both a hell of a way to start an album for sure.

1. This Is A Low
(21 votes, 3 first places, 585 points)

I love 'For Tomorrow', and it captured a moment quite unexpectedly when it looked like they were all washed up. It's a lovely record all through. The incredible, unexpected high bits (what are they? strings? backing vocals?) earlier on are so thrilling, but the extended oompah section brings it down a tiny bit.

This Is A Low was my #1. Feels so canonical to place it such, but really it still has the power to choke me up from time to time. Not quite sure what it stirs in me cos i'm not at all patriotic and don't consciously spend time thinking about England or its place in the world etc For all that this song just hits me and i found myself embarrassingly emotional when they played it at Hyde Park. A fitting #1.
Thanks to NBS for doing this and everyone who voted and came along for the ride.

No arguments from me about the no.1 - astounding song.

Great job, and thanks to those who, unlike me, got around to voting.

Yes - fabulous idea nbs, and great fun. Many, many thanks!

Yes, thanks NBS.

tbh I never realized before the other poll so many people loved "This Is a Low" besides me. Seems obvious now, though. It's great.

thanks a ton NBS

Cheers all.

Time for bed now, but I'll post the full results tomorrow and maybe analyse it to see which album got the most votes.

Definitely going to make a mix of these songs and place you on my crush shortlist for your effort, NBS! cheers!

I've played and loved For Tomorrow so many times that I know and can recite all the drowned-out words in that last bit. So, great song, great playing, incredible production and a prime example of music as portraiture – like so much Blur of this era, it feels like the place it portrays. In my head I can see all of it actually playing out in west London.

Cheers, NBS. A thoroughly enjoyable poll.

Oh and yes, This is a Low, not one of my favourites but still glorious.

xps 'Clover Over Dover' does that more for me, pandemic, so it got my vote instead - but This Is A Low is definitely of the same cloth. I don't know, there's a shared, understated common experience that it taps into and that's what does it I think. There's also a touch of the divine in its sense of scale, using the weather to be both epic and intimate simultaneously, that is very touching. Kate Bush's 'Hello Earth' is an even more astonishing example of the effect, I could maybe bracket the two together a little.

It doesn't do to analyse these things too deeply, probably, but they were definitely onto something there.

I didn't have the slightest doubt that that would be the 1 and 2 btw, it's just somehow obvious that those are where they were really tapping the vein.

This has been a great poll, I'm going to be listening to nothing but Blur for the next few weeks. Thanks for putting it together NBS.

I found the "deluxe" editions on the blur official blog, although the Think Tank and 13 ones are gorn.

I always meant to get around to adding the later singles to my blur singles boxbag

Testament to Blur's greatness that I didn't even vote for This Is a Low but still think it's majorly worthy of being #1.

Great poll! I'd love to see the XTC one happen too...

Had no idea "Beetlebum" was so loved.

This was a AWESOME poll, btw. One ILM's all-time finest. Cheers to all involved.

*One of

It's so wonderful to see probably moer than half of MLIR in this poll. That vindicates the album as a brilliant collection of songs as well as being a sterling work in its own right. I have run out of superlatives.

That's the bit I skip TO!

# "Battle" – 7:43
# "Mellow Song" – 3:56
# "Trailerpark" – 4:26
# "Caramel" – 7:38
# "Trimm Trabb" – 5:37

Trailerpark aside, this is the best run on the album.

wtf I like trailerpark.. besides that, otm.. i've always loved the middle section of 13

Brilliant poll. Like other people have said, will be listening to a lot of Blur over the next while!

Really demonstrates how many good songs they have - at first I thought I wouldn't be able to come up with 22 for my ballot, but there are plenty in this list that I wished I'd included...

Would appreciate further nerdery, including album-by-album breakdown. Suspect Parklife wins on points?

cheers NBS, great poll. Can't muck with the results too much, although it must contain some major omissions.

just realised I didn't say thanks to NBS. Thanks NBS!

My only picks that didn't place were two Parklife album tracks, Far Out and The Debt Collector. God I love that album.

Thanks NBS for organizing the poll!

I'm not surprised that Beetlebum finished as high as it did. Perhaps more than any other Blur song, it's gotten a lot better with age.

I didn't realize so many people really liked For Tomorrow though.

My non-charting pics, and where I placed them:

5	Bustin' + Dronin'
12	Swallows In The Heatwave
15	M.O.R.
18	Music Is My Radar
22	Day Upon Day (Live)

11 Charmless Man
12 Music Is My Radar
15 Lot 105
20 London Loves

This poll just makes me realise that despite being a rabid Blur fan for many years, I don't actually like the side of this band that most fans seem to love.

But that said, I didn't get the time to vote so I can't complain.

which side is the one 'most fans seem to love' ?

Funny how two of the highest non-album tracks (Blue Jeans and Badhead) sound like two sides of the same coin somehow.

It strikes me that Badhead sounds really old fashioned and charming these days - the last song of its kind in a way. Just something about it screams eighties twee pop like St Etienne or Young Marble Giants or someone like that (not too up on this era of indie tbh).