Let's talk about The Streets' modern classic A Grand Don't Come For Free

Рет қаралды 8,550

Күн бұрын

00:00 - Intro: UK rave culture, the sound of a changing Britain
04:05 How US hip-hop inspired Mike Skinner to create his own brand of UK rap
06:12 Mike Skinner on why he spoke in his own accent and lexicon
07:12 Writing and Recording: the influence of country music, Hollywood scriptwriting
12:11 Why Chris Martin was left off the album version of Dry Your Eyes
13:54 Legacy: How AGDCFF inspired a generation of British spoken-word bands
At the turn of the millennium, the UK music scene was changing. Britpop was on its last legs, and club and rave culture was on the rise. Breakbeats and speed garage was increasingly heard not just in South London nightclubs, but on pirate radio stations and at raucous house parties across the nation. Perhaps the turning point really came when the 19-year old, East London-born Dizzee Rascal won the Mercury Music Prize, a gong typically reserved for guitar bands.
Out of this country in flux emerged Mike Skinner, a workaday everyman, who stunned the nation with his 2002 debut album Original Pirate Material. It was a record that synthesised the sounds of UK garage with the sounds of Skinner's idols over on the East Coast of the US. For his next album, 2004's A Grand Don't Come For Free, Skinner would devour books on classic songwriting and screenwriting and listen on repeat to songs like Jimmy Webb's country and western classic By The Time I Get To Phoenix.
A Grand Don't Come For Free took these influences but Skinner gave them his own spin. He imaged a story in which an everyday geezer loses £1000, then sets out on a journey to find out what happened to the moolah. It takes him on a very contemporary journey, through nightclubs, laddish holidays abroad, and then back to his own home again, surrounded by empty lager cans. Skinner would evoke the rhythms of day-to-day Britain in the record, using colloquial slang, humour and lexicon to bring ballast to his story. Crucially, there were also tunes - the banger Fit But You Know It, the stuttering and paranoid Blinded by the Lights, and the ubiquitous Dry Your Eyes.
Twenty years on, the influence of that record can be heard in bands like Sleaford Mods, Black Country New Road and Dry Cleaning - all groups that loiter on the edge of spoken-word, but do so with a distinct Englishness. But when Skinner first released A Grand Don't Come For Free in 2004, there had been nothing like it before. Perhaps there has been nothing like it since.
Come with me as we discover this record together, its choice cuts and lyrics, its influences and its legacy and impact today. Geezers need excitement!
#albumbreakdown #albumreview #documentary #musicdocumentary #thestreets #mikeskinner #agranddontcomeforfree #originalpiratematerial

Пікірлер: 37

@TheTitleTrack_Music 29 күн бұрын

Let me know what you think of the video - which is your favourite track from the album? I've always thought Empty Cans was totally underrated personally. That said, I think Computers and Blues is the most underrated Streets album in their canon. Let me know your thoughts and check out some of the other videos on the channel!

@sidstewart7399 Күн бұрын

Empty cans just does me in. Melancholy then joy...classic.

@Vehicle_Index 2 ай бұрын

This deserves so many more views

@TheTitleTrack_Music 29 күн бұрын

Thanks for your comment, much appreciated! Hit the subscribe button if you haven't already - more videos on the way!

@HonestWatchReviewsHWR 3 сағат бұрын

Great video mate. You deserve more subs that you've got. Your style reminds me of 'Trash Theory' a bit. I'm sure if you keep doing what you're doing your channel will blow up soon.

@thehairyclevage1645 Күн бұрын

Excellent work yet again

@acidpandauk 7 күн бұрын

another video mate, you are criminally overlooked as a channel - so far - hopefully you find the audience you deserve soon

@TheTitleTrack_Music 6 күн бұрын

I appreciate your support mate! Hit the subscribe button - more to come in the future.

@airyanawaejah2323 Ай бұрын

This album is one of the kind

@TheTitleTrack_Music 29 күн бұрын

It truly is. I don't think anything since has really captured the sound The Streets nailed on the early albums. Thanks for watching and hit the subscribe button if you haven't already, and let me know what future albums I should cover.

@manuelmeyer2681 18 күн бұрын

Great video and thanks for sharing rare footage on one of my favourite artists. Would love to see something on Travis. Or also any of the later The Streets albums, like how his next album felt all over the place. :)

@TheTitleTrack_Music 14 күн бұрын

Thanks a lot for the view mate! I'll definitely do a few more on The Streets. Just uploaded a new one today on The La's which I think you might enjoy too! Thanks again

@ZEK.0 Ай бұрын

Great video mate

@TheTitleTrack_Music 29 күн бұрын

Thanks for the view man - let me know what you think of the new vid I've just dropped, and hit the subscribe button if you haven't already. Are there any albums you'd like to see covered in the future?

@ZEK.0 24 күн бұрын

@@TheTitleTrack_Music something on New Forms by Roni Size and Reprazent would be cool

@OlafProt 3 күн бұрын

I'd say Original Pirate Material would be the one that we hadn't heard before. A Grand was good, but it didn't have that hunger and madness.

@lc-ii9ii Күн бұрын

Exactly my thought when I read the thumbnail. What sounded like it? The first album. What sounded like the first album? Absolutely nothing.

@OlafProt Күн бұрын

@@lc-ii9ii i still get shivers when i hear that opening track. amazing.

@Twelve50TV 2 күн бұрын

class!!

@hubertvoki8041 22 күн бұрын

Great work Dude! This album is a classic masterpiece and way under appreciated ❤️

@TheTitleTrack_Music 21 күн бұрын

Thanks for the view mate - it's a classic isn't it? 20 years old too this year! Hit subscribe if you haven't already - planning more Streets videos in the future!

@philmcgroin 2 күн бұрын

Have there been many other concept albums since these? Hard to imagine the streets getting as big now everything is streamed. These were albums you just wanted to listen to in full time and time again

@curly-d23 Ай бұрын

Superb analysis on a classic album. Have you considered doing a retrospective on _The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living?_ It’s undoubtably an overlooked album, and regardless of whether or not you enjoy it, I think it’s worth examining it’s role as a turning point in Mike Skinner’s critical and cultural standing.

@TheTitleTrack_Music Ай бұрын

Thank you! I love Hardest Way, and I would argue from that album through to Computers and blues are all overlooked. I may do a video on other Streets albums in the future, let me know what else you'd like to see beyond The Streets too! Thanks for watching.

@_tgreg1 4 күн бұрын

This needs more views

@jasonlefler3456 7 күн бұрын

DON’T TOUCH ME DON’T TOUCH ME DON’T… DON’T TOUCH ME

@markr2303 2 күн бұрын

Never knew about Chris Martin on the draft of dry your eyes but agree it didnt hit right. Still an epic album with so many unquie lines

@ape72patch1 Күн бұрын

In my opinion he only did one good album and that’s because the influences came from his friends in Birmingham that had written most of the lyrics he stole and took to London. It was common knowledge on the underground UK hip hop scene but in the commercial market it wasn’t so well known. Here’s a quote from his pal that he shafted Now hospital theatre nurse Chris is alleging more shocking betrayals. He claims Mike: FOUNDED The Streets with him and two pals - then signed a solo record deal; PROMISED contracts to the three musicians but then moved to London and refused to take their calls; BORROWED dozens of lyrics that Chris and his two pals had penned; And GROPED his girlfriend after jumping into bed with her while he was asleep in another room. Angry Chris, 23, told the Sunday Mercury: 'I'm through with Mike. I thought he was my best mate but he played me for a fool. 'I put so much blood and sweat into The Streets but he conveniently forgot about that once he'd signed a deal for himself. 'I even saved his life once but he repaid me by trying it on with the one girl he knew I truly loved. 'I used to think he was a decent bloke but now I see that he doesn't give a damn about anyone.' Chris first met Mike at the age of four when they attended the same nursery in Kings Norton, Birmingham. The pair quickly became best pals and shared a passion for music. By the age of 10 they were making tunes and they eventually formed The Streets with fellow rappers Adrian Whyte and Chris Hill, in 2000. Chris said: 'The three of us came up with different lyrics to go with the garage beats Mike had created. 'Mike put together all our lyrics and some words that'But as the weeks passed and Mike failed to answer my calls it became apparent that he'd cut us out of the equation. 'It made me sick because Mike may be good at making beats but the lyrics he produces are all second hand. 'He talks about life on the streets when really he lived in a nice part of West Heath.' Despite his friend's behaviour, Chris decided to give his friend one more chance and went to visit him in London. But it was then that Mike committed the ultimate betrayal - by making a move on his girlfriend Hannah. Chris said: 'He'd promised to take us out to the best clubs but when we arrived he said he was going without us because he'd forgotten to put our names on the guest list. 'While we were sitting in his room he waved a wad of pounds 20 notes and said; 'I just asked the record label for this and they gave it to me.' He knew we were broke but he wouldn't even go out and buy us some booze. When he came back he was really drunk and we sat up talking in his room. When Hannah said she was tired Mike said she could sleep in his bed and he'd kip on the sofa.

@simodohoomd4944 Ай бұрын

Really enjoyed this. Great job! As for The Streets I wonder what happened after AGDCFF? Instead of being a launchpad for even bigger things he seemed to stall on the 3rd album, even though I loved the first 2 albums, I didn't buy it, I don't really know why.

@TheTitleTrack_Music Ай бұрын

Thank you for watching. The first two albums are always talked about as their best, but I think there are glimpses of this quality on the following three records too. I've always had a soft spot particularly for Computers and Blues.