At first, Blur were a band that prided themselves on their Britishness. They wrote keenly observational pop songs about 18-30 Holidays, The Shipping Forecast, Sunday Lunch and the Quiet Frustrations of Everyday British Life. In Britain, it made them heroes. But in the US they were nobodies.
So it was quite the surprise that midway through the 90s, they made an about-face and unleashed a screaming chunk of Apple Pie-scented Grunge rawk, the key modern jock jam. But how did they get there? Why was a jumbo jet involved? And was it just a joke aimed squarely to whom it appealed? This is New British Canon and this is the Story of “Song 2.”
#Blur #Britpop #MusicDocumentary
Fact-checking by Chad Van Wagner.
Soundtrack
Luar - Citrine ( / luarbeats )
Jesse Gallagher - The Golden Present
Luar - Anchor ( / luarbeats )
00:00 Introduction
00:52 Blur & Britpop's Ascension: "So The Story Begins..."
07:17 The Great Escape: "I Am So Sad, I Don't Know Why"
15:30 Recording Blur: "Sad Drunk and Poorly"
22:30 Creating Song 2: "When I Feel Heavy Metal"
28:07 Enduring Legacy of Blur & Song 2
Sources:
The Last Party: Britpop, Blair and the Demise of English Rock by John Harris, 2004, Harper Perennial
Verse, Chorus, Monster! By Graham Coxon, 2022, Faber
The Life of Blur by Martin Power, 2013, Omnibus Press
Isle of Noises by Daniel Rachel, 2013, Picador
Starshaped - Documentary (1993) dir. Matthew Longfellow
Blur - The South Bank Show (1999) dir Gerald Fox
No Distance Left to Run - Documentary (2010) dir. Dylan Southern & Will Lovelace
“Blur: Britain’s Class Act” Steven Daly, Rolling Stone, Nov 1994
"The Hic Parade" Ted Kessler, NME, Dec 1994
"Blur: The Return Of The Fab Four" Paul Mathur, Melody Maker, Aug 1995
"Blur: The Return Of The Fab Four: Part Two" Paul Mathur, Melody Maker, Aug 1995
“Graham Coxon: I'm Completely at Odds With Everything” Keith Cameron, NME, Sep 1995
"Blur: England Expects" Chris Heath, The Face, Sep 1995
"Gold, Nonsense and Blur" Johnny Cigarettes, NME, Dec 1995
“Blur: Stop The Band, I Wanna Get Off!” Adrian Deevoy, Q, Mar 1996
“Blur in America” Everett True, Melody Maker, Mar 1996
"Blur Clear Things Up" Susan Kaplow, Addicted To Noise, 1997
“What Have We Done?” Roy Wilkinson, Select Magazine, Mar 1997
“‘Sly Stone Meets Black Sabbath’” Roy Wilkinson, Select Magazine, Mar 1997
“One day, all this will be ours” David Cavanagh, Q Magazine, Apr 1997
“Blur Knocks The Pulp Out Of Oasis, Right?” Erik Himmelsbach, Pulse!, Apr 1997
“Red White and Blur“ Sylvia Patterson, Spin Magazine, Aug 1997
"Woo Hoo!" Michael Dwyer, Rolling Stone Australia, Sep 1997
“Chaos Has Reappeared, Everyone’s Drunk Again Great!” Mark Beaumont, NME, Nov 1997
“The Death of a Party” Stuart Maconie, Select, Aug 1999
“Alex James explains Blur’s ‘knickers-off headbanger’“ Q Magazine's 1001 Best Songs Ever, 2003
“It was all a bit of a Blur…” Ally Carnwath, The Observer, May 2009
“Blur - Album By Album, by Stephen Street, William Orbit and Ben Hillier” Nick Hasted, Uncut, Jul 2009
"Thinking outside the box" Jake Kennedy, Record Collector, Jun 2012
"Graham Coxon: All a blur" Fiona Sturges, Independent, May 2012
“Woo-hoo! 20 Years Ago, Blur's 'Song 2' Became an Unlikely Sports Anthem” Rick Paulas, VICE, Apr 2017
“‘We Found Our Own Heavy Psychedelia’” Martin Aston, Mojo Magazine, Nov 2023
“‘C’est quoi ce bordel?’” François Moreau, Les Inrockuptibles, Dec 2023
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