FORGOTTEN BRITPOP CLASSICS (Part 8)
The back of this CD single says:-
"It's creamy but inedible
It's pop with a healthy hatred of all things normal
It's a man on a car in a bikini - getting beauty sucked out of him
By a woman with a Nikon.
But more than that, much more than that
It's the second single by Babybird"
So....its simply wrong that happy loving couples want this played at their engagement party or wedding reception.....in the same way so many have misunderstood the real meaning behind The One I Love by REM. What's even funnier is when its used as background music on some sort of TV documentary/reality programme, chosen by some numpty or bimbo who only hears the chorus and thinks to him/herself....'oh, that'll be the prefect accompaniment to the glamour shots we've got in the can....'
Babybird, in the beginning, was just the name used by singer-songwriter Stephen Jones, a native of Sheffield. I remember in the mid 90s there was a real buzz about him in the music press, based on something like three or four demo-type LPs that were doing the rounds. In due course he put a band together and got a record deal with a subsidiary of major label Chrysalis Records, and in September 1996, it looked as if all the hype was justified when this fantastically catchy single went Top 3:-
mp3 : Babybird - You're Gorgeous
mp3 : Babybird - You're Gorgeous Too
mp3 : Babybird - Hong Kong Blues
mp3 : Babybird - KW Jesus TV Roof Appeal
Disappointingly for all concerned, many of the best tunes seemed to have been left behind on all the demo albums, as the first 'proper' LP didn't go down well with either the critics or public, and before too long, the band were being labelled as one-hit wonders.
I say disappointingly, simply because I think You're Gorgeous was one of the best singles of its era - really catchy and radio-friendly but with such a twisted subject matter. It was the sort of lyric that fellow resident of Sheffield, Jarvis Cocker, would have been proud of.
Happy Listening, and happy viewing if you want to click here.
10 comments:
A great song, though if suffered from over-exposure - from, as you say, people who never bothered to listen to the lyrics.
This is a very picky complaint but what annoyed me about this was the first line, 'Remember that tank top you bought me' - yet the incredible trendywendyness of it all meant that they only would have been dressing in things which were frighteningly and depressingly fashionable and nasty little tank tops were only just then the very thing, and if you'd been wearing one two weeks before, never mind 'remember that...', then you wouldn't have convinced anybody that you were five minutes ahead of the next fashion although you looked twenty years behind the last one. I guess there's some 'arrogance of youth' thing going on, 'we are the only way it has ever been' but it still annoyed me. Sorry, small point but it's bothered me for years.
Those demo albums were great. And while I liked this, the rest of the stuff suffered from losing that lo-fi thing the demo albums had. I'm not normally a fan of lo-fi versus proper production but in the case of Babybird the low rent feel made those early songs something special. I'll have to dig em out now and see if they still sound good or not. It's been a few years...
Adam, I thought the tank top line only added to the song what with the protagonists not being the nicest people you could ever meet...
Rol, it did suffer from overexposure which is why last week was the first time I listened to it in about 10 years and accepted it for the work of genius it undoubtably is.
Simon, I think you'll find some of it is great, some of it near unlistenable...
'You're Gorgeous' didn't really engage me at the time cos I always thought the way he sang the chorus sounded like he was trying to impersonate George from the kid's show Rainbow and I could never get the image of the pink hippo out of my head when it was played on the radio.
The song that I absolutely loved by Babybird however, was the sublime "Back Together" which was given a lush, string-laden remix/remake by none other than Stephen Lironi on it's release as a single the following year. Great for inclusion on a mixtape (if you've recently been dumped or you're planning on stalking your ex) somewhere between 'Unfinished Sympathy' by Massive Attack and 'The more you ignore me' by Morrissey, it features one of my all time favourite lyrics; "Put the car in reverse and come back to me, without you this house is a hearse without wheels". Superb.
David
I think the best babybird moment was when it had just come out they played at lions club big bonfire party in south london and crowd sung along. I think people over pay this haven'y they heard the lyrics thing it is about everyday gourgousness so why not play it a wedding better thn some poxy song about angels. My personal fave BB song was the one about cooling towers, nice tunes keep up the good work
I heard this song on college radio in the middle of nowhere in Texas and went and tracked down everything. I love the lo-fi and their bigger sound even more. 'King Bing' was my favourite track. I'm not sure why it was left off the US version.
Looking forward to SJ's new project, Death of the Neighbourhood, finally coming out this November.
I guess I'm lucky in that, living in the US and having only heard this song once on the radio, the only way this song was overexposed was in the number of times I played it on my CD player.
"Wave Your Hands" is a much better wedding song.
Some great singles from babybird later 'Bad old Man' 'If You'll Be Mine' 'The F Word' 'Out Of sight'...
I was about 13 when this was released in Oz and I don't think I really grasped the true meaning of the lyrics until a couple of years later. It was pretty funny when I realised exactly what I'd been singing about the top of my lungs all that time. Such sensitive, tender words.
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