It starts off stately and quiet. Perhaps even gentle. It gradually picks up power, and then blooms into a heavy song full of righteous weariness and symphonic strength and prettiness. Oh yes, it's a very pretty song. People actually get married to the backing track, you know. (Incidentally, that backing track helped the Verve split up for good as the Rolling Stones hold the rights for it and insisted upon collecting every damn penny, since Mickey Jagger doesn't have enough, I guess.) But it's the lyrics that provide the neccessary bile to keep this from being a cheesy 90's alternative track and on the good side of gorgeous classic. Richard Ashcroft would eventually go down the cheesy route. His new material sounds hits between Chris Martin and Bono. The guy has pipes, he just doesn't say anything interesting. I don't know what everyone else is doing now, though Simon Tong has done work with Damon Albarn lately, notably on the last Blur album and with The Good, the Bad, and the Queen.
If there was ever a song to break a band up, it was this, and The Verve went out like winners. (Not dissing their earlier work, which is also very awesome)
[this is good] Wow, I had no idea that was why The Verve broke up. Makes me hate the Stones more than I already do.
What a great album this is, and a great song.
Posted by: Suzy | 03/08/2007 at 09:28 PM
it was just part of the reason - the verve were a volatile group. but it certainly didn't help.
Posted by: Metternich | 03/08/2007 at 10:08 PM
It was certainly a defining song of the 90's. Will probably remain as a classic for a long time to come.Off-topic: I was wondering how come the audio you post has an image in the background - is it as a result of the album cover being embedded in the ID3 tag? Any tracks I've posted up just get the default speaker on a pink background.
Posted by: Alex Leonard | 03/08/2007 at 10:10 PM
yep, embedded pictures get displayed when you upload tracks. this isn't something I really care to do for the stuff I post on my own blog.
Posted by: Metternich | 03/08/2007 at 10:12 PM
i used to think that he was singing "i can change i can change" and used to sing it like that. who knew he was saying "i can't change"?
Posted by: vu | 03/08/2007 at 10:16 PM
if you ever get windows vista (or the new itunes), viewing the music via album art is pretty nice... although it takes a lot of work.
Posted by: vu | 03/08/2007 at 10:21 PM
You do realize that one of the reasons they broke up was due to the legal calamity that befell them with this song? They sampled a small bit of a Rolling Stones tune in the chorus and got sued twice for it, losing all rights to the song and any profits. The Grammy nomination for this song was credited to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards! A complete disaster, legally and personally. Quite well documented in the fascinating book, "Freedom of Expression". I wrote about it in an old blog entry here.
Posted by: Hieronymus | 03/09/2007 at 09:08 AM
Makes the exaggerated nonsense in Knights of Prosperityseem half true. haha.
I kind of like Ashcroft's Song for the Lovers. I never paid attention to him after that, though.
Posted by: W♥M | 03/09/2007 at 11:02 AM