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The Divine Cheese Guide To Rock: Part Two - Youthful ExuberanceMar 03 '07 Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line We were all young once, although I'm sure some of you may have been born prematurely middle-aged. Another rambling addition to the series.
Rock and roll is always seen as the preserve of the young. When bands get old and their fan base matures, they start exploring alternative avenues and different sounds - the Manics went from mouthy punks to MOR to synth, Blur ditched the bouncy Britpop and went World Music and REM just became cack. But there’s a certain charm to music made by the very young - here are a few tracks that capture the magic of youth and how cool it is to be in a band when you’re just out of your teens or, in some cases still in them. When I was young being famous meant years of graft and finally achieving your dream after critical adulation and several drugs breakdowns. Nowadays you either get on Pop Idol or get yourself a website which is what The Arctic Monkeys quite famously to propel their fizzing debut I Bet You Look Good On The Dance Floor to the top of the chart. It’s a great song and shows early promise, which is what Bis once showed although after their Social Dancing LP then faded into obscurity even with lovers of the kitsch Indie-kid like myself. Problem was they went “Mature,” when their best songs involved Kandy Pop of the first order such as Action And Drama. Mansun were another group who never quite got there; their first single Take It Easy Chicken charted thanks to the groups rabid fans. That’s mainly by virtue of being a wry, glam stomper, but these days anyone can do it. Things were even harder back in the early 80s. U2 took three albums to get noticed, although I Will Follow’s naïve post-punk posturings are infectious and don’t sound like what you’d expect from U2. 16} Uncle Pat - Ash From the album, Trailer If one band ever captured the pure energy and exuberance of youth it was Ash, not surprising considering they recorded their debut record aged 17. Uncle Pat is as reflective as Trailer gets, an ode to visiting the grave of Tim’s dead uncle, it’s steeped in hazy nostalgia but despite this it’s breezy and uplifting while pointing the way towards their subsequent epic show-stoppers. Most Irish people wouldn’t be able to point to Downpatrick on a map, but on the strength of light, poppy rock like this, Ash went on to conquer Britain, and to be honest haven’t changed in over ten years, apart from getting Charlotte Hatherly on guitar. 17} Teenage Kicks - The Undertones From the album, The Undertones Ireland seems remarkably good at starting them early, and if one song captures the spirit of youth then Teenage Kicks would be it. John Peel absolutely loved it and proclaimed it his favourite song ever, and you can tell why - an infectious melody owing as much to the Beach Boys as it does to the Sex Pistols with a simple chugging chord sequence. Fergal Sharkey was quite a naughty boy on closer inspection: the kicks referred to in the lyrics are those obtained through self-abuse. 18} Skeleton Key - The Coral From the album, The Coral Sadly the Coral never quite lived up to their early promise and stopped making such unashamedly enjoyable music as this head on collision between psychedelic prog and a boat-load of p*ssed-up pirates. This is the type of thing you could just imagine Jonny Deppe coming out with in Pirates of the Caribbean, a rum-soaked hoedown with a stomping beat and shonky guitars. New pretenders The Zutons could never quite match The Coral’s brand of eclectic scally rock, and the reason for that is probably because they didn’t spend their early days pretending to be pirates. The teenage years are often regarded as the best of a person’s life. Look at the evidence - you’re old enough to forge a personality but young enough that you don’t have responsibilities. You can experiment and try things and find out who you are and life is pretty simple. Most teenagers also believe they will Live Forever which may be where Noel Gallagher was coming from on this early Oasis classic - its life affirming glow will make you believe that anyone can be immortal, although it’s dedicated to John Lennon who most certainly wasn’t. As well as living forever, teenagers believe themselves to be indestructible - Justine Frischmann concluded, “If I can’t be a star I won’t get out of bed,” on Waking Up promptly ripping off the Stranglers but at least doing it with skill and aplomb. Of course I was 19 and still a teenager when I started writing on Epinions and in those days I was a naïve thing that believed he could change the world with some well-written diatribes on Indie music. Well actually I was slightly less cynical and nowhere near as confident when I was 19 but that wouldn’t serve as an introduction to These Days REM’s urgent call to arms to get off their backsides and sell a few albums. “We are young, despite the years / We are concern, we are hope despite the times.” When you’re young you see the world’s wrongs as surely as when you’re old, the difference being you think you can do something about it (Sorry; said I was cynical). The best thing to do is just not think about it. 19} Song 2 - Blur From the album, Blur If there was one song that defined a good time it would have to be this, Blur’s Song 2. As a song it is a piece of throw-away cr*p - it’s the second song on the album, second single and lasts for exactly two minutes, hence the name. The lyrics are quite simply stupid: “I got my head checked / By a jumbo jet,” and it apparently took Damon Albarn all of two minutes to write it. And yet when he starts yelling, “Woo-hoo!” you instantly want to get up and headbang like an epileptic gibbon. This song is second in its infectiousness only to the common cold and is like crack: it makes you behave erratically and is very addictive. They wrote it as a reaction to their Britpop days, ironic because with its subdued verse building to the explosive chorus it is ostensibly a grunge track, and Britpop happened as a reaction to grunge in the first place. My love affair with the song came about because Blur was the first album I bought - it makes me think of the cover version my “band” did where you can just about hear me “Woo-hoo”ing over the overdriven and very badly played guitar. Exuberance is one of the great benefits of being young - you get funny looks as an adult if you leap all over the place having fun, even when it‘s your job. Kung Fu is this sort of song, a punky ode to the bad kung-fu movies Ash used to watch when they weren’t listening to Maiden. Naturally they still play it live and the name checking of Fu Manchu and Jackie Chan in the same verse still brings a smile to my face. And Ash took a lot of cues from the Ramones whose calling card, Blitzkrieg Bop encapsulates the pure energy of punk in two exuberant minutes. Deanna is also a bubbly, upbeat song about youthful exuberance infused with manic energy, however this is also a Nick Cave song. So if you listen to things like, “We’ll leap into their beds and unload into their heads,” it becomes apparent that he and his girlfriend are actually planning to murder people. 20} How High - The Charlatans From the album, Tellin’ Stories Many people dismiss the Charlatans, but they are undeniably a brilliant hard-working band. Nothing can compare to the exuberant swaggering of How High, an ode to how brilliant it is to be alive, following the death of keyboardist Rob Collins in a car accident. This bombastic song owes a lot to Oasis, although The Charlatans are far more charming, and with the energy that suffuses this song it’s a surprise that the Charlies were up to album five when they released it. Because of their relative age lyrics like, “I wanna zigzag on a holy road like Kane from Kung-Fu,” went right over my head until they were explained to me, but nothing feels more life-affirming than this oft-ignored late-Britpop treasure. The Charlatans did exuberance on their first album: Sproston Green is a minute Cheshire village but lays claim to influencing one of the Charlatan’s best songs. There’s a driving urgency to this Baggy track reminiscing about meeting a girl in the titular village and with very little in the way of lyrics to speak of you can just bathe in its youthful glow. The Charlatans famously got into trouble for ripping off the organs from Deep Purple‘s Hush, which was ably covered by Kula Shaker. Kula Shaker were utter and complete cr*p but when Crispin sings, “Hush, hush, I thought I heard you call my name,” there’s something oddly endearing about his pitiful attempts at raunch. Even reasonably sedate bands like Gorky’s Zygotic Mynki can come out with something fizzy such as Poodle Rockin’ a googly eyed and rather wacky track about rocking like a dog, because dogs are stupid and drink out of toilets. Too much exuberance leads to burn out: Supergrass went all paranoid on Richard III, their 1997 thrasher that allude to the demonised English king. They just needed Super Furry Animals to give them a load of drugs and they’d have felt better, then very worse again. God! Show Me Magic! is a typically madcap Furries entry and like all the best youthful rock songs, clocks in at a little less that two minutes. 21} Just A Day - Feeder If you really want to pogo round the living room then look no further than Feeder’s last blast before the tragic loss of drummer Jon Lee. Just A Day is good healthy fun for all the family about the joy of friendship and generally looking out for one another. Add to that a dose of shiny power chords and the bubble-grunge that Feeder have been peddling ever since they stopped trying to be Smashing Pumpkins and you’re well on your way to pounding your fists with a bunch of teenyboppers down the local “Discotheque.” Youth has many quirks and many tribes: here in Blighty it’s Emo vs. Urban, and both have no dress sense. They need to get two-tone suits and start listening to Baggy Trousers. Perhaps it’s a statistical anomaly, but I’m yet to meet a ska fan who has wanted to kill me, and when you’re listening to music this fun it’s easy to see why. It alludes to illicit goings on at school with trumpets, the wide-boy vocals of Suggs and undoubtedly very energetic dancing. As a youth you also discover the attractions and temptations of the opposite sex and generally are unable to accept your rapidly changing body, making the Manic’s call to Stay Beautiful ironic when you consider their early fans. As youthful Welsh noiseniks they also had to remove the swearing from it, substituting with a couple of suggestive power-chord blanks which committed audiences fill in at gigs. On the same theme, Morrissey warns us about This Charming Man, The Smith‘s jangly calling-card. And of course when teenaged some people find out they’re gay which This Charming Man probably is, charged with all that homoeroticism. 22} C’mon C’mon - The Von Bondies From the album, Pawn Shoppe Heart But when you’re a teenager nothing seems better than raising hell and rebelling against your parents, teachers, Noel Edmonds or any of those other oppressors. The Von Bondies captured this on their commercial comeback which propelled them from relative obscurity as the less-successful Detroit blues-rock cousin of the White Stripes to rucking with Jack White. C’mon C’mon is another of life’s simple pleasures: a fairly uncomplicated barnstorming rocker with a tinge of Von Bondies’ paranoia and Marcie Bolan doing quite sinister things on the bass in the background giving it a big dose of blues. Marcie Bolan went out with Dolf de Datsun from Kiwi rock-Neanderthals The Datsuns. Motherf*cker From Hell is what you want as a fifteen year old keeper of the eternal flame of ROCK - it’s got really heavy drumming, a man with long hair screaming and most importantly a lot of swearing. It’s like AC/DC were from New Zealand, and of course Back In Black is essential listening for any fan of all things ROCK. When you’re young it’s also important to relax and several groups have come up with some suggestions. The Dandy Warhols thought Every Day Should Be A Holiday, and indeed the surf was up over this driving Beach Boys throwback. Damon Albarn and Blur championed the oft-maligned Club 18 - 30 holiday on Girls & Boys, although their Europop stylings were more than a little ironic and the lyrics are about STDs in bisexual tour groups. Ahem. Electric Six went one better and suggested taking us to their Gay Bar. Kids across the land were hooked on this thrashing piece of disco-blues fun after the radio’s forced them to censor the nuclear war line. That doesn’t excuse the daft internet cartoon with the kittens in Viking helmets. 23} Where’s Me Jumper - Sultans of Ping FC From the album, When you’re young the greatest challenge is illicitly getting into clubs and pubs and other places you’re not allowed. Strangely, after the age of 18, you begin to realise that most nightclubs are absolutely sh*t unless you’re f*cked off your tits on party smarties, but Sultans of Ping FC’s little known classic harks back to a gentler times of going to the “Disco” and then… well… losing one’s sweater. They didn’t really become a big success but there’s something eternally endearing about a man yelping, “Dancing in the disco bumper to bumper / Wait a minute where’s my jumper?” Town centres in Britain have a certain bad reputation these days though, with our nation’s exploring how much White Lightning can be consumed in one go which leads to rather messy scenes. Kaiser Chiefs chronicled coming home late in Leeds on the effervescent I Predict A Riot with their trademark fuzzy Britpop revivalist sound and arch, witty lyrics: “If it wasn’t for the chip fat they’d be frozen.” Many may blame this on the secularlism of European society, but personally I’d rather be Evil And A Heathen like Franz Ferdinand because the music’s better. More mischief can be achieved by obtaining that ultimate teen status-symbol, a driving license, and preferably a suitably pimp car like a Lada. Chuck D and Flavor Flav rode around in the Oldsmobile 98 on You’re Gonna Get Yours and over the scratchy samples he detailed the benefits of the car, the best being that, “The 98 O is bullet-proof.” However it’s best to remain calm when driving: The Offspring’s road-rage song Bad Habit isn’t on this list, but the next step: Genocide is, mainly because it reminds me of my own teenage music choices, particularly the loud, snotty kind. Similarly speed-freak is the D4’s tale of boredom in New Zealand’s sedate cities on Get Loose, maybe an explanation for why they all come over to the UK. But best of all as a teenager you learn to swear. And cuss each other’s Mums, or uncles like on the potty-mouthed Unclef*cker from the South Park Movie. Any song with a f*rt solo must be on a best-of list in my opinion. 24} The Man Don’t Give A F*ck - Super Furry Animals From the album, Out Spaced In reality Trey Stone and Matt Parker’s foul-mouthed opus was merely amateur when compared to the Super Furry Animal’s call to stick it to the man who. They played this on daytime radio once and counted the number of times they had to bleep out the F-word and it clocked in at about 59 - when the group play it live it generally goes on for about a quarter of an hour with the band leaving the stage while the chorus loops before returning dressed as yetis. The great thing is it’s a brilliant song with a great pogo chorus and one of the few moments of clarity in the drug-fuelled haze that generally surrounds the Furries. 25} Teenage Daughter - Fat Truckers From the album, The New Fat Truckers Album Is For Sale It’s not rock that has the monopoly on teenage-hood though - electronica can have a fair stab at it if you’re a particularly trendy teen. Fat Truckers are a bizarre group from Sheffield who resemble a cross between electroclash and punk, and they look like they drive lorries. The sole lyric is, “Teenage daughter,” repeated over and over, and I really mean that’s the only lyric. The music is squelching synthesisers and robustly 80’s Amstrad sound effects. The band are close friends of Pulp, which is more than can be said for Jesus Jones, often given as an example of when bands go wrong. They were actually rather good as an early rock / electronica cross-over, making classics like Info Freako from their debut album being some of the pioneering baggy / acid house sound of the late-eighties. 26} What Time Is Love? - The KLF From the album, The White Room When it comes to Rave shenanigans, no-one can quite match media terrorist Bill Drummond and the KLF. Drummond once appeared at the Brit music awards, a night of media back-slapping, dressed in full military regalia and sporting an AK47 loaded with blanks which he proceeded to fire off into the crowd as the band ripped through this, their all-time classic. It’s a precision-guided rave classic that was designed to hook listeners as out-lined in the book, “The Manual,” which Drummond wrote to show people how to get a top 5 single instantly. It’s full of wailing sirens and one of those really dodgy MCs that make all those early 90s rave classics sound terribly cheesy, and with a menacing beat presaged groups like the Prodigy and their “Scary pop.” It was the song that started Trance, which is ironic seeing as it’s basically a joke. Drummond previously proved his method with the Timelords’ rave version of the Doctor Who theme, Doctorin’ The Tardis, a song that proved that all you need for a hit is the theme from a cult TV show and someone chanting, “Dr Who-oo, hey! Dr Who!” And to add to the knowingness, they also ripped off Harry Enfield’s novelty hit, “Loadsa Money,” by getting a Dalek to chant, “Bish, bash, bosh loadsa money!” Genius is a rare thing. 27} Get Free - The Vines From the album, Highly Evolved But lets face it, for most people, being a teenager is sh*t. I didn’t have any fun until I got into my twenties (Well that’s maybe exaggerating) and many other people wrestle with hormones, their parents and all manner of angst as a teen. Craig Nicholls of the Vines is a notoriously volatile sort which goes some way to explaining Get Free and it’s teenaged size black mood: “She never loved me / Why should anyone,” he screams at the top of his voice over the best punk-pop rocker since, well, ever. This is nuclear-powered rock of the type that can lead to whiplash but their early promise was never matched. Nicholl’s childhood wasn’t easy seeing as only this year he was diagnosed as suffering from Asperger’s Syndrome, a mild form of autism which goes a long way to explaining why he’s far happier tinkering away in a studio than performing on-stage. No, growing up is a cr*p time all told. Looking back Teenage Angst is actually a bit embarrassing, but Placebo managed to capture perfectly that awkward part of one’s life when you decide no-one understands you and you start crushing on the popular girl (Or in Brian Molko’s case boy) at school. Green Day are probably the ultimate teen angst band, although they rarely took it seriously: When I Come Around tells us not to feel sorry for ourselves over some whimsical bubblegum grunge, and they forged their career writing songs about masturbating in girl’s bedrooms. Most teen arguments are with parents over going out and doing homework, and the world of 1993 was a far different place as on the thumping My House by a youthful Terrorvision who were essentially metal for kiddies. In a similar vein were Therapy? who wondered why the girls didn’t like them on Screamager in rather simple terms. And for the more… unconventional teen there’s always Weezer’s geeky prom-night disaster Buddy Holly which was partially responsible for spawning Emo, the craze that’s sweeping the world’s angst-ridden kids. 28} Apply Some Pressure - Maxïmo Park From the album, A Certain Trigger Nope, youth is one huge pressure, encapsulated on this recent classic by Maxïmo Park (Pronounced Maxeemo) which rambles around for three gloriously spiky minutes about the pressures of being a young ‘un in modern Britain. Maxïmo have two things going for them: they’re tight as a cat’s a*se and they’re smart. There’s a knowing little lyric in there that could be used as a tagline for Epinions: “Write a review, but how objective can I be?” It also sums up the neurotic stream-of-consciousness that characterises the song and the feeling of trying to find an identity when you’re surrounded by seemingly insurmountable pressure. 29} Half Man, Half Machine - Goldie Lookin’ Chain From the album, Greatest Hits At 25 I am leaving the realms of proper “Youth,” and heading towards that dangerous ground known as being old enough to know better. One group who certainly are that is Welsh rap troupe Goldie Lookin’ Chain, a bunch of thirty-something’s from Newport who, like Peter Pan, will probably never grow up (But unlike JM Barrie have presumably already grown b*llocks). One of their best juvenile moments is this sad tale of Eggs who wants, “To be a f*cking robot after smoking too much draw.” GLC ostensibly can’t rap, but rather than being a Welsh Vanilla Ice, they revel in the fact that their rap skills are worse than their break-dancing abilities. The classic quotes come thick and fast in this hilarious tale of a man covering himself in tin foil and going to the shop to buy ten fags. The Foo Fighters were already old enough to know better when they first appeared with This Is A Call a rocking reposte to those who thought Dave Grohl would struggle without Kurt Cobain. REM presumably knew but didn’t care on It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) seeing as they constantly play with the fears of children. This country-rock tale of a dreamt party where everyone present had the initials LB is less scary and more out and out fun though. And finally Jonathon Richman sounds like he’s too old on the simple, Roadrunner (Once), a wonderful driving song about just getting in the car and going. 30} My Generation - The Who From the album, My Generation If one song were to be marked down as the ultimate teen anthem then there’s only one possible candidate (Although later associations of band members with children should be glossed over). Your Dad may well have rocked out to it, you may well have rocked out to it, but as a f*ck you to the squares and grown-ups you can’t beat that knowing, “Why don’t you all just f…. fade away.” And on top of that it’s got that great John Entwhistle bass solo and rocks like a brute still after over 40 years. The Who may well have invented rebellion: the Beatles may have been the sound of the sixties but it was the Who who trashed stages and showed the world what rock ‘n’ roll excess was all about.  |
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