Blur – You’re So Great
Blur’s self titled record has Graham Coxon’s influence all over it, more than perhaps any other record they’ve done with the original line up. Graham wanted to quit Blur after the whole Britpop thing got a little too big and crazy for him. He wanted less cleverness and more guitars, something more chill and broken in than the squeaky clean Great Escape. I mean, have you looked at the back cover of that record? They’re all so smug and precice and professional and business like, as if they could spit out a neat little song on the demand of the almighty pound. Incidentally Alex had to get his chin airbrushed since he got wasted the night before and had some swelling. Anyway, if you have a gander at the cover art for Blur, you’ll notice that it’s, well…blurry.
Now, it’s on Blur’s album, but it’s all Graham’s doing, the songwriting, singing, guitarwork, everything except production. And it’s so rough, and warm and sweet, he talks about tea and coffee, and the sky so mud and grey. In this song you can see the direction his solo work would eventually take. Rough and sweet, and a little random. It would still be a great song if someone covered it, or if when Graham did it live, (did he?), or even if he re recorded it with the band, but it gets it’s a good percent of that warmth and charm from the muddy production. It would have been a travesty to record this song with the shiny production values of The Great Escape. It’s not even imaginable. And it’s not even certain that Graham would have the courage to attempt such a thing in that environment. Graham’s voice isn’t quite so developed here as it is later on in his solo career, but in this song he manages to turn this weakness into a plus.
I’ve written on this song before, somewhere, and I can’t exactly remember but each time I’ve done it I end up saying something different than what I said before. Some of it requires context a once crazed Blur fan would know about, but I think a lot of the song’s appeal for me is that it’s simply fucking awesome. It makes me happy. I’m done rambling on now.
Modern Blur Are Rubbish (without Graham), but Graham’s solo material isn’t that hot either. Blur and 13 are definitely their absolute peak.
I see! Well I had the advantage of being a slightly older (cough, cough) resident of the U.K.
actually, being a ten year old american at the time, I can say that I wasn’t…
I must say that I’m a HUGE Blur fan. One of the things I like the most about them is that they managed to made each album sound almost totally different from each of the others. I enjoy the evolution of the band. I honestly didn’t like the “Blur” album that much when it came out, but I guess that is because I thought that “Great Escape” was one of their best. “Blur” has really grown on me, and I really enjoy it now. I’d pick “Beetlebum” as my favorite track though. It is crazy to think that music from a band this sophisticated made it into the pop charts…
Of course, I have this album when they first released it. Everyone thought it was so ‘american sounding’. Which is … different at the time. Oasis was doing their beatles impersonation. British bands were, being british and writing songs about the motorways and pubs.Anyway, I just wanted to mention that I did cover graham before, and I generally like his stuff. I have to say that “You’re so Great” is … it’s such a different song on the album. As if it didn’t really belong there. Plus it sounded like it was sung in a bathroom at a hotel. And he SOUNDS weird.
I take it you are another who was on the Blur side of the fence then?