Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Blur -- "Song 2" (1997)

WOOHOO! 
When I feel heavy metal 
WOOHOO! 
And I'm pins and I'm needles 
WOOHOO! 
Well I lie and I'm easy
All of the time but I'm never sure 
Why I need you 
Pleased to meet you! 
Check this out.  "Song 2" is the second track on Blur's eponymous album, and was the second single to be released from that album.  It reached #2 on the UK singles chart.  It is also the second track on their compilation album, Blur: The Best of.  

The song has two verses, two choruses, and two bridges.  And it is exactly two minutes and two seconds long.

The Blur album represented a major change in style for Blur.  Before then, they were a "Britpop" group -- their music from that era sounds a lot like Oasis, and the two bands dominated the British pop charts in the mid-1990s.  Blur featured an experimental, "lo-fi" sound that was more American (think Pavement or Beck) and less British.

"Song 2" is the only Blur song I was familiar with until I got Blur and a compilation album of theirs from the public library earlier this year.  It is by far their most recognized Blur song in the U.S., partly because it has been featured in TV commercials (including commercials for Michelob Ultra and the Pentium II processor), TV shows (like The Simpsons and South Park), and movies (Charlie's Angels), and is regularly played by professional sports teams when something good happens.


It's ironic that "Song 2" was Blur's biggest American hit because the song is a parody of early-1990s grunge music in general and Nirvana in particular.  It got most of its airplay on the same stations that played the grunge music that "Song 2" poked fun at.

A lot of musicians have covered "Song 2," including Avril Lavigne:


Here's "Song 2":


Here's a link you can use to order it from Amazon:




No comments:

Post a Comment