20 Years Ago Today: Parklife Anniversary Review

20 years ago today, on 25 April 1994, my all-time favourite album Parklife was released. It’s the album that became a jewel in the crown of the Britpop movement that Blur had helped to kick start with the release of their second album Modern Life Is Rubbish the previous year. It’s so much more to me though – not only is it my favourite album, it’s also the first album I ever bought.

My music epiphany happened when I watched the Brit Awards in February 1995 and saw Blur clean up winning best band, album, single and video. Not only was the music great but the band looked cool too – I distinctly remember drummer Dave Rowntree having DAVE written on his face as a parody to the SLAVE protest that Prince had across his cheek at the time. I was hooked.

The next Saturday I took the bus into town (20p child fare) and walked into WH Smiths in Ipswich and bought the album on cassette for £10 – all paid with one pound coins that I had being saving up. I’m showing my age with that sentence but I think there’s something quite magical about saving up for something and then going off on an adventure to buy it – clicking ‘buy album’ on iTunes may be easier but it certainly doesn’t have the same charm.

I mainly listened to the first side of the album as that’s where all the singles were; my 14 year old brain wasn’t quite ready to deal with the weirder songs on the second side. At the age of 16 I bought the album on CD, something I’ve done twice since; once because I broke the CD as a result of it being left amongst the chaos of my teenage bedroom floor, and again when I bought the Blur 21 box set 2 years ago. The only format I haven’t owned the album on is vinyl but if I ever saw it for sale on vinyl then I’d definitely buy it – a 12 inch glossy version of the famous album cover would look great on my wall.

Image: The iconic Parklife album cover

I have listened to the album hundreds of times over the last 19 years of my life and I know every lyric and every note off by heart. It’s an album that brings back many fond memories and that has also helped me get through tough times. Song by song, here is my take on the 16 tracks that make up this great album:

1.       Girls & Boys

The stomping album opener and indie disco favourite, Girls & Boys is a song that sums up what Blur were all about in the 90s – Graham’s crunching guitar fighting against Alex’s amazing Duran Duran inspired bassline, the result being one hell of a tune. I remember around the age of 19 when I wanted to be in a band and at the first practice session in my tiny box room in my mum’s house, my mate Mark (the bass player for our as yet unnamed band) massively impressively me by being able to play the Girls & Boys bassline note perfectly. I was blown away; my mate could play my favourite bassline!

The other thing I associate with Girls & Boys is the extra-large Girls & Boys t-shirt (the only size they had, it looked pretty ridiculous on my skinny teenage body but I didn’t care) I used to own – it had Blur written on the front in the style of the Durex logo and had Girls & Boys written on the back. I bought it aged 17 from Our Price Records in Ipswich and proudly wore it to the Friday night indie club nights at the Corn Exchange that I loved going to at the time. Armed with my Girls & Boys t-shirt and packet of 10 Superkings (a cheap way of getting a head rush and of course an attempt to look cool and grown up!) I would jump around like a lunatic in between trying to snog as many girls as I could. From a period from the age of 16 to 18, Friday nights at indie club were like heaven for me.

2.       Tracey Jacks

The story of a man having a mid-life crisis and a mental breakdown, Tracey Tracks is also a great tune and a live favourite. The Kinks inspired track is pretty upbeat but has some pretty dark lyrics in the verses (‘...but he’s getting past forty and all the seams are splitting’) and of course the triumphant sounding but lyrically sad chorus (‘everyday he got closer, he knew in his heart he was over…’). This contrast of an upbeat tune with some pretty serious lyrics is what makes it such a great song.

Listening to this song now, I am transported back to the best concert I have ever been to – Blur at Hyde Park on the reunion tour in 2009. I had seen them 4 times previously (V97, Reading 1999, Singles Tour 2000, Think Tank Tour 2003) but I can’t remember them playing this great song previously. At Hyde Park in 2009 they absolutely smashed this song (as they did with every song they played that day), the best bit being when the crowd sang the refrain at the end – never has the phrase ‘oohh, oooh…’ sounded so good!

3.       End of a Century
I love this song – not only because of the great lyrics (‘end of a century, it’s nothing special…’) but also because of the music – it is the perfect song with and intro, verse, chorus and ending. So many bands don’t bother writing an ending to a song – fade outs annoy me and I always appreciate it when a band has made the effort to write an ending to a song. A song of Damon and Justine Frichman’s love at the time (‘we wear the same clothes because we feel the same’) it’s another live favourite. Again, when I listen to it now I am transported back to Hyde Park in 2009 shouting back the brilliant last line to Damon – ‘…IT’S NOTHING SPECIAL!’).

4.       Parklife
The famous title track of the album and another live favourite, Damon was inspired to write the lyrics to Parklife whilst he was living in Kensington Church Street near Hyde Park and reading London Fields by Martin Amis. I’ve enjoyed this song live many times with the accompaniment of Phil Daniels; probably the best performance I’ve seen was at the Olympic Closing Ceremony Concert at Hyde Park in 2012 where Harry Enfield bizarrely wondered onto the stage dressed as a tea lady during the song. The other thing I associate with Parklife is the brilliant video that I have watched dozens of times – as a teenager dreaming of being in a band I saw how much fun the band were having in the video and wished that could be me.

5.       Bank Holiday

The token Blur punk song on the album (see also Chinese Bombs on Blur, B.L.U.R.E.M.I on 13 and We’ve Got a File on You on Think Tank) Bank Holiday is a fun, if throwaway song. Listening to Bank Holiday I think back to a Bank Holiday (Easter Monday 2000 I think) that I spent drinking all day. I’d got very drunk and then had to face the consequences of reality the next day when it was ‘back to work…A.G.A.I.N!’

6.       Badhead

And after a Bank Holiday drinking all day and having to deal with the consequences you need a hangover song, and there is no better hangover song than Badhead. The music is comforting and the lyrics are so true to the introspection that comes with a hangover (‘and I might as well just grin and bear it, ‘cos it’s not worth the trouble of an argument…’).Not just a great hangover song, Badhead is simply a great song.

7.       The Debt Collector
Save for Graham’s spoken word intro to keep time (‘one Mississippi, two Mississippi…’) this is the album’s first instrumental track. A waltz, the song is inspired by Music Hall and is very catchy. There is something about the 3/4 time signature that I love (Blue Danube Waltz by Strauss and Rebel Waltz by The Clash are two of my favourite songs ) and one of the many reasons why I love Blur so much is because they’re also fans (see also The Wassailing Song and Anniversary Waltz). The Debt Collector is one of those songs that can make you forget about what you are doing; it’s the soundtrack to a daydream.

8.       Far Out

Alex’s song on the album, Far Out is inspired by his love of space. The child-like lyrics (‘I spy in the night sky, don’t I…’) points to his youthful wonder of the world and outer space in particular. A fun album track, it’s simply a song that just makes me smile, a bit like Ian Brown’s Straight to the Man on The Stone Roses’ Second Coming album.

9.       To The End
After the previous few album tracks it’s time to bring back the big guns and To The End is certainly that. The dreamlike opening and climatic chorus (‘well you and I, collapsed in love…’) are enhanced even further by the French backing lyrics by Francois Hardy. When I listen to this song I am transported back to when I first heard it – at Hylands Park in Chelmsford at V97 in the dark with a glitter ball descending from the roof of the stage – here was the band I love performing the ultimate indie love song.

10.   London Loves
One of my favourite songs on the album, London Loves has been an inspiration to me over the years. When I was a teenager I read Alex James’ Soho Diaries in N.M.E and I dreamed about living in London. It was a dream that sadly never came true but was something I really wanted. I had promised myself that the moment I moved to London the first song I would play on my CD player would be London Loves.

 It’s such a great song and I was delighted when Blur played it as their second song at their Olympic Closing Ceremony concert at Hyde Park in 2012. Damon introduced it perfectly (‘this song is called London Loves…and we love London!’), it was the only time I have seen them perform this song live and I loved the performance so much that I just listen to the live version now. I love Damon’s triumphic ending to the song (‘YEAH!’) in acknowledgment that they had just smashed that tune.

I’m such a fan of this song that I borrowed the title for my London LovesLunchtimes blog. In a soundtrack to my life this song would definitely accompany my nearly 4 year period of working full-time in London.

11.   Trouble In The Message Centre

One of the songs that I would have regarded as too weird when I first listened to the album at the age of 14, nineteen years later this song has definitely grown on me. It’s a great song for describing the stresses and strains of the workplace (‘I am a manager, I am in control, as the local delegator…I offer no guarantee at all…’).

12.   Clover Over Dover

Again, upon hearing a harpsichord in the intro for this song when I first listened to the album, it was another song that I dismissed as too weird at the time. Unlike the previous track on the album this hasn’t grown on me as much and for me is probably the weakest song on the album. It’s usually a track I skip, so let’s skip onto the next track…

13.   Magic America

After two more esoteric songs, it’s back to the killer Blur formula of the perfect indie pop song. The story of the Americanisation of England in the 90s, Magic America is also a great tune, with its Kinks inspired observational verses and catchy ‘la,la,la,la,la’ chorus.

14.   Jubilee
The story of a 17 year old boy born in the Silver Jubilee of 1977, almost every man can relate to being a Jubilee at some point. The brilliant chorus (‘he dresses incorrectly, no one told him, talk to girls, but he’s just too spotty’) is one that many men can painfully relate to. By the age of 17 I was going out to indie club so would like to think that I was less of a Jubilee then but I certainly was just a couple of years previously. Listening to Jubilee reminds me of a photo of me on my sixteenth birthday – long curly hair, bum fluff moustache and wearing a Star Trek t-shirt – no wonder I didn’t have a girlfriend then!

15.   This Is A Low

The album’s standout track, an absolute 5-star classic, This Is A Low is regarded by many fans and critics as being Blur’s best song. For me it is certainly up there with my other Favourites – Sing, For Tomorrow, End of A Century, Beetlebum, Tender and Out of Time. Damon’s best vocal performance to date, it was recorded just before he was about to have a hernia operation, so the physical pain he was feeling at the time is likely to have contributed to the emotion of his vocal performance.

The lyrics were inspired by a handkerchief depicting the shipping forecast areas of the British Isles that Alex had bought Damon for Christmas. The link between a meteorological depression and a mental depression is very clever and is definitely one of Damon’s best lyrics. The brilliant chorus (‘this is a low but it won’t hurt you’) has been comforting to me throughout many hard times over the years, and for me it’s up there with ‘everybody hurts, everybody cries’ by R.E.M in terms of its beautiful succinctness.

16.   Lot 105

The band didn’t want to finish the album on a low and after the draining emotional experience of This Is A Low comes the throwaway Music Hall fun of Lot 105. Named after the auction number of the organ that features in the song, Lot 105 finishes the album off with a cheeky smile. The lyric at the end (’18 times a week love’) references the response that the band gave a fan at the time when she asked them how often they had sex!