"...the best song Jagger and Richards have written in twenty years"
April 18, 2015 10:33 AM Subscribe
YoutTube: The story of Bitter Sweet Symphony | Andrew Oldham Orchestra - The Last Time (1965) | Original video | 2010 studio performance for Radio 1 Presents | 2008 concert performance | Live at Glastonbury 2008 | Glastonbury 2011 | potted history of The Verve at BBC News
damned good song -- I don't care who gets credit
posted by philip-random at 11:09 AM on April 18, 2015
posted by philip-random at 11:09 AM on April 18, 2015
I find it dirgeful, sorry. And ironically, seeing it performed live at a festival in about 1998 is what swung it for me.
There's a whole bunch of mid 90s UK bands that I quite liked at the time, and that one performance by the Verge was so ponderous and lumpen, that I now find the whole scene completely unlistenable. It had a great impact on my musical listening, so I guess I have to thank them for that.
posted by daveje at 11:51 AM on April 18, 2015 [1 favorite]
There's a whole bunch of mid 90s UK bands that I quite liked at the time, and that one performance by the Verge was so ponderous and lumpen, that I now find the whole scene completely unlistenable. It had a great impact on my musical listening, so I guess I have to thank them for that.
posted by daveje at 11:51 AM on April 18, 2015 [1 favorite]
When I was a little girl in the 1970s, we sung it as "This May Be the Last Time, I Don't Know" in church. The really old folks would lead some parts in the "praise" portion of the Sunday service, and when it was sung, the musicians wouldn't play because the pastor wanted us all to hear the elders and sing with them minus electric guitars and whatnot. It sounded more like this.
Had I known it was such an old song, I probably would've been more respectful, but as it was, I was ~7, bored, and only sang along when I was getting the hairy eyeball from my guardian. I hadn't realized what The Stones or Oldham or even The Verve had done with the song until my 30s. The Staples Singers version is amazing. Pops Staple's tremolo is amazing. And Mavis was, what, 17? Gawd.
posted by droplet at 12:14 PM on April 18, 2015 [1 favorite]
Had I known it was such an old song, I probably would've been more respectful, but as it was, I was ~7, bored, and only sang along when I was getting the hairy eyeball from my guardian. I hadn't realized what The Stones or Oldham or even The Verve had done with the song until my 30s. The Staples Singers version is amazing. Pops Staple's tremolo is amazing. And Mavis was, what, 17? Gawd.
posted by droplet at 12:14 PM on April 18, 2015 [1 favorite]
The best Jagger and Richards track since 1991 anyway, when they peaked with 'After the Watershed'.
posted by biffa at 1:33 PM on April 18, 2015
posted by biffa at 1:33 PM on April 18, 2015
It's amazing that this guy in the hat was so pumped in 2008 and managed to stay that pumped all the way through 2011.
posted by ethansr at 2:14 PM on April 18, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by ethansr at 2:14 PM on April 18, 2015 [1 favorite]
I still love A Storm in Heaven so much. For me, nothing they did afterwards matched that album for searing, shimmering, gut wrenching brilliance yet Bittersweet Symphony - so tepid in comparison to the likes of The Sun, The Sea - remains the one people swoon over. At least it isn't that godawful dirge about the drugs not working.
posted by freya_lamb at 3:23 PM on April 18, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by freya_lamb at 3:23 PM on April 18, 2015 [2 favorites]
Andrew Loog Oldham at Book Soup (West Hollywood) in 2013 on Bitter Sweet Symphony... 35 minutes into the talk
posted by Mister Bijou at 3:30 PM on April 18, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Mister Bijou at 3:30 PM on April 18, 2015 [1 favorite]
It's amazing that this guy in the hat
More amazing that the band is wearing the exact same thing and doing the exact same gestures. Could this be the same video?
posted by pashdown at 4:54 PM on April 18, 2015 [1 favorite]
More amazing that the band is wearing the exact same thing and doing the exact same gestures. Could this be the same video?
posted by pashdown at 4:54 PM on April 18, 2015 [1 favorite]
One day back in 1997...I was driving in Atlanta, and this song came on the radio (on the local "alternative" station, 99X)...and then it played again. And again. And again. Seven time in a row. The DJ, who was called Sean Demery, I think, came on sounding...broken up and crying, and had apparently locked himself in the studio. Then someone else came on, with no explanation. It was...very weird.
posted by Pseudonymous Cognomen at 6:37 PM on April 18, 2015 [4 favorites]
posted by Pseudonymous Cognomen at 6:37 PM on April 18, 2015 [4 favorites]
It's also frequently forgotten that there's another sample on Bittersweet Symphony, a drum loop of "Doggone" by Love, but neither Love nor Love's drummer at the time gets anything, because Allen Klein was legally allowed to take 100% of the royalties for less than 100% of the work. The copyright system is primarily about who has the more expensive lawyers, not who contributed the most to a collaborative work.
posted by jonp72 at 7:38 AM on April 19, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by jonp72 at 7:38 AM on April 19, 2015 [1 favorite]
I didn't think much of this song at first. And then I heard it in a club while I was on mushrooms.
posted by The Card Cheat at 9:08 AM on April 20, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by The Card Cheat at 9:08 AM on April 20, 2015 [2 favorites]
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posted by George_Spiggott at 10:48 AM on April 18, 2015 [1 favorite]