Suddenly getting emotionally attached to a shit song

[Crabwalk]

I found myself surprisingly affected recently when 'The Only Way is Up' by Yazz popped up on the BBC4 TOTP repeats.

Partly for the nostalgia of being 10 when it came out, partly for Yazz's innate likability, but mostly for those defiant lyrics in the verses.

The portrait of the couple's material struggles had never really registered with me before, but with lines like 'Now we may not know where our next meal is coming from, but with you by my side I'll face what is to come', the over-the-top positivity of the chorus suddenly feels really emotional and admirable. I was really rooting for her and her fella!

[Huxleys Babkins]

I found myself surprisingly affected recently when 'The Only Way is Up' by Yazz popped up on the BBC4 TOTP repeats.

Partly for the nostalgia of being 10 when it came out, partly for Yazz's innate likability, but mostly for those defiant lyrics in the verses.

The portrait of the couple's material struggles had never really registered with me before, but with lines like 'Now we may not know where our next meal is coming from, but with you by my side I'll face what is to come', the over-the-top positivity of the chorus suddenly feels really emotional and admirable. I was really rooting for her and her fella!

It's a great tune full stop. Probably acid house's best mainstream moment.

[Crabwalk]

It is a great tune, so maybe doesn't belong in the thread but I'd always sort of bracketed it as a 'generically positive' song. It was just really surprising and affecting to finally recognise that it's about 'holding on' in the face of extreme poverty! Coldcut should've kept their name on it either way. They can be proud.

[Huxleys Babkins]

I'd dismissed it for years along with a lot of the other pop dance clones of the time until I heard the 12" on a Ben Liebrand compilation a few years back. The 12" gives it a bit more room to breathe and there are some nice instrumental breaks that aren't on the radio edit which show off the craftsmanship that went into it.

[Gulftastic]

Because they are all fucking liars is why. Yeah, mate, of course, your 8 year old arse was in Woolworths buying Dark Side of the Moon and not Wombling Songs. Yeah, I fucking bet it was.

My first album was genuinely 'I Just Can't Stop It' by The Beat. And just to prove that I'm not trying to be too cool for school, my second was 'The Kids From Fame'.

[Famous Mortimer]

'The Kids From Fame'.

I think that was mine too. Or "Captain Beaky and his Band".

[Jollity]

It's mostly the shit songs that I get nostalgic about. The good songs aren't tied to their original time and place, because I've continued listening to them over the years. I heard Barbie Girl on the radio the other day and felt all funny (then again, I was giving blood at the time).

I found a series on YouTube of audio clips of all the UK number ones, and another of all the UK number twos. Some of them (Saturday Night by Whigfield being a strong example) give me feelings relating to the year it came out, and how I was feeling about things back then. Though with some of them (mostly the ones from about 2000 to 2003, when I was at university) are not so much emotional attachment as emotional repulsion, related to how wretched I remember myself being back then.

[Jockice]

Because they are all fucking liars is why. Yeah, mate, of course, your 8 year old arse was in Woolworths buying Dark Side of the Moon and not Wombling Songs. Yeah, I fucking bet it was.

Well my sister left home when I was ten and she was 18, taking the only record player in the house with her, and it took me until my 14th birthday to convince my parents to get me another one. They just couldn't see the need. So that is why my first single genuinely was Gangsters by The Specials (only technically in that I paid for it first. I also bought singles by Buzzcocks, Ian Dury, Squeeze, The Flying Lizards and the B-52s on the same day) and my first vinyl album was The Undertones' debut. They had bought me a tape recorder a couple of years earlier and although I'd bought a couple of compilations (one of those Top Of The Pops ones and one called High Energy) but my first proper album on cassette was Parallel Lines by Blondie. Now, if I'd been given those things a few years earlier or in a less brilliant period of music...I'd have probably bought something by Gary Glitter. He was my first pop hero.


(PS, my sister did have Dark Side Of The Moon on eight-track. And Black Sabbath Volume Four. But apart from The Beatles' two best of The Beatles' compilations, all I can remember having on that format was a couple of Billy Connolly albums.)

[non capisco]

This is off remit because 'Protection' by Massive Attack and Tracey Thorn isn't a shit song by any stretch of the imagination, it's a pretty great song. It is, however, the song that broke my emotional dam the other night and led to a massive (arf!), cleansing, cathartic crying jag. Not just a little cry, mind, proper MWEAGHHHHHHHH noises like when Basil Fawlty has a breakdown after his racetrack winnings are given to Mrs. Richards. We're talking Arthur Fowler smashing up his front room in Eastenders after nicking the Christmas club money sort of noises. The sort of crying that almost sounds like laughter. The sort of crying where as it's happening part of you is hovering about as an observer thinking "how is my larynx accessing these noises?" You know, out of body type shit.

Anyway, the context is my mum has galloping Alzheimers. I'm sure I've mentioned it on here loads before in various posts and I won't bore you with the details. All the cliches about how cruel a way to go it is are true. I'm sure lots of you have first hand experience as well. It's fucking raw and not something I feel equipped to start farting out prose about at this point in time. Well, anyway, I came back from a weekend looking after the old dear, put Spotify on shuffle,  eventually 'Protection' comes on and the lyrics that did me in were these

And I've leaned on you for years, now you can lean on me
And that's more than love, that's the way it should be
Now I can't change the way you feel
But I could put my arms around you

Fucking wrecked. I sounded like George from Rainbow having night terrors. And then I got off the bus ahhhhh

[McFlymo]

That's harsh shit indeed non capisco! My heart goes out to you, sir.
Hope the crying was intense and could be heard for miles around, like the scene in the Princess Bride when they put the torture device to 50!!

Protection is a cracker piece of music. A good one to unleash the dam to*

*not sexual.

[Dusty Substance]

Remember Gym And Tonic by Spacedust? A number one dance hit from about 20 years ago. Poundland French house with a sample of a gym instructor. It's one of my go to tracks for when I get home, high as a kite and want to keep up the energetic beat. It's little more than a dumb novelty dance track but the hook is so irresistible ad sounds A-MAZ-ING on headphones whilst watching the carpet pulsate.

See also Doop.

Oh, and I also *really* love The Sign by Ace Of Base.

[SpiderChrist]

The RAH Band - Clouds Across The Moon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jL8AgEzg5fI

"Hello?"
"Hello operator?"
" Yes, we've lost the connection!
Could you try again please?"
"I'm sorry, but I'm afraid we've lost contact with Mars 2-4-7 at this time."

"Ok. Thank you very much...
I'll... I'll try again next year...
next year...
next year...
next year..."

Is it a shit song, though? IS IT?

[alan nagsworth]

This is off remit because 'Protection' by Massive Attack and Tracey Thorn isn't a shit song by any stretch of the imagination, it's a pretty great song. It is, however, the song that broke my emotional dam the other night and led to a massive (arf!), cleansing, cathartic crying jag. Not just a little cry, mind, proper MWEAGHHHHHHHH noises like when Basil Fawlty has a breakdown after his racetrack winnings are given to Mrs. Richards. We're talking Arthur Fowler smashing up his front room in Eastenders after nicking the Christmas club money sort of noises. The sort of crying that almost sounds like laughter. The sort of crying where as it's happening part of you is hovering about as an observer thinking "how is my larynx accessing these noises?" You know, out of body type shit.

Anyway, the context is my mum has galloping Alzheimers. I'm sure I've mentioned it on here loads before in various posts and I won't bore you with the details. All the cliches about how cruel a way to go it is are true. I'm sure lots of you have first hand experience as well. It's fucking raw and not something I feel equipped to start farting out prose about at this point in time. Well, anyway, I came back from a weekend looking after the old dear, put Spotify on shuffle,  eventually 'Protection' comes on and the lyrics that did me in were these

Fucking wrecked. I sounded like George from Rainbow having night terrors. And then I got off the bus ahhhhh

Making heartache relatable is one thing, especially when the reader doesn't have a direct point of reference to relate to. Making it funny is another thing entirely. But making it so that I empathise via a fucking awful Massive Attack song is a monumental feat. So I commend you for that.

Love ya pal. You know where I am if you need to spill, I'm always more than happy to listen.

Or if you just wanna come by and jam, I used to be the bass player for The Pretenders.

[non capisco]

Love ya pal. You know where I am if you need to spill, I'm always more than happy to listen.

Thanks man. I know and it is very much appreciated.

That Massive Attack song is the tits though, you cloth eared nerk.

[Bobloblawslawbomb]

I heard 'Heaven is a place on earth' again recently and now thanks to the san junipero episode of black mirror, it gave me goosebumps.

Same goes for the Jenny Owen Young's song 'Wake up' on Bojack Horseman season 4 finale.

Edit - second song not shit, but y'know, point stands