Saturday, January 03, 2009

The tenth day of Christmas: Mansize Rooster

Well, yesterday's song was slightly silly. Today's is a bit sillier. (And, just to warn you, tomorrow's is very silly, and the last one is totally ridiculous!)

Supergrass - Mansize Rooster

Supergrass became a very big band, but this was their first (minor) hit; it got to number 20 in 1995. To me, though, none of their subsequent songs was a patch on this one. This song has just about everything! And I must admit I never knew what it was supposed to be about until I looked it up on Wikipedia - and now I know, I still can't see what the lyrics have to do with that!

Apart from the slight silliness, this song does have something else in common with Johnny Remember Me: a galloping horse rhythm on the guitar. But I love the fact that it doesn't do this all the way through - there are different sections with quite different accompanying rhythms, and I particularly like the way the song moves from one to another. For example, in the intro, the drums play on every beat (which makes for a very powerful intro!) but then the drums start galloping to bring us to the first verse.

There's also one bit where all the backing stops totally, leaving the vocals alone briefly - very exciting. My only complaint is that they should have made the end as definitive and exciting as that - they actually fade out... but I can't have everything! However, there are some Jellyfish triplets :-)

As for the vocals - well! Vocal harmony throughout, obviously (and all the harmony is interesting - some unexpected chords! I always love that) but there's also a high howling bit of BV that comes several times. And I also love the way that the last time he sings "crazy" the glissando is twice as long. And he even shouts "ROOSTER!" in a silly voice in the middle! Perfection.

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