Some people love certain songs while others hate them, hence their being known as marmite.
Can I kick this off with a number 2 single from 1981
Plenty of love here I suspect, possibly none more marmite to the great British public.
Marmite songs.
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O Superman started me off on a long journey through Laurie’s career – my favourite artist. Witty, graceful, experimental – just wonderful. Truly multimedia in that she pays as much attention to image and movement as to sound.
If you really want something challenging from her, try Sweaters, also from her debut solo album. Vocals, accompanied by violin, drums… and bagpipes.
You could see O Superman as the easily most accessible song in Laurie’s songbook and one that a sizeable number of that there General Public could just about recognise (possibly).
I saw one of her shows at The Barbican – one moment genius, the next “Oh, stop trying to be so precious”. And yes, there was bagpipes
There are more accessible songs throughout her discography – try Coolsville, Freefall or Washington Street.
Language is a Virus is my absolute favourite of hers. It’s intelligent and funny, but also melodic and a bit funky. The lyrics are brilliant. To me it seems very accessible (but then I own three Anderson LPs and the big compilation that came out a few years ago, so I think that all of it’s accessible…)
It must have been quite a show to see. Even from that short video clip, there is so much packed in, so many ideas – things that would ebb and flow out throughout her later work and performances. I’ve seen her about 3-4 times, and it was always more reined in, but still fantastic.
Ah Sweaters.
I may have mentioned this before but I heard it on the John Walters’ programme. I went into the local Smiths a day or two after and asked if they’d play it in the shop.
As it started and the bagpipes kicked in followed by the vocal drone, the few people riffling through the records stopped and looked at the speakers, possibly in wonderment or possibly in a marmite reaction to the sound.
Me, I bought it.
I had Radio 2 on this afternoon while I tidied my garage. I’m normally a R4 man but some near neighbours were having a wedding reception in their garden, the band were shit, and I needed something to drown them out. This came on and I’d forgotten about the bagpipes (which are the only thing making it tolerable):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVbjCmm1yok
Radio 2 AND bagpipes? “Shudders”
I have one of those FM radios which only builders and market stall holders seem to own. It sounds loud and shit at any volume. Plus “Steve Wright in the Afternoon.”
Still, it was better than the wedding singer. Things got even worse later when the karaoke started. I hope they all have massive hangovers today.
Love the show, Steve.
Serious Bloggin’.
I’ve always had it down as an interesting piece of performance art rather than a song.
I always wondered who the fuck bought it. Too clever for me by far.
Men At Work reference a Vegemite sandwich in their hit Down Under. Any use? Actually I quite like a smear of Vegemite, whereas Marmite is just too overpowering. The fabs have a fair share of Marmite tunes I would say. Patchy albums with crowd splitting missteps/triumphs like Maxwell’s Silver Hammer and Within You Without You or perhaps Revolution No. 9. Then again there’s huge swathes of Zappa’s oeuvre that attract devotion or the one hand and loathing on the other.
There’s at least a tinge of Marmite to just about any music, isn’t there?
Psychosomatic Marmite, in that nobody’s stuff is going to please absolutely everybody and everybody’s taste differs at least a little bit from everyone else’s.
I think you’ve nailed it Mike, you’ll never find a song that everyone likes. Not even Ghost Town.
I’m nominating this slice of heaven. I genuinely think this is one of the best songs ever recorded and it makes me happy every time I hear it.
Starland Vocal Band ‘Afternoon Delight’
If Sweaters is chalk, this is cheese.
There is a great karaoke version of this in Arrested Development. Father and teenage daughter are cajoled into singing it. It starts well and they are beginning to enjoy the moment- and then the lyric turns into more intimate territory and it all gets very awkward.
I’d somehow managed to get to earlier this year without ever having heard O Superman and when I did I was quite taken aback. For some reason I was expecting a reggae tinged pop song. I don’t particularly like the song, but I think it’s great that something that sounds like that could make it to number two in the charts.
Talking (or singing) of Laurie Anderson…
Probably not for everyone, but I’ve always liked this
Peter Hammill’s voice springs to mind (calling Mike_H)…..and this song in particular….
Strangely, split into two for some bizarre reason….
Part one….
….and part two
Didn’t “O Superman” come and go really quickly?
I don’t have a copy to hand, but I think the Guinness Book of Hit Singles gave it a 6 week chart run … might be wrong … if right, unheard of for a song, back then, which had got as high as no. 2.
Kanye West is very much a marmite artist. This performance is both touching and terrifying at the same time:
This will get your throwing some groovy moves around the kitchen in your socks. It’s the extended version too. My Italian lessons hit a bit of a buffer when it all got completely mad. It’s a crazy language, man. I’m doing a lot better with French. I got a ‘C’ at O Level, so that helps as well. Unfortunately, Duolingo doesn’t do Kobaian.