What song hooked you first??

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Dazz_ler
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What song hooked you first??

Post by Dazz_ler »

Interested here but what Spz song first hooked your curiousity? Where were you? what ones made you come around again after Amazing Grace?? (sorry, just joking about AG)
jadams501
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Re: What song hooked you first??

Post by jadams501 »

I had been a big fan of Radiohead (now not as much) and a fan of the Verve (now more than ever), and found that I kept reading references to a band called Spiritualized as the gold standard in space rock. The recommendations were gushing and frequent enough that I bought the albums I'd heard praised the most, Ladies & Gents and Lazer Guided Melodies, without listening at all.

Listened to Ladies & Gents first, initially J's voice seemed a little Maynard James Keenan melodramatic to me, and I thought (as I still do) that Come Together sounded a little compromised, but I Think I'm In Love grabbed me -- the call and response at the end was really striking. Also really liked Broken Heart, Cool Waves, and Cop Shoot Cop.

It took me much longer to get into Lazer Guided Melodies, I distinctly remember falling asleep in disappointment at what seemed like a lack of percussion, and being annoyed that it was 4 long tracks. But eventually it won me over, starting with If I Were With Her Now and Angel Sigh, and I came to see it as better than its more famous successor.
The Dr
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Re: What song hooked you first??

Post by The Dr »

i stumbled upon silent sound and then a few years later saw it was being performed in middlesbrough so i went to see that, enjoyed it and thought 'is there anything else this guy has done?' got AG thought it was wonderful, got ladies thought it was sublime, spacemen 3, lgm, pp didn't really move me, liked A&E, liked half of let it saw them at the albert hall, left with a grin a mile wide, repeating in my head poppy spaceman! and the album hasn't let me down :D
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Venus_in_Furs
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Re: What song hooked you first??

Post by Venus_in_Furs »

I was at a Verve gig and Primal Scream's Come Together was played before the band came on. Being extremely young and having remarkably little knowledge about any music that wasn't either current or ancient enough for my parents to have played (bring on the Steppenwolf dad! *instinctive shudder*), I didn't know the song but I immediately loved it. I also immediately figured it was Spiritualized and so I picked up LAGWAFIS at the record store. My first-ever CD purchase with my own money-- does that count as a benchmark, of sorts? Anyway, I swiftly realized it wasn't the Come Together I'd been expecting. I'd never heard the f-bomb dropped in a song before (imagine my surprise) and my idea of "drugs" was Just Say No. But not Just Say No to heroin and hard drugs-- I was only vaguely aware of the existence of heroin, and knew of no other drugs full stop-- it was Just Say No to cigarettes and wine coolers. After listening to Come Together, I wanted to take a shower because it made me feel so dirty. After Cop Shoot Cop, I wanted to take a shower because I thought my ears were bleeding (and it made me feel dirty, too). Needless to say, Spiritualized yanked me out of my innocent maidenhood.
shalloboi
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Re: What song hooked you first??

Post by shalloboi »

i had 'ladies and gentlemen...' for years before i really got into spiritualized. it took a long time before i really was able to absorb the whole thing- that first listen was pretty dense and i just wasn't prepared for it.
what made me a fanatic was 'sway.' when i first got 'lazer guided melodies' it was one of those albums that stayed in the tape deck of my car (i had a walkman until 2006 and all of my cars always had tape decks) for at least two weeks straight. i loved the dynamics of the album- i think it's biggest strength is how it spends its entire running time building and building. that last set of 'angel sigh,' 'sway' and '200 bars' couldn't be more perfect.
jack white
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Re: What song hooked you first??

Post by jack white »

prob the 'desert' section of Cop Shoot Cop.


but i was live i got hooked. then went & revisited the records.
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Hedspace
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Re: What song hooked you first??

Post by Hedspace »

Not 1 song but 4 got me hooked and this was the moment > one Sunday evening watching 120 minutes back in 92:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfV_xwXvYJU

I sat in the same position on the couch with my mouth open for about 3 days afterwards
BzaInSpace
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Re: What song hooked you first??

Post by BzaInSpace »

Venus_in_Furs wrote:After listening to Come Together, I wanted to take a shower because it made me feel so dirty...
Classic! Yeah, probably either seeing them live in 97 or the opening trio from Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space. Both occured around the same time.

But those three songs? Still unbeatable in my book. Took a lot of listens though, my musical mind was somewhat underdeveloped back in 1997, but something made me return to it over and over again, unlike say for example, The Verve's Urban Hymns. 'Come Together' - the album version - just kills me. Still.
It's one of these songs I try not to analyse too much from a production/recording point of view as I'd rather I didn't how it was put together - I'd much rather her it as a pure adrenaline rush, which it essentially is.

But, I have noticed over the years though that it seems to be mixed in an evolution of the Pure Phase style, with two separate mixes on either channel that are constantly having the levels adjusted and stuff - the drums, bass and vocals are never in any fixed positions and seem to be swimming within the stereo mix... excuse the descent into semi-technical jargon here. Despite the live and 'Abbey Road' versions having a lot of guitar, the true album version seems to have the guitars mixed way down: at loud volumes it's all about the bass, while the guitars become this almost distant crackling of howling electricity...

Astonishing. :shock:
O P 8
Broc
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Re: What song hooked you first??

Post by Broc »

Seeing the Revolution video and the Alan McGee interview on Snub TV in 1987.
Hofstadter
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Re: What song hooked you first??

Post by Hofstadter »

Just to See You Smile and LAG. That mixtape....
sunray
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Re: What song hooked you first??

Post by sunray »

How Does It Feel, whenever it was released, and actually floating above myself in my darkened teenage bedroom totally stone cold straight and sober :shock:

Never looked back since. :D

Broc, there's no way that was '87. More likely 1989.
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niamhm
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Re: What song hooked you first??

Post by niamhm »

Any Way That You Want Me , confirmed to me that at least somebody from the Spacemen wreckage was doing something I could follow,...wasn`t wrong their;)
Broc
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Re: What song hooked you first??

Post by Broc »

sunray wrote:How Does It Feel, whenever it was released, and actually floating above myself in my darkened teenage bedroom totally stone cold straight and sober :shock:

Never looked back since. :D

Broc, there's no way that was '87. More likely 1989.
You're right Sunray, my memory is fucked! Looks like it was 1988. I was in 5th year in secondary school. And that show wasn't Snub TV either, it was Transmission, another excellent show on satelite TV around that time.
mh
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Re: What song hooked you first??

Post by mh »

Hypnotized was the one, pouring out of the radio sometime in late 89. I'd never heard music like that before, never even knew music like that could be made, and bam! Instant. OK, it's not an Spz song, but it counts as the beginning of the Spz sound so I'll let it stand. Needs to go back into the live set for sure.
musicheals2
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Re: What song hooked you first??

Post by musicheals2 »

I remember my brother playing Shine A Light when I was about 10 and thinking 'this is beautiful'. I was introduced to loads of great music sharing a room with my bro and him being 7 years older. From there I was hooked. I bought Pure Phase with my paper round money from track records in Doncaster and it still glows in the dark to this day
bbbhenko
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Re: What song hooked you first??

Post by bbbhenko »

i borrowed 'pure phase' from the local library soon after it came out (i was 14 or 15 at the time). i was shocked by it - the noise, the intensity, the beauty, the hypnotic repetitions... it was 'let it flow' that first made me realize that this was not just something "weird", it was (and still is) the best album ever made :D
Venus_in_Furs
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Re: What song hooked you first??

Post by Venus_in_Furs »

Ah, be still my beating heart! I love hearing that people love Pure Phase. I don't know why... perhaps because LGM and L&GWAFIS are sort of the Marcia Bradys of the Spiritualized family? Pure Phase is like Jan Brady. It doesn't receive nearly as much attention but it's a dark star beauty. A descriptive chestnut not meant to apply to Jan Brady, mind.
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