« Galbraith on Trade | Main | Is There A Historian In the House? » 90s Nostalgia Blogging10 May 2007 11:30 am One of the very best things about Nineties Alt Rock is that it featured one band called The Verve and another band called The Verve Pipe. This is one is the Verve: I remember distinctly a period in my life when I thought that guy walking down the street bumping into everyone was the awesomest thing ever. Comments (34)
The Verve and the Verve Pipe demonstrated that you can have very good and incredibly bad one-hit wonders. 
In most major inner cities, he gets his ass beat by about the third block.
He's bumping into everyone because he's pissed Mick Jagger's getting all his royalty money.
The Verve and the Verve Pipe demonstrated that you can have very good and incredibly bad one-hit wonders. Oh man, the Pipe did that terrible song "Freshmen", right? Or am I thinking of another crappy band?
I recall that this album and OK Computer came out around the same time and did not leave my CD changer for about a year.
What made it particularly odd was they both had their only hit song become big within months of each other. Verve Pipe was indeed Freshmen, and it was definitely terrible. There was a great Nike commercial set to Bittersweet Symphony, though, if I recall.
Verve Pipe was a two-hit wonder, as I recall.
Aw, c'mon..."The Freshmen" wasn't that bad. You've gotta love a good teen death ballad. But as a band, yes, they are justly forgotten. The Verve--or just Verve to the purists--were a major disappointment. It looked like they were the real deal, but they fell apart pretty much within months of that gigantic hit, and that skinny guy's solo stuff has never delivered.
True, true. And, technically, Romeo & Juliet was the ne plus ultra in good teen death ballads, no?
"I remember distinctly a period in my life when I thought that guy walking down the street bumping into everyone was the awesomest thing ever." I hope you were 14 because otherwise this would be both stupid and pathetic.
Two great things about this video:
Verve Pipe also had "Photograph", which was mildly popular. I liked that one better than the Freshmen. Remember when they came back, that song about "I'm just a jerk but a hero's what I wanna be?" Man, that was embarrassing. Yes, the black hole sun video was pretty great. The song was great too.
W/ Peter's seemingly knowledgable post in mind: Did the walker guy shift to avoid the stroller lady and the lady in the flower print dress because that's part of "the meaning?" Or, was it because he didn't know whether she was a civilian or a paid extra? This is important.
I think I was the only fan of Richard Ashcroft's solo stuff. A Song for the Lovers and C'mon People were sorta catchy.
The Rollig Stones original doean't sound much like it, but when you hear The Andrew Oldham Orchestra recording you think, "yeah, they did steal that after all." I have a punk cover of The Freshman by Mustard Plug that's really great.
"I remember distinctly a period in my life when I thought that guy walking down the street bumping into everyone was the awesomest thing ever." I'm sorry.
I very much prefer "The Freshmen" by the Verve Pipe to the other one. Probably the only one on the planet.
This song is still one of my favorites. I particularly like a version Ashcroft did with Coldplay in LiveAid. I liked Ashcroft's solo album too.
Some of the other stuff Verve's Urban Hymns is substantially better, incl. "Sonnet" and "Drugs Don't Work" (somewhat famously covered by Ben Harper). Also, as Chris_ pointed out, some of Richard Ashcroft's solo stuff isn't bad. It swings metaphysical, plus it makes good use of pedal steel. "Buy it in Bottles" is good, and "Brave New World".
From the 2000's file, I had a guy in my office who went out to buy The Hives' new album, accidentally bought The Vines' new album, and then realized he liked the latter one better.
I wasn't a big fan of the song in the first place, but the one time I saw the vid, I thought the bit at the end where the guy's homies fall into a phalanx behind him as he walks down the sidewalk just felt sooooooooooo cliched.
Verve Pipe fans of the world unite! Who can pass up this gem of a lyric from "Freshman"? "Now I'm guilt stricken / sobbing with my head on the floor / stop a baby's breath and a shoe full of rice." Shoes full of rice? Sounds like it's from one of those trendy Calif-Asian eateries.
That was filmed in one take. "Alt rock"? Alt to what?
StJoe's point well taken. This is a very, very strong album. It works as a whole and in pieces. But I think it's in the whole sweep of the songs that the real effect of the band becomes clear. Good lyrics, great vocals, space guitar and some straight ahead rock. "Weeping Willow", "Lucky Man", and then "One Day" and "This Time". Hard to find a line up that strong anymore. The band broke up (again) after this, and so OK, thanks for going out on such an incredible piece of work.
I recall that this album and OK Computer came out around the same time and did not leave my CD changer for about a year. Also Ladies And Gentlemen, We Are Floating In Space, making Kate Radley responsible for two of the year's best albums. I have a softer spot for at least the first half of A Northern Soul, and for 'All In The Mind' from the first album, when they were just 'Verve' and much more, um, spaced-out.
And I had the misfortune of being a freshman in college when "Freshman" by Verve Pipe came out, and a lot of the idiots in my dorm thought it was So. Fucking. Deep. And. Relevant. So I have a deep and abiding hatred for that song, apart from its general awfulness.
Anyone else familiar with the incredibly stupid English football song "Vindaloo", whose video was filmed on the same street as "Bittersweet Symphony," and featured a dude who looked like the lead singer of the Verve walking down the street ridiculously? Very stupid. http://youtube.com/watch?v=0T1pXsJp_go
Unfortunately, yes.
The Verve were brit pop, not alt rock. Or at least they were by the time Urban Hymns came out. The Verve EP and A Storm in Heaven were shoegaze records. Good ones, too. Trivia note, the Oasis song Cast No Shadow is about The Verve's lead singer, Richard Ashcroft.
I liked Ashcroft's solo album too. Yeah man, John Ashcroft's solo stuff is awesome. I especially like, "Let the Eagle Soar"
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Heads in the Sand
This was a rip-off of Massive Attack's video for Unfinished Symphony.
Posted by Gabriel | May 10, 2007 11:39 AM