The Beautiful South is to England as ____

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

analogy ?

And why are they so big over there but no one and his Mom has ever heard of them here?

― Mr Jones (Mr Jones), Wednesday, 10 May 2006 22:56 (nineteen years ago)

Dave Matthews Band.
And why are they so big over there but no one and his Mom has ever heard of them here?

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy (Kerr), Wednesday, 10 May 2006 23:16 (nineteen years ago)

"over there" being England or the US? because while they have always been popular in the UK I don't think that they are massive are they? I don't know, have been away a while. Are they huge in the states or not known at all?

basically I don't understand the question as I don't know where Mr. Jones is posting from.

Sorry

― Paul Kelly (kelly), Thursday, 11 May 2006 01:35 (nineteen years ago)

Well, for Canada you could pick Tragically Hip.

― fortunate hazel (f. hazel), Thursday, 11 May 2006 01:37 (nineteen years ago)

Or Sloan.

― naus (Robert T), Thursday, 11 May 2006 03:03 (nineteen years ago)

I am in America. I think one of their records is one of the top selling records in England ever

from AMG
"Their popularity was confirmed by the astonishing success of their 1994 singles compilation, Carry on Up the Charts, which became one of the biggest-selling albums in British history."

― Mr Jones (Mr Jones), Thursday, 11 May 2006 03:24 (nineteen years ago)

Steve Miller Band?

― fortunate hazel (f. hazel), Thursday, 11 May 2006 04:50 (nineteen years ago)

I am just guessing here but their huge commercial success could be due to the fact that their albums were often for sale in supermarkets long before places like Tesco started to sell a wider range of music. So they were probably bought by the sort of people who might not venture into a music shop very often. They write sort of safe nice tunes that Grannies might enjoy as much as their younger listeners.

My Dad once got me an album of theirs from the supermarket. I would have never of thought of getting it for myself even though the singer songwriter is a friend of a friend.

― Paul Kelly (kelly), Thursday, 11 May 2006 04:57 (nineteen years ago)

The answer is (nearly, kinda) Steely Dan.

― Doktor Faustus (noodle vague), Thursday, 11 May 2006 06:03 (nineteen years ago)

what a strange thing to type

― RJG (RJG), Thursday, 11 May 2006 06:09 (nineteen years ago)

Analogy: glossy accessible pop surface/mean-spirited despairing cynical lyrics.

― Doktor Faustus (noodle vague), Thursday, 11 May 2006 06:12 (nineteen years ago)

Problem with analogy: BS not noted studio perfectionists. BS drug of choice booze. SD had at least 1 hit in the UK. SD didn't have maudlin pub C&W phase to my knowledge.

Their best records scratch a similar pleasure centre in my brain tho.

― Doktor Faustus (noodle vague), Thursday, 11 May 2006 06:15 (nineteen years ago)

Hootie and the Blowfish.

― Hello Sunshine (Hello Sunshine), Thursday, 11 May 2006 06:40 (nineteen years ago)

That's a bit closer. A key is that they're hated by anyone who 'loves music', but loved by more or less everyone else (and The Lex). I was thinking Jimmy Buffet.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Thursday, 11 May 2006 07:14 (nineteen years ago)

Probably Hootie and the Blowfish, who unless I'm mistaken were virtually anonymous in the UK.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Thursday, 11 May 2006 07:17 (nineteen years ago)

Didn't 'The day we caught the Train' chart pretty highly.

― Ed (dali), Thursday, 11 May 2006 07:26 (nineteen years ago)

Yes, it did. For Ocean Colour Scene.

― ailsa (ailsa), Thursday, 11 May 2006 07:29 (nineteen years ago)

xpost "I only wanna be with yough" got played a lot, just sos we understood the reference to them in "Friends".

― mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 11 May 2006 07:31 (nineteen years ago)

surprise: Album hits!
12 Hootie & The Blowfish Cracked Rear View Album Mar 1995
9 Hootie & The Blowfish Fairweather Johnson Album May 1996
15 Hootie & The Blowfish Musical Chairs Album Sep 1998

― mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 11 May 2006 07:32 (nineteen years ago)

Dave Matthews Band is probably the correct answer, or maybe Phish.

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Thursday, 11 May 2006 07:51 (nineteen years ago)

Does everyone over there know who DMB is? I thought it was just a college thing.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Thursday, 11 May 2006 08:31 (nineteen years ago)

Obviously it's important that we sort this out before the US wakes up!

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Thursday, 11 May 2006 08:32 (nineteen years ago)

Is 'Fairweather Johnson' about fussy sex?

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Thursday, 11 May 2006 08:35 (nineteen years ago)

From Northernden to Partington it's rain
From Altrincham to Chadderton it's rain
From Moss Side to Swinton hardly Spain
It's a picture postcard of 'wish they never came'

And whilst that deckchair in the garden it makes no sense
It doesn't spoil the view or cause offence
Those Floridas, Bavarias and Kents
Make gentlemen wear shorts but don't make gents

So convertibles stay garage-bound
Save after-sun for later
If rain makes Britain great
Then Manchester is greater

As you dry your clothes once again
Upon the radiator
What makes Britain great
Makes Manchester yet greater

From Cheetham Hill to Wytenshawe it's rain
Gorton, Salford, Sale pretty much the same
As I'm caught without my jacket once again
The raindrops on my face play a sweet refain

And as winter turns reluctantly to spring
For the clouds above the city there's one last fling
Swallows build their nests, chaffinch sing
And the sun strolls into town like long lost king

So convertibles stay garage-bound
Save after-sun for later
If rain makes Britain great
Then Manchester is greater

As you dry your clothes once again
Upon the radiator
What makes Britain great
Makes Manchester yet greater

And the mood of this whole sodden place is melancholy
Like the sun came out to play, shone through the clouds
But dropped its lolly
And everyone looks so disappointed, so, so sorry
Like the rain blew into town, kidnapped the sun
And stole it's brolly

So convertibles stay garage-bound
Save after-sun for later
If rain makes Britain great
Then Manchester is greater

As you dry your clothes once again
Upon the radiator
What makes Britain great
Makes Manchester yet greater

― C J (C J), Thursday, 11 May 2006 08:37 (nineteen years ago)

I find it odd that "FatBoy SLim" was the bassist of the Housemartins. Imagine if today you said "Lets make a band with fatboy slim on bass and the chinny singer from The Beautiful South"

I admire the housemartin's videos

http://www.youtube.com/results?search=housemartins&search_type=search_videos

― Mr Jones (Mr Jones), Thursday, 11 May 2006 08:41 (nineteen years ago)

the grim north, i guess.

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 11 May 2006 08:42 (nineteen years ago)

Here comes the rain again
pounding on my butt like a Kennedy
tearing me apart like a yucky thing

When the rain comes they run and hide their head
nude french men in bed

when the rain comes...

― Mr Jones (Mr Jones), Thursday, 11 May 2006 08:44 (nineteen years ago)

i don't love the beautiful south! they had a few songs in the mid-90s which i liked. i don't really understand why they're hated so much, i'm unbothered about most of their output and they're usually fairly dull but there are surely far more worthy targets for our ire (eg oasis, arctic monkeys, the fucking futureheads desecrating 'hounds of love', &c &c &c)

― The Lex (The Lex), Thursday, 11 May 2006 09:09 (nineteen years ago)

I don't know what "loves music" means in this context either but I reckon that's a pretty common view, yep

― DJ Mencap (DJ Mencap), Thursday, 11 May 2006 09:38 (nineteen years ago)

A key is that they're hated by anyone who 'loves music'

Leave the musical snobbery to ILM please? I like the Beautiful South, though that Manchester song is appallingly bad.

― ailsa (ailsa), Thursday, 11 May 2006 09:42 (nineteen years ago)

It was a generalisation, I think maybe what I was trying to get to is that they aren't and have never been cool.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Thursday, 11 May 2006 09:54 (nineteen years ago)

but the housemartins?

― RJG (RJG), Thursday, 11 May 2006 09:59 (nineteen years ago)

Are a v. different band.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Thursday, 11 May 2006 10:00 (nineteen years ago)

You can't have normal looking singers and be cool. Especially in America. In fact, in America you can't really be over 30 and be a pop singer unless you are a mega star like that mummified preistess of corporate musical mucas Madonna or have had allot of work done.

― Mr Jones (Mr Jones), Thursday, 11 May 2006 10:01 (nineteen years ago)

hated by anyone who 'loves music'

And this was also part of my vagued Steely analogy, although the BS carry their anti-rock and roll ethic further. "Hated by anyone who worries about 'cool'" would be nearer the mark.

― Doktor Faustus (noodle vague), Thursday, 11 May 2006 11:56 (nineteen years ago)

Yet Fatboy Slim has escaped this deadzone of uncoolness!

― Mr Jones (Mr Jones), Thursday, 11 May 2006 20:30 (nineteen years ago)

or maybe Phish.

Phish is a huge cult band in the U.S., but it's entirely possible to never have heard a single song by them. They didn't get radio airplay at all.

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 11 May 2006 20:32 (nineteen years ago)

I think the answer is Hootie. But who is the British Phish?

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Thursday, 11 May 2006 20:42 (nineteen years ago)

If only I'd considered the Beautiful South's jam-band attitude I'd have realised that the DMB/Phish analogies were spot on.

― Doktor Faustus (noodle vague), Thursday, 11 May 2006 21:00 (nineteen years ago)

See, if the whole concept of "jam-band" meant anything outside of America, that might mean something anybody could understand.

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Thursday, 11 May 2006 21:01 (nineteen years ago)

But who is the British Phish?

Cult act that everyone's heard of but no-one's that familiar with their actual music? That'll be Pete Doherty then.

― ailsa (ailsa), Thursday, 11 May 2006 21:02 (nineteen years ago)

why does britishers never want to jam?

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Thursday, 11 May 2006 21:04 (nineteen years ago)

(actually, the second stone roses record was basically a jam-band album)

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Thursday, 11 May 2006 21:04 (nineteen years ago)

(when I say no-one's familiar with their music, I am stepping outwith the bounds of ILX into the wider, tabloid-reading universe, I mean, my mum knows who Pete Doherty is but I bet you a tenner she couldn't name or recognise a Libertines/Babyshambles track)

― ailsa (ailsa), Thursday, 11 May 2006 21:05 (nineteen years ago)

xxxx-post

If the whole concept of jam-band meant anything outside of America (which clearly it does, or else I wouldn't have used it), all the nob-ends that suggested the DMB or Phish on here might have a point.

So what's yr point?

― Doktor Faustus (noodle vague), Thursday, 11 May 2006 21:05 (nineteen years ago)

See, if the whole concept of "jam-band" meant anything outside of America, that might mean something anybody could understand.

(aren't Ozric quasi-jam-band or merely psych? a poor answer, regardless)

anyway, one needn't be so literal. i figure rave is the British cognate of the jam-band scene, so it's someone dance-oriented.

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Thursday, 11 May 2006 21:06 (nineteen years ago)

I'm not sure I could recognise one either.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy (Kerr), Thursday, 11 May 2006 21:11 (nineteen years ago)

Pete Doherty is an ocean wide of the mark

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Thursday, 11 May 2006 21:11 (nineteen years ago)

xpost

I'm not sure Doggerelty could either.

― Doktor Faustus (noodle vague), Thursday, 11 May 2006 21:14 (nineteen years ago)

My point with the whole jam-band thing is that it fits entirely the model of the original question.

And why are they so big over there but no one and his Mom has ever heard of them here?

No-one outside of America has a fucking scooby about jam-bands, yet they dominate most ILM-literate people's impressions of American music.

As, I think, possibly the only "nob-end", that was my point.

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Thursday, 11 May 2006 21:24 (nineteen years ago)

my very american and soon-to-be-60-year-old mom is a beautiful south fan. she's kind of weird, though.

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Thursday, 11 May 2006 21:31 (nineteen years ago)

If it's all about And why are they so big over there but no one and his Mom has ever heard of them here? then we can have a bunch of threads like

Shakin' Stevens is to England as Dave Matthews is to America
Bucks Fizz is to England as Dave Matthews is to America
Timmy Mallett is to England as Dave Matthews is to America

Fuck it. You have a point.

― Doktor Faustus (noodle vague), Thursday, 11 May 2006 21:36 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah England is so fortunate to have Timmy Mallett. Wales is so fortunate to have Shakey.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy (Kerr), Thursday, 11 May 2006 22:05 (nineteen years ago)

Phish '93 = Audio Bullys '06?

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Thursday, 11 May 2006 22:09 (nineteen years ago)

Phish : long may they rest. Long may their instruments remain silent. Actually, I kind of like the song Fee

― Mr Jones (Mr Jones), Friday, 12 May 2006 01:59 (nineteen years ago)

i love the housemartins! as for the beautiful south, i haven't heard much of their songs but what i have heard is OK (not hateful, but not mind-blowingly great).

the "american" beautiful south is, of course, bush. i am half-serious with that answer, too.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Saturday, 13 May 2006 08:20 (nineteen years ago)

or either creed or the dave matthews band. same difference, they all suck and there's no reason any self-respecting brit should listen to any of them.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Saturday, 13 May 2006 08:21 (nineteen years ago)

anyway, what is pete doherty famous for other than being a dirtbag druggy who's fucked kate moss?!? is that attitude typically american?!? i don't think that i've ever heard a libertines song, or even want to.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Saturday, 13 May 2006 08:26 (nineteen years ago)

I have no idea if it's typically American, but it's typical of people who read the papers but don't listen to much music (probably your stereotypical "Beautiful South listener").

― ailsa (ailsa), Saturday, 13 May 2006 08:29 (nineteen years ago)

I guess The Beautiful South is a bit cheesy. I have only heard CHoke. I do like some of the songs though. i can't stand Dave Matthews, especially when frat boys yell PLAY SOME DAAAAVE!! at parties

"I am a man from Camden town
my hair is curly but I gel it down"

― Mr Jones (Mr Jones), Saturday, 13 May 2006 08:55 (nineteen years ago)

Nobody in the United States has ever heard The Divine Comedy.

― scott seward (scott seward), Saturday, 13 May 2006 09:07 (nineteen years ago)

Some of you have heard the theme tune to Father Ted though?

― ailsa (ailsa), Saturday, 13 May 2006 09:09 (nineteen years ago)

Nobody in the United States has ever heard the Manic Street Preachers.

― scott seward (scott seward), Saturday, 13 May 2006 09:10 (nineteen years ago)

Or maybe that's just me. I've never heard the Manic Street Preachers.

― scott seward (scott seward), Saturday, 13 May 2006 09:11 (nineteen years ago)

Or the Buckingham Trotters

― Mr Jones (Mr Jones), Saturday, 13 May 2006 09:51 (nineteen years ago)

martha's vineyard's favorite son willy mason has been wowing the brits apparently! go willy go. he's gonna be opening for radiohead. most people in the states probably don't know who he is.

― scott seward (scott seward), Saturday, 13 May 2006 10:03 (nineteen years ago)

or the Liverpudlian Bloodpuddin's

― Mr Jones (Mr Jones), Saturday, 13 May 2006 10:52 (nineteen years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.

The Beautiful South is to England as _____ is to America?