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TEENAGE FANCLUB's song "Neil Jung"

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Ever since I heard this song on 'Grand Prix' I haven't gone a week without cranking it from my crappy speakers. It owns a timeless kind of quality. I read once that it was written about their label boss, Alan McGee, at Creation Records. Anyone else know anything about this?

-carlos nyc

― Carlos Ramirez (Carlos Ramirez), Friday, 21 November 2003 16:22 (twenty-two years ago)

Don't know anything about its origin but I'm sure I've never heard a better Tenenage Fanclub song than Neil Jung. Even the albums of theirs that are supposed to be better than Grand Prix don't contain any highlights that can compete.

― theodore fogelsanger, Friday, 21 November 2003 19:43 (twenty-two years ago)

except "The Concept"

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Friday, 21 November 2003 19:51 (twenty-two years ago)

I have heard a couple better Teenage Fanclub songs than "Neil Jung" - they are called "I Don't Want Control Of You", "Start Again" and "Planets".

"Neil Jung" is ace tho.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 21 November 2003 20:01 (twenty-two years ago)

two weeks pass...
dunno what if means. but he intros it live: "this is a song i wrote 2 years ago. i wish now i hadn't"... or summit like that.

― sothach, Thursday, 11 December 2003 13:34 (twenty-two years ago)

It's great.

― the jungfox, Thursday, 11 December 2003 15:47 (twenty-two years ago)

are Teenage Fanclub the band we can all like?

taking sides: Gerry Love v. Norman Blake

I'm a Love man myself, obviously.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Thursday, 11 December 2003 15:58 (twenty-two years ago)

Me too. Underated bassist. The man certainly knows when to sling in a third.

― Lynskey (Lynskey), Thursday, 11 December 2003 16:27 (twenty-two years ago)

I love this song.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Thursday, 11 December 2003 16:49 (twenty-two years ago)

three years pass...
"Neil Jung" was written for and about Norman's old BMX Bandits bandmate Duglas Stewart ("dropped a letter from your name") who named the Teenage Fanclub and also covered the song on a low-budget TFC tribute album.

I'd say that the Teenage Fanclub song written about Alan McGee is almost certainly "Tears", also from Grand Prix.

― everything (everything), Wednesday, 10 January 2007 18:29 (nineteen years ago)

two years pass...

After years of merely liking it I now understand what all the fuss is about.

― Cunga, Tuesday, 10 March 2009 08:20 (seventeen years ago)

I just heard Duglast Stewart's version of this for the first time a couple of weeks ago. It's got a Culture Club style carribean lilt and is sung in the first person: "I had a girlfriend who wasn't good enough for me" etc.

― everything, Tuesday, 10 March 2009 22:41 (seventeen years ago)


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