Taking Sides: The Bluetones Vs Led Zeppelin

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This one is pretty clear cut from where I'm standing.

The Bluetones had Slight Return (YAY!), Marblehead Johnson (YAY!), Bluetonic (YAY!), Sleazy Bed Track (YAY!) and their "Science and Nature" LP is uttery fantastic and totally underrated (kudos to John Harris for pointing this out in his fine tome "The Last Party").

Led Zeppelin, on the other hand, were a bit pompous and stadium and liked doing pervy things with sea food.

Victors: The Bluetones by a country mile.

― C-Man (C-Man), Thursday, 8 January 2004 17:13 (twenty-two years ago)

The Bluetones should really sell more (I think).

― C-Man (C-Man), Thursday, 8 January 2004 17:15 (twenty-two years ago)

ehhhhhhh i knew this was a semen thread. if you have to ask there's really no hope for you. the zeppelin ride roughshod over the bluetones entire existence.

― pete s, Thursday, 8 January 2004 17:18 (twenty-two years ago)

No they don't. And you know it. Slight Return is much better than Stairway to Heaven.

― C-Man (C-Man), Thursday, 8 January 2004 17:21 (twenty-two years ago)

Who the hell are the Bluetones?

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Thursday, 8 January 2004 17:21 (twenty-two years ago)

even an anti-rockist stance can't help you here. i don't even like 70s rock much but Led Zep urinate on the Bluetones from their brothel plane

― stevem (blueski), Thursday, 8 January 2004 17:24 (twenty-two years ago)

I refuse to take you seriously steve - go back to bestiality thread and argue for why ugly buggers like you should have the right to fornicate with a donkey.

Bluetones are much better among those of us who don't need to conduct coitus with non-human mammals.

― C-Man (C-Man), Thursday, 8 January 2004 17:28 (twenty-two years ago)

Funny enough you picked the only Bluetones song i like there (Slight Return). I saw them when they released it in 95 and i thought they were going to be decent pop writers. But then came 'Cut some Rug', and by that time i was no longer interested anyway.
Forget Stairway to Heaven;
Good Times Bad Times
Immigrant Song
Dazed and Confused
Black Dog
Achilles Last Stand

clearly mash the Bluetones up somethin' rotten

― pete s, Thursday, 8 January 2004 17:29 (twenty-two years ago)

Casey Kasum sums up my feelings re: The Bluetones (although he was talking about U2).

"This is BULLSHIT! Nobody CARES! These guys are from England, and who GIVES a shit!?"

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Thursday, 8 January 2004 17:35 (twenty-two years ago)

It's like this mate - if they play Slight Return in a club you're much more likely to get up to dance than you are to any Zeppelin song. The Bluetones are just much more fun.

― C-Man (C-Man), Thursday, 8 January 2004 17:35 (twenty-two years ago)

U2 are from England?

American critics = geographical knowledge of someone who lives in a country where under 7% have passports. Obviously.

― C-Man (C-Man), Thursday, 8 January 2004 17:36 (twenty-two years ago)

You are completely fucking mental. I mean, the bluetones were better than fucking cast, or the farm, but if you think they pwn led zep, then you must have heard NOTHING except for "stairway to heaven", which actually isn't all that bad, if a little, eh, overexposed. You can buy their catalogue for jack shit from fopp. I suggest you pick up the first album, iv, and physical grafitti at the very least, and edjikate yerself.

I look forward to future c-man threads like how menswear are better than black sabbath haha.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Thursday, 8 January 2004 17:36 (twenty-two years ago)

Pretty much any other band I'd have picked over Led Zeppelin but the Bluetones???!!!!! Even Shed Seven had better songs!

The Farm were better than the Bluetones Pashmina, come on now.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Thursday, 8 January 2004 17:37 (twenty-two years ago)

I'd get up and dance to 'black dog', but 'slight return' would leave me sitting on my ass, fool.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Thursday, 8 January 2004 17:37 (twenty-two years ago)

oh come on tom, the farm were some kind of nadir for baggy, surely. the bluetones were middling in the britpop pantheon.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Thursday, 8 January 2004 17:38 (twenty-two years ago)

Menswe@r are so much better than Black Sabbath it isn't even funny. And Menswe@r only had one good song.

P.S. Pashmina - you wouldn't be in a club. You'd just sit outside and say, "clearly these young girls wearing very high skirts are only do so through the pressures of a male dominated, sexist society who force them to do this and then pose nekkid in porn mags which are utterly satanic", before someone lamps you.

― C-Man (C-Man), Thursday, 8 January 2004 17:38 (twenty-two years ago)

bork bork bork

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Thursday, 8 January 2004 17:39 (twenty-two years ago)

"I refuse to go into this club as I may be tempted by these young harlots who are innocent and do not have any sexual cravings or a need to present themselves as sex objects in any way. It's all MEN, evil MEN".

― C-Man (C-Man), Thursday, 8 January 2004 17:41 (twenty-two years ago)

It strikes me that you'd like the lyrical content of many Zeppelin songs, Semen

― pete s, Thursday, 8 January 2004 17:41 (twenty-two years ago)

squeeze C-Man's lemon till the juice runs down his leg.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Thursday, 8 January 2004 17:46 (twenty-two years ago)

he's been dazed and confused for so long it's not true

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Thursday, 8 January 2004 17:46 (twenty-two years ago)

i miss Geir

― stevem (blueski), Thursday, 8 January 2004 17:47 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't!!

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Thursday, 8 January 2004 17:48 (twenty-two years ago)

I genuinely can't think of a Britpop band worse than Bluetones - maybe the Seahorses if they count, maybe Cast but at least I can remember the big Cast song, certainly not Menswe@r whose single was quite funny, I mean what possible merit did the Bluetones have??

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Thursday, 8 January 2004 17:49 (twenty-two years ago)

i miss Geir

me too.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Thursday, 8 January 2004 17:50 (twenty-two years ago)

The Bluetones are just charming. Really lovely tunes.

― C-Man (C-Man), Thursday, 8 January 2004 17:51 (twenty-two years ago)

oh, they had a rickenbacker or something tom. I am a bit of a sucker for the ricky 12-string. Oasis were worse, I think, echobelly were worse, sleeper were worse, dodgy? Gawd. er... Britpop was pretty poor really, i mean who was as good as the mondays out of the whole lot of them?

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Thursday, 8 January 2004 17:52 (twenty-two years ago)

I sense a Defending the Indefensible thread

They were jangly pop for nervous indie kids from polite homes

― pete s, Thursday, 8 January 2004 17:52 (twenty-two years ago)

i thought the Bluetones were okay at the time - just okay tho - never bought any of their stuff. got intensely bored of them by '...last chance saloon'. bizarrely a few years later they released 'After Hours' which is either their best or worst song i forget.

― stevem (blueski), Thursday, 8 January 2004 17:52 (twenty-two years ago)

60ft Dolls were worse. Why did they all dress so badly? Saturday night down the student union style. hahaha, music for proto-estate agents

― 123, Thursday, 8 January 2004 17:52 (twenty-two years ago)

Echobelly were so not worse

― stevem (blueski), Thursday, 8 January 2004 17:53 (twenty-two years ago)

music for proto-estate agents

future album title alert!

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Thursday, 8 January 2004 17:54 (twenty-two years ago)

Didn't Slight Return get to no.2? Or was it Bluetonic?
Crazy Days....

― pete s, Thursday, 8 January 2004 17:54 (twenty-two years ago)

60 foot dolls omg!!!1!

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Thursday, 8 January 2004 17:54 (twenty-two years ago)

what's a PROTO-estate agent?

― stevem (blueski), Thursday, 8 January 2004 17:55 (twenty-two years ago)

OK you got me with Dodgy they were much much worse.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Thursday, 8 January 2004 17:56 (twenty-two years ago)

Britpop was GREAT. Sleeper and Echobelly were fab-o-brill and I wanted to sleep with Louise Wener for ages. I mean, if that's not great POP what is? Music should be sexy as fuck and make you want to jump around and be all happy cos it says something to you about your life which is what Britpop did.

Pashmina thinks naked women are obscene. He don't know shit about anything.

― C-Man (C-Man), Thursday, 8 January 2004 17:57 (twenty-two years ago)

having sex with goats > Echobelly > Dodgy > The Bluetones > poke in the eye > death > c-man threads

― stevem (blueski), Thursday, 8 January 2004 17:57 (twenty-two years ago)

i forgot The Seahorses who go between death and c-man threads

― stevem (blueski), Thursday, 8 January 2004 17:58 (twenty-two years ago)

Music should be sexy as fuck and make you want to jump around and be all happy

Like Led Zeppelin! Shit, no offense to the Brit pop crowd, but Led Zep fans in the 70s did waaaay more drugs, drinking, partying, and screwing (which is funny because C-Man seems to be portraying them as music for uptight prudes or some ridiculous thing)

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Thursday, 8 January 2004 17:59 (twenty-two years ago)

the bluetones? hahahahahahahahhaha

― searchanddelete, Thursday, 8 January 2004 18:02 (twenty-two years ago)

Thing is there were SO MANY Britpop bands you'd really have to get hold of two dozen issues of NME/Melody Maker from 95/96 to really figure out which was the absolute worst, the pinnacle of Britpop Shite. Dodgy, Echobelly et al were the fucking pits but there were many horrors beneath them. What if i was to say... Gene, or Powder?

― pete s, Thursday, 8 January 2004 18:03 (twenty-two years ago)

sexy as fuck????

But the bluetones were ugly, wore crap clothes, looked like they had come out of top man in 1982, and were only liked by grimy students that couldnt get a fuck. Hardly sharp dressers were they? it seems funny to compare these middle england no marks with someone like Pulp or whatever. Music for settling, mediocrity, while finishing off your 2:2 at leicester university before going home to abingdon to start your budding estate agent career. deeply unsexy

― 123, Thursday, 8 January 2004 18:04 (twenty-two years ago)

I said Sleeper were sexy, not The Bluetones - who are just lovely.

― C-Man (C-Man), Thursday, 8 January 2004 18:41 (twenty-two years ago)

plus, back to the original post...being stadium and pompous and doing pervy things with seafood is a good thing!

I bet Robert Plant got laid more in one 30 day period during 1975 than Bluetones did their entire lives combined.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Thursday, 8 January 2004 18:43 (twenty-two years ago)

Actually Dodgy were probably about the best of the Britpop crowd. Well, no. I take that back. Homegrown is a wonderful album, and their debut was OK too. Free Peace Sweet was almost entirely crap though. Homegrown had about four absolutely wonderful tunes, a handful of decent ones, and very little filler. They were a superlative pop band.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Thursday, 8 January 2004 19:58 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm torn over this. I knew it was C-Man thread. I've listened to and enjoyed The Bluetones far more than I ever did Led Zep, even if it's only four tunes ("Don't Stand Me Down", "Simple Things", "Nifkin's Bridge", "Are You Blue Or Are You Blind?"). Zep are... Zep?! It's like... why bother? I've never felt any desire to listen to them whatsoever after I realised that buying Remasters was not going to convince LS to sleep with me when I was 16. Likewise The Doors and Bob Dylan. They're just all rubbish.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Thursday, 8 January 2004 20:04 (twenty-two years ago)

Great critical judgements, there

― And you're supposed to be a music critic?, Thursday, 8 January 2004 20:57 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah cos I keep switched on all the time.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Thursday, 8 January 2004 20:58 (twenty-two years ago)

There's no point even trying to engage with those particular three holy grails anyway. I just don't like them and never have.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Thursday, 8 January 2004 21:00 (twenty-two years ago)

I was thinking about britpop on the way home from work, and I was amazed at just how little of this music has "lasted" for me, for want of a better term. I tried and tried to think of tuned by specific bands, and I could only think of little fragments in most cases, like when I tried to think of echobelly's music I could remember a little bit from "father liover king computer" and the bit where she sings "me me me" at the end of one of their songs, and that they sounded like transvision vamp copying the smiths. I thought of embrace (also worse than the bluetones), and all I could remember was a little bit of one of their choruses, the one withe the long title (I can't remember the title - hang on! "all you good good people!!" good grief, it just popped into my mind!!) and this bit where they had a string orchestra playing, and the singer came in sounding like a sick dog, and so on. I saw many of these bands live, owned their records etc, but it really has nearly all gone. For a genre which was supposedly all about 'classic songwriting skills' I think it's a bit pathetic. The only bands I can remember more than bits from are oasis, blur and suede, and to be quite honest, I'd trade a good tiesto mixtape for any of that, even though I like it a bit (except oasis)

I fancied sonia from echobelly a lot, in fact if I were to list the top 10 fanciable popstars, she'd probably be nr1 still, but for fuck's sake they were shit. No matter how hot the singer, if the band is stank, I'm not going to say they were good. Sleeper were worse, I mean wtf is sexy about sleeper? They were about as sexy as golf.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Thursday, 8 January 2004 21:12 (twenty-two years ago)

Dylan I hate, the doors I could just about compile 1 good album from their back catalogue, Zep still rule tho'.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Thursday, 8 January 2004 21:14 (twenty-two years ago)

Gene, oh my god, Gene were the worst, what a fucking worthless genre.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Thursday, 8 January 2004 21:18 (twenty-two years ago)

Gene were the worst, what a fucking worthless genre

Gene is considered a genre in the UK?

Wow, I can't express how little all these bands mean to someone from the US....crazy.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Thursday, 8 January 2004 21:21 (twenty-two years ago)

Nick, your last couple of posts here are like what the fuck????

― @lex K (Alex K), Thursday, 8 January 2004 21:23 (twenty-two years ago)

There's every point in engaging with those badgers.

― @lex K (Alex K), Thursday, 8 January 2004 21:24 (twenty-two years ago)

Wow, I can't express how little all these bands mean to someone from the US....crazy.

Haha, lucky you, people from the US, they were forcefed to us for several years

(by worthless genre I mean "second-string/second-rate britpop")

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Thursday, 8 January 2004 21:24 (twenty-two years ago)

Calum's ability to hold a grudge makes the Hatfields & McCoys look like rank amateurs

also, of course Led Zeppelin are loads better than the fecking Bluetones

― Harry Jones, Thursday, 8 January 2004 21:26 (twenty-two years ago)

(pashima, I should say these bands except Blur, Oasis, and Pulp.....they got lots of press and everything, but man Echobelly and Feeder and Embrace and all this other stuff I can barely remember.....I guess it would be the same way if I started talking about Better than Ezra and Marcy Playground and Fuel)

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Thursday, 8 January 2004 21:34 (twenty-two years ago)

The big joke w/a lot of britpoppers, especially the second raters, was that they'd do a tour in the us, and before they went, they'd be like "we are going to own those yanks, they won't know what hit them etc etc etc", then they'd come back having FAILED MISERABLY TO MAKE ANY IMPRESSION WHATSOEVER, and it would be "oh we're too sophisticated for those simple americans" Hubris clobbered by nemesis (nemesis = totally understandable indifference to their SHIT music)

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Thursday, 8 January 2004 21:38 (twenty-two years ago)

Who was it who said "I will break America like a naughty child?" - surely not Brett? Or was it Damon?

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Thursday, 8 January 2004 21:48 (twenty-two years ago)

Wasn't that the guy from Gene?

Suede = pwn3d by THE CRANBERRIES!!! HAHAHAH!!1!!!!1!!1

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Thursday, 8 January 2004 21:51 (twenty-two years ago)

Oasis definitely broke big in America, multiple singles from the album with Wonderwall. Blur did really well with Song 2 and that album....you can still hear that single on hard rock/heavy metal/alternative stations to this day. Pulp was more undergroundish, but pretty popular in indie circles and Common People got pretty decent MTV play. Elastica had that one big singe that sounded like Wire....they prob sold half a million in the states.....everybody else was.....zzzzzzzzz.....flatline.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Thursday, 8 January 2004 21:57 (twenty-two years ago)

(cranberries were very, very popular for about a year and a half though)....bigger than blur and pulp, maybe bigger than oasis.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Thursday, 8 January 2004 21:58 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh, the joke w/suede and the cranberries was that suede dtoured the us w/them (I forget who was the main act, I think it was actually suede) and suede were all like WE WILL 0WN AMERICA!!!! And of course when they did the tour, suede went down like the fucking titanic, and the cranberries hit big, I mean I like Suede a bit, and I thought the cranberries = sux0r, but it was still really funny at the time!!

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Thursday, 8 January 2004 22:01 (twenty-two years ago)

Hey Norm you tube - I asked you this ages ago, but how can you defend Led Zeppelin and other such bands when you have such a grudge against "sexist, misogynistic" posts about nekkid women (your words)? So you're giving money to the very thing you hate? Really, you're a bit of a nonce then aintcha?

Echobelly were sweet, Sleeper WERE sexy but Norm has rank taste in women. I wouldn't touch what you've been with a tramp's knob to be honest.

― C-Man (C-Man), Thursday, 8 January 2004 22:22 (twenty-two years ago)

And for a forum that has countless threads asking "What do we do about the C-Man problem, waaaah he posts threads that offend us involving Holly Valance" etc etc saying "Led Zep" rock cos they fucked 2345 women in their time (or whatever) AGAIN smack of hypocrisy. Surely I was, like, a year ahead of the time when I did the thread about "This is the thread where Pashmina explains why all rock and roll is inherently sexist and tries to defend his music collection" or whatever it was I posted back then. Point proven.

― C-Man (C-Man), Thursday, 8 January 2004 22:25 (twenty-two years ago)

Never post when you've had a; not much sleep, b; transport troubles, c; half a bottle of wine, d; a bad back and e; enough.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Thursday, 8 January 2004 23:03 (twenty-two years ago)

"Point proven" LOLOLOL

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Thursday, 8 January 2004 23:04 (twenty-two years ago)

Oasis weren't big if you compared them at the time to Bush

― keith m (keithmcl), Friday, 9 January 2004 04:33 (twenty-two years ago)

Over here they were.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Friday, 9 January 2004 08:16 (twenty-two years ago)

Besides, wasn't Clinton in Office?

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Friday, 9 January 2004 08:16 (twenty-two years ago)

Why are you holding a tramp's penis

― Silly Sailor (Andrew Thames), Friday, 9 January 2004 08:31 (twenty-two years ago)

This ridiculous thread title really cheered me up this morning, tho.

― Silly Sailor (Andrew Thames), Friday, 9 January 2004 08:36 (twenty-two years ago)

Dance? To the Bluetones?

And they weren't better than Cast, either.

And I'm American.

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Friday, 9 January 2004 11:09 (twenty-two years ago)

Calum's best thread evah?

― Hmmm, Friday, 9 January 2004 11:19 (twenty-two years ago)

Like "T/S- The Bluetones vs. that sound yr lighter makes when you light a cigarette", that might've been a contest

― Silly Sailor (Andrew Thames), Friday, 9 January 2004 11:21 (twenty-two years ago)

Calum's best thread evah?

yeah...yeah...he came across really well on this one and argued his points strongly

― stevem (blueski), Friday, 9 January 2004 11:30 (twenty-two years ago)

i was the first person in australia to dance to a bluetones song. why i haven't killed myself as a result is lost to the ages

― the surface noise (electricsound), Friday, 9 January 2004 13:33 (twenty-two years ago)

dance? blimey

― stevem (blueski), Friday, 9 January 2004 13:34 (twenty-two years ago)

you know, you move your feet along to the beat.
you know, fer kids.

― Vasquesz, Friday, 9 January 2004 13:37 (twenty-two years ago)

No-one on this thread has plumbed the depths enough yet, like mentioning The Weekenders or My Life Story or Northern Uproar

― DJ Mencap (DJ Mencap), Friday, 9 January 2004 14:06 (twenty-two years ago)

one year passes...

I'd trade a good tiesto mixtape for any of that, even though I like it a bit (except oasis)

Times change. Fuck Tiesto up the ass. I wouldn't listen to either 2nd rate britpop or cheese trance these days. In fact, I'd like to get hold of every 2nd rate britpop and cheese trance rekkid ever made, bulldoze them into a pit and set fire to them. Fuckers.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Thursday, 7 April 2005 15:50 (twenty-one years ago)

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