The Beat: "Save It for Later"

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what a beautiful song. what a beautiful guitar sound. and the strings. also there's something about the circular melody that is very appealing in context. this is such a record--i wouldn't want to hear a cover of it.

for some reason there is no song i associate more with my early adolescence (no, not because of the concealed subject matter) than any other song. i remember where and how i first heard it, from whom i dubbed the third beat album onto cassette, where the cd from which i made the dub began skipping (resulting in a very long dub), from whom i dubbed another version, and finally where and when i finally just up and purchased the cd.

for this reason the song conjures a great good feeling in me, but i think it might do this even without the nostalgia factor. certainly there's a reason why i fixated on it in the first place.

― amateur!st (amateurist), Friday, 23 July 2004 02:02 (twenty-one years ago)

i'm being a snob. i should have written "the english beat" because that's how i always knew them.

― amateur!st (amateurist), Friday, 23 July 2004 02:02 (twenty-one years ago)

in the extended version, the guitar breakdown reminds me of new order. in fact, the guitar sound is quite similar to that of b. sumner (??) ca. low-life.

― amateur!st (amateurist), Friday, 23 July 2004 02:08 (twenty-one years ago)

if i mentioned that the song is about oral sex would i get more posts to my thread?

― amateur!st (amateurist), Friday, 23 July 2004 02:13 (twenty-one years ago)

Agreed. The song is sublime.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 23 July 2004 02:14 (twenty-one years ago)

alex i kiss you. in a fire-honoring, strictly platonic sort of way.

― amateur!st (amateurist), Friday, 23 July 2004 02:16 (twenty-one years ago)

also around 3:10 when the drums shift into motown tam-tams mode. followed by the nasty-ass guitar "solo." oooooh. so many nice things about this song.

― amateur!st (amateurist), Friday, 23 July 2004 02:18 (twenty-one years ago)

even the sax sounds good

― cinniblount (James Blount), Friday, 23 July 2004 02:25 (twenty-one years ago)

holy shit this song is 21 YEARS OLD!

― amateur!st (amateurist), Friday, 23 July 2004 02:26 (twenty-one years ago)

A great great song/record, easily their best. And what an intro!

― Burr (Burr), Friday, 23 July 2004 03:17 (twenty-one years ago)

easily their best.

Hmmmm.....I'd say their best is probably "Mirror in the Bathroom," but that doesn't mean "Save It For Later" is any less wondeful.

My personal fave remains "Two Swords," tho'.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 23 July 2004 04:00 (twenty-one years ago)

i don't think they ever made anything anywhere near as good as this single, although they made some good records. "i confess" is very nice.

― amateur!st (amateurist), Friday, 23 July 2004 04:05 (twenty-one years ago)

oh i think it's definitely their best also, reminds me sorta of wire in bittersweet mode - "mannequin", "outdoor miner"

― cinniblount (James Blount), Friday, 23 July 2004 04:18 (twenty-one years ago)

When the tambourines kick in during the verses... sublime. One of the best pop songs written evah.

― Aaron W (Aaron W), Friday, 23 July 2004 04:22 (twenty-one years ago)

i don't hear the wire connection yet. i connect wire with terseness (musically) and obliqueness (lyrically). i suppose this song is oblique in the sense of being a string of double-entendres (which are unusual in being bittersweet at the same time), but it doesn't seem the same to me.

or are you thinking more of the guitar sound? i still hear new order, sort of. though the whole concoction is much more "pop" (in a conservative sense, though NOT a pejorative one) than N.O. except maybe that N.O. protest song, which I haven't liked since i was 15.

― amateur!st (amateurist), Friday, 23 July 2004 04:39 (twenty-one years ago)

i wouldn't want to hear a cover of it.

Especially not Harvey Danger's on the 200 Cigarettes soundtrack (about which the AMG review bafflingly says, "Harvey Danger, known for their single "Flagpole Sitta," also recorded a new track titled "Save It For Later"; it's the album's most contemporary track and probably the best, though not just for that reason" -- ???).

But yeah, great great song. I saw General Public round about '88 or '89, and they were good and fine, but then on the encore they did this, and followed it with "Tenderness" (which is a pretty great single all its own), and it was like the whole rest of the show had just been a warmup. Especially because they had Saxa touring with him, so he played the "Save It for Later" solo exactly right.

― spittle (spittle), Friday, 23 July 2004 05:41 (twenty-one years ago)

"touring with THEM", oops

― spittle (spittle), Friday, 23 July 2004 05:42 (twenty-one years ago)

I actually prefer Harvey Danger's cover to the original though I like both. Danger's version has this kind of sharp early Magnetic Fields style synth beat. They definitely infuse the song with more nervous energy and retain the hooks. I can't recall liking anything else by Harvey Danger.

― theodore fogelsanger, Friday, 23 July 2004 05:48 (twenty-one years ago)

"infuse the song with more nervous energy"

not sure this is what the song needs

"tenderness" is a very good song although i find the vocal a little too..lugubrious.

― amateur!st (amateurist), Friday, 23 July 2004 05:52 (twenty-one years ago)

OMG has there not been a thread for this song before? We are in a golden age of ILM, folks. This song should be enscribed on the tomb of the human race, period. Aliens need to know what a really good song is, and this is one of the top 5 we can point to as an example, surely?

Has anyone heard Pete Townshend's cover of it on his Deep End Live! CD?
Not that it matches the original, but it's still very, very good indeed.

― Bimble (bimble), Friday, 23 July 2004 07:29 (twenty-one years ago)

I have a tendency to play this near the end of DJ sets. I'm not apologetic about it.

― CeCe Peniston (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 23 July 2004 11:10 (twenty-one years ago)

Hmm, that's interesting. I'm not sure I ever noticed the New Order aural connection, but it does sound a bit like them, huh?

Anyway, the song is classic and, like so many other [English] Beat songs, quite sublime. "Mirror in the Bathroom" might be a bit more virtuoso, but "Save It for Later" is perfect, sweet in every sense.

Ha. "Aural."

― Josh in Chicago (Josh in Chicago), Friday, 23 July 2004 12:49 (twenty-one years ago)

i love the extended version - thanks for making me seek out the mp3.

― stevie (stevie), Friday, 23 July 2004 12:51 (twenty-one years ago)

Put it on a mix, throw it on at a party, and count how many people come up to you and say things like "Wow, I remember this, who is it? you gotta burn this for me."

On a side note, I think I liked the imho inferior "Mirror in the Bathroom" better when I thought it was "You might meet her in the bathroom."

― rainman (rainman), Friday, 23 July 2004 13:13 (twenty-one years ago)

"Hmm, that's interesting. I'm not sure I ever noticed the New Order aural connection, but it does sound a bit like them, huh?"

just in the guitar skronk, really.

― amateur!st (amateurist), Friday, 23 July 2004 14:40 (twenty-one years ago)

To be honest its one of the only songs with a sax that I love. I never thought about the NO comparison, but I guess I kind of see it, and it likely contributes to why I love the track.

― Mike Salmo (salmo), Friday, 23 July 2004 15:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Wow, I'd never heard this before! Thanks, amateur!st!

― broken twig, Friday, 23 July 2004 15:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Until today I would have sworn on my life that "Mirror in the Bathroom" was by Oingo Boingo. Weird. I wonder how that happened.

I feel like I heard "Save It for Later" used in a movie or TV show recently...

― Softly Weeping at the Oki Dog (Ben Boyer), Friday, 23 July 2004 16:00 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah the pete townsend version is pretty good actually, it suits his voice very well. the song itself is undeniably classic beyond words. one of the only songs I can think of that absolutely everyone likes.

― kyle (akmonday), Friday, 23 July 2004 16:13 (twenty-one years ago)

I feel like I heard "Save It for Later" used in a movie or TV show recently...

The Amish scene in Kingpin?

― Chris Dahlen (Chris Dahlen), Friday, 23 July 2004 16:19 (twenty-one years ago)

Special Beat Service OWNZ. Their best for sure. My favorite thing about Save it for Later is the little play on....just hold my hand while I come/cum....to a decision on it. When I was 15 this entertained the shit out of me, so naughty. The sax is great, Wakeling's voice is great, shimmery guitar is great...all of it is wonderful.

Ackee 1 2 3 is also a banger.

― ddb (ddb), Friday, 23 July 2004 16:36 (twenty-one years ago)

I've always loved this song and Townshend's version is great, too.

― Amy Meacham, Saturday, 24 July 2004 04:35 (twenty-one years ago)

Indeed, a fantastic song -- but you really must hear what our own Lance Lockarm did with this a couple of years back. It's just as spectacular:

http://www.kuci.uci.edu/~brianm/lancelockarm/Lockarm_SaveTheWholeWorldForLater.mp3

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 24 July 2004 13:43 (twenty-one years ago)

(Actually, maybe this means that Lance invented "Hey Ya" -- sorta.)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 24 July 2004 13:49 (twenty-one years ago)

i like this song a lot too but i hardly noticed all these things about it. i'm gonna have to listen to it tomorrow or maybe even tonight if it's not too loud.

― youn, Sunday, 25 July 2004 06:16 (twenty-one years ago)

three months pass...

yeah

― amateur!!st, Monday, 15 November 2004 20:38 (twenty-one years ago)

so. fucking. good.

― amateur!!st, Friday, 26 November 2004 06:31 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah, the way he sings reminds me of blondie for some strange reason.

― youn, Friday, 26 November 2004 07:04 (twenty-one years ago)

It is wonderful.

― adam... (nordicskilla), Friday, 26 November 2004 07:13 (twenty-one years ago)

I am embarrassed that it took me 20 years to grasp the double entendre of the title (save it fellator).

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Friday, 26 November 2004 20:50 (twenty-one years ago)

I think you're reading more into it than is actually there, Joseph.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 26 November 2004 21:03 (twenty-one years ago)

*slinks back into office, closes door*

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Friday, 26 November 2004 21:21 (twenty-one years ago)

*knows what you are doing behind that closed door*

― amateur!!st, Friday, 26 November 2004 21:29 (twenty-one years ago)

...nor, for that matter, is their name a euphemism for a particularly British style of masturbation ("the English Beat").

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 26 November 2004 21:31 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm pretty sure fellatio wasn't invented until 1985.

― Alba (Alba), Friday, 26 November 2004 21:38 (twenty-one years ago)

Exactly. It was invented by Murray Head.

― donut christ (donut), Friday, 26 November 2004 23:08 (twenty-one years ago)

one night in whatwhat?

― teeny (teeny), Friday, 26 November 2004 23:53 (twenty-one years ago)

BANG COCK

― tokyo rosemary (rosemary), Saturday, 27 November 2004 04:11 (twenty-one years ago)

one year passes...

...

― amateurist0, Tuesday, 14 February 2006 07:30 (nineteen years ago)

This thread is really a work of art.

― Lenny Koggins (Bimble...), Tuesday, 14 February 2006 07:44 (nineteen years ago)

the guitar + sax remind me of "waiting on a friend."

― kanye twitty (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 14 February 2006 07:54 (nineteen years ago)

seven months pass...

Is it OK if I revive this thread?

I've been listening to Special Beat Service for the first time in many many years, and wow, Save It For Later is really doing it for me.

Among many lovely moments In SIFL, the moment when the tambourines sashay in is just extraordinary.

Can we also hear it for I Confess and Sole Salvation? What great pop music!!

― Daniel Giraffe (Daniel Giraffe), Tuesday, 10 October 2006 12:22 (nineteen years ago)

A friend and I recently played this in his car three times in a row. One of my favorite rhythm guitar hooks.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Tuesday, 10 October 2006 12:32 (nineteen years ago)

Should've been Number One, really.

― zeus (zeus), Tuesday, 10 October 2006 12:59 (nineteen years ago)

What you mean I get to slobber all over this song on the same thread again???

Has anyone heard Pete Townshend's cover of it on his Deep End Live! CD?
Not that it matches the original, but it's still very, very good indeed.

-- Bimble (grippledybu...), July 23rd, 2004.

― Bassment Jacks (Bimble...), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 02:45 (nineteen years ago)

I actually prefer Harvey Danger's cover to the original though

lol

― chaki (chaki), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 03:07 (nineteen years ago)

Until today I would have sworn on my life that "Mirror in the Bathroom" was by Oingo Boingo.

http://faculty.pittstate.edu/~knichols/kollwitzselfportrait.jpg

― chaki (chaki), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 03:12 (nineteen years ago)

indeed, this summer i listened to this song on repeat a good four or five times. fantastic!

― Emily B (Emily B), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 03:16 (nineteen years ago)

What you mean I get to slobber all over this song on the same thread again???

Yes, I wasn't sure about reviving the thread, but I thought well why not.

By the way, it occurred to me the other day that SIFL is like the older, wiser cousin of Best Friend off the first Beat album.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/15/Beat_-_Best_Friend_single_picture_cover.jpg

― Daniel Giraffe (Daniel Giraffe), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 07:19 (nineteen years ago)

They should re-release this right away, it's better than anything kicking around the charts these days (that's if we paid ANY attention the the charts pop-pickers - amirite?!!)

That Harvey Danger cover was also on the Big Daddy soundtrack, which is probably the first time I'd heard it, unfortunatley.

― JohnFoxxsJuno (JohnFoxxsJuno), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 11:33 (nineteen years ago)

This was one of the first songs I ever thought to download as soon as that technology became available. Same goes for lots of people I've talked to. Shows what a great song it is.

― kornrulez6969 (TCBeing), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 12:46 (nineteen years ago)

Anyone who does not love this song has no soul.

― The Real Esteban Buttez (EstieButtez1), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 12:50 (nineteen years ago)

three years pass...

still the best pop song of the past, well i suppose it's 30 years now (!!)

― by another name (amateurist), Saturday, 27 February 2010 02:14 (fifteen years ago)

http://liamskablog.blogspot.com/2010/01/beat-rarities-1980-1983.html

― by another name (amateurist), Saturday, 27 February 2010 02:28 (fifteen years ago)

song is immortal. <3 <3 <3

― malicious humor victim (Hunt3r), Saturday, 27 February 2010 03:14 (fifteen years ago)

would not disagree. this video was on vh1 classic all the time when i was living in the US a few years ago, and from then on I've listened to it fairly regularly.

― Freddy 'The Wonder Chicken' (Gukbe), Saturday, 27 February 2010 03:16 (fifteen years ago)

good but no "i confess"

― ┌∩┐(◕_◕)┌∩┐ (Steve Shasta), Saturday, 27 February 2010 08:16 (fifteen years ago)

one year passes...

holy shit this song is 21 YEARS OLD!
― amateur!st (amateurist), Thursday, July 22, 2004 9:26 PM (7 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

HOLY SHIT THIS SONG IS 29 YEARS OLD!

― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Sunday, 29 January 2012 08:20 (thirteen years ago)

(still possibly the best pop song ever.)

― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Sunday, 29 January 2012 08:20 (thirteen years ago)

you've been busy the last couple days!

― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 29 January 2012 12:51 (thirteen years ago)

For years, Townshend's was the only version I knew:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQ0zMDJKkbg

― Let A Man Come In And Do The Cop Porn (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Sunday, 29 January 2012 13:55 (thirteen years ago)

hey, that Townshend version is not bad!

I found a short account of how he learned the song -- and having to ask Dave Wakeling about the chords.

― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 29 January 2012 14:08 (thirteen years ago)

Love this song. I am never not happy to hear it.

― ENBB, Sunday, 29 January 2012 14:11 (thirteen years ago)

You guys are in good company!

August 3, 2009 - For Adam Duritz, lead singer of the band Counting Crows, the perfect summer song is "Save It for Later" by The English Beat.
"There's just something about the joy of the song," Duritz says. "It just seems so Technicolor to me."
Duritz recently spoke to NPR's Melissa Block about camping out in the summer of 1982 at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley, Calif., to see The English Beat perform.
"The sun had gone down, so the lights and the colors from the stage were lighting up as they came to play," Duritz says. "It's funny, because I'm picturing it in the sunlight, and I'm sure that they played it at night. It just seems like this crystalline, perfect summer day, and I'm just euphoric, and this song is just shimmering."
The song functions as a piece of nostalgia for Duritz. That performance he attended was the last show The English Beat ever played. Duritz says that, as a result, it represents for him "those feelings that you don't get to hold on to."

― beachville, Sunday, 29 January 2012 14:14 (thirteen years ago)

Unsure if General Public performed this when I saw them at the 1995 hfstival. I was peaking on acid during their set. But if they did, I bet I would have thought it was a feel-good summertime jam too!

― beachville, Sunday, 29 January 2012 14:19 (thirteen years ago)

Never knew about the Townshend version. But I love that he explains this brilliant song's secret weapon: "It's a Velvet Underground tuning."

― clemenza, Sunday, 29 January 2012 14:24 (thirteen years ago)

I found a short account of how he learned the song -- and having to ask Dave Wakeling about the chords.

Love Wakeling's account of Townshend calling him for the tuning ("So Dave, I'm sitting here with David Gilmour...")

― Let A Man Come In And Do The Cop Porn (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Sunday, 29 January 2012 15:02 (thirteen years ago)

someone is interviewing adam duritz in 2009?

― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Sunday, 29 January 2012 20:53 (thirteen years ago)

good point

― POLL Removal Machine (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 30 January 2012 06:14 (thirteen years ago)

five months pass...

yup.

― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Sunday, 8 July 2012 23:48 (thirteen years ago)

lol am

― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 8 July 2012 23:52 (thirteen years ago)

second best song on the album, after "I Confess"

― nicky lo-fi, Monday, 9 July 2012 19:29 (thirteen years ago)

1 and 1A really.

― nicky lo-fi, Monday, 9 July 2012 19:29 (thirteen years ago)

So so good.

― (✿◠‿◠) (ENBB), Monday, 9 July 2012 19:34 (thirteen years ago)

Love this song. I am never not happy to hear it.

― ENBB, Sunday, January 29, 2012 9:11 AM (5 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

STILL TRUE

― (✿◠‿◠) (ENBB), Monday, 9 July 2012 19:34 (thirteen years ago)

Wait, is there something weird about the tuning in this song?

― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 9 July 2012 20:42 (thirteen years ago)

yes it's DADAAD or something iirc

― gonna send him to outer space, to hug another face (NickB), Monday, 9 July 2012 20:52 (thirteen years ago)

http://www.guitarplayer.com/article/dave-wakeling-on-the-tuning-that-flummoxed-pete-townshend-and-david-gilmour/5968

― Chuck? Chuck? It's me, your cousin, Marvin D (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Monday, 9 July 2012 20:53 (thirteen years ago)

Also Wakeling plays left handed guitar but with the strings still strung right handed and maybe that affects the way it sounds a bit? I don't know.

― gonna send him to outer space, to hug another face (NickB), Monday, 9 July 2012 20:55 (thirteen years ago)

xpost - Yeah, tuned to an open D, DADAAD. Although I always thought the "Velvet Underground tuning" referred to above, aka Ostrich Tuning, was all 6 strings tuned to D.

― David Allan Cow (Dan Peterson), Monday, 9 July 2012 20:55 (thirteen years ago)

The way I learned it way back when was to fake it, I guess, with some sus D action, letting the high e ring a lot, I think.

― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 9 July 2012 21:00 (thirteen years ago)

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