The intro to "Lust for Life"

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Now it's common to see a song's intro described as "'Lust for Life'-like", most notably Jet's "Are You Gonna Be My Girl". But come to think about it, that "Lust for Life" bass line has been around maybe since The Supremes' "You Can't Hurry Love". Right?

― Aditya (dan138zig), Friday, 23 June 2006 23:33 (nineteen years ago)

i think on some other thread a while ago there was a consensus to call that a motown beat. (not the motown beat cuz there are several identifiable ones.)

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Saturday, 24 June 2006 00:26 (nineteen years ago)

We definitely did this topic, but I couldn't find it under Lust for Life or Can't Hurry Love.

Anyway, I'd love to put a 35-year moratorium on the use of that beat, especially for corny indie fux.

― Abbadavid Berman (Hurting), Saturday, 24 June 2006 01:00 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, but my point is, Iggy Pop has been the one who got credits for that beat, not Motown.

― Aditya (dan138zig), Saturday, 24 June 2006 03:14 (nineteen years ago)

Anyway, I'd love to put a 35-year moratorium on the use of that beat, especially for corny indie fux.

Who else b'sides the Ig, the Di, and the Phil are guilty?

― Shoes say, yeah, no hands clap your good bra. (goodbra), Saturday, 24 June 2006 03:19 (nineteen years ago)

Well, I thought that "Part-time Lover" by Stevie Wonder and "Maneater" by Hall and Oates were particularly well-known insipid variations of that intro.

― darren (darren), Saturday, 24 June 2006 16:14 (nineteen years ago)

there's that British pop song "No Sleep Tonight" by The Faders

― davelus (davelus), Saturday, 24 June 2006 16:28 (nineteen years ago)

Cream's I Feel Free as well

― Cunga (Cunga), Saturday, 24 June 2006 16:29 (nineteen years ago)

This thread ( is there a name for that beat? you know, the one in "american girls" and "someday" )treads through the same territory ...

― Gregory T (tubesocks), Saturday, 24 June 2006 16:35 (nineteen years ago)

The only "indie" tune I can recall with that beat is an Original Sins ditty whose title I can't quite grasp at the moment.

― Shoes say, yeah, no hands clap your good bra. (goodbra), Saturday, 24 June 2006 16:35 (nineteen years ago)

latest occurence: the song with "monkey" in the title on the new new york dolls album, which struck me as the least boring song on the album just *because* it had the "lust for life"-or-whatever beat. and yeah, i wouldn't be surprised if the beat originated at motown, though i'm not so sure it's "you can't hurry love": that beat ended up in "this charming man" by the smiths, "maneater" by hall and oates, and lotsa other places, but "lust for life" sounds different to me. maybe a modified version? (i mean, i can hear a similarity, i guess, now that you mention it, but it doesn't seem *that* blatant.)

― xhuxk (xheddy), Saturday, 24 June 2006 18:37 (nineteen years ago)

For what it's worth: Bowie stole the rhythm and beat from a German newscast he and Iggy were watching. He grabbed a guitar and started strumming the chords on the spot.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Saturday, 24 June 2006 19:07 (nineteen years ago)

My point is that "Are You Gonna Be My Girl" sounds fuck all like "Lust For Life".

― Half loaf, half pompadour (noodle vague), Saturday, 24 June 2006 19:10 (nineteen years ago)

Makes me want to take a cruise. I'm not sure I can really ever listen to it again.

― matt the queeg (veal), Saturday, 24 June 2006 20:16 (nineteen years ago)

While we're on topic, did The Jam blatantly ripped off "Holiday in the Sun"??

― Aditya (dan138zig), Saturday, 24 June 2006 21:43 (nineteen years ago)

I'm not sure, but come to think of it (and I say this as somebody who's most Jam-illiterate) isn't "Town Called Malice" another "You Can't Hurry Love" ripoff? (And what about "Hitsville UK," by the Clash? I'd need to go back & check, but my memory says it might be.)

― xhuxk (xheddy), Saturday, 24 June 2006 22:04 (nineteen years ago)

It sure is! The drums also have all kinds of echo in seeming emulation of the Motown sound.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Saturday, 24 June 2006 22:40 (nineteen years ago)

also hello ppl the manic street preachers la tristesse durera.

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Sunday, 25 June 2006 00:11 (nineteen years ago)

Aw, Motown, nuthin'! I remember Hunt Sales claiming that the beat was inspired by his appreciation for the Gene Krupa/Chick Webb school of swing drummers.

― Monty Von Byonga (Monty Von Byonga), Sunday, 25 June 2006 01:08 (nineteen years ago)

My point is that "Are You Gonna Be My Girl" sounds fuck all like "Lust For Life".

I was at a bar tonight that played the former song and it was one of those moments where you let fussball lapse for a second and crane your ears to see, and then, fuck, it's that Jet song, and the girls in the bar are shimmying and singing along and you realize for the nth time that you are in the wrong fucking bar. So, I'd say it does sound a bit like it, long enough to build up a little boy's hopes and then smash all his dreams to pieces.

― Doctor Casino (Doctor Casino), Sunday, 25 June 2006 05:12 (nineteen years ago)

Decemberists, "The Sporting Life"

― jaymc (jaymc), Sunday, 25 June 2006 06:39 (nineteen years ago)

OTM

― Aditya (dan138zig), Sunday, 25 June 2006 08:03 (nineteen years ago)

nineteen years pass...

here's a little instagram short that touches on the rhythmic figure in L4L

full video here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFP-KV-xddM

i'm not super convinced on the Gene Krupa one. but it'd be interesting to see how far back you could find this particular rhythm

― budo jeru, Tuesday, 18 November 2025 19:41 (six days ago)

i seem to recall we've had this discussion elsewhere, not that long ago, so forgive me for not reviving the right thread if that's the case

― budo jeru, Tuesday, 18 November 2025 19:42 (six days ago)

actually i almost wonder if homie didn't read this thread when he was doing his research. i don't know anything about him but i usually like his videos

― budo jeru, Tuesday, 18 November 2025 19:43 (six days ago)

OK, so these two dudes talk for an hour about a five minute song that doesn't really change, from an album that runs 15 minutes shorter than this episode?

Lol, I'm probably in, eventually. But sure, I can hear the Gene Krupa. Don't forget that Hunt and Tony Sales are the children of Soupy Sales, of that jazz or jazz-adjacent milieu.

― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 18 November 2025 19:54 (six days ago)

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