Wednesday 12 January 2022

They too hunger for the beast below

Happy "Hump Day", dear reader!

The sun's shining again, and the spikes of Crocus, Snowdrops, Daffs and Iris are poking through the soil.

Time for the first "timeslip moment" of the year, and this time we've been dragged by the "Preparation H" tractor beam back two decades to 2002 - the year of HM The Queen's Golden Jubilee and the "Party in the Palace" concert, Die Another Day, Commonwealth Games in Manchester, Archbishop Rowan Williams, Ian Huntley, the Potters Bar rail crash, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, David Beckham, Bali nightclub bombings, "Metric Martyrs", Gunther von Hagens, George "Dubya" Bush, Paul Burrell, Ford ending car manufacture in Britain (with 2000 job losses), "The Great Glass Testicle" (London City Hall), Spider-Man, Milly Dowler, Jason Bourne, the D.C. sniper attacks, and an attempted coup in Venezuela; the births of Emma Raducanu, Girls Aloud, East Timor, and the International Criminal Court; and the year we bade fond farewells to Spike Milligan, Princess Margaret, Peggy Lee, Joe Strummer, John Thaw, Richard Harris, Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes, James Coburn, Dudley Moore, Rosemary Clooney, Rod Steiger and HM The Queen Mother.

In the headlines in January that year: the Euro became the official currency of the EC, Mount Nyiragongo in DR Congo erupted, the foot and mouth crisis was declared over, the hype was building over the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City (which opened in February), and fans of his surreal "gobbledygook" routines were saddened at the news that "Professor" Stanley Unwin had "ploddy-ploddy forward into the deep fundermold". In our cinemas: Mulholland Drive; Black Hawk Down; Iris. On telly: the debuts of Mr. Bean, Tracy Beaker and Footballers' Wives.

And what of our charts this week twenty years ago? The recently-deceased Aaliyah was in the #1 slot, having deposed Daniel Bedingfield from his second visit to the top, and also present and correct in the Top Ten were Dr Dre, Sophie Ellis Bextor, novelty act DJ Aligator (Blow My Whistle), So Solid Crew, the Stereophonics, Goldtrix presents Andrea Brown and Lange ft Skye (nope, me neither)...

...and, just crashed into the #2 slot (from last week's #68), there was this slice of genius!

I got two pale hands up against the window pane
I'm shaking with the heat of my need again
It starts in my feet, reverbs up to my brain
There's nothing I can do to revert the gain
I'm looking down to the street below
There's nothing in the way, they move to show
They too, know what I know
They too hunger for the beast below
Listening to the radio I feel so out of place
There's a certain something missing that the treble can't erase
I know you can tell just by looking at my face
A word about my weakness

I'm totally addicted to bass
Wow woah ho
Totally addicted to bass
Wow woah ho

There's nothing I can do to be cool
I don't sleep 'til I've had my fuel
It frustrates if I am deprived
A hunger that grates from deep inside
I feel like I'm doing time
Imprisoned by dependence on a rhythm sublime
In my mind I must overcome the need to define
The solitary silence of a faceless crime

Standing by the stereo I'm feeling so alone
My back against a speaker and I'm moving on my own
Surrounded by so many and they're staring at my face
They're picking up my problem

I'm totally addicted to bass
Wow woah ho
Totally addicted to bass
Wow woah ho

Your bassline is shooting up my spine (wow woah ho)
Your bassline has got me feeling fine
It's filling up my mind

Your bassline is shooting up my spine (wow woah ho)
Your bassline has got me feeling fine
It's filling up my mind

Sunrise at my window, I look down on the street
People I see everywhere are tapping their feet
Suddenly I realise in a look that I was wrong
Everybody's groovin' to their own song
Down at the scene below
There's something in the way they move to show
They too, know what I know
They too hunger for the beast below

Rhythm's running over me to wash away my fears
The backbeat of humanity it sweetens my tears
There's something that's connected us down throughout the years
No need to feel so lonely, everyone's addicted to bass
Wow woah ho
Everyone's addicted to bass
Wow woah ho

Your bassline is shooting up my spine
Your bassline
Your bassline has got me feeling fine
It's filling up my mind

Your bassline is shooting up my spine
Wow woah ho
Your bassline has got me feeling fine
It's filling up my mind

Love. That. Song.

Twenty-fucking years ago?! Noooooooo!

12 comments:

  1. Oh good times! I remember many a night dancing to that song....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. But two decades ago? Where did they go? I feel robbed... Jx

      Delete
  2. Nice bit of trap music with a couple of fine birds in the mix. 20 YEARS AGO? My word. I remember Madge's vid for Die Another Day... sigh. Does not seem possible. Kizzes.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "Fine birds"? Have you been watching old episodes of Minder?

      I agree, it doesn't seem possible that any of this could be twenty years ago. J

      Delete
  3. That was a great song and a wonderful video, especially the hopped up Antipodean cop cars. Is that what they really look like down under?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Always obsessed with what's "down under" - I know the feeling... Jx

      Delete
  4. Well, I haven't heard that for years - Fantastic!

    I had a "Now, where have I seen you before?" moment when the third cop in the yellow car gave chase. I wracked my brain to no avail and had to resort to Wikipedia: Turns out he's in Jupiter Ascending which I watched (for the third or fourth time) a week or two ago (his name's Kick Gurry).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's not a name. That's an Indonesian recipe! Jx

      Delete
  5. Princess Margaret gone for 20 years?!
    I don't remember the tune. Odd. I think I had a difficult year.
    Sx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's scary where the time goes.

      Maybe you slept through 2002? Jx

      Delete
  6. Regarding that first photo. At first glance, I thought it was a sex toy.

    ReplyDelete

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