Hits 21 - 1991 (2): The KLF, The Simpsons, The Clash

Episode Date: December 13, 2024

Hello everyone! Welcome back to Hits 21! It's time for a new season: Hits 21 - The 90s. At the roundtable from now on it's Rob, Andy, and Ed. This week, it's time to ask: Should the KLF have their cake and burn it, dude? Twitter: @Hits21UK Email: [e-mail]

Hi there everyone and welcome back to Hits21 The 90s where me, Rob, me, Andy dude and me, Ed are looking back at every single UK number one of the 1990s. If you want to get in touch with us, you can find us over on Twitter. We are at Hits21UK, that is at Hits21UK. And you can email us too, just send it on over to Hits21Podcast at gmail.com. Thank you ever so much for joining us again. We are currently looking back at the year 1991, and this week we'll be covering the period

between the 27th of January and the 16th of March. We have moved on a little bit this year. Looking back to last week, the poll winner, it was Enigma. Sadness part one. Well done to those guys. Just a little point of order before we get going. You might have noticed that there hasn't been an episode of moments of truth for a little while The kind of side podcast that I was doing sort of about how much I love rap and how it's quite easy to get into the genre if you just kind of try a bit the reason that there hasn't been an episode of that for a little while is because a little while ago I was hit with a copyright strike for a couple of the episodes and

a little while ago I was hit with a copyright strike for a couple of the episodes and so I've just decided to stop doing them and I have to take them off the feed unfortunately apologies if anybody was particularly interested in that little series but there is a Spotify playlist that I will leave a link to in the show notes which has all the songs that I would have covered and obviously some of the songs I'd already covered if you want to keep the episodes just get in touch which has all the songs that I would have covered and obviously some of the songs I'd already covered. If you want to keep the episodes, just get in touch, Hits21podcasts.gmail.com, just say,

I want the episodes and I'll just send you the raw files, you can have them for yourselves. But it does mean I have space for another idea I'd come up with, details of which will be coming shortly when I've properly formalized them. So it is time to press on with this week's episode and here are some headlines from January to March 1991. In America, California resident Rodney King is severely beaten by six LAPD officers after a high-speed car chase. A video of the incident is filmed by George Holliday who subsequently sends the tape to several news media organizations and we will

have more on that story in 1992. As heavy snow brings Britain to a standstill again Tim Berners-Lee introduces the World Wide Web, the first internet browser and in early February the IRA attacks 10 Downing Street before bombing Victoria and Paddington stations in London weeks later. One person is killed at Victoria. And six Northern Irishmen are freed from prison, almost 20 years after being wrongly convicted of the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings. Known as the Birmingham Six, the group of men were eventually awarded around £1 million in compensation. No one has been convicted since.

The films to hit the top of the UK box office during this period were as follows. Rocky Five for one week, Kindergarten Cop for one week, and then Three Men and a Little Lady for five weeks. And on British TV, Matthew Kelly replaces Bruce Forsythe as the host of You Bet, which came back this week. In December 2024, it returned. The Radio Times starts publishing schedules for Channel 4 and beyond after the monopoly on TV listings is deregulated. On US TV, Diana Mulder's character Rosalind Shays falls to her death down an elevator shaft. And on the BBC, the computer-originated world ident is seen for the last time after six years.

That's because both BBC One and BBC Two have received new idents, both generated from LaserDisc, ooh, and featuring the BBC corporate logo that was introduced in 1986. BBC One features a number one encased in a globe, and BBC Two features 11 idents based around the number two. Andy, the UK album charts, how are they? As this period starts, Enigma is at number one, as we mentioned last week, with MCMXCAD. That was number one for one week and went triple platinum but that's quickly toppled from the top by Sting with The Soulcages which went

number one for one week and just went gold. The same is true number one for one week and went gold of the next album Jesus Jones's latest Doubt and then that's stopped by something that finally gets more than one week at number one. It's two weeks at the top and single platinum for Innuendo by Queen, the album which followed up the song of the same name which we covered last week of course. Then we get a very different change of pace. We've got Alita Adams at number one with Circle of One which was at the top for one week and went gold. Then we've got none other than Chris Rea with his latest Auberg, which went number one for one week and went double platinum. We've got Liverpool's finest, not Liverpool's real finest, that was a controversial statement obviously, but

The Farm with their number one album Spartacus at the top for one week and only went gold again. So a lot of change and a lot of easy number ones only going gold at the top at the moment so I think it's quite a quiet period on the charts at the moment. We'll see how that goes over the next few weeks. Some pretty big hitters to come but for now yeah anyone can have a pop really whether you're Jesus Jones Elita Adams or Chris Rea. Feel your boots? Yeah. Ed, how are things over there? Albums is a bit simpler. After four more weeks, The Winter and The Vanilla Ice Age finally

thaws with Glass bothering songstress Mariah Carey beginning an 11-week tenure at the top with her self-titled debut. It would reach number five in the UK. Singles-wise, it surfaces the first time for a second time, that song no one had really heard of because it got to like number 60 in the UK, followed by two weeks of C&C Music Factory with Gonna Make You Sweat, better known as Everybody Dance Now and even better known as The Punchline to a Simpsons episode. Top shit in the UK. Oh sorry, that's my handwriting. Top five hit in the UK. Then we have four weeks of singers with more grace notes than

sense with two weeks from Whitney Houston's All the Man That I Need, All the Man That I Need, Ooh, Ooh, Ooh, which reached number 13 in the UK, and a fortnight of Someday by Mariah Carey, which managed only UK number 35. And that sees us into the spring and mid-March. It is time for the first number one this week. It's this! K.L.M. is gonna rock ya! K.L.M. is gonna rock ya! K.L.M. is gonna rock ya!

K.L.M. is gonna rock ya! K.L.M. is gonna rock ya! K.L.M. is gonna rock ya! K.L.M. is gonna rock ya! K.L.M. is gonna rock ya! K.L.M. is gonna rock ya! I'm the Ancient Mutant Ninja K.L.N. is gonna rock ya, of course you have to Move to the flow of the BD Blaster

Baseball-istics are gonna kick this hard And you can catch it down with the Cuckoo Talking about the Moon Moon Justified Ancient Liberation Zulu God's a Dej and everything you learn No point to the fact that time is eternal It's 3AM, 3 AM, 3 AM, eternal KLM is gonna rock ya Okay, this is 3AM Eternal, Live at the SSL by the KLF.

Released as the second single from the group's second studio album titled The White Room, 3AM Eternal, Live at the SSL, is the KLF's second single overall to be released in the UK and their first to reach number one. However, as of 2024, it is their last. 3AM Eternal first entered the UK chart at number five, reaching number one during its third week. It stayed at number one for two weeks. In its first week atop the charts, it sold 53,000 copies, beating competition from Do The Bartman by The Simpsons, which climbed to number three, Cry For Help by Rick Astley, which climbed to number seven, Hippie

Chick by Soho, which climbed to number eight, and I Believe by EMF, which got to number 9. And in week 2, it sold 56,000 copies, beating competition from Devotion by Nomad, which climbed to number 4, Only You by Praise, which climbed to number 5, What Do I Have To Do by Kylie Minogue, which climbed to number 7, and Play That Funky Music by Vanilla Ice which climbed to number 10. When it was knocked off the top of the charts, 3AM Eternal dropped one place to number 2. By the time it was done on the charts it had been inside the top 104, 11 weeks. The song is currently officially certified silver in the UK as of 2024, but that's based on that pre-Kantar

data that changes in 1994. I, you know, I thought this group musically was just gonna be a joke because I knew about them vaguely as a concept more for their stuff with the K Foundation. And yeah, I've got to say, learning more about them, I find myself becoming more and more endeared to this group in the past week. Because it turns out they're a group that had their cake and burnt it too.

Yeah, but it is somewhat odd because, you know, I first heard this track and I was like, oh, that's an early 90s dance track, that's fine. And it's not in many ways a million miles away from sadness in its form and the way it sort of uses a build-up and sort of reduction of different motifs just to make a sort of sound space. It's you know, it's fairly obvious here in that regard and I also I mean I wasn't a big fan of that track as you may remember it also yeah I've got to say this track for all its strengths and I will you know I will presage this by saying I do I do

rather like this track now it does I feel lack a central killer hook, you know, like that's the defining hook of this track though I don't think it wants ultimately for hooks in itself. I don't know how much of it is just me learning more about the context too and wanting this song to cast its spell on me. just to give a bit of background. They had seven top tens in the UK, which astonishes me. I thought they were like a, well, two hit wonder. I'll get into that. And they had two number ones, technically. Yes, under a different name. Yeah. The other one was not under the name KLF, but it was in 1987 under the name The Time Lords

which was more an expose of the industry that it was a song really and That was contemporaneous with their work as the justified ancients of Moo Moo Most of which you will not be able to hear anymore because the sampling is unclearable You know, well, let's, let's fuck up a load of Aberon Beatles samples, have a Scottish person shouting over it and have like jingle cats style recitations of tunes over the top using MIDI. It's, it's a thing.

It happened, but it doesn't happen very often anymore. Yeah, they, they had a hit with a nine minute song that's main feature was a monotone recitation of Northern railway stations and eventually segues into Jerusalem and they would release the same song as a single often in several mixes often with multiple versions being hits. This is the second single version of 3m eternal And it was the version they got banned from the Brit Awards for for firing machine gun blanks on the audience. Yeah Wow

They had two top five hits with two different versions of what's time is love What a fucking odd proposition, because this isn't even going into the more, you know, confrontational sort of taking on or just having fun with the art establishment stuff they do in the 90s as the K Foundation. You know, the K Foundation burns a million quid, being perhaps their most divisive and most talked about lasting legacy in that regard

But they're just a weird wonderful anomaly it's aesthetic experimentation it's Challenged but it's in a fun and provocative way that never seems to take itself too seriously I like that quite a lot. I mean, maybe the ego did increase as the amount of burnt money did as time went on, but we can go into that. But this isn't... going back actually to the bloody track we're talking about, this isn't my favourite

of their trance series. Probably not by a fair distance that would be clearly for me 1990s live at trance central mix of what time is love which is a great dance track and I didn't realize reading around it how highly these folk were actually regarded not just as a sort of conceptual jester unit but as genuine like acid house pioneers they were genuinely pioneering and they released a lot of interesting at least stuff in quite a few different genres you know including ambient and found sound and yeah acid house and yeah as I mentioned I liked this at first. It was fine. I was definitely not going to be putting this anywhere near the vault but it was good.

I liked it. It was fun. It had that early 90s... Kaleeth! Ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah I'll do some more in a minute. But you know, it's, and I'm like, yeah, this is, it's just, it's fine. It's fun. This is, you know, it's very, it's very of its era, but it's fun. But then there's just little gradual motifs that came in. I've just been eating up my tired brain all week. Agents of moo moo. Ah, yeah. And there's just a lot of interesting little elements to this that I keep coming back to.

One that might not immediately strike folk is that there is an instrumental solo in this. We've had a lot of instrumental solos in these overly long singles recently. Most of them are fucking awful MIDI guitar or MIDI keyboard replicas that sound like dead animals or, well well in the process of dying should I say but here they seem to have taken a clarinet, a live clarinet and treated it Tom Morello style by kind of shuttering the sound yeah and it sounds cool and there's loads of these cool little sound effects. And it's like, there's a lot of consideration gone into this. Although, as I say, it isn't, I don't think, their most memorable or most lightning strike dance track, but I think there's so much around this and they've,

I find them so charming in concept that I just have a lot of goodwill towards this single and this group. Whatever that means. Yeah, it's very hard to categorize them. I had such trouble putting the script together for this week's episode because it's the second single as the KLF but as you were very right to point out Ed, this isn't their second single together as a group. It's not even their first number one and were very right to point out Ed, this isn't their second single together as a group, it's not even their first number one and they go on to have a bit of a thing after this and

also before this because they've gone under several different names, Justified, Ancestor, Moo Moo as you were saying, KLF, Space, the copyright liberation front, like the full, you know, the waiting for the rights of Moo and things like that is all this Self-mythologizing stuff you got all the compilation albums as well that they do as KLF plus various artists I get the feeling sometimes that these may have been a bit of an inspiration for the Band quote-unquote that super hands and Jeremy have going in Robbie beat me to it Just like you know all this door the net the different names that they have like the have going in peep show. Bloody hell Rob you beat me to it. Oh sorry yeah. Just the like you know all the different names that they have like they curse these metal hands. Tani

that is chocolate humunculus. And there's even things like in 1987 they released a song as that is called I Got a CD and it was by disco 2000 and that was what they called themselves years before pulp And obviously have all the things like the the Brit Awards thing with extreme noise terror and the machine guns and all the remixes and like you were saying ed all the Second and third, you know The second and third versions of songs trying to track down that it was this version, the live at the SSL version as well, instead of the Pure Trance original version, or the KLF5TOTP

version, with Extreme Noise Terror. I was like, which one is it? So yeah, with this, whenever I think about the KLF and 3AM Eternal, I always try and separate the art from the artist, because the story behind the group is so interesting and fascinating that it could kind of artificially inflate the quality of the music on its own because this idea that two arty types were proudly playing a massive game on the pop charts eventually get into the point where they would force crust punk and grindcore on the Brit Awards, complete with machine gun fire, and then dump a sheep's carcass at the awards party afterwards, and then burn a million pounds

before deleting their whole catalogue, and then writing a book called The Manual on how to quote get a number one the easy way, that's kind of obnoxious behaviour that makes for absolutely gripping pop. All the self mythologising and mystique, the element of bringing this kind of faceless DJ personality into the mainstream. You know if you hear the story before you hear the music it could sound like it's something more exciting than it actually is. It's like if a piece of performance art just accidentally ran into the, like ran to the number one position and shouted like, Ah, I'm at number one! And then apparently 50 to 60 odd thousand people each week for two weeks thought,

Yeah, okay, I'm fine with that. This seems interesting. I'm gonna watch this develop. But I think it helps the KLF's case immensely that their music was genuinely futuristic and exciting. While something like Enigma last week is maybe the least commercial thing we've ever covered on Hits 21, this is on those levels, but it's louder, angrier, more aggressive, it attacks you from so many angles and literally plays gunfire to bring itself in. And then it's just a smorgasbord of samples and plundered phonics, fast rhythms, all this agents of Moo Moo stuff.

The fact that they appear to have sampled, they appear to have sampled songs referencing KLF, like the KLF, and the KLF has gone to racket and things like that, as though they've always existed in history, like the Monolith in 2001. But you look this song up on Who Sampled and the KLF and the KLF is gonna rock it, it's all kind of like self-sampled and like they haven't, it's you know like because they had a bit of an affinity for found sounds and field recordings and things like that and you think oh it's just another of that but there's no other song that I could find that exists

where there's a guy going KLF has gone a racket unless it's you know an earlier version of 3am eternal I am genuinely dazzled by a lot of this and I have fallen for it over I've known this song from beforehand, you know, before doing this, the fact that also that they could make the two tones, the so important, if they sound so important in the song, you know, this is a real kind of masterclass of mixing and, as you were saying Ed, kind of like aesthetic clashing and all these things, but what maybe doesn't work in its favor completely is when I started comparing this to, I think this is the closest thing we've had to the power by a snap since we covered that, and I agree with you, that this doesn't have that kind of central thing to come back to. It doesn't have the,

I got the power! Or the, D-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d The closest thing that it gets to for me for having the thing it is the the phone tone there like that's The closest thing it kind of gets to a refrain if you will I kind of wish we were discussing what time is love instead as well because I do prefer that too But I think that 3 a.m. Eternal makes up for its shortcomings as a pop song in terms of attack and assault and ambition and scale and how relentless it is and how well it sustains itself for 210, 220 seconds and then you do have

the story too to enjoy afterwards because as much as I've tried to separate the song from the artist the story of this song and the people who made it, it's kind of a package deal. And it does have a major appeal to me, kind of looking back. Another song at the start of 1991 that without context would feel utterly inexplicable. But I think there's a lot of value in how weird 1991 has been so far. It's thrown us all over the shop in terms of the kind of things that we've been discussing. Things kind of, you we've been discussing. Things kind of, you know, return to normal as the year carries on where it's a mixture of, you know, well, I say mixture, but mostly just Brian Adams, but, you know, comedy songs from people you've seen on the telly and, you know, things like we've got one of those next week and then in a few weeks.

But, but yeah, it's it's just yeah the beginning of 1991 has been very very very interesting to me and I think this has been my favorite bit of it so far so Andy the KLF yeah I've not I've not got a huge amount to add to be honest and most of what I did have you've both covered to be honest I'll be pretty brief and I will be honest as well that before we went on the air I said to you, can I go last on this one? Because I really feel like I'm missing something with this compared to the two of you.

Because I did know about, you know, the million changes of name and that they were sort of part anarchists, part wind up merchants and that really, but I just thought there was maybe something about the song itself that wasn't coming across to me. And unfortunately, I don't really think there was, something about the song itself that wasn't coming across to me and unfortunately I don't really think there was to be honest I think this just isn't registered with me on the same level as you two I do absolutely love the idea of KLF I love this again like Jeremy's Banner from Peepshow just this stupid completely unpredictable and genuinely very exciting approach to becoming celebrities and becoming players in the pop charts. I think that's awesome. And I think

probably a lot of people were really supporting them, regardless of what the music was, because they just love what they were all about and love what they were doing really. And I think that's kind of maybe a factor in this game to more because it definitely is nowhere near as good as what time is love I do quite like that I think there is maybe just a bit of a feeling here of like yes we like you we like the KLF we've been wanting to give you a number one for a while so let's have this one let's let's have this one as number one because this one is sort of vaguely credible and is actually you know

it's not a silly joke thing like the Time Lords and is something that you could actually put on in clubs and would actually be quite popular so I just think maybe there's just a little bit of a trade-off happening here I just I just don't get very much from the song itself and I think it's different for me from when we did the noughties to now that anything contextual, it didn't land with me in the same way because I wasn't there, I don't have that context and I could read about it but I can't actually feel it and I think it's harder for me to give things context points or give things points for things as an overall package as you describe it Rob. I just I just find that harder because I just can't actually feel that I can't put those puzzle pieces together in my head And I'm mostly judging things as the actual songs so far

That might not be the correct approach because I'm definitely struggling with songs a bit more than you two have been and this is a good It's a necessary approach I think you know, maybe I got very I got very entrenched in context and it is easy to let that blind me. It's not it's not a right or wrong thing and I do like appreciate that the context is key with this one I just yeah it's I think this is a good example of the song that out of context certainly if you were to play it to like young people now let alone people my age who are not so young you know it's it very, very hard to put

yourself in the mindset of, oh yeah it's 1991 let's put this to number one, like really? You know it's fine for what it is but completely green, there's no hook, not really, not really any central hook to it, very nicely produced and definitely does have that sense of credibility that makes it clearly not a novelty song when a lot of the stuff they have done is sort of novelty songs. So again, I like the unpredictability of them and I like the fact that this is number one. Like I very much support the fact that this happened, which is a bit of a theme through, well, at least two of the songs this week, not the third one.

But yeah, I'm just sort of like, okay, this happened, vaguely supportive of this and love that it got deleted along with the rest of the catalog so shortly afterwards but I just yeah I just I just don't really get this as a piece of music to be honest I'd never really choose to listen to it I wish we were talking about what I'm is love as well because I do get that one it's a shame I really wish I could engage with this a bit more and I just can't it's I'm genuinely finding it quite a shame but yeah yeah it's not a more. And I just can't. I'm genuinely finding it quite a shame. But yeah, yeah, it's not a bad song.

It's just not one that I think is particularly interesting, but they are interesting. And so I'm glad we got to talk about them at least. I like the journey they took me on. I think I thank them for that because it was full of fun surprises exploring them over this last week, really. Just digging a little deeper into

that million quid thing. The story behind the million quid, it's not just a sort of an isolated anarchic anti-capitalist thing. It did start with first of all their anti-Turner prize gesture. Do you know about this, Andy? I know the vaguency you're talking about, I don't know the full details, so do carry on. Well, basically, and I'm probably forgetting the details too, their concept was, and I think you can debate the reasons why, that's what I quite like about them as well,

they were never really overt in what their motives were. They posted themselves with a red carpet outside the Turner Prize one year and offered their own sort of worst artist of the year award to whoever won the best artist of the year award inside along with double the prize money being offered by the Turner Prize. So if they would come out and accept it the woman who won would have got in addition to the 20,000 she got from the Turner Prize. So if they would come out and accept it, the woman who won would have got, in addition to the 20,000 she got from the Turner Prize, another 40,000 presented on the red carpet outside for being shit.

Now, apparently it was like they were given a date, like the woman knew it was happening, and it was like, right, if she doesn't come out by midnight and accept her award what we are going to do is we're going to set fire to this 40 000 pounds so we're effectively holding you ransom you accept this money and this award as a kind of counterpoint or we just torch it apparently they were told to wait five minutes after midnight and and i think there's a lot of retroactive regret about that actually and so it didn't get burnt but that actually snowballed and

that concept stuck with them. What they wanted to do originally with the million quid that was gained from royalties and from various things was they were trying to sell it as I recall to different galleries as a work of art in its own right. Now this is something I find bloody fascinating because what they were saying is like it would be interesting if any art, if any gallery like they went to the Tate and all sorts would have taken it, would have been a huge board with like million quid bundles nailed to it and it would be hung up as a work of art and what would happen is that they were interested to see how much the relative value of the money would vary

in ratio compared to the aesthetic value of the work of art over time. And that's just such an interesting conceptual idea, I think, in itself. But then, because none of the galleries would take it, I mean, this may be retroactive justification, but after a couple of years, they filmed themselves in like an abandoned Scottish mill, first for a long time trying to ignite one million quid,

now 2.3 million in modern money, I gather. That's in 2024 money. And then, yeah, ultimately just torching it and there's a kind of air of sort of solemnity about it actually. They don't know quite if they've done the right thing but it's just an interesting, you know, they had to film it really to sort of prove how it went down. But I just want to ask this and I realise this was a lengthy preamble to go into it. Burning a million quid, what are the thoughts of both of you on that gesture?

I think as an artistic statement, particularly for an industry that's so awash with money as well, either music or art, where value and money are seen as intrinsically linked when they're not at all, I think it makes quite a good statement. Yeah, and a million quid is nothing in these industries. It's literally nothing even back then. So any kind of moral hand-wringing about it, I think is predicated on the false notion

that that million actually cost anybody anything. It didn't really. So yeah, I think it's completely a legitimate thing to do. Yeah. Rob? It's funny Ed, because when you asked us the question, I was expecting you to go, Was it a crime? Was it a burnt offering? Was it madness? Was it an investment? Was it rock and roll? Was it an obscenity? Was it art? Was it a political statement? Was it bollocks? Oh yeah.

That was the ad. That's the front was the that was the yeah I have thought a lot about this this week and I'm glad that to hear that my train of thought kind of ended up in a similar position to their original idea for the art installation of a million quid where it's like is something worth more if you assign meaning to it as Opposed to just the numbers on the notes What if you put them all together? Put them on a wall and then kind of you know gave it a name or something does it then become is it worth more? What's the value? What's the price etc? And then, you know, and even before you've told me that,

which I wasn't aware of, I have thought for a long time about this. Just, you know, just generally kind of just being semi-interested in the KLF anyway, and my central, like, you know, my first thought is always, could they not have just given it to charity? But then I thought, now hang on a minute, like in the 20, 30 years, 29 years since the release of the film, has the value of the film been greater than a million? And I kind of think to myself, that question is unanswerable and so they've got me there like they have just got me there like I

Will say though the funny thing the funniest thing about it is on the Wikipedia page for the film It just says, you know directed by Gimpo who was Alan David Goodrick Starring the K foundation distributed by the K foundation released 8 23rd of August running time 67 minutes and then it just says budget a million pounds but yeah it is the unanswerable question I think that it's something that has plagued my mind on and off for about five years. And so for that, I just don't know. It's kind of like to kind of give people a window into the discussions. Me and you have had Ed about Ice Cube's album, Death Certificate.

Oh, it's like that album has forced you to question so much as pissed you off so much has offended you so much as delighted you and caused you to feel absolutely everything that it's possible to feel about a piece of music. And so you just kind of have to sit there and go, this is incredible, this is 10 out of 10, this is, you know, it is impossible to just assign a rating to this, it's just taken over my life kind of thing. And I feel the same way about this sometimes where like for a couple of if every now and again it'll pop into my head and for a couple of days I'll just be like yeah what what what is the what is the right answer to this what is the right answer to this film and the fact that the film poses so many questions that it knows

can't be answered it's just they so... they really thought about pop and art in a way that... I just... I keep... I think... think about the um... the 1993 advert that they did. It was around the time of the Turner Prize thing, where they have just on the big poster, it's just, abandon all art now. Major rethinking process away further announcements like I do laugh sometimes when we get songs on this podcast where like it's a bit se teeny weeny whatever and I do question like like was music a good idea was humanity going down the route of music a good idea if things like they if it meant that things like this could exist.

And so whenever I see that poster I think, abandon all art. It's so, it's just a major rethinking process. It's a bit Hitchhiker's Guide actually and it's kind of, you know, absurdism and silliness kind of being confined just to abandon all art. We're having a rethink about art guys, don't worry we'll be back. We'll make an announcement. It really makes me wonder about how this would go down these days because this kind of anarchic, kind of silly but with a point behind it kind of approach to things. I think the media would have a field day with this now and would really, you know the way they talk about extinction rebellion and stuff like that with a vague air of like oh

it's not very British it's not nice to be doing this kind of stuff you know I think they would have a field day with that but actually I think there's something in the British psyche that really enjoys this kind of stuff that really really likes this sense of humor because like every single incident that we've talked about in this segment I feel like sounds exactly like something that Nessa did in Gavin and Stacey. Like it's just, they all sound like some of her stories where she says like that she's getting for Gavin and Stacey's wedding for the present, she's getting them all the way down her arm,

their names tattooed on her in Arabic. It's just like exactly those kind of stories and that's obviously hugely popular. So I just, I think there's genuinely something in the British psyche that people really really enjoy this kind of behavior but I don't think it would like I don't think the media would come on to that these days and they try and paint them as like dangerous people and they're not at all we love this kind of thing so yeah it's nice to celebrate it it's funny that you've mentioned Nessa because whatever since you mentioned her I've just sort of imagined her having one of her anecdotes about Bill Drummond, who was in one of the KLF.

Well, I said this to Bill Drummond. I did. After the Brit Awards, I made sure that they were blanks in that machine gun. He was going to fire real bullets. I told him not to. He got back at me by making a whole song about Doctor Who. It was number one for one speak. Well to just draw this together, yeah I'm just, I'm very glad that that discussion just opened, opened the discourse again that keeps getting reopened and reopened because I think that's one of the most valuable things that art can do really. And I'll just put it this way right, the K Foundation burnt a million quid. Joker 2 burnt 200 million dollars and we have just talked more about the K Foundation

burning a million quid more cumulatively than anybody has talked about Joker 2 since it came out at the cinema so yeah I have a lot of time for the K foundation I think Well from a Joker of one kind to another here's the second song this week I'm a guy with a rep for being rude Terrorizing people wherever I go It's not intentional, just keeping the flow Fixing test scores to get the best scores Posing banana peels all over the floor I'm the kid that made the move with C and R Last name Simpson, first name Bulk

I'm here today to introduce the next phase The next step in the big work race I gotta dance real easy to do I learned it with no rhythm and so can you So move by the hip, you got the notion Front to back in a rock like motion Now that you got it if you think you can Do it through the music, that's the Bartman

Everybody if you can do the Bartman Shake your body turn it up if you can Shake it out man Lift it up to the side and shake it Everybody in the house do the Bartman Everybody if you can do the Bartman Shake your body turn it up if you can, man Lift your back to the side, yes you can, can Everybody in the house, do the bum, man Everybody if you can, do the bum, man Shake your body, turn it up if you can, man Lift your back to the side, yes you can, can

Everybody in the house, do the bum, man It wasn't long ago, just a couple of weeks I got in trouble, yeah, pretty deep Homer was yellow, mom was too Because I put mothballs in the beef stew Engagement time in the heirloom Sitting by myself and flying to my room Homer was yellow, Mom was too Because I put mothballs in the beef stew I finish my time in the heirlooms bloom

Sit by myself and find my room When all else fails, nothing else left to do I turn on the music so I can feel the groove Okay, this is Do The Bartman by The Simpsons Released as the lead single from their debut studio album Funny talking about them as if they're a band Titled The Simpsons Sing the Blues. Do the Bartman is the first single to be released by The Simpsons in the UK and their first to reach number one. However, as of 2024,

it is their last. Do the Bartman first entered the UK chart at number 11, reaching number 1 during its fourth week. It stayed at number 1 for three weeks. In its first week atop the charts, it sold 60,000 copies, beating competition from Get Here by Alita Adams, which climbed to number 7, and GLAD by Kim Appleby, which climbed to number 10. In week 2, it sold 83,000 copies, beating competition from You Got the Love by The Source which climbed to number 8 and In Your Face by 808 State which climbed to number 9. And in week 3 it sold 62,000 copies, beating competition from Crazy for You by Madonna which got to number 2, Should I Stay or Should I Go by The Clash which got to number 5, Alright Now 1991 by Free which climbed to number 8 and

Move Your Body by Expansions which climbed to number 10. When it was knocked off the top of the charts, Do The Bartman fell 2 places to number 3. By the time it was done on the charts it had been inside the top 100 for 12 weeks the song is currently officially certified gold in the uk as of 2024 based on that pre-cantar stuff so andy do the bartman the simpsons i feel like the whole podcast has been leading to this moment us discussing The Simpsons and not just having it be a reference. We actually have to discuss The Simpsons, so take it away. Yeah, I mean I think after the amount of time we spent on the KLF, maybe let's not go into it in

quite the depth we might have done. So at the start of the show I did an inexplicable, it's Andy dude, and that was, I had this vague idea of spending the entire show in characters Bart Simpson just randomly dropping cowabungas and don't have a cow everywhere. Decided not to do that, thought better of that, you can't strike gold every time. What about Woozle Wuzzles? That's his best catchphrase. The K Foundation eats my shorts. I guess you could say that I thought about that idea, but ultimately I didn't do it. Yeah, this is like, this is just like fascinating to me, like really, really odd and interesting

and not odd in like the basic sense of what it is. The Simpsons got big, got an unborn single out of it. That's nothing new. We've seen that happen with Turtle Power. We'll see it with plenty of other flash in the pants things, both before and after this. That's nothing new. What's weird about this is that

what it is for the Simpsons in particular. So obviously I could talk for days, could do a whole separate podcast about the Simpsons. I'm sure we'll end up doing it one day. Simpsons is one of my favourite TV shows ever. Probably, definitely the favourite comedy show ever of mine. And it's a three-way tie with Lost and Doctor Who, it's my three favourite shows ever. Ask me on any day, you'll get a different answer, it's a three-way tie.

But all three of them, what they have in common is that I love how incredibly groundbreaking and bold and wild they are and that they are just like the most engaging, gripping things, either in terms of comedy, in terms of drama or in terms of weirdness. And for The Simpsons, it's that that's just not quite there yet in season one. And you might say, oh, yeah, but you know, we've had a few seasons of this. It's 1991, you know, show starts in 1989. And in the US, yes, they've had a season and a half now. We're now moving beyond the Bart era and we're into Homer starting to take over.

And that Simpson sense of humor is starting to take root. And it's becoming clear that there's long run of potential in this show. Cause I think that's what, that's the main achievement of season two of The Simpsons is that the potential of it, not just in terms of the sense of humor, in terms of the landscape they're painting with this show,

there's potential for a soap opera style long runner in this one. But here in the UK, this is like, we're in the dark ages of TV where you're at to wait months. And in this case, you have to wait a year. The Simpsons first episode in the UK just a couple of months before this we've not yet finished season one broadcasting in the UK. We're in a very different place. I say very different place. I know it's only a seasons difference but anyone who actually knows The Simpsons knows how different season one and season two are

compared to where you are with the style of the show and what the show's doing at those times. We are so far behind the zeitgeist for what The Simpsons is actually doing compared to the US at the moment. And yet here it is at number one where we're only about seven or eight episodes in and this video is, there's a lot of characters in this video that the UK hasn't seen yet. This is the TV debut of Krusty the Clown, of Sideshow Bob. I noticed Agnes Skinner hanging around in the background. I think Reverend Lovejoy, it's probably his first appearance as well and he gets a whole little dance sequence with the devil, I think.

You know, these are things that are brand new to the UK audience. It's almost like we've bought into a trailer for the rest of the show that's to come. We've had the free trial with the episodes we've watched. And now we get this, do you want more of The Simpsons? Because here's some of it. And it's been made by Michael Jackson. So there's that as well. And you can tell that early Simpsons factor because it's Bart, it's all Bart, it's The

Bart Show. And you could have called The Simpsons the Bart Simpsons show at that time With sort of reaches its peak with the season 2 premiere Bart gets an F Which I think is a fantastic episode by the way one of the best of season 2 But very much Peters out after that and again in the in America This is sort of the final hurrah of Bart Simpson that was starting to move past him slightly now and Homer Marge Lisa starting to become more prominent in the show, Bart's starting to step back just a little bit but that means that this is very weird looking back on as an emblem of the Simpsons because undoubtedly this is the peak in terms of popularity and that's always the case with

almost every show is that it reaches its peak around the end of the first season, around the start of the second, but very few shows do what The Simpsons did in that they only really found their voice and only really blossomed in terms of quality a few seasons on, and it sort of peaked for me personally, it peaked around season six or season seven in terms of how groundbreaking, how hilarious,

how genuinely influential it was on all the television. That happened years after this, but in terms of how groundbreaking, how hilarious, how genuinely influential it was on all the television, that happened years after this. But in terms of the sheer numbers, in terms of the ratings, the peak is now. And so we have this weird effect where we have this big, big moment of cultural peak, a cultural cut through for The Simpsons where Bart Simpson is getting a number one. But it's really unrepresentative of what we all love about the Simpsons really. We're in the Simpsons sing the blues era. We're in the Cowabunga dudes El Barto era of the Simpsons.

And it's just this very strange pair of things to put in my head that like this may be the popularity peak, but it's undoubtedly not the quality peak of the Simpsons or the peak of its influence and culture either. This is like a sort of capitalist, you know, seizing upon The Simpsons, which is, yeah, it's odd. I can't think of another example like this where something breaks out and goes nuclear, but its best days are still far, far, far ahead of it. Yeah, very, very fascinating to me. As for the song itself, do you think it's pretty catchy?

Actually, I think you can really tell Michael Jackson's involvement in it. You really, really can. It's basically bad. You know, there's a lot of bad influence in this and Bart himself references it a couple of times. He says, oh, I'm bad, I'm bad, like underneath the chorus a couple of times. I think there are some really good turns of phrase in this as well, like where there's that like sort of triple rhyme with here's the next phase of the bark craze. I think that I think there's some genuinely really good lines in it. Nancy Cartwright,

let's not forget that this is actually a Nancy Cartwright number one, you know, that's really weird that she actually does a good job of this. Like she pulls off a fairly difficult job of doing this five minute rap by herself mostly and she does a pretty good job with it so I actually think this is better than it has any right to be to be honest it's got key talent behind it it's got quite a catchy hook it's got good comedic performances from typically Nancy Cartwright but there are other little cameos from other people as well I think this has more to it than you might expect to be honest and I remember watching the video quite a lot as a kid and really quite liking this. So I think as with everything in this earlier of

The Simpsons it might look quite cheap and tacky but there is a bit more to this than you might expect. I just think it's a shame that that peak where number one singles were achievable didn't coincide with a later season because The Simpsons does loads of songs in the show, original songs that are really, really good. Again, anyone who knows anything about The Simpsons can instantly recall some of them. Like there is definitely a world where the show really blows up around season four or five instead. And something like the Monorail song or who needs the quickie mark could get number one. I absolutely believe that could have happened if they released it as a single. I think there's a world actually where if it peaked even later, Poochie's rap could have gotten number one.

Like people were desperate for Simpsons content. But Vanilla Rice has already been and gone. That's the thing that like I think people were desperate for content and it's not really the song itself. It's people are just so eager to express their enjoyment of The Simpsons and get more of The Simpsons that you basically could have done anything here and that Simpsons sing the blues album you know sold like hot cakes as well. So I really enjoyed that this happened and I love that I've been able to talk about The

Simpsons so much. I just wish this has happened at a slightly different time in history so that we could have got something a bit more representative of the show as the number one. But isn't this great? Isn't this great that this happened? So whenever you look back on season one, early season two of The Simpsons and think, oh, this is janky as hell. Like, who was watching this? Who thought this was good? How did ever a big show come out of this? Just remember the party that was going on outside the door, you know, when you're watching those episodes that everybody was loving it, loving it. And this is a full five years before the UK debut of the best Simpsons episode ever.

And Maggie makes three. I will be taking no further questions on that point. Yeah, lovely, lovely to be able to talk about the Simpsons and to have this here. And it's not bad at all quite like this year. Yeah we have referenced The Simpsons so much on this show and everyone will surely know how obsessed we all are with it. I mean Lizzy you know used to mention it all the time in the 2000s and I'm sure you'll be mentioning it a lot through the 90s. I think like The Simpsons is the thing that the four of us have in common apart from obviously you know pop music but The Simpsons, I think, is like the number one choice.

It's just that like, you know, number one hits is that, you know, people are probably more interested in what we have to say about that, you know, compared to The Simpsons. But I think that season one to nine of The Simpsons is probably the best TV show of the 90s. Yes, okay, 1989. But okay. Season two to eight is probably, in my my opinion the best TV show of all time and more specifically seasons three to seven are the peak of like like art as a thing it's like the

peak of human expression the absolute potential of what humans can do when they work as a team of what humans can do when they work as a team. Only a very, very, very, very small selection of media has ever come as close to meaning to me what The Simpsons does. It informs my daily life, my outlook on life. Sometimes everything that happens to me can be tied back to a moment on The Simpsons because it covered so much ground and so much territory and had so much to say about basically every aspect of the western world since about 1985 and continues to apply today long after its peak. I don't know if it has anything to say anymore, I haven't really seen anything past about

season 15 except the film a couple of times when that was released but it is always always the funniest possibly possible show that it could be the most you know the just the most touching and everything and it's why it's a bit of a bit of a shame but at the height of Simpson Mania and Bart Mania it was this that they decided to expand into other areas of media and entertainment that don't show off the best talents of the cast or the crew at this stage. I cannot get the image out of my head of Nancy Cartwright in the studio trying to keep a serious face. I'm a guy with a rep for being rude.

My issue with this, it is a pretty second rate New Jack Swing kind of thing. They apparently get Michael Jackson in to help out a bit, but I even think he's passed his best at this point. It doesn't have much of a chorus, it's just backing vocals while Nancy Cartwright just kind of goes like oh yeah oh yeah Lisa oh yeah yeah oh it's also far too long it takes far too long to get going it takes even longer to stop there are problems there are more problems I could go into chiefly this is another song that treats rap as like a novelty thing and it's a gimmick that's currently trendy but I'll go away soon enough. And it's such a shame as well because the

music writers on The Simpsons would go on to write some of the funniest and most memorable TV songs ever, they just weren't up to speed yet. Like imagine if we got to talk about a full version of the Monorail song or something. As Andy said, though, it's because the Simpsons wasn't really the Simpsons yet. You know, for all we knew, the Simpsons were another Gabbo at this point. But the fact that they weren't a flash in the pan makes this kind of cynical opportunism a bit more uncomfortable to bear. Just sorry to jump in on that point Rob, but

I have to acknowledge as well that The Simpsons itself has done whole episodes about precisely that, about precisely that effect. They looked back on it in some regret because there was no need to milk the cow dry like this. They've done whole episodes about this. They did that segment with the, whichever treehouse of horror segment with the Simpsons Christmas boogie. Man Smart! with the whichever treehouse of horror segment with the Simpsons Christmas Boogie basically this. Yeah and all the Bart gets famous material as well and all the Gabbo stuff like they are very very aware of how they didn't need to do this so I think that's interesting. Yeah basically a sort of a different team by the point of Bart gets famous and stuff and well I mean even with Poochie as

well and things like that or even by the with Poochy as well and things like that. Or even by the point of Gabbo as well, which is that Krusty gets cancelled is not one of my favourite episodes of The Simpsons. I find it to be one of the few episodes of the whole show where I don't absolutely love every single inch of it, but Gabbo is an effective kind of comparison for something that The Simpsons could have been, a warning perhaps, but despite all of these issues, whenever I go to pie hole it, I just can't do it, because I think that despite all of its flaws, it's ultimately harmless and kind of a bit charming, and it's a number one single from The Simpsons, and I know I

shouldn't forgive it on those terms but I can't look into Bart's eyes and put him in the pie hole and I think that the lyrics as well provide a valuable window into how silly the panic was over Bart in 1990, 1991 a valuable mark of how innocent and puritan a lot of American politicians and parents want their society to stay. And The Simpsons, which is a show, I think, it is a show ultimately above all about the value of family, however dysfunctional, that if you have a family, either blood related or not, if you have something to fall back on as a person when you make mistakes, you know, if you have a house and a few people who are glad to smile when you walk through the door, then that's a good thing. That's a good solid thing. And then you have the actual fucking president. Six months before

this song comes out in the UK, George HW Bush says, we are going to keep on trying to strengthen the American family to make American families a lot more like the Waltons and a lot less like the Simpsons. Now, I don't see the Simpsons and the Waltons as that different They just all go to bed and don't say good night Like ultimately I think the message of the Simpsons in that kind of mid-period Ultimately more than anything is that whether it's Homer, Marge, Lisa, Bart or Maggie or grandpa or whoever, you know, if you make a mistake or if something bad happens as long as there is a community whether that's of one person or a hundred

people around you then it's okay. What is not family values and American values about that? I just I don't get it like and you hear that speech and you listen to Bart and it's like cuz I put speech and you listen to Bart and it's like Cuz I put math balls in the beef stew It's like would that not be a B plot on the Waltons and then you listen to him And he's like just a kid and this is just a bit of fun. It's an assault on nothing No, just the only explanation I can give for that because I've thought the same as well where it's like there was there was nothing scary or You know earth-sh shaking about Bart's character.

And I've thought this before, like, why did people think he was such a rebel? Like, why do people think he was this like hellion that you don't want to encourage children to be like? And all I can think is that maybe people have looked at individual scenes or heard about individual things he seemed to do on the show and have not got the nuance that in every episode where Bart does anything bad, he ultimately either gets to come up and for it or feels bad about it and make sure that anyone he's hurt along the way

he apologizes to or you know makes friends with or in the case of his family like he feels terrible about it. One of the best one of the best like emotional like mature episodes of the Simpsons ever, March Being Not not proud, is all about that. Yes, yes! How Bart physically cannot do it, that he can't do something just outright bad because he feels awful about it, it tears him apart because he's been brought up the right way. So if you actually watch the show, you know that Bart is actually a really good example of how to raise your kids, that yes, he's a bit of a brat, but like he knows right from wrong. He just struggles to control himself with it.

Like he's a really, really good role model for kids. And all I can think of is that people just didn't get the full context with that because yeah, he's the kind of kid who I want my kids to sit down and watch and think, yeah, I'd quite like to be like Bart. Like he's fun, but he's got a soul, you know? So it's, yeah, definitely a shame, but I had to come in on that point because I've thought about that so many times that like it's completely the wrong Message about bar to think that he's just Dennis the menace, you know Helian

He just isn't the M The other thing actually that I found out about the music video for this is that it was animated in two weeks The whole thing was put together in two weeks, which is incredible It's like a small episode of the Simpsons Actually the whole kind of six-minute thing where you know that goes to, which is incredible. It's like a small episode of The Simpsons, actually. The whole kind of six minute thing where, you know, they go to the school recital and there's the whole routine and, you know, the... And then it turns out it's like a dream sequence and Bart kind of has to go back to, you know,

again, it's another one of his kind of crazy fantasies, but he's kind of shown the right way at the end. The interesting thing about the music video that kind of places it in a very specific time in The Simpsons and you know, not that you know and how far behind we were in the UK is and only is it the TV debut for like Krusty and Satchelbob and stuff. It's also the first time that Simpsons audiences in the UK will have been introduced to Carl, you know Harvey Fierstein's character from season two. Yes. He briefly dances with Jacques in the video and that's like ages away in the show. Probably the most fundamental thing of all though is that this is the first time they've

heard Home as proper correct voice. Like in the TV he's just got season 1 voice and this is the first time he's got proper Homer voice for UK audiences. So Ed, do the Batman. How do we feel? Andy, I completely agree with you. I listen to this and I just think it is basically bad. I've got to say, unfortunately, this doesn't do it for me, Andy. But yeah, that was just... Anyway, yeah. Look, you've all said it already. I'm going to be very brief and leave my notes all over the floor for this one.

It's basically five plus minutes of a Michael Jackson keyboard preset. This is kind of my 3am really because I can't really hear a hook either. It's just a sound pad that happens. And it is, it's Nancy Cartwright, basically, being very game with something that clearly was nothing to do with the writer's room, where a song from the show being expanded out. Well, I mean, I think this is the difference between,

I don't think it's just a case of it not being later in the show. This feels like an external creation from someone who's basically just seen the pilot episode of the show. And it's like, oh, Bart's naughty. Or I've just read through the show Bible, which they normally have,

it's like, oh, Bart's a bit naughty. Yeah, that's it actually, to be honest. It doesn't really remind me of the show in any way, shape or form. And yeah, I don't know that it is harmless, actually, because it misrepresents the show in that way. It is purely, and I feel very clearly, a cash-in. And it does feel like something that wasn't drawn

from the source material with any care and it was made by someone who probably viewed it as a flash in the pan, a few quid in the bottom of the tin. But yeah, this misrepresentation based on early stages of the show, you know, it's as if they'd done a accompanying single for the first season of Star Trek, The Next Generation Company, mentioning that fucking thing again. And it was like, oh, let's do the Tasha Yar rap.

And you know, that's the thing. It's like, even if you've never seen the show, the fact that there's a reason you've never heard that name before. Tasha Yar, I mean, you know Picard, you know Data, but Tasha Yar was a main character in season one and then very suddenly, very abruptly was not. But particularly this single reminds me in that way of an often forgotten piece of popular culture ephemera from this period.

of an often forgotten piece of popular culture ephemera from this period. Rob, I don't know if you've come across this before. Not a hundred percent sure you will have Andy. Are you aware of Do the Laura Palmer? Oh my God, what? No. Yeah, it didn't make it in the UK. I think it was some negligible mid-level hit in the US.

And it was done to accompany the first season of Twin Peaks. I don't know that it was official, but it does sound like it was made in that line. I'm gonna read you some lyrics here from Do the Laura Palmer, right? Okay, right. I presume this is an annotation of the radio edit because they've obviously got rid of the swearing anyway and replaced it with quacks.

I don't know if that was actually in the single. Right, okay, but bear that in mind for whatever that's worth. Drink a cup of coffee, eat some fine pie like a hero Dale Cooper from the FBI. Walk in a line there's no lawman straighter then flop like a fish in a percolator. Dance like your Andy been hit by a plank then wrap yourself in plastic and wash up on the bank. Whoever you are and whoever done it I'd be killing this shit cuz the game we've run it to take a step back till you're talking in reverse and black lodge my quack in your quack till it hurts fresh for 91 motherfuckers so in case it in

case it didn't become clear about two, about two lines into that, Ed, that is... How is that only a week's work? That is an incredible... That is... That was so funny! Oh! So you did make that up? Oh. Oh, wow. Thank God. Yeah, don't worry. That doesn't exist. You really had me fooled. Really sh... Had me fooled.

You thought it ended with fresh from 91 motherfuckers. Right, yeah, unfortunately Do The Bartman does exist. And exists for a long time. And aside from Nancy Cartwright, who really does give a lot, but is not a rapper. I do hand it to her for actually being able to perform it. Invoice, very effectively she carries the character through which is all that's needed. They couldn't even be bothered to get in a real saxophone, how expensive was that? Who cares? It's a fad, it's a flash in the pan, it's another Turtles, it's another Bucky O'Hare.

Yeah exactly. One other interesting thing to reflect on with The Simpsons itself is that considering not only is The Simpsons an extremely self-aware show that likes to take the piss out of itself, but also was known during its golden era for having its finger absolutely on the pulse of popular culture, it's really notable to me that the show itself never once references this at all until many years later, I don't even know what it is, I think it's like season 9 or 10 when Bart suddenly starts singing this and it's used to demonstrate how out of touch he is and how it's just a really cringe thing for him to do.

So like the show itself never buys into this ever, even though that's the kind of thing that The Simpsons always goes for and makes one of these things. It just never acknowledges this. If you just watch the show, you would never know that this song happens, even though it's a number one single, which is really weird. Yeah. So much like the KLF, I'm going to leave the listeners and all three of us with an unanswerable question, which is what is the Bartman?

Hmm. Beyond it being a dance, how do you do the dance? What are the moves? Well you shake your body, shake it out, if you can, can. That's all I know. Whoa! That's it. Do do do do!

Yeah. But Jimmy Carter is smarter. Smarter. The third and final song this week is... This! Darling, you've got to let me know Should I stay or should I go? If you say that you are mine I'll be here till the end of time So you've got to let me know Should I stay or should I go? It's always tease, tease, tease

You're happy when I'm on my knees One day it's fine and next it's black So if you want me on your back Well come on and let me know Should I stay or should I go? Should I stay or should I go now? Should I stay or should I go now? If I go there will be trouble

And if I stay there will be trouble And if I stay it will be trouble So come on and let me know Okay, this is Should I Stay or Should I Go by The Clash. Reissued as a standalone single, Should I Stay or Should I Go is the Clash's 21st single, overall to be released in the UK and their first to reach number 1. However, as of 2024, you guessed it, it is their last. The single is a re-release of the song that originally charted at number 17 in 1982. Should I Stay or Should I Go re-entered the chart at number 5, reaching number 1 during its second week. It stayed at number 1 for…

TWO WEEKS! In its first week atop the charts, it sold 66,000 copies beating competition from Because I Love You by Stevie B, which climbed to number 6, and The Stonk by Hail and Pace, which climbed to number 10. And in week 2, it sold 54,000 copies, beating competition from Joyride by Rockset, which climbed to number 8, and It's Too Late by Quartz and Dina Carroll, which climbed to number 9. When it was knocked off the top

of the charts Should I Stay or Should I Go dropped 1 place to number 2. By the time it was done on the charts it had been inside the top 104, a total of 18 weeks across both of its spells. The song is currently officially certified 2 times platinum, so it is double platinum in the UK as of 2024, and that was updated in February of this year. So some information from this period is still being collected. Ed, the Clash, how do we feel? Yeah, I like this. I mean, it's unquestionably overplayed and it represents the Clash in a very sort of simplified way because it is obviously like a bit of fun.

That's, I think, their intention for it more than anything. They did a couple of these sort of bluesy, either covers or covers sounding tracks. I mean, I don't actually like this as much as I fought the law, but it's in the same sort of field. But first of all I think the band are very charming in themselves I mean listening to this I

realized that well they're not one of my favorite groups either they are very distinctive that combination of the Mick Jones and Joe Strummer like voices that they're very unique and they have this sort of smiling, ragged but sort of joyful quality that was sort of lacking from a lot of their slightly more po-faced peers. Nick Jones has a charmingly unforced lead vocal. I like how sort of, you know, it's obnoxious but fun at the same time. It's not studied and that's part of the charm. And I think while it's nothing too complex, I do like how the Catalan backing vocals and the double time does mix things up.

So there is a bit of variety there. But I think ultimately what is nice about this is that Put in the early 90s and especially put now Illustrates that I don't know whether we get sort of quote-unquote rickety rock like this anymore Well, it's sort of like the half-assed throwaway bit of fun It's almost like the production for rock even punk quote-unquote by the late 80s was sort of too defined for rock, even punk quote unquote by the late 80s was sort of too defined in how it should be done. And bands, and this happened in the 60s and it happens by increments, were almost too proficient to get to a major label state and do music like this. I mean there's probably a degree of contrivance to it by this point but the Clash always sounded just delightfully south of professionalism even when they were tight. There's not much more to say

really it's it's good it's fun and it's it's cheerfully sloppy. Andy, the Clash how are you feeling? Yeah also pretty non-committal and brief to be honest. As a sidebar, these re-releases from bygone eras coming back in at number one, can we stop this now please? I'm really getting tired of it. Like once I tolerated with The Joker, second time with Unchained Melody, I started to get a little bit frustrated. Now this is really bothering me as a theme for the early 90s now. These repeat, and these are just the ones that made number one, there are plenty of others. Like I'm really starting to get quite bothered by these re-entries of older songs

because it just means we're just completely dislocated with them and I always kind of struggled to put myself in the mindset of a 1991 listener because this isn't made for a 1991 listener, let alone a 2024 listener. But having said that, I've tried to make sure that doesn't influence my take on the song itself. And I made sure of that because my feelings on the song itself have always been fairly negative, to be honest, not in a actually bad kind of way. I've just always found this quite bland and boring, to be honest. I think what it is, is that sort of going with what Ed said

about, you know, how they never sounded that polished really. But I think it had that kind of mentality to it really of, you know, garage band being very easily recreatable sort of thing where it, I don't come from that background with music, you know, I'm a pianist. And so I look for chord changes. I look for things of harmonic interest and there's nothing of that in this and there's nothing of that in I Fought the Law either.

London Calling I find a bit more interesting in that sense but for a lot of the big Clash Hits there's just nothing happening beneath the surface and so I find them quite entry level to be honest and quite sort of dull but this obviously does have staying in power and that's because it has things above the surface if you like the melodic things where it has that just very simple rhythm guitar thing that keeps going and gets in your head as a sort of call and response style not quite call and response because it's more vocals against guitar but it has that very easily recreatable hook that sort of goes in an endless loop with the should I stay or should I go as well

really simple concept that you can apply to a million things that you can slap on any old TV show for when someone's going through a dilemma you know it's it's very easily transferable to very versatile song and those kind of things always stick around because it's got real stay in power like Stranger Things gave it a new lease of life as well I just I just not interested in it to be honest I accept that like there is a certain level of craftsmanship that goes into Something that is deceptively simple like this

So I do give it points and I don't think it's bad in any way, but it's just like I Just again do find it Unfortunately a little bit entry level, to be honest, and a little bit like there's just not much meaty on the bones of this at all, to be honest. So yeah, about all I have to say really, which is that I'm vaguely, very vaguely complimentary, but this is filed into the category

which I mentioned recently of those kinds of songs that I have to acknowledge are just not for me. And this is just not for me, really, yeah. Yeah, fair enough. Ed you mentioning the the kind of cattle and the the shouting in the background just the first thing it makes me think of these days because that's me it just makes me think of El Scorcho with the and stuff like that at the beginning of that. I am broadly positive on should I stay or should I go I To be honest I have a lot of memories of being in the back of my parents car with this one as well

Not at Christmas like Saviors Day But this was ripped onto a tape with a load of YouTube and salmon garfun calling Joan armor trading and stuff like that And that always got played in the car And so it was always the soundtrack to holidays and trips out and pleasant memories and you know, and it was nice to, you know, nice to go back to them with this. Although I should caveat this a bit, I have to be honest, like, I like The Clash, I've just never been as enamoured with them as everyone else seems to be. Like, I enjoy London Calling the album and I enjoy a good portion of their singles. I even own the Clash

Hits Back thing that was released about 10 years ago. It's like this double LP of all their songs and stuff. And I enjoy a lot of that as well. But that's me and the Clash, I think. Always enjoying but never in love. So something like this, a Clash song which isn't even the best song from one of their lesser albums, you know, it's not Rock the Casbah, you know, it being repurposed for an advert 10 years after it's released, something from the past just kind of dumped into 91 again like The Joker last year, it's not exactly a recipe for me to celebrate that we're getting to cover this, but I actually really like this, you know, the lead riff that's constantly shifting rhythmically, like in little ways whenever it comes back, because

it either goes for the, de de de de de de de, or it goes for the, de de de de de de, just it plays it, it's like upstrokes and downstrokes in different ways each time. Mick Jones' kind of bratty and spitty vocals. The killer tone on Paul Simon's bass, my God, the so scuzzy, oh, it sounds amazing. And it rides on those three or four things for basically all of its three minute runtime. Um, and it doesn't overstay his welcome. It's fast and direct. It is in and out. It has purpose, you know, all of that

stuff. I don't have as much of a problem with this being on an advert as I would like, you know, other kind of punk acts kind of selling out or whatever because it was left up to Mick Jones and he said, well, Levi's have played a bit of a part in rock culture through the 80s, so okay then then because they rejected numerous claims numerous appeals and stuff to like oh could we just use your music no could we just use your music on this app no like there was a lot of that with the clash through the 80s and so okay relenting a bit in the 90s for something that you have an affinity with anyway whatever i'm not gonna hold that

against you but there's something in this song that makes me feel like it's coming down from, it's a band coming down from a peak. It's not exactly going through the motions, but it's like a great footballer that's like 33 now and has just lost the yard. Like it's still there, you can see it, and all the ingredients are still making it great, but the execution's missing by like an inch. It's a bit of a weird comparison but stay with me but the song I think of when

I hear this is I Don't Care by Fall Out Boy which is a good kind of solid pop rock track, you know there's a bit of glam in there, it's got a good strut, you know it's got the Patrick Stump doing his typically very good vocals, It goes over well in stadiums just so that I Don't care what you think. You know, it's got the doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo It's you know, very kind of personal Jesus kind of thing going on there, but you can just Feel the natural kinetic energy from the live recordings of stuff like from under the cork tree or Take this to your Grave, you can gradually feel that energy becoming slightly unable to sustain itself. You feel the band's aura and the expensive studio starting to overcompensate for the enthusiasm that's kind of waned by

about 5% over the course of about three albums. Just to run through some more kind of contemporary examples of this and hopefully someone out there will, like the next example will be the one that they go, oh yes, I understand. It's like we exist by Arcade Fire off Reflector or Heart in a Cage by The Strokes or Really Dough by Ice Cube or Michael Jackson on a song we're covering later this year, or to take it back to Do The Bartman, that run in the middle of season 9 of The Simpsons

that is Bart Carney, The Joy of Sect, Das Bus, The Last Temptation of Crust and The Dumbbell Indemnity, where you're just tangentially aware that it looks, sounds and behaves like the thing that you know, but it's not quite the thing that you know anymore, where the quality and skill is still there, but the urgency and passion is diminished, as I say, by minimal, minimal amounts. And there's just this little feeling of you're not quite playing this as loudly or as nimbly or as quickly as you could, I'd prefer to see this live kind of thing, you know, but just that 2% faster that give it, you know, it feels like things have gone ever so slightly slack, but that's only me picking and splitting hairs between whether I vault this or not. It's still very high on the list. It's just, I kind of wanted to justify why I wasn't gonna do it.

I think, I just think that the sort of slackness and the rudimentariness of it, I think I actually personally find that more of a plus just in terms of the way I just thought. I love how slouchy it is and there's almost something so insulting about, there is a two note guitar solo near the beginning, where it just goes, ready? There's a big one for us, and I'm like, they knew that! Mick Jones is a smashing guitarist. If you hear him interjecting in like, he did a track with Elvis Costello and the Attractions,

which was thrown away as a B-side. It's fantastic, it's called Big Tears. And it's got Mick Jones as a guest guitarist. And he does like an overlay over one of the verses that's just a few chiming notes. And they're so beautifully picked for their harmonic impact. I'm like, God, he was such a keen-eared

and musical guitarist in a way. He was never the most showy, but they know full well. It's just like, just take one. We are not allowed more than one and three quarters takes of this song. And I love that aspect. And the fact that it sounds like only half of them made it into the studio room and everyone else is kind of like, well, we can't't the cord doesn't reach for the amp out of the corridor so let's just just play here fuck it running off an hour I like that and I

just love how trashy it sounds and the fact that later on people would almost have to manufacture that sound when you got to things like not for all credit to him, very talented bloke, when you got to things like the White Stripes and Jack White, it's a very practiced crudeness. He's a proper techie. And the Clashfucking Hunts. They came up and the reason they were so big probably is because they made it in an era where it was like, oh well, sex pistols are filling a lot of column inches. What rude and obnoxious children do we have hanging around the neighborhood? Who are these guys who used to be in a band that dressed up like the SS?

Let's get them in. Wouldn't have happened later on. Wouldn't have made it into the corporate machine. And I think that is why. I just love it's slack charm, I think. But it isn't a great song, it's a fun song, it's a catchy song, they did much better songs. So, I'm gonna go backwards Ed, pie-hole the vault for the clash. Well, I could go with the obvious one here, but I'm not quite going to. It fought the

vault, but the vault won. So it's in the vault? Yeah just. Amazing. Just by a hair. Okay. Right and for a... Yeah do the Bartman. Do the Bartman right. Yeah fuck this. It's more like do the sharp man. Yeah no forget that. It doesn't it just it doesn't even represent the show it's like a Barbie lunchbox that has a picture of a Barbie lunchbox on it. And I get the, I get the excitement for like getting merchandise that has a bit of the vibe of something you love on it. I don't really intrinsically hate that

if it represents the show. This isn't that. This is so outside that experience, such an external contrivance. It's bollocks. Yeah, I see. I'm actually putting this in the pie hole. And 3AM Eternal? Yep. Well, I don't have to be doctoring the results.

It's a justified vaulting of Moo Moo. Again, not a huge amount, but it is in there because I like them. Amazing. So, Andy, are any of the songs going anywhere for you this week? Well, I'll do the obvious one with the clash. I'm happy to take that point. Should I vault or should I pie now? And I'm going to do neither. I'm going to take the third option.

By the way, easily resolved. If your trouble will be double, then that's the thing you don't do. It's an easy arithmetic. Lose the point for that. Oh, it's going bollocks thing you don't do it's an easy arithmetic lose the point for that Yeah as for Do the Batman everybody if you can do the vault man. No, not really. It's not going in the vault It's not going anywhere. It's staying exactly where it is. Now you can't go through the pie hole. Yes

and as for 3am eternal, it's oh this is one of the worst I've ever had. That it's not a vault lord, but neither is it a justified agent of poo poo. So it doesn't go in the pie hole either. But nothing going anywhere for me this week. Oh, sorry, I found that too amusing. It's a shame, Ed, actually, that I didn't jump in when you were going to pie hole the, uh, do the part, man, is that...

And he's putting it into the hole all the way in... Down the hole! Well, that's a chance! And after it's week at number one one it's tumbling all the way down to number 197. 3am eternal that is eternally in the vault for me. Do the Bartman is going nowhere that is right on the fence that's just nothing either side of it should I stay or should I go is just

Just missing the vault by like inches Because I can just feel something that apparently only I can feel And a little green alien only Homer can see This is inevitable come on yes, so that is it for this week's episode. Thank you very much for listening to all of it. If you made it this far, our longest episode for a little while, but we enjoyed every second of it and we hope you did too. We will see you next time. Bye bye now.

Bye bye. Bye now. Everyone is busy with a regular tip The sniper just takes his aim Everyone is in the shop but no one is amazed Even the other hitter you still think is just a grace You go to a movie, you go to a show You think that's your love and you don't really know Bitches, been offering That's your love and you don't really know Big tears, mean nothing

You can count them as they fall Big tears, mean nothing When you're lyin', when you're comin' Tell me who's been taken in Lose, little ticker dear