Girls And Boys – Blur

We tried this one several years back, but we just weren’t up to it at the time. I was trying to do the ‘flanger’ bit by using the left hand harmonics technique. That is, trilling on fret near the nut whilst sliding your right hand down the string. It never sounded right, and it was too complicated to do whilst singing. This time around, I just used a flanger, and also put a bit of effort into finding easy ways to play the song.

I have some great memories associated with this song, including actually being in Greece, on holiday, in the 90’s. As you can imagine, the song was a big favourite with club owners in Greece at the time. Many a drunken evening in Faliraki were had with this as the musical backdrop. I still have visions of the Swedish twins… Sadly they were bouncers in one of the clubs… Both of them clearly descendants of Odin himself.
Also, at the time this was released I was deep into my degree at uni.

At the time this seemed just like a quirky pop song and I never really paid it much attention beyond being happy to drink along with it.
But it turns out, having covered it, that this is a classy, upbeat melodic rock song.
I’ve said it many times.. Any song that has little to no obvious production additions on the original, is a great candidate for a covers band.

Lyrics

I’m not sure if this is supposed to come off as a little condescending, or a celebration of all things Aiya Napa.
I think on balance it’s probably a slightly salty assessment of British booze and sex tourism. Perhaps Damon had a bad experience on Cos on year?

I’m a bit old for it now, but frankly I think a holiday to somewhere like Faliraki with your mates, is a right of passage for any young British adult. Anyway…

The notable lyric for me is the German bit : Du bit sehr schon
I think Damon was searching around for something that scanned neatly and just couldn’t find anything in English? But there’s another possibility.

Often in these places where Brits go to booze, there’s a contingent of Germans who just booked in the wrong week, and ended up mixing it with a bunch of 20 somethings from Nuneaton.
When I’m singing this line (which I pronounce dubby session) I like to imagine a young sun burnt Brit testing his skills on a bemused German girl.
And this is why the meaning of the whole song is confusing, because if Damon is hinting that kids on these holidays are low brow (1,2,3,4, 5 fingers etc.) then the chances of one of them knowing a chat up line in German is slim.

Perhaps it’s the other way around. Maybe Torsten is telling Debbie she’s pretty? But.. why do it in German?
You get the idea.

Of course the big problem with covering this song is the chorus.
Girls who do boys like they’re (brainfade! is it boys or girls here)..
You have to get it right though, because the chorus has a harmony part, so you have to both be singing the same thing.

Music

That bassline though bro!?
Another song driven along by a staggeringly good bassline.
And the guitar part is innovative, punchy and yes strangely simple.
Graham Coxon (Blur’s guitarist) really did something here.

Everyone remembers the time they had a flanger on their pedal board.
Perhaps you were trying to get an EVH tone, or the pedal was just too cheap not to buy.

No matter how long you spend dialing it in the effect is just too overwhelming to use. After a few months you subconsciously write off the effect as a gimmick and remove it from your board. You know, like the Digitech Whammy.

But here Coxon thought… na man, have it… Dialed up the effect to 11 and cranked out the second rockiest thing Blur ever did.
Apparently it’s just a bog standard Boss BF2.

I’ve run out of time, but to finish off here.
I think this song is based around a thing called the ‘circle progression’ in Bb Major :
Meaning it goes : vi,ii,V
Followed by a strange turnaround featuring D#’s and F#’s, which are either some clever borrowed chords I don’t understand, or some sort of weird diminished magic, which again, I don’t understand.