What happened with The Verve?

[bob_32_116]

I've just been listening to one of those radio "ambient music" shows, and the show finished with a really nice piece, sort of dreamy but rhythmic as well, called "Man Called Sun". Afterwards the DJ announced it as The Verve.

Ah well, I thought, obviously not that Britpop band, I imagine "Verve" being a popular choice for a band name, and there is also a record label called Verve. However on investigation I discovered it WAS the Britpop band.

You need to know that The Verve were never really "big" in this country. There is "Bittersweet Symphony", which gets played to death and which I would be happy never to hear again; there is "The Drugs Don't Work", which I do like a little bit more, because at least it's an original tune; I may have heard one or two other songs but nothing to suggest that they were anything more than another of those whiney British 90's bands with too much to say about how fucked up they, their lovers/acquaintances, and society in general are. This piece of music however, which I find was on their first EP, is stunning and could stake a claim to being "progressive".

My question is: what happened?

This reminds me of my experience with Radiohead, except that Radiohead seemed to do the opposite: they started off whiney and boring, and became interesting.

[markwoll]

Sound like a bunch of rockstars.
From the wikipedia page:
"Soon after their commercial peak, The Verve broke up in April 1999, citing internal conflicts.[5] According to Billboard magazine, "the group's rise was the culmination of a long, arduous journey that began at the dawn of the decade and went on to encompass a major breakup, multiple lawsuits, and an extensive diet of narcotics".[6] During an eight-year split, Ashcroft dismissed talk of a reunion, saying: "You're more likely to get all four Beatles on stage."[5] The band's original line-up reunited in June 2007, embarking on a tour later that year and releasing the album Forth in August 2008, which spawned the hit single "Love Is Noise". Amid revived tensions, the band broke up for the second time in 2009.[7]"

[bob_32_116]

^^ thanks. I read that too. My question though wasn't "what happened" as in "why did they break up?", but rather "what led to the sudden drop in the quality of their music, which happened prior to their peak success period?" All a matter of opinion of course, and I suppose the question is largely rhetorical.

[markwoll]

Perhaps the lawsuits and narcotics were a poorly implemented coping mechanism for running dry on new music ideas.
Their peak was just before Oasis became the next big thing.
I did enjoy their hits, in moderation.
There were a bunch of Brit alt/rock/pop bands in the late 80's and 90's that helped balance the grunge coming from America.

[klothos]

You need to know that The Verve were never really "big" in this country. There is "Bittersweet Symphony", which gets played to death and which I would be happy never to hear again; there is "The Drugs Don't Work", which I do like a little bit more

I mentioned in another thread about The Verve to try and find a copy of their (usa version)"Bittersweet Symphony" CD-Single, which is a misnomer because its actually a 4-song EP. The three other songs on that "single" are not on the (usa version of) the Urban Hymns album and are - to me - their best stuff

[ThomasKDye]

There is "Bittersweet Symphony", which gets played to death and which I would be happy never to hear again

Which is weird, because I barely paid attention to that song at the time, and I've suddenly been digging it recently. I get why it might be tiresome -- I'm really sick of "Bohemian Rhapsody," actually, and I love Queen -- but I guess you could say I'm catching up to its overplayedness.

[TheLoony]

Why do I remember this band as The Verve Pipe? Is that some alternate dimension crap also?

Anyway, I did like Bittersweet. I was doing merchandising in California at the time and all the stores had "The Hit" station on and there was that "I get knocked down, but I get up again" song(forget who, maybe Jamiroquai or whatever) and that Paula Cole tune from Dawson's Creek.

Trust me, The Verve was way better. If I never hear that PC tune again it won't be enough as it's already polluted my brain. You hear these tunes every 20 minutes it will ruin brain cells. I was at the point I would have eaten Evander Holyfield's children to NOT hear that Paula Cole tune ever again.

Six weeks of hearing the same crappy songs over and over, tell me you wouldn't have eaten children to make it stop.

[SteveSly]

Why do I remember this band as The Verve Pipe? Is that some alternate dimension crap also?

.

The Verve Pipe are a different band. In fact they are from my hometown of Kalamazoo MI. The are kind of looked at as one hit wonders with their biggest selling album "Villains" (which is actually a very good album) and it's hit single "The Freshman". They still play gigs around here a few times a year, but they are a very different band from The Verve.

[moecurlythanu]

And Chumbawumba did the other song The Loony mentioned.

[bob_32_116]

And Chumbawumba did the other song The Loony mentioned.

... which is one of those songs that people tend not to know the title of. It's "Tubthumping", not "I Get Knocked Down" or "I Get Up Again". As far as I can tell, the song title does not appear in the lyrics, a property it shares with a certain other song released 40 years ago.

[Vic2012]

Why do I remember this band as The Verve Pipe?

I was gonna mention that too. I was never into any of these 90s bands but I'd hear blurbs here and there about Verve this, or that, or Pipe or whatever. I've seen the video of Symphony (who hasn't?) and that's all I remember. It's the one where he's walking down the sidewalk bumping into people? If that's the one I always wondered if that was all scripted that way or if it was just spontaneous. I gotta believe it was all planned and the people he bumped into were in on it.

[Rufus]

Urban Hymms is a classic!

[GuitarGeek]

I was gonna mention that too. I was never into any of these 90s bands but I'd hear blurbs here and there about Verve this, or that, or Pipe or whatever. I've seen the video of Symphony (who hasn't?) and that's all I remember. It's the one where he's walking down the sidewalk bumping into people? If that's the one I always wondered if that was all scripted that way or if it was just spontaneous. I gotta believe it was all planned and the people he bumped into were in on it.

From what I recall, some of the people he bumped into weren't part of the video shoot. They apparently didn't bother closing the road or anything. So for instance, the bit where he crosses the street by climbing over the bonnet of the car, that car might not have been planned, it just pulled in his way, so he climbed over it rather than screw up mess up the take.

[Halmyre]

And Chumbawumba did the other song The Loony mentioned.

(cough)Chumbawamba

[TheLoony]

With a U or a A, whatever, that song still bites. I remember once on that job I was all hungover and pissy, getting more pissed hearing the same few tunes every few minutes, and I declared I was walking off the job if that damned Paula Cole song came on and it did about five seconds later.

I only went out and had a smoke but it's one of those things. No one else seemed to notice the music at all and it bugged me the whole time I was there. It just as well could have been Tubthumping(did I get that right?) but that PC tune just rubs me wrong in so many ways.

So I got the name wrong. Who the hell is Jamiroquai?? Is that a Jai-Alai player or some crap? A actual musician? Something I made up? A brand of tapioca?

Also, there was a Verve Pipe in addition to. Huh. Around the same time frame? That would make sense but how I heard of them is unknown to me. Another huh.

[bob_32_116]

Six weeks of hearing the same crappy songs over and over, tell me you wouldn't have eaten children to make it stop.

Does that actually work? Eating children to make the music stop? I suppose it's worth a try.

[TheLoony]

A little BBQ sauce, yummy in the tummy.

Just go with it. My humour is hit and miss, with a proclivity for missing.

[bob_32_116]

A little BBQ sauce, yummy in the tummy.

In a white wine sauce, with chopped shallots and garlic.

[moecurlythanu]

Jamiroquai were an American band in a more or less Soul style, with a lot of Stevie Wonder in their sound. I think they had a song that got good airplay, but I don't remember what it was.

[bob_32_116]

Jamiroquai were an American band in a more or less Soul style, with a lot of Stevie Wonder in their sound. I think they had a song that got good airplay, but I don't remember what it was.

I never thought of them as soul, more as dance. They had a number of hits, the one you are probably thinking of is "Cosmic Girl". There was a lot of nonsense written about them fusing dance music with Native American traditions, hence the name.

The other thing I recall about them was the frontman and his penchant for wearing silly hats. There was one made almost entirely of pencils. I guess they had to do something to make themselves stand out from the rest, because i don't think the music did much to make them stand out.

[Vic2012]

I thought Jamiroquai were from England. The only song I remember from them was Virtual Insanity (or something like that). The video was pretty cool. I thought the singer copped a pretty good Stevie Wonder.

[viukkis]

I thought for ages that Jamiroquai were Australian, since the original lineup had a full-time didgeridoo player and they had track titles like Journey to Arnhemland. I still like their first two albums quite a bit, even if they occasionally rip Stevie Wonder off shamelessly.

Getting back to The Verve, the video for Bittersweet Symphony was a pretty direct homage to the video of Massive Attack's Unfinished Sympathy.

[Halmyre]

I thought for ages that Jamiroquai were Australian, since the original lineup had a full-time didgeridoo player and they had track titles like Journey to Arnhemland. I still like their first two albums quite a bit, even if they occasionally rip Stevie Wonder off shamelessly.

Getting back to The Verve, the video for Bittersweet Symphony was a pretty direct homage to the video of Massive Attack's Unfinished Sympathy.

And Fat Les took the homage, if you will, a step further with 'Vindaloo'.

[moecurlythanu]

I think Vic has it right, and that's the song I was thinking of. Never considered them a dance act.

[iguana]

i have a leather jacket like ashcroft in that video. the only thing that i can envisage when thinking about THE VERVE is a flock of bleating sheep. they pulled out of headlining roskilde’s main stage in 1998 at the last minute due to general whininess and we got RAMMSTEIN instead. much better idea when using pyros with german efficiency.

i owned their album and can't remember why. probably preferred JAMiROQUAi.

90s were ok.