Bitter Sweet Symphony
"
Bitter Sweet Symphony" is a song by the rock
band The Verve, and is the lead track to their third
album,
Urban Hymns. It was released
16 June 1997 as the lead
single from the album, charting at #2 in the
UK Singles Chart, beaten by
The Police cover, retitled "
I'll Be Missing You" by
Puff Daddy and
Faith Evans (see
1997 in British music). The single was released to the
US charts in early
1998.
In the UK
*CD1
HUTDG82#"Bitter Sweet Symphony" (album version)#"Lord I Guess I'll Never Know"#"Country Song"#"Bitter Sweet Symphony" (radio edit)
*CD2
HUTDX82#"Bitter Sweet Symphony" (extended version)#"So Sister"#"Echo Bass"Cover by photography John Horsley [
1]
In the US
*CD released
10 March 1998 by
Virgin Records#"Bitter Sweet Symphony" (album version)#"Lord I Guess I'll Never Know"#"So Sister"#"Echo Bass"
Image:Bitter Sweet Symphony CD1.jpg|UK (CD1)Image:Bitter Sweet Symphony CD2.jpg|UK (CD2)Image:Bitter Sweet Symphony US.jpg|USAlthough the song's lyrics were entirely written by Verve vocalist,
Richard Ashcroft, it is credited to
Keith Richards and
Mick Jagger because the song uses the
Andrew Oldham Orchestra recording of
The Rolling Stones' 1965 song, "
The Last Time" as its foundation.
Verve had originally negotiated a license to use a
sample from the Oldham recording; but it was successfully argued that the Verve had used 'too much' of the sample
[http://www.superswell.com/samplelaw/horror.html]. However, although only some of "Bitter Sweet Symphony"'s music and not a single line or phrase of the lyrics were contained in the original it led to a lawsuit with
ABKCO Records,
Allen Klein's company, which owns the rights to the Rolling Stones material of the 60s. The matter was eventually settled out of court, with copyright of the song reverting to ABKCO and songwriting credits to Jagger and Richards. (Legend has it that in a discussion about the lyrics, they would 'work something out', and they would be fairly split '50-50', which the Verve took to mean 50% to the Verve, 50% to the copyright holders, whereas they really meant, 50% to Jagger, 50% to Richards).
There have been conflicting reports as to whether or not the song actually samples the Andrew Oldham recording.
The song was later used, against the will of the band, by
Nike in a shoe commercial. As a result, it was on the
Illegal Art CD from
Stay Free!. However the band was able to stop further use of the song by employing the European legal concept of
moral rights.
Ashcroft and the band's reaction to the loss of control and financial rewards from what is possibly their best song was not positive; it has been argued that the issue contributed to Ashcroft's depression and the band's split not long afterwards.
Ashcroft played the song, accompanied by
Coldplay, at the
Live 8 concert held in
Hyde Park, London. It was introduced by
Chris Martin, the lead singer of Coldplay, as
"probably the best song ever written" and he referred to Ashcroft as
"the greatest singer of all time."On Ashcroft's return to touring, the song traditionally ended the set list. Ashcroft also reworked the single for 'VH2 Live' for the music channel
VH1 stripping the song of its strings. Ashcroft is quoted as saying during the show: "Despite all the legal angles and the bullshit, strip down to the chords and the lyrics and the melody and you realise there is such a good song there."
He also dedicated the song to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards at a gig at the Sage Gateshead in
Gateshead. After an audience member booed Ashcroft exclaimed "don't boo man, as long as I can play this song I'm happy to pay a few of those guys' bills."
Verve guitarist,
Nick McCabe, however has come to resent the song claiming that: "It wasn't the Verve, it was just Richard and some other blokes" [
2]
A sample of the song was used by the group Steel Drum like part of their song
Sweet Soca Musicin 2004 and appears in the album in ocassion of the 2006 FIFA World Cup "Goleo IV presents his 2006 FIFA World Cup hits".
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FIHZ7I/104-8833832-8379148?SubscriptionId=0525E2PQ81DD7ZTWTK82&n=5174Recently the song was sung by Lucas Rossi on the show Rockstar Supernova
The majority of the video features Richard Ashcroft walking due north, on the east side of Hoxton Road, Hoxton, North London. The starting point, 94 Hoxton Road, is the South East corner of the intersection between Hoxton Road and Falkirk Street and the walk continues along Hoxton Road with few continuity errors. See
this Google Maps link for an approximation of the start point.
* 382nd Best song of all time according to Rolling Stone Magazine:
News - 500 Greatest Songs
