Bitter Sweet Symphony

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"Bitter Sweet Symphony"
Single by The Verve
from the album Urban Hymns
Released	16 June 1997
Format	CD, 12"
Genre	Britpop
Length	5:59
Label	Hut
Writer(s)	Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Richard Ashcroft
Producer(s)	Youth, The Verve
Chart positions
#2 (UK Singles Chart) #12 (Billboard Hot 100)
The Verve singles chronology
"History" (1995)	"Bitter Sweet Symphony" (1997)	"The Drugs Don't Work" (1997)

"Bitter Sweet Symphony" is a song by the rock band The Verve, and is the lead track on their third album Urban Hymns. The song is famous for the legal controversy surrounding its use of a sample. It was released 16 June 1997 as the first single from the album, charting at #2 in the UK Singles Chart, having been beaten to the #1 spot by "I'll Be Missing You" by Puff Daddy and Faith Evans. The single was released in the US in early 1998.

Contents 1 Track listings 1.1 In the UK 1.2 In the US 2 Song credits 3 The video 4 Trivia 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Track listings

[edit] In the UK

• CD1 HUTDG82

1. "Bitter Sweet Symphony" (album version)
2. "Lord I Guess I'll Never Know"
3. "Country Song"
4. "Bitter Sweet Symphony" (radio edit)

• CD2 HUTDX82

1. "Bitter Sweet Symphony" (extended version)
2. "So Sister"
3. "Echo Bass"

Cover by photography John Horsley [1]

[edit] In the US

• CD released 10 March 1998 by Virgin Records

1. "Bitter Sweet Symphony" (album version)
2. "Lord I Guess I'll Never Know"
3. "So Sister"
4. "Echo Bass"

UK (CD1)

UK (CD2)

US

[edit] Song credits

Although the song's lyrics were written by Verve vocalist Richard Ashcroft, it has been 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.

Originally, The Verve had 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.^[1] Despite having original lyrics, the music of Bitter Sweet Symphony was arguably largely based on the Oldham track, which led to a lawsuit with ABKCO Records, Allen Klein's company that owns the rights to the Rolling Stones material of the 1960s. The matter was eventually settled out of court, with copyright of the song reverting to ABKCO and songwriting credits to Jagger and Richards:

"We were told it was going to be a 50/50 split, and then they saw how well the record was doing," says Jones. "They rung up and said 'we want 100 per cent or take it out of the shops', you don't have much choice."^[2]

After losing the composer credits to the song, Richard Ashcroft commented, "This is the best song [Mick] Jagger and [Keith] Richards have written in 20 years."[2]

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!. The song was also used in a Vauxhall Motors commercial, prompting Ashcroft to declare onstage, "Don't buy Vauxhall cars, they're shit". 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 was their most popular song was not positive; and it has been argued long after that the issue contributed to Ashcroft's depression. The band split not long afterwards.

Ashcroft played the song, accompanied by Coldplay, at the Live 8 concert held in Hyde Park, London.[3] Chris Martin, the lead singer of Coldplay, referred to it as "probably the best song ever written" and to Ashcroft as "the best singer in the world."^[3]

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 realize 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."^[4]

[edit] The video

The majority of the video features Richard Ashcroft walking due north, on the east side of Hoxton Street, Hoxton, North London. The starting point, 94 Hoxton Street, is the South East corner of the intersection between Hoxton Street and Falkirk Street and the walk continues along Hoxton Street with few continuity errors. See this Google Maps link for an approximation of the start point. This video was shot during the course of two days because on the first one a man, not knowing it was a video, attacked Ashcroft after Ashcroft bumped in to him. They used all extras during the second day of filming. The video is a tribute to "Unfinished Sympathy" by Massive Attack.

[edit] Trivia

• The song appears in the final scene of 1999 film Cruel Intentions

• The song appears in the Bollywood film Bluffmaster .

• The song has been mashed up with the song Dirt Off Your Shoulder.

• The instrumental version of this song appears on the skateboarding video Really Sorry, made by Flip Skateboards, in Tom Penny's part.

• The song was performed by Lukas Rossi on the show Rock Star: Supernova.

• It is currently used as the introduction music for the Seattle Seahawks.

• The song is also featured on the compilation album 'VH1 Rocks'.

• Moby has done a remix of this song.

• The Moby remix is used as the player introduction music for the University of Kentucky men's basketball team.

• The song is often wrongly thought to be by the British band Oasis^{[citation needed]}.

• It is the 382nd best song of all time according to Rolling Stone Magazine (500 Greatest Songs)

• The song was used in a short series of clips commemorating the Philadelphia Eagles 2006 comeback season on a local news sports segment.

• An instrumental version of the song is played when passengers board Air New Zealand aircraft.

• Ironically, given the lyrics ("You're a slave to money then you die") an instrumental version of the song was used for a Bank of New Zealand TV advertisement.

• The video was spoofed in the 1998 football song "Vindaloo" by Fat Les. The video takes the same theme of the singer walking down a road towards the camera.

• During her 2004 Reinvention Tour, Madonna used a sample of "Bitter Sweet Symphony" when performing "Don't Tell Me".

• The song was used during the climax of the comedy group Stella's short film "Raking Leaves".

[edit] References

1. ^ http://www.superswell.com/samplelaw/horror.html
2. ^ Betsy Powell Bitter, Sweet Success
3. ^ http://www.isleofwightfestival.com/richardashcroft.asp
4. ^ http://www.excellentonline.com/article.php3?story_id=786

[edit] External links

• 382nd Best song of all time according to Rolling Stone Magazine: 500 Greatest Songs

The Verve
Nick McCabe | Richard Ashcroft | Simon Jones | Peter Salisbury | Simon Tong
Discography
Studio albums: A Storm in Heaven | A Northern Soul | Urban Hymns
EPs: Verve EP | Five by Five
Compilations: No Come Down | This is Music: The Singles 92-98
Singles: "All in the Mind" | "She's a Superstar" | "Gravity Grave" | "Blue" | "Slide Away" | "This Is Music" | "On Your Own" | "History" | "Bitter Sweet Symphony" | "The Drugs Don't Work" | "Lucky Man" | "Sonnet"
Tours: Gravity Grave Tour | Urban Hymns Tour
Related articles
Britpop | Hut Records | Chris Potter | The Shining | Cathy Davey | Gorillaz | B.J. Cole | Bernard Butler