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"Fake Tales of San Francisco" is a song by Arctic Monkeys originally released on the band's first EP Five Minutes with Arctic Monkeys in May 2005. After being featured on the band's debut album Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, the song was released as a radio only single [1] in the United States instead of "Leave Before the Lights Come On", which was released there at the end of October. The song was also released in the Netherlands [2]. The song was popular on US Modern Rock radio in the Fall of 2006 and peaked just below the bottom of the US Modern Rock chart.
The song with its has been one of the band's signature tracks, with its popularity as the band's first recorded track. The song derides a fictional South Yorkshire band for taking its inspiration from the USA while never having been there, with lyrics such as "I'd love to tell you all my problem / You're not from New York City, you're from Rotherham", and "He talks of San Francisco, he's from Hunter's Bar". The song's title, meanwhile, has made it a fan-favorite in the United States.
[edit] Music video
The music video for the song is the same as when it was previously released on Five Minutes with Arctic Monkeys. Directed by a friend of the band, the video features a compilation of footage of some of the band's earliest performances at various gigs and was given airplay in the UK on MTV Two in 2005. Although he has now left the band, the video includes several shots of former-bassist Andy Nicholson.
[edit] Misheard lyrics
A commonly misheard line within this song is the "Get off the Bandwagon" chanting section, which is often misheard as "Get off the bandwagon, put down the anchor". The correct line is actually "Get off the bandwagon, put down the handbook",[3] due to the tendency for Northerners to drop the 'H' sound.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
