| "747" | ||||||||||
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| Single by Kent | ||||||||||
| from the album Isola | ||||||||||
| Released | July 13, 1998 | |||||||||
| Format | CD | |||||||||
| Genre | Indie rock, alternative rock | |||||||||
| Label | BMG Sweden, RCA Victor | |||||||||
| Kent singles chronology | ||||||||||
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"747" is a song by Swedish rock band Kent, written by Joakim Berg. It's the final song on their album Isola and was released as third single in 1998 with B-sides "Din skugga" and "Elever". It's been recorded both with Swedish and English lyrics. It quickly became a fan favorite, and for eight years, the band always ended their concerts with it.
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In its album version, the song is 7 minutes and 47 seconds long, almost half of that as an instrumental outro with characteristic guitar riffs and keyboard melodies. The title is not to be found in the song, but it is a reference to the Boeing 747 airplane. The lyrics are flight-inspired: the Swedish original, which is slightly different from the English release, describes the narrator and an unidentified second character leaving or escaping something, towards an unknown destination, on a passenger airliner. It closes with a crash scene, moving into the instrumental outro:
listening
tense & strapped in
& when panic erupts
you smile faintly
and whisper to me you
are worth dying for
but against rubber, glass & metal
a miracle means nothing at all
The cover image of the Isola album is an aircraft (in fact, a Boeing 737) which was also used as a backdrop in ensuing concerts. The album name itself is supposed to symbolize New York City, referencing "Isola" in Ed McBains crime novels.
A strange fact is that if you take the full names of each band member, and assign every letter with a number (A = 1, B = 2, C = 3 and so on) and sum it all up, you will get the number 747. The band kept on toying with the number 747: in their 1999 Hagnesta Hill album (the only other album to have an English version), the final song "Visslaren" ("Whistle Song" in the English version) also had a length of 7:47.
A music video was recorded for the English version. In it, the band is playing on a stage with a picture of an airplane as a backdrop. At the same time, a story is played up about a man who attempts to steal the mysterious contents of a briefcase, but ends up abandoned at an airport.
The single versions have a shorter outro but contain a chorus which the album versions lack.
The songs "Elever" and "Din Skugga" were later re-released on the B-Sidor 95-00 album.
| "747" | ||||||||||
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| Single by Kent | ||||||||||
| from the album Isola | ||||||||||
| Released | March 25, 1999 | |||||||||
| Format | CD | |||||||||
| Genre | Indie rock Alternative rock |
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| Label | BMG/RCA Victor | |||||||||
| Kent singles chronology | ||||||||||
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"747" is a single CD by the band Kent.
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