Velocity Girl (song)

Last updated
"Velocity Girl"
Single by Primal Scream
A-side "Crystal Crescent"
ReleasedApril 1986
Recorded1986
Genre
Length1:22
Label Creation Records
Songwriter(s) Bobby Gillespie
Producer(s) Primal Scream
Primal Scream singles chronology
"All Fall Down" / "It Happens"
(1985)		"Crystal Crescent" / "Velocity Girl"
(1986)		"Gentle Tuesday"
(1987)

"Velocity Girl" is a song by British alternative rock band Primal Scream, originally released as the B-side to their second single, "Crystal Crescent", in 1986. The song has been noted for its influence in indie pop, with Pitchfork Media saying that it reduced "the pop song to its subatomic essence: quick, breezy, quirky, and above all, exquisitely small". [2] The song was partly inspired by the actress, model and Warhol superstar Edie Sedgwick.

Contents

History

Primal Scream frontman Bobby Gillespie had left his post as the drummer of The Jesus and Mary Chain in early 1986, recording only one album with them, the influential noise pop release Psychocandy in 1985. Disentangled from their major label "whirlwind", he resumed activity with his lesser known band Primal Scream, [2] recording "Velocity Girl" shortly afterwards. The band also recorded a slightly longer version with a second verse for Janice Long in July 1986.

The NME magazine decided to include the song as the first track on their C86 cassette later on in 1986, a collection of tracks from indie bands from British independent record labels. [3] The cassette turned out to be very popular and influential, being later released as a separate, coupon-attained vinyl album and inspiring the nickname "C86" for mid-1980s indie pop music with an emphasis on jangle guitars.

Influence

Pitchfork Media wrote of the song's influence, saying that "in pop music, 82 seconds can be an eternity. That’s how long Primal Scream’s “Velocity Girl” lasts, and the song was enough to have crystallized an entire era and established an undying narrative," noting that as C86's opening track, it "has become iconic", and "sounded humble, but it was not without ambition. It falls shy of the minute-and-half mark, and shyness can be heard in the song’s desperate refrain: “Leave me alone,” Gillespie pleads in a Glaswegian warble as guitars ring like chimes around him. It was the sound of soaring punk rock as filtered through the Byrds, and its expression of angry introversion— told in an almost Morrissey-esque manner, via the tale of a troubled, sensitive young woman— was only the first stage of evolution for Primal Scream", concluding that "Velocity Girl" "became C86’s signature song, and it’s the track that, more than any other on the tape, helped turn C86 from a comp into a genre." They stated that the song had a "hefty" influence on indie and alternative rock bands of the 90s, such as My Bloody Valentine, The Strokes and Belle and Sebastian. [2]

NME later ranked the song at number 90 on their list of the "100 Best Tracks of the Eighties", saying "it wasn’t just a key song in the C86 tape movement, it was a key moment in Primal Scream’s career", calling it "a great slice of vintage eighties jangle pop - a style and sound that the band would distance themselves from with Screamadelica , but from the teen-misfit of the title to the energized bolt of the music, this was a perfect moment of 80s indie Britpop." [4] Allmusic said the song was the band's "early sound at its purest: a jangly rush of hyper-strummed guitars over an ultra-simple rhythm section behind Bobby Gillespie's charmingly naïve vocals." [5]

The song gained the number 4 position in the yearly John Peel "festive fifty" vote in 1986. It was the shortest song on the list that year. [6]

The American indie band Velocity Girl took their name from the song. [5] Welsh alternative rock band Manic Street Preachers covered the song in 1996 as the B-side to their single "Australia". It is also available on their B-sides collection Lipstick Traces (A Secret History of Manic Street Preachers) .

In April 2019, the song was re-issued as a 7" single for Record Store Day. The release was accompanied with a new music video, directed by Douglas Hart. [7]

Personnel

Primal Scream

Charts

Chart (2019)Peak
position
Scotland (OCC) [8] 59

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Primal Scream</span> Scottish rock band

Primal Scream are a Scottish rock band originally formed in 1982 in Glasgow by Bobby Gillespie (vocals) and Jim Beattie. The band's current lineup consists of Gillespie, Andrew Innes (guitar), Simone Butler (bass), and Darrin Mooney (drums). Barrie Cadogan has toured and recorded with the band since 2006 as a replacement after the departure of guitarist Robert "Throb" Young.

Indie rock is a subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand in the early to mid-1980s. Although the term was originally used to describe rock music released through independent record labels, by the 1990s it became more widely associated with the music such bands produced.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bobby Gillespie</span> British musician

Robert Gillespie is a Scottish musician, singer-songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. He is best known as the lead singer, founding member, primary lyricist, and sole continuous member of the alternative rock band Primal Scream. He was the drummer for The Jesus and Mary Chain in the mid-1980s, leaving after the release of the band's debut album Psychocandy, and was once the bassist for The Wake.

<i>Sonic Flower Groove</i> 1987 studio album by Primal Scream

Sonic Flower Groove is the debut studio album by Scottish rock band Primal Scream, released on 5 October 1987 by Elevation Records. Mayo Thompson of Red Krayola was the producer of the album, after work with Stephen Street did not please the band. Musically, Sonic Flower Groove features psychedelic, Byrdsy jangle pop, being the only Primal Scream album to feature founding member Jim Beattie.

<i>Screamadelica</i> 1991 studio album by Primal Scream

Screamadelica is the third studio album by Scottish rock band Primal Scream. It was first released on 23 September 1991 in the United Kingdom by Creation Records and on 8 October 1991 in the United States by Sire Records. The album marked a significant departure from the band's early indie rock sound, drawing inspiration from the blossoming house music scene and associated drugs such as LSD and MDMA. Much of the album's production was handled by acid house DJ Andrew Weatherall and engineer Hugo Nicolson, who remixed original recordings made by the band into dance-oriented tracks.

<i>Give Out But Dont Give Up</i> 1994 studio album by Primal Scream

Give Out But Don't Give Up is the fourth studio album by Scottish rock band Primal Scream. It was released on 28 March 1994 in the United Kingdom by Creation Records and in the United States by Sire Records. It peaked at number 2 on the UK Albums Chart. Musically, it marked a massive departure from the psychedelic sound of their previous studio album Screamadelica (1991) into one influenced by classic rock and blues music. Its cover photo is a cropped version of Troubled Waters by American photographer William Eggleston. Eggleston included the album in his 2017 Pitchfork list of "the Music That Made Him a Photography Legend."

<i>Vanishing Point</i> (Primal Scream album) 1997 studio album by Primal Scream

Vanishing Point is the fifth studio album by Scottish rock band Primal Scream. It was released on 7 July 1997 in the United Kingdom by Creation Records and in the United States by Reprise Records. It peaked at number 2 on the UK Albums Chart. The album shows inspiration from genres such as dub, ambient, dance music, and krautrock, as well as bands such as Motörhead, Can, and the Stooges. It was the band's first album to feature Gary 'Mani' Mounfield on bass, formerly of the Stone Roses, although Marco Nelson played bass on "Burning Wheel", "Star", "If They Move, Kill 'Em'", and "Stuka". Other guest appearances on Vanishing Point include Augustus Pablo, Glen Matlock, and the Memphis Horns.

<i>XTRMNTR</i> 2000 studio album by Primal Scream

XTRMNTR is the sixth studio album by Scottish rock band Primal Scream. It was first released on 31 January 2000 in the United Kingdom by Creation Records and on 2 May 2000 in the United States by Astralwerks. It peaked at number 3 on the UK Albums Chart.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Australia (Manic Street Preachers song)</span> 1996 single by Manic Street Preachers

"Australia" is a song by Welsh alternative rock band Manic Street Preachers, released on 2 December 1996 through Epic Records as the fourth and final single from the fourth studio album, Everything Must Go (1996). The song peaked on number seven in the UK Singles Chart and was the fourth consecutive top-10 hit for the band.

Felt were an English jangle pop band, formed in 1979 in Water Orton, Warwickshire, and led by the mononymous Lawrence. They were active for ten years through the 1980s, releasing ten singles and ten albums. The band's name was inspired by Tom Verlaine's emphasis of the word "felt" in the Television song "Venus".

Indie pop is a music genre and subculture that combines guitar pop with DIY ethic in opposition to the style and tone of mainstream pop music. It originated from British post-punk in the late 1970s and subsequently generated a thriving fanzine, label, and club and gig circuit. Compared to its counterpart, indie rock, the genre is more melodic, less abrasive, and relatively angst-free. In later years, the definition of indie pop has bifurcated to also mean bands from unrelated DIY scenes/movements with pop leanings. Subgenres include chamber pop and twee pop.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Language of Flowers (band)</span>

Language of Flowers are a five piece indie-pop band originally from Belfast in Northern Ireland signed to San Francisco indie label Shelflife Records. As of 2006 its members are located in London, Manchester and Belfast. The band's sound is characteristic of the British C86 movement with heavy use of jangling Rickenbacker 12-string guitars, airy female vocals and bright pop melodies.

An independent music scene is a localized independent music-oriented community of bands and their audiences. Local scenes can play a key role in musical history and lead to the development of influential genres; for example, no wave from New York City, Madchester from Manchester, and grunge from Seattle.

<i>CD86</i> (album) 2006 compilation album

CD86: 48 Tracks from the Birth of Indie Pop is a compilation album of artists from the original C86 era, released in 2006 by Sanctuary Records. It is compiled by Bob Stanley of Saint Etienne.

<i>Happy Daze</i> (compilation album) 1990 compilation album by Various artists

Happy Daze is a compilation album of songs linked to the Madchester music genre distributed by Island Records in 1990.

The Subway Organization was a British independent record label founded in 1985 in Bristol by Martin Whitehead.

James Robertson Beattie is a Scottish musician who co-founded Primal Scream and later went on to form Spirea X and Adventures in Stereo.

<i>More Light</i> (Primal Scream album) 2013 studio album by Primal Scream

More Light is the tenth studio album by Scottish rock band Primal Scream, released on 13 May 2013. The single "It's Alright, It's OK" received airplay on national stations including BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 6 Music and Absolute Radio and on music channel MTV Rocks, whilst it has also been played on a number of smaller stations including 106.9FM WHCR and Kingstown Radio. It references influential The Gun Club singer Jeffrey Lee Pierce with a take on his song "Goodbye Johnny" and use of the track title "Walking with the Beast". This is their first album since Give Out But Don't Give Up (1994) to not feature bassist Mani.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hinds (band)</span> Spanish indie rock band

Hinds is a Spanish indie rock band from Madrid, formed in 2011. The group currently consists of Carlotta Cosials and Ana García Perrote. The original name of the band was Deers, but they changed it at the end of 2014 after a threat of legal action from the similarly named band The Dears. The group chose "Hinds", a word that means "female deers", as the new name of the band and officially implemented the name change on 7 January 2015.

<i>C86</i> 1986 compilation album by various artists

C86 is a cassette compilation released by the British music magazine NME in 1986, featuring new bands licensed from British independent record labels of the time. As a term, C86 quickly evolved into shorthand for a guitar-based music genre characterized by jangling guitars and melodic power pop song structures, although other musical styles were represented on the tape. In its time, it became a pejorative term for its associations with so-called "shambling" and underachievement. The C86 scene is now recognized as a pivotal moment for independent music in the UK, as was recognized in the subtitle of the compilation's 2006 CD issue: CD86: 48 Tracks from the Birth of Indie Pop. 2014 saw the original compilation reissued in a 3CD expanded edition from Cherry Red Records; the 2014 box-set came with an 11,500-word book of sleevenotes by one of the tape's original curators, former NME journalist Neil Taylor.

References

  1. ↑ Kurland, Jordan. "The Mix: 100 Essential Noise Pop Songs". NPR.
  2. 1 2 3 "Various Artists: C86 | Album Reviews". Pitchfork. 2014-06-10. Retrieved 2016-02-07.
  3. ↑ "NME releases a cassette that codifies music | Music". The Guardian . 2014-09-24. Retrieved 2016-02-07.
  4. ↑ "100 Best Songs Of The 1980s". Nme.com. Retrieved 2016-02-07.
  5. 1 2 Stewart Mason. "Velocity Girl - Primal Scream | Song Info". AllMusic . Retrieved 2016-02-07.
  6. ↑ "Radio 1 - Keeping It Peel - Festive 50s - 1986". BBC . Retrieved 2016-02-07.
  7. ↑ "Primal Scream to Re-Issue 'Velocity Girl'".
  8. ↑ "Official Scottish Singles Sales Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 13 July 2019.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.