Tag Archives: babyshambles

My iPod #399: Babyshambles – Fuck Forever

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“Fuck Forever” was the second single from Babyshambles’ debut album “Down in Albion”; it was the first track I’d ever heard by the band when I was about ten years old, and its music video played regularly in the mornings on MTV2 – part of its countdown in the channel’s ’10 newest/hottest tracks’ programme. Or a name similar to that.

Obviously, the song’s title was censored as well as anytime Pete Doherty uttered the word ‘fuck’ or stuck up two crooked fingers to the camera. But at ten years old, I was surprised that a song with such a title could ever be played at that time. Or even be released as a single. And I also did think that it sounded fucking awful the first time. Doherty can barely sing on this one, the part where he belts out ‘ANNNNNNNND’ for the lead-up into the final chorus cracks me up every time, and the song’s overall instrumentation has a really sloppy feel to it.

I still have those feelings today. But even at that time I grew to appreciate the track more and more. The song was actually memorable and catchy in its own shitty way. It is a beautiful mess.

This track rules. Doherty has problems, but he can write good music.

My iPod #392: Babyshambles – French Dog Blues

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“French Dog Blues” can be found on Babyshambles’ second album “Shotter’s Nation”, released back in 2007. Although I thought it was a single later released from it, it apparently wasn’t. Weird considering it has its own music video. But whatever.

For all this time I’ve never really wondered what the track was about; I solely liked it because of its sound and random lyricism. Though I’ve just read that Doherty said it is about the dog on the cover of the band’s first album “Down in Albion”. That’s made me even more perplexed because I would never have thought that that little picture was an illustration of a dog. All this time I thought it was a flag or something.

Not much I can say about it. I do enjoy it a lot though, and that’s all that matters.

My iPod #262: Babyshambles – Delivery

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“Delivery” was the first single from “Shotter’s Nation“, the second album by Pete Doherty’s post-Libertines band Babyshambles.

The song was important enough that its music video premiered on Channel 4 at a ridiculous time when a lot of people were bound to be asleep including myself. So I didn’t see it until the next day, when it was repeated many times on MTV2.

Being the first new piece of material the band had released since “The Blinding EP”, and their first new song I’d heard since the slow and pretty tame track “Love You But You’re Green“, “Delivery” did not disappoint.

Alongside a riff that sounds like an early Kinks track is an earnest lyric from Doherty. He’s not feeling great – forlorn and frozen beneath the summer, in his words – and so to relieve the strain he writes this song – the delivery – that comes from the bottom of his heart. I guess this was his way of stating what he was really going through while everyone was going on about his drug abuse and legal problems. All very sad. I like it.