Song of the Week: The Only One I Know
The Charlatans
The Only One I Know
When I was 17 I had a Saturday job in a record shop. It was the local branch of a typical high street chain and I fitted in like a fish out of water.
Like all stories, I suppose there are two sides:
Mine
I was probably the best Saturday girl they ever had. I tried to encourage diversity in our customers music tastes and the kind of cultured environment that thrived in superior record stores in Melbourne and Sydney.* I strived to educate the punters, not to mention my colleagues, with repeated plays of choice cuts by Queen (Innuendo!), Pink Floyd, The Clash, The Charlatans, The Stone Roses and EMF.
Theirs
I was probably the worst Saturday girl they ever had. I shamelessly encouraged spotty boys to hang around at the end of the counter listening to records they would never buy and wasted too much time chatting when I should have been filing things away. I repeatedly removed perfectly fine records by the likes of 2Unlimited, Roxette, Jimmy Barnes and INXS from the shop stereo and threatened to empty the store with my tiresome music taste.
This song takes me right back to those heady days. Those heady days before they told me not to bother coming back to work after my holidays.
‘The Only One I Know’, The Charlatans, 1991
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*Like Au Go Go, Gas Light (RIP) and Red Eye for those who know Melbourne and Sydney.
Tags: dirty nostalgia, song of the week
December 11th, 2008 at 6:38 pm
Pure class.
December 12th, 2008 at 9:56 am
What, me or the Charlatans?
Sorry.
But yes, some of the best songs are the most obvious.
December 12th, 2008 at 10:07 am
What a track – I’ve one all baggy. I always felt Charlatans (and a bit like Supergrass) were ahead of the Britpop game and stayed contempoary without losing it (Suede, Primal Scream), dating badly (most of the also rans) and plodding on with with the same ol’ same ol’ (Oasis)..
I’m sure I’ve recommend these before but, just in case…
Precious – perfect period comp’
http://www.discogs.com/release/392034
Steve Lamacq’s live mix album – Weekenders (the Pulp/Blur mix intro is genius)
http://www.discogs.com/release/89176
December 12th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
I’m not sure if the Charlatans have stayed contemporary. Well, I’ve certainly long lost interest in them. I have many more Primal Scream albums then Charlatans ones. Primal Scream are like the little girl in the nursery rhyme – ‘When she was good, she was very, very good. When she was bad, she was very, very bad.’ They’re currently in a bad period.
I have indeed seen those CDs and am pleased to say (I think) that I already own virtually all of the tracks on them…
December 12th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
I remember reading about them in a fanzine and my brother sending of for an early demo bootleg tape thing, all every exciting! It’s the intro and the swing that does it.
December 12th, 2008 at 5:29 pm
Always loved this tune of theirs
Can’t Get Out Of Bed
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=YvITRVrUYhY
Taken from the excellent – ‘I Never Want An Easy Life If Me And He Were Ever To Get There’ – which is such a ‘Northern’ album
And his high pitch period – Love Is The Key
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=SN2hXeO3-eA
And the hammond on Weirdo – fanastico
December 12th, 2008 at 5:57 pm
BLTP, Hope he’s still got that demo – could be worth a fortune!
PM, My favourite tune by the Charlatans (apart from this one) is Jesus Hairdo. Although Can’t Get Out of Bed isn’t too bad either. The falscetto period is precisely the time I went off them!!!
December 16th, 2008 at 8:56 pm
Cor, you had a cool Saturday job. I worked in a cake shop. Not cool at all.
December 17th, 2008 at 10:54 am
It wasn’t cool, ISBW. I just desparately wanted it to be. My colleagues kept letting me down with their complete and utter lack of interest in music. The whole situation was an ongoing disappointment to all concerned!
I think that there might have been more benefits working in a cake shop.
December 17th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
The owner was a notorious 50-year old groper who still lived with his mum, but we did get to take the sticky buns home at the end of the day.