The Verve

The Verve released their third album "Urban Hymns" on this day in 1997! In an interview on BBC Radio 2, singer Richard Ashcroft said the song was "inspired by my relationship with my wife, and that sense of when you're beyond the sort of peacock dance that you have early on in a relationship. And you're getting down to the raw nature of yourselves."

“The Verve are one of the only bands that I’ve ever begged to work with,” producer John Leckie recalls, over two decades later. “I just couldn’t believe what I was witnessing.” No small praise from a man who’d engineered Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side Of The Moon, worked with Syd Barrett and latter-day psychonauts Robin Hitchcock and XTC alter-egos The Dukes Of Stratosphear, and produced The Stone Roses’ debut. With A Storm In Heaven, however, he sent the legacy of British psychedelia into the stratosphere. www.udiscovermusic.com

Happy 54th birthday to Richard Ashcroft of The Verve! -- Lead singer Richard Ashcroft wrote the lyrics to this song, which are a somber look at the ennui of everyday life: "You're a slave to money, then you die." At this point in his career, Ashcroft had learned that money and happiness were not synonymous. "People have been sold a lottery dream in life that money solves everyone's problems," he said in an interview. "Suddenly you're looking at people and you're thinking: 'I know they need X but if I give X then that relationship that should have died years ago is going to carry on and spoil.' It opens up a myriad of things that you would never normally be thinking about, responsibilities on a new level." bit.ly

By request, for Nate in Michigan!

At this point in his career, lead singer Richard Ashcroft had learned that money and happiness were not synonymous. "People have been sold a lottery dream in life that money solves everyone's problems," he shared. "Suddenly you're looking at people and you're thinking, 'I know they need X but if I give X then that relationship that should have died years ago is going to carry on and spoil.' It opens up a myriad of things that you would never normally be thinking about, responsibilities on a new level." tinyurl.com

Written by frontman Richard Ashcroft in 1995 and released in September 1997, the track itself has been known to reduce The Verve fans to tears. Speaking about the song, Ashcroft shares, "There's a new track I've just written [...] It goes 'the drugs don't work, they just make me worse, and I know I'll see your face again.' That's how I'm feeling at the moment. They make me worse, man. But I still take 'em. Out of boredom and frustration you turn to something else to escape." tinyurl.com

At this point in his career, lead singer Richard Ashcroft had learned that money and happiness were not synonymous. "People have been sold a lottery dream in life that money solves everyone's problems," he shared. "Suddenly you're looking at people and you're thinking, 'I know they need X but if I give X then that relationship that should have died years ago is going to carry on and spoil.' It opens up a myriad of things that you would never normally be thinking about, responsibilities on a new level." The famous orchestral riff incorporates a sample from an obscure instrumental version of the 1965 Rolling Stones song "The Last Time" by Stones producer Andrew Loog Oldham, who included it on a 1966 album called The Rolling Stones Songbook (credited to The Andrew Oldham Orchestra). The Verve got permission to use the six-second sample from Decca Records, which owned the Oldham recording, but they also needed permission from the publisher of "The Last Time," something they didn't realize until after the album was completed. tinyurl.com

The Verve's best-known song, “Bitter Sweet Symphony,” famously samples an orchestral cover (Andrew Oldham Orchestra) of the Rolling Stones' 1965 song, “The Last Time." The Stones sampled The Staple Singers' "This May Be the Last Time." Watch the official video here: youtu.be

Happy Birthday to Simon Tong of The Verve! Simon Tong is an English guitarist and keyboardist who was a member of the Verve between 1996 and 1999. He has played with Damon Albarn on tour with his bands Blur and Gorillaz, and as a member of the Good, the Bad & the Queen.