"Club Foot" is a song by English

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...

band

Kasabian Kasabian ( ) are an English rock band formed in Leicester in 1997 by lead vocalist Tom Meighan, guitarist and occasional vocalist Sergio Pizzorno, guitarist Chris Karloff, and bassist Chris Edwards. Drummer Ian Matthews joined in 2004. Karlof ...

, featured on their 2004 debut album, ''

''. It was released on 10 May 2004 in the UK. The video of this song, directed by

W.I.Z. Andrew John "W.I.Z." Whiston (born 4 January 1964) is an English director of films and music videos. Career W.I.Z. has directed a number of high-concept videos for major music artists from the United Kingdom and the United States, including Ma ...

, is dedicated to Czech student

Jan Palach Jan Palach (; 11 August 1948 – 19 January 1969) was a Czech student of history and political economics at Charles University in Prague. His self-immolation was a political protest against the end of the Prague Spring resulting from the 1968 in ...

who in 1969 set himself on fire in protest against renewed Soviet suppression of

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

. The video also refers to the

Soviet government The Government of the Soviet Union ( rus, Прави́тельство СССР, p=prɐˈvʲitʲɪlʲstvə ɛs ɛs ɛs ˈɛr, r=Pravítelstvo SSSR, lang=no), formally the All-Union Government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, commonly ab ...

's intervention in the

Hungarian Revolution of 1956 The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (23 October – 10 November 1956; hu, 1956-os forradalom), also known as the Hungarian Uprising, was a countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic (1949–1989) and the Hunga ...

on a banner showing the text in Hungarian (''Szabad Európa Rádió''), which translates as "

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is a United States government funded organization that broadcasts and reports news, information, and analysis to countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Caucasus, and the Middle East where it says tha ...

". The scene with the inspector girl who stands before the tank harks back to the young man who stood in front of the line of tanks in 1989 in Tiananmen Square, which itself has become an icon for resistance. In October 2011, ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

'' placed it at number 108 on its list "150 Best Tracks of the Past 15 Years".

Background

Bassist Chris Edwards said, "It's about love and life. At the time

n 2002 N, or n, is the fourteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''en'' (pronounced ), plural ''ens''. History ...

, the war in Iraq had just kicked off and the lyrics aren't about pushing you in one way or another, but just about what was going on at the time, what you'd read in the paper about soldiers being petrol bombed." Guitarist Serge Pizzorno said the song is about "revenge and having it out."

Composition

The song is known for its distinctive distorted bass riff, played by lead guitarist Christopher Karloff as opposed to primary bassist Chris Edwards. Karloff would also play the bassline live, while Edwards played guitar. After Karloff's departure from the band in 2006, touring guitarist Jay Mehler would play the bassline, but from 2008 onwards Edwards has played the bassline in live performances. Serge Pizzorno said, "We were watching a

Beach Boys A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological sources, such as mollusc shell ...

documentary and saw they had a great kind of approach to making '

Good Vibrations "Good Vibrations" is a song by the American rock band the Beach Boys that was composed by Brian Wilson with lyrics by Mike Love. It was released as a single on October 10, 1966 and was an immediate critical and commercial hit, topping record c ...

.' We wanted to approach 'Club Foot' the same way, to mess with the landscape and give the listener something to hold on to."

MTV.com MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

described the song as "a quilt of relentless beats, hissing electronic noises, a buzzing guitar riff and Meighan's breathless, menacing vocals." ''

The Morning Call ''The Morning Call'' is a daily newspaper in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1883, it is the second longest continuously published newspaper in the Lehigh Valley, after ''The Express-Times''. In 2020, the newspaper permanently closed its Al ...

'' said it "piles layers and layers of synths atop tight guitar work before coming to a fluttering, flutey end."

Track listing

CD

*PARADISE08 # Club Foot – 2:52 # Club Foot (Jagz Kooner Vocal Mix) – 4:53 # Trash Can – 2:53 # Sand Clit – 3:53 #

Personnel

* Tom Meighan – lead vocals * Sergio Pizzorno – guitar, synths, backing vocals * Christopher Karloff – guitar, bass, synths, drum machine

Reissue

"Club Foot" is a reissued single from

. The single entered the Uk Chart at No. 19 in 2004, and at No. 21 in 2005. In 2005 it also peaked No. 27 in US

Modern Rock Tracks Alternative Airplay (formerly known as Modern Rock Tracks (1988–2009) and Alternative Songs (2009–2020)) is a music chart in the United States that has appeared in ''Billboard'' magazine since September 10, 1988. It ranks the 40 most-played ...

, the same position in the same chart reached in 2011 with the single version contained in '' Live!'', recorded at

The O2 Arena The O2 Arena, commonly known as the O2 (stylised as The O2 arena), is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the centre of the O2 entertainment complex on the Greenwich Peninsula in southeast London. It opened in its present form in 2007. It has the s ...

in London on 15 December 2011. The Maxi CD includes two new B-sides and a remix of "Club Foot", while the 2-track CD contains a live version of non-album track "55".

Track listing

Maxi CD

*PARADISE30 # Club Foot – 2:51 # The Duke – 3:35 # Bang – 3:05 # Club Foot (Jimmy Douglass Remix) – 3:21 # CD-rom with Club Foot promo video + Club Foot Live @ Brixton Academy video

Mini CD

*PARADISE29 # Club Foot – 2:51 # 55 (Live @ Brixton Academy) – 4:23

10" Vinyl

*PARADISE31 # Club Foot – 2:51 # 55 (Live @ Brixton Academy) – 4:23 # Club Foot (Jimmy Douglass Remix) – 3:21

Australian EP

*82876659622 # Club Foot – 2:51 # Reason Is Treason – 3:44 # Trash Can – 2:53 otes: Red Digipak

Charts

Certifications

References

External links

* * {{authority control 2004 singles 2005 singles Kasabian songs 2004 songs Songs written by Sergio Pizzorno Columbia Records singles Song recordings produced by Jim Abbiss Songs written by Christopher Karloff