"This Is a Low" is a song by English
rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
band
Blur for their third studio album, ''
Parklife
''Parklife'' is the third studio album by the English rock band Blur, released on 25 April 1994 on Food Records. After disappointing sales for their previous album ''Modern Life Is Rubbish'' (1993), ''Parklife'' returned Blur to prominence in ...
''. The song was released as a promotional single in 1995.
Background and recording
Originally titled "We Are the Low", the song began life as an instrumental during the ''Parklife'' sessions. In the guitar solo,
Graham Coxon
Graham Leslie Coxon (born 12 March 1969) is an English musician, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and painter who came to prominence as a founding member of the rock band Blur. As the group's lead guitarist and secondary vocalist, Cox ...
played three solos, including one of him sat in front of his amp, turned up to maximum volume.
According to bassist
Alex James,
Damon Albarn
Damon Albarn (; born 23 March 1968) is an English-Icelandic musician, singer-songwriter and composer, best known as the frontman and primary lyricist of the rock band Blur and as the co-creator and primary musical contributor of the virtual ...
was finding it hard to write lyrics. In his autobiography, ''A Bit of a Blur'', he revealed that "for Christmas I bought him a handkerchief with a map of the shipping forecast regions on it... you can never tell where the muse is going to appear." "We always found the shipping forecast soothing," James explained. "We used to listen to it
n the American tourto remind us of home. It's very good for a hangover. Good cure for insomnia, too."
On 4 February 1994, the penultimate day of official recording, Albarn was due to go into hospital for a hernia operation. Pressured to come up with the lyrics, Albarn took advantage of the map James had given him. "I'd had this line – 'And into the sea go pretty England and me' – for a long time", Albarn revealed. "So I started at the Bay of Biscay. Back for tea. 'Tea' rhymes with 'me'. And then I went 'Hit traffic on the Dogger Bank'. 'Bank' – 'Rank' – so 'up the Thames to find a taxi rank'. And I just went round."
Music and lyrics
The song is in the key of
E major
E major (or the key of E) is a major scale based on E, consisting of the pitches E, F, G, A, B, C, and D. Its key signature has four sharps. Its relative minor is C-sharp minor and its parallel minor is E minor. Its enharmonic equivalent, ...
[''Parklife'' album booklet, page 16] and is in
4/4 time
The time signature (also known as meter signature, metre signature, or measure signature) is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats (pulses) are contained in each measure (bar), and which note value ...
. In total, the song contains two verses, two choruses, a
guitar solo
A guitar solo is a melodic passage, instrumental section, or entire piece of music, pre-written (or improvised) to be played on a classical guitar, electric guitar or an acoustic guitar. In 20th and 21st century traditional music and popular m ...
and two further choruses. The music commences with a four-chord guitar progression, before moving straight into the first verse. The music is based in the
mixolydian mode
Mixolydian mode may refer to one of three things: the name applied to one of the ancient Greek ''harmoniai'' or ''tonoi'', based on a particular octave species or scale; one of the medieval church modes; or a modern musical mode or diatonic scal ...
, highlighted by the fact the V chord (B minor) is minor instead of major.
The song's lyrics reference a
low-pressure area
In meteorology, a low-pressure area, low area or low is a region where the atmospheric pressure is lower than that of surrounding locations. Low-pressure areas are commonly associated with inclement weather (such as cloudy, windy, with possible ...
of weather hitting Britain. The lyrics are based on the
Shipping Forecast
The Shipping Forecast is a BBC Radio broadcast of weather reports and forecasts for the seas around the coasts of the British Isles. It is produced by the Met Office and broadcast by BBC Radio 4 on behalf of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency. ...
, with references made to the various areas surrounding the country.
In the lyric "sail on by with the tide", passing reference is also made to the tune "
Sailing By", which plays at the start of the 0048 forecast on
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...
. Music writer
John Harris described the lyrics as "a fantasia centred around the shipping forecast –
ninexplicably calming institution that soundtracks the switching-off of the UK's night-lights – narrated as if the writer was gazing at the whole of
The British Isles."
Locations named in the song
This is a list of the shipping areas mentioned in the song (in context):
*
Biscay
Biscay (; eu, Bizkaia ; es, Vizcaya ) is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the Basque Country, heir of the ancient Lordship of Biscay, lying on the south shore of the eponymous bay. The capital and largest city is Bilbao.
B ...
– "Around the Bay of Biscay and back for tea"
*
Dogger,
Thames
The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...
– "Hit traffic on the Dogger Bank/Up the Thames to find a taxi rank"
*
Tyne,
Forth
Forth or FORTH may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''forth'' magazine, an Internet magazine
* ''Forth'' (album), by The Verve, 2008
* ''Forth'', a 2011 album by Proto-Kaw
* Radio Forth, a group of independent local radio stations in Scotla ...
,
Cromarty
Cromarty (; gd, Cromba, ) is a town, civil parish and former royal burgh in Ross and Cromarty, in the Highland area of Scotland. Situated at the tip of the Black Isle on the southern shore of the mouth of Cromarty Firth, it is seaward from In ...
,
Forties – "Up the Tyne, Forth and Cromarty/There's a low in the High Forties"
*
Malin – "And on the Malin Head, Blackpool looks blue and red"
The song also mentions the most westerly point of England,
Land's End
Land's End ( kw, Penn an Wlas or ''Pedn an Wlas'') is a headland and tourist and holiday complex in western Cornwall, England, on the Penwith peninsula about west-south-west of Penzance at the western end of the A30 road. To the east of it is ...
: "the Queen, she's gone round the bend, jumped off Land's End".
Reception
"This Is a Low" is often chosen as a stand-out track from the album, including as a selected highlight by
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
, who describe the track as a "swirling, epic closer".
[Parklife- AllMusic [] Last accessed: 21 July 2008.] John Harris described the song as ''Parklifes "key masterstroke" and "close to perfection". Harris also compared the quality with "any of Blur's illustrious forebears" including
the Beatles
The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...
.
It was included on the band's ''
Best Of
A greatest hits album or best-of album is a type of compilation album that collects popular and commercially successful songs by a particular artist or band. While greatest hits albums are typically supported by the artist, they can also be crea ...
'' and 2009 ''
Midlife: A Beginner's Guide to Blur'' compilations.
The song has been performed live many times. It was the final song at Blur's
Mile End stadium
Mile End Stadium, also known as the East London Stadium, is a multi-sports stadium in Mile End and situated in the park of the same name, East London, England. The stadium comprises an athletics stadium and a number of floodlit Astroturf footb ...
gig of 1995,
[AllMusic- A Knees Up at Mile End [] ''Last accessed: 16 July 2008''] as well as Glastonbury festival, Glastonbury 1994, where the song was voted by fans on the festival's website to appear on the compilation DVD ''Glastonbury Anthems''. It was performed by Damon Albarn and Graham Coxon as their first reunited performance as Blur at the 2009
NME Awards
The ''NME'' Awards is an annual music awards show in the United Kingdom, founded by the music magazine ''NME'' (''New Musical Express''). The first awards show was held in 1953 as the ''NME'' Poll Winners Concerts, shortly after the founding of ...
. Blur also performed the song at the
2012 Brit Awards as an encore.
In 2014, ''
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 ...
'' ranked it at number 198 in their list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
Rocklist.net NME The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.. 2014
/ref>
Track listing
All music composed by Albarn, Coxon, James
James is a common English language surname and given name:
*James (name), the typically masculine first name James
* James (surname), various people with the last name James
James or James City may also refer to:
People
* King James (disambiguat ...
and Rowntree. All lyrics composed by Albarn.
CD promo
# "This Is a Low" – 5:07
Personnel
*Damon Albarn
Damon Albarn (; born 23 March 1968) is an English-Icelandic musician, singer-songwriter and composer, best known as the frontman and primary lyricist of the rock band Blur and as the co-creator and primary musical contributor of the virtual ...
– vocals, keyboards
*Graham Coxon
Graham Leslie Coxon (born 12 March 1969) is an English musician, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and painter who came to prominence as a founding member of the rock band Blur. As the group's lead guitarist and secondary vocalist, Cox ...
– guitar
* Alex James – bass guitar
* Dave Rowntree – drums
References
{{Blur
Blur (band) songs
1994 songs
Songs written by Damon Albarn
Song recordings produced by Stephen Street
Songs written by Graham Coxon
Songs written by Alex James (musician)
Songs written by Dave Rowntree