Suede. Very early
britpop, their debut album leapt to the top of the charts after a chorus of praise from the
British weekly
music press in the early 90s. They implode during the recording of their second album
Dog Man Star after a back-breaking and largely fruitless tour of America with guitarist
Bernard Butler leaving the band.
Suede stuttered through the nineties without Butler releasing moderately successful records here and there but never quite regained the zeitgeist, their edge largely removed after Brett Anderson succumbed to a heroin habit and had a succession of keyboard players join and leave the band. Butler made a fantastic single with singer David McAlmont, before the two fell out. Butler would later release a medicore MOR album on the dying Creation Records, and quit the music scene for a while before re-uniting with McAlmont in 2002 to release another largely ignored album.
Killing of a Flash Boy is the best song Suede released. It is a stalwart of their set list (and if they choose not to play it you should ask for your money back), and gets the crowd going pumping jumping. It was a b-side. Tossed away to accompany We are the Pigs, the comeback single in 1994. It can also be found on the b-side compilation album Sci-fi Lullabies which should be in a good record store (Americans are reminded it's the London Suede to them). This being the 21st century it's probably also floating around on the internet somewhere....
The song. The drum beat of Simon Gilbert stutters to life. Then the singer lets out a little moan as David Bowie inspired glam with perhaps a tiny sprinkling of Depeche Mode kicks in, letting the guitar eat into your brain as Brett Anderson warbles his way through typically sleazy suedeish nomenclature, scattering indecent imagery all over the place. Try playing it to your gran. The song is credited to Brett Anderson and Bernard Butler although like the Dog Man Star album the guitar parts were recorded long before the lyrics were conceived. Read 'em here.
All the white kids shuffle to the heavy metal stutter
And go shaking on the scene like killing machines
And they know that when she's stacked up top
She'll be a sucker for the shotgun show
Shaking obscene like the killing machines here we go
It's the same old show, He's a killer of a flashboy oh
He's a killer he's a killer he's a flashboy oh
Oh if you shake your fake tan thru aerosol land you'll know
That you'll suffer for your sex by the caravanettes oh no
And that sh*tter with the pout won't be putting it about no more
oh shaking obscene like a killing machine here we go
It's the same old show, he's a killer he's a flashboy oh
He's a killer he's a flashboy oh oh oh...
and Athena loves your body
So think of the sea my darling
Think of the sea as you murder me
CST Approved