The first in an occasional series. Beware, it could be `Tarkus' next time. I can't see this building into one of those definitive and oh so `correct' Top 100 's of which we are all, I'm sure, heartily sick. This series is wont to take a much more random shape as whatever my idea of perfection is this week takes precedent over any numerical order.
Like many, I now have a collection of CDs so large that there are many I will never hear again in this lifetime, but amidst this sea of treasures there are certain songs which will always stand out like diamonds. The ones you reach for when nothing else will do. Songs which `spring to mind' for no reason other than there isn't a better way to spend the next few minutes (or in some cases, 20 minutes).
Everyone has their own idea of perfection. I personally only know it when I hear it, it is as elusive as quicksilver, so hard to define. This tune hits the spot in every way imaginable for every second of it's 2:18. Naturally, it did nothing in the singles charts, (Number 55 ! I ask you). Buzzcocks will always be known primarily for `Ever Fallen Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've), which of course rightly occupies a high position in their wonderful canon of perfect pop alongside another 20 or 30 peerless classics. But I think `I Don't Mind' takes the biscuit and the cigar.
At his youthful peak Pete Shelley had a naive, seemingly automatic way of coming up with these perfect pop songs (he tells recently of dropping his girlfriend off at Woolworths and having written `Love You More' by the time they met for lunch). Herein lies the magic I guess, get it nailed before there's time to analyse it.
`I Don't Mind' sits at the top of the tree for me because this tale of romantic indifference is so effortlessly melodic and original, the way the chord changes breathlessly follow the vocal line a bar at a time propelled by the urgent and perfect drumming of John Maher, like it's a race to the end of the song. The guitar roars like a chainsaw, and the part for me which kills is the simple yet devastating 3 note guitar part at 1:27 which leads to THAT sublime key change. Punk simplicity and a deliberate and playful 2 fingers to musicianship.
Go on, dig it. You know you want to...
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=UKV6n4b_mXY&feature=related
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