Primal Scream 'Rocks'

Chart Peak: 7

YouTube

'Rocks' is the Scream's first single for two years... This "razor-stomp explosion of wired urban energy" is released on 28/2/94

Evidently they had to go to press before they would have known that this single (officially a double-A with the forgotten 'Funky Jam') was to be the band's first ever Top 10 hit, and remained their highest-charting single until 2006. I don't know whether it's their biggest-selling single, but it might be their most widely circulated if all the compilations it appears on are taken into account. It doesn't seem as much of a fan favourite though, and certainly the recent hype around the 20th anniversary of the famous Screamadelica album hasn't made much mention of what they went on to do next.

Obviously, one thing they went on to to was massive amounts of illegal substances, as I think everyone involved would acknowledge. The fourth album was widely perceived as a retrograde step, much more traditionally rocky than its dancy predecessor, although of course this was a type of music they had made in the 1980s. What concerns me personally less that this material is old-fashioned than that it's not really very good: they worked in all the classic studios with all the classic producers (industry legend Tom Dowd on this particular track) and all the right guest musicians, but the energy doesn't seem to be there somehow, and not enough to cover up the flaws in the song itself, which has little distinctive about it barring the drum pattern they borrowed from Sly & The Family Stone and the arguably sexist rhyme "Bitches keep on bitching/Clap just keeps on itching" (surprisingly uncensored on this album, although partly cut on X-Factor). In fact the more I listen to this track the less I like it. I vaguely recall 'Jailbird' being a better song but I'm not sure I dare listen to it.

Also appearing on: Now 17, 64
Available on: Give Out But Don't Give Up

Primal Scream 'Loaded'

Chart Peak: 16

Last.FM

Despite the time it's taken me to get round to writing this entry, in some ways this track seems like part of the same whole 'Step On', as this was another of the few songs in this style to break through to the radio. In fact it was a far bigger breakthrough for the Scream than the Mondays, as it became their first ever Top 75 single; needless to say, at the time I was entirely unaware then that they'd had any history before this. The other thing I didn't yet realise was that, like 'Step On' it's actually a new spin on old material, in this case Primal Scream's own 'I'm Losing More Than I'll Ever Have'. As remixed by Andrew Weatherall, it became the song that some credit with inventing the entire genre of indie-dance and that certainly enabled the group to - ahem - shine like stars, setting them up for the big critical and commercial success of the following year's Screamadelica album.

Now, I did eventually buy that album and several of their others but I don't really like Primal Scream all that much. I suspect I'm partly influenced by the fact that Bobby Gillespie seems to be a bit of a dipstick. More fairly, I'm frequently put off by his rather weak singing, which is at least one problem that this near-instrumental track doesn't have, but somehow... well, I just don't know really but I can't say this does a lot for me. I can appreciate the creativity going into it, but it's not really for me, somehow.

Incidentally, Last.Fm's copy of the track seems to have dropped the sample of dialogue from Peter Fonda's biker movie The Wild Angels.

Also appearing on: Now 27, 64
Available on: Dirty Hits