The Dandy Warhols 'Bohemian Like You'

Chart Peak: 5 (42 in 2000)

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There's a possibility you might have heard this song before. Years ago I remember somebody writing a joke article about how anthropologists had discovered a remote tribe who didn't think they'd heard too much of this song.

The temptation to shirk actually writing about this one was strong, but I decided to do my duty anyway. I actually remember the first time this single came out: they'd had a few indie hits off the breakthrough album Dandy Warhols Come Down, including the surprise Top 20 'Not If You Were The Last Junkie On Earth', and the first single from the follow-up album just about scraped into the Top 40. When the second single, a fairly obvious take-off of the Stones' 'Brown Sugar', failed to make the grade, I thought that was about the last we'd hear of them: a year later, a ubiquitous mobile-phone advert prompted a re-issue, continuous airplay on AOR radio stations and canonisation as a great slacker anthem. Which I suppose it sort of is, as it's now such an obvious choice.

Like their other big hits, the song has a rather sneery tone. Part of this must come from Courtney Taylor-Taylor's voice, but there obviously is a degree of intent there. The lyric is half a conversation ("So what do you do? Oh yeah I wait tables too" and even if you took that at face value it feels slightly mocking. Once you get to the sting in the tail of the later chorus "Just a casual casual easy thing... it is for me", you lose even more sympathy for the narrator; when he says "I like you" it's not really a compliment, just the minimum possible positive comment. It's as if he's so fond of himself that you should be utterly flattered by the fact that he even likes you. Of course, this is all intentional but the trouble is that the somewhat studied attitude of the songwriting becomes almost as irritating as the protagonist's own with repeated hearings. And we've all heard this a lot. It's actually not as bad a record as it seems though.

Also appearing on: Now 64 (with Mousse T)
Available on: Best Of The Capitol Years 1995-2007