8 Hard Rock Songs Probably Written Out Of Spite
3. Blur - Song 2
Blur wrote Song 2 in a deliberate attempt to wind up their record company. The band sped up an early, slower, demo and Graham Coxon went for a deliberately amateurish guitar sound, later explaining,
“I really wanted a clangy, crap guitar sound… not played particularly well.”
The recording ended up heavier than anything else in their back catalogue, and they put it to the record company to “blow the flippin’ labels' heads off”. Coxon told Albarn, “tell the label we want to record it as a single, it’ll scare them to death.”
The band didn’t even bother to give the song a proper name, just leaving the placeholder title from the demo tape. Far from being upset, the guys in suits recognised the song’s hit potential.
The two-minute throwaway track Blur recorded to wind up the men in suits, complete with guide vocal on the finished release, ended up being arguably the band's most successful song ever, still played at big sporting events in stadiums worldwide.