Blur - The Great Escape
Written By: Moti Kupfer
Release date - 11.09.1995
The date was August 14, 1995, and every self-respecting British citizen was biting their nails with nerves. There are reports of Shmelok Mahravsky, the legendary manager of Maccabi Tel Aviv, being seen leaving rooms because he could not bear the tension hanging over the kingdom, as if these were the decisive minutes of an important European Champions Cup game.
No one would ever forget that day in the usually sleepy British kingdom, all because of two bands that had become two icebergs threatening to crash into one another, two heavyweight boxers. On one side stood "Oasis" of the Gallagher brothers, and on the other "Blur" of Damon Albarn and Graham Coxon. Representatives of the working class, facing those who spoke to the hearts of Britain's youth. "Oasis" planned to release the single "Roll With It", their second single from their second album, "(What's the Story) Morning Glory?", which was due to be released almost two months later.
But then the British label "Food Records" decided to reshuffle the deck, in a move that greatly angered Noel Gallagher, and release on the same day "Country House", the first single by "Blur" from their fourth album, "The Great Escape", released on 11.09.1995.
And so, for a few days Britain lived under the shadow of what became known as The Battle of Britpop, a musical battle won by "Blur" after "Country House" went straight to the top of the chart, while "Roll With It" entered at number two.
In the end, "Country House" sold 274,000 copies while "Roll With It" sold only 216,000 copies. But that was only victory in the first round. Almost two months later, when "Oasis" released their second album, it became clear that they had won the overall battle, delivering a knockout to "Blur" through the album's success.
That battle marked both the peak of Britpop and the moment that signaled the beginning of the genre's decline. The same can be said of "The Great Escape", the third and final part of "Blur"'s Britpop trilogy, which began with "Modern Life Is Rubbish" and peaked with "Parklife".
On June 17, 1995, frontman Damon Albarn and bassist Alex James spoke on BBC Radio 1 about their attempts to find a title for the album. "We've got until this Wednesday, our record company inform us, to come up with it," Albarn said. James added that they had been trying to work "life" into the title, but ideas such as Wifelife, Darklife and Nextlife were not good enough.
The pressure to find a suitable title while somehow incorporating the word "Life", as on the previous two albums in the trilogy, made them think about escaping that pressure. That led to the title "The Great Escape", a concept album that combines themes of escape, loneliness and detachment from society.
The meaning behind "The Great Escape" is the intense longing to escape into a life of glamour and freedom, away from everyday life and exhausting work, much like a summer vacation that breaks the routine.
Later, Damon Albarn revealed that much of the album was about himself, as in the song "Dan Abnormal", an anagram of Damon Albarn. The song is about an entertainer who, despite spending his everyday life watching television and drinking with friends at the pub, feels fundamentally detached from society because of his public role.
Until "The Great Escape", the usual pattern was that the song opening each "Blur" album would be released as the first single. That was the case with "She's So High" on "Leisure", "For Tomorrow" on "Modern Life Is Rubbish", and "Girls & Boys" on "Parklife".
In the case of "Stereotypes", although it opened the album, it was "Country House", the album's second track, that was chosen as the lead single. Perhaps the subject of partner swapping (swinging) made the record company wait before releasing it as a single.
Frontman Damon Albarn sings about a woman sleeping with another man while her husband is away, deliberately doing it in different places around the house and in full view of the neighbors. Albarn suggests living a little, even bringing in another couple to spice things up.
So "Country House" was ultimately chosen as the single to lead the album campaign, and it also made history through that battle with "Oasis".
The song tells the story of a wealthy man living a boring life in a country mansion. An article published in "The Guardian" revealed that the song was written about musician David Balfe, one of the owners of "Blur"'s record label, "Food Records", between 1983 and 1994.
When Balfe was asked about the song being written about him, he recalled that his children were six and four when it came out. Whenever it played, they would say it was the song about their dad, while his friends would put it on in the village pub.
Balfe also joked that "Blur" filmed the video in an Austrian palace, so he told everyone it was his house. In reality, he said, his home was a farmhouse that had acquired pretensions over the years. If his name sounds familiar, it may be because he was a member of the post-punk band "The Teardrop Explodes".
Guitarist Graham Coxon despised the video for "Country House" and later said it angered him because the clip cheapened the experience with Page 3-style imagery and revived the kind of sexism and football hooliganism he associated with the culture around it.
We often tend to think our lives cannot get any better than they already are while we are too busy with work and daily routines. We think change will threaten us rather than offer an opportunity, but is that really true? Are these really the best days of our lives, or are we watching the last train to real happiness pull away? That is exactly what "Best Days" is about.
In the case of "Charmless Man", entire theories circulated claiming the song was written about Morrissey or Brett Anderson, the ex-boyfriend of Albarn's girlfriend Justine Frischmann. Albarn rejected the rumors, however, calling the song the product of "a dark and confused time" after he began suffering panic attacks. This eventually led to the band receiving flowers from gangster Ronnie Kray after they mentioned him in the lyrics.
The inspiration for the song came from a visit by Damon Albarn to his grandmother in Lincolnshire. He stopped at Grantham railway station, and while in the men's toilets noticed graffiti with a theme similar to the song's title. Lyrically, the song tells of an upper-class man who tends to become angry quite often.
A beautiful string passage opens what is probably "Blur"'s most complete creation, "The Universal", a song accompanied throughout by a string quartet, brass and a choir.
Much credit goes to Graham Coxon, whose guitar blends wonderfully with the strings.
The song "The Universal" was first attempted during the sessions for "Parklife" as a ska number. During the making of "The Great Escape", bassist Alex James revived it. In his autobiography, "Bit of a Blur", James notes that the band nearly gave up on the song until Albarn came up with the string arrangement at the last moment. The song focuses specifically on a drug, apparently an antidepressant such as Prozac, while looking at the lives of people in the 21st century.
The video was based on Stanley Kubrick's film "A Clockwork Orange". At the time, however, guitarist Graham Coxon felt uncomfortable with the band's success and the direction their music was taking. There was also some tension between him and the other members. During the video shoot, he would often arrive several hours late and rarely stayed for more than an hour.
The first song recorded for the album, "Mr. Robinson's Quango", criticizes right-wing bureaucrats, which says something about where Damon Albarn stood politically even back then.
Albarn continues writing about escape on "He Thought of Cars". The song focuses on the unhappiness of an unnamed man living a routine life and longing to get away.
And speaking of escaping reality, what symbolizes it better than winning the lottery, as mentioned in "It Could Be You". Yet there is a slightly darker meaning. The lyric "All we want is to be happy" mocks those who believe money is necessary for happiness, extending the satire to the dream of the perfect happy family at home. The song title was taken from the slogan used by the National Lottery.
The song "Ernold Same" features then British MP Ken Livingstone. In the liner notes he is credited as "The Right-On Ken Livingstone".
Producer Stephen Street later explained that it was his idea to bring Livingstone in because he was not a fan. They needed someone with a nasal, boring voice for the narration, so Street suggested him. Livingstone arrived assuming the band admired him, but Street said that was definitely not the case and that he could not stand him.
On "Globe Alone" we get a song driven by intense guitars that focuses on a man obsessed with material things. His fixation on possessions has isolated him from the rest of the world, leaving him alone on the globe.
The way the lyrics paint a world of meaningless convenience in an advertising-saturated culture is at the heart of "Entertain Me", bringing us closer to a dystopian vision of a culture full of people who have what they want yet still want more, or simply do not know how to fill the emptiness that remains.
The closing song "Yuko and Hiro" was originally called "Japanese Workers". It is about a salaried office worker who spends most of the day at work, showing unwavering loyalty to the workplace.
Listening to the album again while knowing how the next two decades unfolded for "Blur" and Albarn, the writing was already on the wall.
The social commentary "Blur" offered on the previous two albums became hyper-real here, but also darker and more distorted, quietly setting the tone for their next album.
For Listening: Spotify, Apple Music
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