Supergrass - 'Bad Blood'
It's not often you get to see a rockin' band destroy a selection of cakes which have been baked to look like their instruments, is it? And yet this is what happens at the end of this song's video. It may LOOK like Gaz is about to trash his vintage red guitar, but when it comes to the crunch, it's been replaced by a gingerbread lookalike. So has the bass, in fact. The piano is made out of toast, and Danny's snare drum is a piñata full of popcorn.
I don't believe there's been any attempt to dupe the viewing public here, it's pretty obviously not even the same shape of guitar, but it is interesting how the spectacle of a band smashing up their gear has changed in perception over the years.
The first and most notorious guitar-smasher was the Who's Pete Townshend. He would go through loads of top-of-the-range guitars, destroying one (or sometimes more than one) at gigs every night. And this was before YouTube or mobile phones with video cameras in. You weren't supposed to be recording his actions for posterity, he just did it to wow the people who happened to be at the gig itself (and any journalists who were nearby).
Now, this kind of deliberate, decadent destruction used to really get up people's noses. How dare this young upstart treat a fine guitar in such a cavalier fashion? And the answer was, of course, just to get up the noses of the rocksnobs of the time. Smashing your guitar was a very pop thing to do, you see. It's all about the thrill of the now, not the well-thought-out satisfaction of learning your craft. It effectively says that there's a short-cut to being amazing on stage, and it doesn't involve practising your scales.
Except now, things have changed. Smashing your guitar is a very rock thing to do. You do it in tribute to all the other people who smashed their guitars, to be like Pete Townshend or Jimi Hendrix or even Kurt Cobain. There's a (shudder) 'pantheon' of guitar-smashers, and if you smash your guitar, you can join. Hell, as soon as you whip the thing around, hold it by its neck and chop downwards, you're already going "wow! So this is what it must feel like to be in the Whol!"
Only because it's a rock pantheon and rock pantheons are all about venerating the past, you can't go smashing up any old guitar. It can't be a vintage '60s Rickenbacker 12-string, for example. That would be a travesty (albeit one which does not negate the whole point of the smashing in the first place). No, it has to be some cheap, new model which no-one would really care about, but for the fact that you are smashing it up.
Or, in fact, a gingerbread Telecaster.
So, credit to the 'Grass for exposing this ridiculous charade in a humorous fashion, and making a pathetic gesture seem like a fun thing again. And for setting it to a hot rockin' soundtrack too. Nice drums, Mr Goffey!
Download: Out now
CD Released: March 17th
(Fraser McAlpine)
PS: Here's of that very first guitar-destruction thing...
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