Song 134 - Blue is the colour by the Beautiful South

 It is Friday, which means an album for the jukebox. It will come as no surprise that this week's album is Blue is the colour by The Beautiful South as there has been a theme this week. This album is probably in my top ten 90s albums as it brings back so many memories of being a student and some of the mad times I had with friends.

Blue is the Colour was the sixth album from Beautiful South, released in October 1996. It was their follow up album to Carry on up the charts (their greatest hits album)  that was released in 1994. This greatest hits album was one of the biggest selling albums of the 1990s and, of course, many who had bought this album naturally went on to buy Blue is the colour but instead of the colour being blue, it was the language that some found a little blue with the opening track of the album Don't Marry Her. Due to the lyric being Don't marry her, fuck me; for the release of the single the line was altered for radio play. The song was a great success and reached number eight in the chart, but left many a fan upset when they heard the true lyrics of the song. How do I know all this? Beautiful South printed some of the comments in their tour programme when they took the album on tour. It was obvious that half the people who bought the greatest hits hadn't listen to the album Miaow.

The album itself continues with the melancholic tone of Miaow and to some is considered the band's darkest effect with songs covering capitalism, alcoholism and prostitution. Having heard this album over a thousand times, it is the characters that are created in the songs that leave you wanting more. Take the song,  The Sound of North America, it takes iconic Americans like Elvis and  Mohammed Ali and weave them into a song that makes you think about bigger issues of the world.  Here's the lyric about Mohammed Ali:  A crippled Mohammed Ali looked bad luck in the mirror; Bad luck looked back at him and sighed. He looked a good foot smaller and a couple of stone thinner, And if anyone came toward hhim he would hide. The sound of North America isn't Christians quietly praying, It's the sound of shuffling feet, that don't know where they're going. Some of the lyrics thought up by Paul Heaton and Dave Rotheray could be published in a poetry book or turned into one act plays and that for me is what makes this album stand out.

As well as releasing Don't marry her, the band also had singles with Rotterdam, Blackbird on the wire and Liar's Bar. Rotterdam was the biggest single of the album and there is a lovely acoustic recording of the song sung by Paul that was used as a B side to a single. The single version which was sung by Jacqui Abbot.

This album was also a subject of a Later with Jools Holland special, where the band linked up with the London Community Gospel Choir and Black Dyke Mills Band, together with Jools Holland to great a very special programme. 

Anyway I could talk about this album for hours and it is better that I just let you hear it:
Don't marry her
Little Blue
Mirror
Blackbird on the wire
The Sound of North America
Have Fun
Liar's Bar
Rotterdam (or anywhere)
Foundations
Artificial flowers
One God
Alone

Album: Blue is the colour
Written by Paul Heaton and Dave Rotheray
Released: 1996