Country House

Country House is the second track and first single release for Blur's fourth studio album The Great Escape. It is also the twelfth single to be released by Blur, on August 14th, 1995. The song peaked at #1 on the UK Single Charts, the first Blur single to do so. It would be central to 'The Battle of Britpop', a fight with Oasis for who could get number 1. The song would also earn them a performance on Top Of The Pops for that week.

Single cover for Country House (CD1).

History

According to Damon Albarn, Country House was inspired by Blur's former manager David Balfe, which when he left Food Records, he had bought himself a house in the country. It was first demoed in 1994, with Balfe hearing it and thinking it was simply okay. Graham wanted Stereotypes as the lead single, while everyone else unanimously chose "Country House" for the sheer popularity garner at Mile End. Graham Coxon would state, "I grew to loathe it. It started out really well with that nice middle eight but turned into this oompah thing... It was too much. It seemed insincere and cynical."

Release

"Country House" was released on August 14th, 1995, initially releasing on the 21st. However, according to Andy Ross, for an unexpected reason Oasis's team decided "Roll With It" would be released about six weeks earlier than usual, landing "Country House" a week after it. They'd tried to not clash as much during the release between singles and had communicated for 6 months to avoiding this. Later, he had decided moved it to the same day Oasis would so that "Country House" would at least have a fighting chance. After a chat with Andy, Damon would be up for the changing of the release date.

The fight for the number one spot on the chart would be infamously dubbed 'The Battle of Britpop'. Blur would end up taking the number one spot after selling 274,000 copies, 58,000 copies over Oasis. Damon Albarn would express how surprised he was after the NME told him it wouldn't happen. Blur would perform on Top Of The Pops that week introduced by Jarvis Cocker. While Damon enjoyed his moment there, Graham would look miserable throughout the performance, contemplating jumping from the window while drunk later that night.

The Country House single sold 540,000 as of 2014, copies making it Blur's bestselling single till this day.

Music Video

The music video for Country House was directed by Damien Hurst, starring Blur, actor Keith Allen and comedian Matt Lucas. the music videos also features various models and a marching band. The music video is mainly set on a fictional board game called 'Escape from the Rat Race', which looks to be a parody of the board game 'Mouse Trap'.

Graham would later write in his memoir that “It made me angry because here I was, finally in a band, and the experience seemed to be getting cheapened by Page 3-type imagery, a revival of sexism and football hooliganism,” and "I was clashing heavily with the Britpop thing and didn’t feel the need to refer to women’s body parts in a rude way."

Producer Stephen Street would comment, "From mine and Graham’s point of view, we were very unhappy with how the record was portrayed by the video – it cheapened it. I hated it, I absolutely detested it.”

Tracklisting

• UK CD1 & AUS CD:

1. "Country House" – 3:58
2. "One Born Every Minute" – 2:17
3. "To The End (La Comedie)" (With Françoise Hardy) – 5:06

• UK CD2 [Live From Mile End Stadium, Saturday, June 17, 1995]:

1. "Country House (Live)" – 5:02
2. "Girls & Boys (Live)" – 5:05
3. "Parklife (Live)" – 3:14
4. "For Tomorrow (Live)" – 8:10

Japanese CD single

1. "Country House" – 3:58
2. "One Born Every Minute" – 2:18
3. "To The End (La Comedie)" (with Françoise Hardy) – 5:06
4. "Charmless Man" – 3:33

• UK 7-inch and cassette single and EU CD single

1. "Country House" – 3:58
2. "One Born Every Minute" – 2:17

Credits

All songs written by Albarn.

Blur

• production on "One Born Every Minute" and "To The End (La Comedie)"
• Damon Albarn – lead vocals, keyboards, organ
• Graham Coxon – guitar, saxophone, backing vocals
• Alex James – bass guitar, backing vocals
• Dave Rowntree – drums, percussion, backing vocals

Additional personnel

• Stephen Street – production on "Country House" and "Charmless Man", mixing on "To The End (La Comedie)"
• John Smith – engineering on "Country House" and "Charmless Man", production on "One Born Every Minute" and "To The End (La Comedie)", mixing on "To The End (La Comedie)"
• Julia Gardner – assistant engineering on "Country House" and "Charmless Man"
• Tom Girling – assistant engineering on "Country House" and "Charmless Man"
• Stephen Hauge – original production on "To The End (La Comedie)"
• Françoise Hardy – french lyrics on "To The End (La Comedie)"
• Isabel Griffiths – orchestra fixing on "To The End (La Comedie)"
• Rick Wentworth – conducting on "To The End (La Comedie)"
• Khalil Chahine – string arrangement on "To The End (La Comedie)"
• Jacques Bolognesi – accordion solo on "To The End (La Comedie)"

Trivia

• Graham Coxon wouldn't want to be in the music video unless he was allowed to dress up as a milkman.
  • In a Select magazine in 1999, Graham would say, “I ended up being the milkman. If I’d done what I was supposed to, I would have had a lobotomy by now."
  • In the same magazine, he also said "There’s some unintentionally funny bits where I’m not chasing them. ‘Come on, Graham, chase them!’ and I’m running in the opposite direction."