Pictures of Matchstick Men
Pictures of Matchstick Men is a song by British rock band Status Quo from 1968. It was the group's first single .
publication
Pictures of Matchstick Men was in January 1968 on the label Pye Records with catalog number PYE 7N17449 published in Germany (PYE HT 300161).
The song was originally intended as the B-side of Gentleman Joe's Sidewalk Cafe , but then became the A-side after it turned out that it was much better received and also fit perfectly into the incipient psychedelic rock music trend.
The piece is, like the single B-side Gentleman Joe's Sidewalk Cafe , also on the album Picturesque Matchstickable Messages from the Status Quo , released in September 1968 .
description
The song begins with a single electric guitar that repeats a simple, high-pitched 4-note melody before the second electric guitar kicks in along with the Hammond organ , electric bass and drums , and finally the vocals begin. The best described as "psychedelic Bubblegum is" piece described one of many from the Endsechzigern in which " flanging " ( comb filter effects ) was used, an audio technology that in the 1950s by the US guitarist Les Paul was invented.
Songwriter Francis Rossi on the making of the song:
“I wrote it on the bog. I'd gone there, not for the usual reasons - having a crap and what have you - but to get away from the wife and mother-in-law. I used to go into this narrow frizzing toilet and sit there for hours until they finally went out. I got three quarters of the song finished in that khazi. The rest I finished in the lounge. "
“I wrote it on the shithouse. I had withdrawn there, not for the usual reasons - to shit and all - but to get away from my wife and mother-in-law. I often went to that tight, sizzling hot toilet and sat there for hours until they finally left the house. I finished three quarters of the song in this toilet, the rest in the living room. "
Chart placements
The single rose to number 7 in the UK Top 40 in Great Britain and gave the band the only chart hit in the USA to date (number 12). In Canada, the song reached number 8 on the charts. In Germany, Status Quo also became known with this title and thus landed in the charts at number 7. In the Swiss hit list, Pictures of Matchstick Men came up to number 5.
Cover versions
- Forgotten Rebels released a punk version of Matchstick Men in 1986 on their LP The Pride and Disgrace .
- Camper Van Beethoven covered Pictures of Matchstick Men on their 1989 album Key Lime Pie, and with the song they had a number 1 hit in Billboard Magazine's alternative charts "Modern Rock Tracks" .
- Ozzy Osbourne together with Type O Negative , 1997 on the soundtrack to the autobiographical Howard Stern film Private Parts .
- Death in Vegas - the melody and chord progression used in the song Scorpio Rising from the 2003 album of the same name with Liam Gallagher as lead singer is almost identical to that of Pictures of Matchstick Men . Francis Rossi is therefore named as a co-author .
- Kasabian released a cover version of Matchstick Men on their CD single Shoot the Runner in 2006 .
Media appearances
- My Name Is Earl - The Status Quo version runs at the end of the episode Dance of the Prison .
- Target Corporation - The Status Quo version was also used for a Target Corporation commercial.
- Men in Black 3 - In addition, the Status Quo version can be heard at the alien party when Agent J let himself be transported back to the year 1969.
Individual evidence
- ^ Tanya Headon: Songs about Laurence Stephen Lowry. Retrieved July 27, 2013.
- ↑ everyhit.com search mask: "Status Quo"
- ^ Joel Whitburn: The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits. 7th edition. Billboard Books, New York 2000, ISBN 0-8230-7690-3 , p. 599.
- ^ Günter Ehnert (Ed.): Hit-Bilanz, Deutsche Chart Singles 1956-1980. Taurus-Press, Hamburg 1990, ISBN 3-922542-24-7 , p. 195.
- ↑ Quo, Pictures of Matchstick Men. Hitparade.ch