Day After Day #141: The Concept

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

The Concept (1991)

Ah, 1991. It was the Year Punk Broke. It was a big year for high-profile news stories: The Gulf War escalated into a ground war, the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings, the William  Kennedy Smith rape trial. Alternative rock became a big deal by the end of '91 after albums released by Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and the Red Hot Chili Peppers blew up in a large way. 

But another thing that always pops into my head when I think about that year is Spin magazine naming Teenage Fanclub's Bandwagonesque the album of the year for 1991. I honestly think they did it just to fuck with everybody going gaga over Nevermind, but it was an inspired choice. Hell, even Kurt Cobain called Teenage Fanclub "the best band in the world" and had TF support Nirvana on tour in 1992. They even played Saturday Night Live in February 1992 (Jason Priestley was the host).

I was reading Spin and watching a lot of MTV's 120 Minutes then, so I was well aware of and greatly digging Teenage Fanclub at the time (ask me sometime to do my imitation of 120 Minutes host Dave Kendall saying "Bandwagonesque"). They combined a lot of stuff I loved (and love): shiny Big Star-style power pop, Sonic Youth-esque feedback and Crazy Horse riffage. I don't think it was the best album of that year, but it was pretty damn close (my most recent ranking of 1991's best has them at #4).

The band was formed in 1989 in Glasgow by Norman Blake (vocals, guitar), Raymond McGinley (vocals, lead guitar) and Gerard Love (vocals, bass), who all shared lead vocals and wrote songs for the band. Francis MacDonald was the band's original drummer and was on their 1990 debut A Catholic Education before going back to college. Some of the songs were re-recorded with his replacement Brendan O'Hare. The album is a lot heavier and louder than their subsequent releases.

Released in November 1991, Bandwagonesque is technically the third Teenage Fanclub album. The second one, The King, was deleted on the day it came out (August 27, 1991). The band had completed recording Bandwagonesque early and then got drunk and recorded The King in one night, with some improvised songs and covers of "Like a Virgin" and "Interstellar Overdrive" by Pink Floyd. It's believed it was to fulfill a contractual obligation to Matador Records so they could sign with Geffen without a penalty, although the band has denied this. It was re-released for Record Store Day in 2019.

"The Concept" was the lead track on Bandwagonesque and the second single, written and sung by Blake. In a 2015 interview, he said the lyrics came together 20 minutes before the song was recorded, something they did with much of the album. The song focuses on a woman who's very into the narrator and his band.

"She wears denim wherever she goes/Says she's gonna get some records by the Status Quo/Oh yeah Oh yeah/Still she won't be forced against her will/Says she don't do drugs but she does the pill/Oh yeah Oh yeah/I didn't want to hurt you oh yeah/I didn't want to hurt you oh yeah."

The power poppy song starts off with some feedback and then shambles along with fuzzy guitars, but it really highlights the band's harmonies; Blake, McGinley and Love are all terrific singers. Blake sings about how the girl in question digs his hair and his band, but he doesn't seem too attached to her until it's too late.

"Says she likes my hair 'cause it's down my back/Says she likes the group 'cause we pull in the slack/Oh yeah Oh yeah/When she's at the gig she takes her car/And she drives us home if it is in a bar/Oh yeah Oh yeah."

On the album version of the song, the last few minutes is just an awesome guitar-driven outro. "The Concept" hit #12 on the Billboard Alternative Airplay chart and #51 on the U.K. Singles chart, while the album peaked at #137 on the Billboard 200 chart. The album cover was a painting of a money bag with a dollar sign on it; apparently Gene Simmons had trademarked that design and after sending a letter to Geffen, was given a check. That's a claim he makes in his book Sex Money Kiss, so take that for what it's worth, but it does sound like something he'd do.

"The Concept" found some new fans in 2011 when the Charlize Theron movie Young Adult began with her character listening to the song on a mixtape her old boyfriend gave her in high school. I never saw the movie so had no idea about the TF connection until just now; it was one of those movies I always meant to watch but never did. 

Sadly, I didn't keep up with Teenage Fanclub throughout the next decade-plus. Their albums did well in the U.K. but they got very little attention in the U.S. It wasn't until I started subscribing to Emusic, a digital music subscription service, that I began listening to TF again. I picked up their 2003 greatest hits comp Four Thousand Seven Hundred and Sixty-Six Seconds - A Short Cut to Teenage Fanclub. I saw them a few times over the last several years; they still sound great, but they're a lot mellower than they were in the early '90s and they've long since cut their hair. Love left the band in 2018 but Blake and McGinley are still leading the way, churning out great jangle-pop gems.