Blur
This Is A Low

Having listened to a lot of music from various eras for much of my life, I can say that in international music since the '80s, we haven't heard songs from young artists that are or seem like poetry.

If that's the case, then 'This Is a Low' by Blur is an exception. And for the 30th anniversary today of the release of ' Parklife ', the group's most famous album (with two classic hits, 'Girls and Boys' and 'Parklife'), I want to present the story and content of this song, so peculiar, that it is a rarity in music and lyrics from the last (more than) 40 years of international Pop music, since the image, more or less, has increasingly taken up space on the scene.

The story begins with the music of the song that was stored at the record label awaiting lyrics. In the last days of recording the album, the producer forced Damon Albarn (the singer and the author of almost all the group's song lyrics) to write some, due to Albarn's refusal, admitting it was impossible for him to do so.

But inspiration had already started during the Christmas holidays a few months earlier when he was in a seaside spot in Cornwall (a region of England, ed/note from reviewer) with his family, while walking along the cliffs listening to the song's music on his Walkman.

The true inspiration came from a handkerchief Alex James (the group's bassist) had given him, where the weather report zones the BBC (the UK equivalent of Rai) used for a radio show, the 'Shipping Forecast' ('Shipping Bulletin'), were drawn. The group listened to it in America during a disastrous tour two years prior, feeling homesick.

What emerged was what Stuart Maconie, an English music journalist and radio presenter, in a famous English documentary, describes as 'a psychedelic journey along the British coast halfway between Edward Lear ' (a 19th-century nonsense poet, ed) and John Lennon ' (who wrote two books of nonsense poetry in the early years of his career with the Beatles and then some songs with them in the later years, like 'Hey Bulldog', for the 1968 'Yellow Submarine' cartoon soundtrack, ed) using the “Shipping Forecast”.'

But what does the song say?

'And into the sea goes pretty England and me,

around the Bay of Biscay and back for tea.

Hit the traffic on the Dogger Bank

Up the Thames to find a taxi rank.

Sail on by with the tide and go to sleep.

And the radio says:

("And into the sea goes pretty England and me / around the Bay of Biscay and back for tea / Hit the traffic on the Dogger Bank / Up the Thames to find a taxi rank / Sail on by with the tide and go to the sleep / And the radio says)

“Questo è un ciclone,

ma non ti colpirà.

Quando sarai solo, lui sarà lì con te,

trovando i modi di stare solo”.

(This is a low / But it won't hurt you / When you're alone it will be there with you / Finding ways to stay solo)

Sul Tyne, sul Forth e a Cromarty,

c'è un ciclone sugli High Forties.

Sabato è chiuso lontano sulla banchina:

non abbastanza veloce, caro.

E sul Capo Malin, Blackpool appare blu e rossa;

e la Regina, lei è impazzita:

è saltata dal Land's End.

E la radio dice:

(Up the Tyne, Forth and Cromarty / There's a low in the High Forties / Saturday's locked away on the pier / Not fast enough dear / And on the Malin Head / Blackpool looks blue