Thu. Mar 28th, 2024

Remodel released the single ‘British Racing Green’. It is one of the most innovative yet addictive songs in their catalogue. Intentists are always interested in the creative process or ‘creative trail’ of a work of art. Today we are looking at this journey.

You can hear a rough mix in the studio here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6quGGQVB88&list=UU3TH_rFizC115QSqTBAjtSg&index=7

You can hear the studio version here:

http://www.myspace.com/remodel/music/songs/british-racing-green-75528483

These are the lyrics:

Grainy Black and white, 
Can’t disguise what’s on the screen
Fraught with danger, tangled dream
There’s speeding British Racing Green
 
BRM wore BRG
On the hills they all could see
While they watched and politely cheered
enthralled and taken mechanically
 
 
Chorus
She says take me away from here
put me where the air is clean
Give me spokes, made of chrome
I’ll polish them until they sheen
She says take me away from here
Take me where the grass is long
take me where the lanes are free
my flesh upon upholstery
 
 
Everyone’s going harder now, 
Smoke rising from the arena
Hairpins taken, neatly done
Vanwall, Connaught, Cooper
 
Getting quicker now
flashes of colour hardly seen
flashes flame red and cornflour blue
and flashes true British Racing Green

 
 
Chorus
She says take me away from here
put me where the air is clean
Give me spokes, made of chrome
I’ll polish them until they sheen
She says take me away from here
Take me where the grass is long
take me where the lanes are free
my flesh upon upholstery
 
According to guitarist Mark,”The last two verses are less sentences, more word collages and shorter words with fewer syllables to give the feeling of speed.”
 
The front cover (below)  referenced the nose cone of a 1960s racing car.
 
Here is another extract from the Intentist book ‘The Search for Intentist Art’ where members of the band discuss their creative intentions behind the work:
 
Let’s focus in on one of your artworks in particular. Could you share some of the thoughts behind this work?

 

MARK: The song I spoke of before; British Racing Green. (B.R.G.) It’s a song based on a quite ‘Kraftwerk-like’ idea. Disonant verses are meant to represent tension and racing, with you being lifted away by the chorus. Before writing, I called my dad for research, building a vocal’s bank to dip into for lyrical inspiration, depth. Moreover, the artwork on the sleeve is an attemptto capture the livery(?) of 1960’s F1 cars with its colour and stripe.

LEIGH: The song is accumulative: speed and tension increase from the start through the first verse, first chorus, second verse and to the climatic ending. The latest recording shows the development of extra instrumentation, voices and noises to bring more intensity, ‘colours’, and character to the song’s ultimate crescendo. We are much happier with the current recording (2011) of B.R.G than we were with the first.

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