Friend of Ours

At first I found this song a bit forgettable... not now though. It's beautiful! The small bits of piano towards the end send shivers down my spine...

Stunning...utterly breathtaking.

"Love you mate"... three words that (in context) just hold such strong emotion about loss, friendship, pain.

My current favourite song on the album

It does seem to carry the themes of the album's title, eh? Elbow must consider it special

I completely agree. It's my favourite track on the album and finishes it perfectly.

I surprised they didn't play this on Sunday. but they did The Stops so I let them off

I love this song. They get a lot of emotional mileage out of very simple lyrics. And the music sounds very atmospheric; kinda like Explosions In The Sky in places. Gorgeous...

It's always hard to relate to a song about another individual's death, especially since you didn't know the individual and it doesn't quite affect you like it does with the band. But with this song, I can't help but allow it to apply to my own life without thinking 'this isn't about ___, it's about someone I don't even know'. All of their lyrics are easy to relate to and I have never felt as though every word in songs similar to this one as being truly genuine as not a lot of artists can pull that sort of feat off quite well, but Guy is able to do it effortlessly.

I think it's the track from SSK that would sound most at home on AITB. Very 'classically' elbow...

Yeah, i love this song. So sad, yet so beautiful. Especially the part when he sings "Salford skyline blue, always you, could fly round any corner"...oops, that was almost half the lyrics in it, ah well...it's brilliant!

I think it's one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard.

Having just lost a good mate of mine recently, it gets me pretty emotional. As Trev said it's the line "Love you mate" that gets me the most.

Cor... that's a powerful coincidence there.

The song is a homage to Bryan Glancy, a much loved and underrated singer/songwriter from North M/cr who sadly died in Jan 2006. There's an entry on the blog set up in his memory (bryanglancy.blogspot.com) from Mr Garvey dated June 2006, which gives a good indication of what the track's about.

Like every good song, this touches you before even know of its context. It's universal. Beautiful song!

all true...

but when are they going to play it live?????

never!!! They'll all burst into tears :roll:sad but true

they? you mean we as well. i always nearly do.
i reckon if they did do it live, it'd be a bit like tower crane - a lot more powerful than expected.

It's a bit hard to sing when crying, don't you think?

garvey 'll do it.
and the shure sm58 microphone he uses is a dynamic microphone, so it doesnt matter if it gets wet. haha. music tech teaches you so many things

yeah, but when you cry, you're vocal chords move of their own free will, things you learn when you love biology

Though I can't help the feeling, that Guy was close to tears on that early version of "Some Riot" back in Amsterdam I could imagine too, that "Friend of ours" might be too emotional for them to do live.
And yes, because the vocal chords go their own way when sobbing I changed in my singing school the music direction from pop/rock/jazz to funny chansons a la Noel Coward
But must admid it would be moving to watch Garve singing while tears dripple out his hazlegreen eyes...I would surely start sobbing too...(I do anyway on songs like "Towercrane driver")

Love this song, it's utterly beautiful.
I started crying when this song came on, on the outward journey of my gap year after saying bye to my closest friends knowing i wouldn't see them for a year.. Not quite the same as the context of the song, but the lyrics really got to me.

i ended up crying today when listening to the version with the BBC orchestra (again)
It is a truly amazing song this one.

Yea, it's one of the tracks that I really liked in the orchestra rendition.

Yes, I really liked the orchestra version especially as I'd only ever heard the album version before.
I wished they'd do it on the live shows...

To be frank, the first time I heard this track I fell head over heels in love with it.......it's sparse, touching, believable and truly, truly spellbinding. Agree with Jones regarding the orchestral version, it was the first time I had seen the band play it live and visually it worked a treat and just added to the beauty of it all.

I'd love them to play it on the next tour, but if it's going to be spoiled by people gabbing during it, then leave it alone. It's between this track and Atmosphere by Joy Divsion for my funeral song, but heh ! I'm in a fine mood and just making conversation, haha !!