A BLUR SONG A DAY: Battery In Your Leg

It might have come as a shock to most Blur fans to get a song this soulful out of Damon. Sure 13 tucked a few brilliant breakup songs into the Blur canon... However, weirdly enough, I think it's this song about Graham's departure, rather than any of the Justine Frischmann-inspired introspection from 13 (No Distance Left To Run, Caramel, Tender, 1992) that gets into truly gut-wrenching, truthful beauty. Apparently one of the final times Graham played with Blur was during a session recording of this track, so its got all of the melancholy mythology to back it up.

Battery In Your Leg could have been an over-the-top, almost "musical theatre" sounding song had it been arranged in a slightly different way. Luckily, Damon's genius wonky timing, and oblique lyrics turn it into a crushingly pretty, yet still powerful track.

I think Damon finds it challenging to be this open and emotional musically. In almost every live performance I've seen of this (like this one, and this one) he has a lit cigarette in one hand, as if he's saying "nahh, not really! See I'm still a geezer..." Damon's awkwardness is probably a testament to how personal the song is.

The first time I heard this it absolutely floored me.
Here's a live performance of the song from their Think Tank tour. It's a really great performance, and although Damon looks nonchalant at the beginning once you get to the 2:39 mark you'll understand why it's so great. Even Damon himself seems surprised that he held the note for so long.