End of a Century

"End of a Century"
Single by Blur
from the album Parklife
B-side "Red Necks" (7")
"Red Necks", "Alex's Song" (CD)
Released 7 November 1994
Format Cassette, CD, 7" vinyl
Recorded October 1993 – January 1994
Genre Britpop
Length 2:46
Label Food
Songwriter(s) Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon, Alex James and Dave Rowntree
Producer(s) Stephen Street
Blur singles chronology
"Parklife"
(1994)		 "End of a Century"
(1994)		 "Country House"
(1995)

"Parklife"
(1994)		 "End of a Century"
(1994)		 "Country House"
(1995)
Parklife track listing
16 tracks
  1. "Girls & Boys"
  2. "Tracy Jacks"
  3. "End of a Century"
  4. "Parklife"
  5. "Bank Holiday"
  6. "Badhead"
  7. "The Debt Collector"
  8. "Far Out"
  9. "To the End"
  10. "London Loves"
  11. "Trouble in the Message Centre"
  12. "Clover Over Dover"
  13. "Magic America"
  14. "Jubilee"
  15. "This Is a Low"
  16. "Lot 105"
Music video
"End of a Century" on YouTube

"End of a Century" is a song by alternative rock band Blur. Released in November 1994, it was the last single to be released from their third album Parklife. "End of a Century" reached number 19 on the UK Singles Chart,[1] considered a disappointment by Andy Ross of Food Records.[2] Albarn later stated that "End of a Century" may not have been the best choice for the album's fourth single, and that "This Is a Low" would have been a better alternative.

Composition

Damon Albarn stated that the song is about "how couples get into staying in and staring at each other. Only instead of candle-light, it’s the TV light." The opening line, "she said there's ants in the carpet", refers to an infestation of ants that Albarn and his then-girlfriend Justine Frischmann suffered in their then-home in Kensington.[2]

The lyrics seem to emphasise the (then) up-coming millennium change and the fact that people contemplate the future rather than take care of the present. The line from the song is "End of a Century // It's nothing special". Producer Stephen Street saw the song as "Damon getting the art of songwriting really sorted".[2]

Squeeze did a live cover version of the song for their 1995 single "This Summer".

The video is a live performance recorded at Alexandra Palace. As with their later video to Tender, it uses the audio track of the live performance, rather than overdubbing the audio of the studio take.

Track listings

7" and Cassette
  1. "End of a Century" (Albarn, Coxon, James and Rowntree; Lyrics by Albarn) – 2:47
  2. "Red Necks" (Albarn, Coxon, James, Rowntree; Lyrics by Coxon) – 3:04
CD
  1. "End of a Century" (Albarn, Coxon, James, Rowntree; Lyrics by Albarn) – 2:47
  2. "Red Necks" (Albarn, Coxon, James, Rowntree; Lyrics by Coxon) – 3:04
  3. "Alex's Song" (James) – 2:42

Production credits

Charts

Charts (1994) Peak
position
UK Singles Chart[1] 19

References

  1. 1 2 "BLUR | Artist". Official Charts. Retrieved 6 May 2013.
  2. 1 2 3 Cavanagh, David; Stuart Maconie (July–August 1995). "How did they do that?". Select.
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