Should Have Been Higher

No, Elmo, today;s post is brought to you by the letter S and the number 3! Hello, Spacemen 3!

In July, the wonderful No Badger Required blog ran a series counting down Rock's Greatest Number, that is, bands or artists with a number in their name.

I had the privilege of making nominations and casting votes as a member of the Musical Jury. That said, the role doesn't presume any expertise, knowledge or skill or that I have the faintest idea what I'm talking about. Even a casual visitor to this blog will pick up that I've spent a lifetime being out of step with musical trends and popular opinion.

Rock's Greatest Number may be considered a prime example of this, as I placed Spacemen 3 at number 15 in my Top 20 of the shortlisted candidates, which contributed to their final placement at #6 in the official countdown.

"Sixth?  Sixth?  What were the musical jury thinking" NBR mastermind SWC wondered at the time. "Spacemen 3 should be, oooh, five places higher, at least.  They are clearly rocks greatest band to have a number in their names.  Whose stupid idea was it to involve the thoughts of other people anyway….?"

It's reasonable to say that SWC's love of Spacemen 3 is well documented.  

My relationship with the music of Spacemen 3 has been different and, well, complicated.

To be honest, I got annoyed with Spacemen 3 before I even heard a single note, thanks to hipster music journos in the late 1980s and early 1990s who banged on that you needed to be on drugs to really ‘get’ their music. 

Although to be fair, Spacemen 3’s album titles - The Perfect Prescription (1987) and especially Taking Drugs To Make Music To Take Drugs To  (1990) - didn’t exactly help provide an opposing view. 

I didn’t like being told what music I should listen to and what drugs I should take to listen to it. So, I did my usual teen thing of going the opposite way.

Therefore, I skirted Spacemen 3 during their lifetime and I only found my way back to them in the mid-1990s after first falling in love with Spiritualized, the band that Jason Pierce formed immediately following. 

Ironic really as, if anything, Spiritualized took the drug references to their logical and ludicrous conclusion, but I appeared to have no problem with that whatsoever. 

It also took a few more years before I explored and appreciated Pete Kember's aural excursions as Sonic Boom. Which just goes to show what a hypocrite I am.

Anyway, taking to long way round to Jason and Pete's band of course revealed that Spacemen 3 made beautiful music all along. I've shared some examples below.

Today's post is also dedicated with thanks - and apologies - to SWC. Spacemen 3 should have been higher. 

{Sonic) Boom, boom.