Lyric Sheets: Back to the Great Divide

After the failure of Blur's single to oust Britney Spears (below) from the top of the charts, the NME has said there's a case for rock's future "left-field aspirants" to follow the example of 70s rock dinosaurs and refuse to release singles

If there's a case for snobbery

It probably starts here:

A choice between an alcopop

Or decent pint of beer

A trawl around our "hit parade"

Its airheads and its chancers

Its ditzy little keyboard riffs

And drama-school- trained dancers

Whose cover shots and image fees

For vapid promo vids

Might buy a year of breakfasts

For a town of starving kids

So could the only antidote

Be "music-with-a-beard?"

The difficult and lengthy

The arty and the weird

Where every track's a sort of threat

Which keeps on switching key

Or flaunts a nasty time-change

Where choruses should be.

With minus no-potential

As an advertising jingle

And even less to offer

As a radio-friendly single

Back to double gatefold sleeves

And self-important solos?

But back to men who musically,

Would give you their last Rolos

Scruffy folk in wiry specs

The fashion police would hate

Unsuitable for TFI

The Chart Show or Blind Date

Who'd drag the music from the mall

And into pastures fresh

And leave the singles market

To the muppets, as a creche