"Bitter Sweet Symphony" by The Verve

There were a few songs I originally had in mind to write about, but I recently started listening to one in particular that I haven’t listened to in a while, and I really want to write about it, even if there is some baggage attached to it. The song is “Bitter Sweet Symphony” by The Verve.

The aforementioned “baggage” is a legal dispute between The Verve and the former manager of The Rolling Stones. The Verve used a violin part from an orchestral rendition of the song “The Last Time” by The Rolling Stones throughout “Bitter Sweet Symphony.” Before they released the song, the band came to an agreement with the label that had released the orchestral album but they were sued by the Stones’ former manager (who owned the copyrights to the band’s songs pre-1970) along with another manager of the band’s for plagiarism. The claims were that The Verve had used too much of the song. This meant that The Verve got none of the royalties for “Bitter Sweet Symphony” (which ended up being quite a lot, as it charted very well). Only in 2019 did they finally get the rights signed over.

Now that that’s out of the way, I want to talk about the song itself. For what it’s worth, it was the violin part that stuck out to me so much originally. I heard it on the radio in the car and it immediately stuck in my mind. Once I got home, I looked all over the internet for it, having only “song with violin part” to go off of. Somehow, I found it.

Despite the fact that I did eventually get tired of it, I want to be clear that I love this song. The more I think about it and listen to it, the more I convince myself that it’s probably one of my favorite songs ever. It’s no "Good Vibrations," but it’s up there.

First, the instrumentals: The controversial violin part kicks everything off, with the lead violin gradually rising up above the rest to play the riff that continues throughout the song. There’s some strange A Flock of Seagulls-like noises that flutter in and out, building up to a minor explosion of sorts, where the drums and some other synth sounds come in. A bass line enters with the lyrics and the violin riff disappears, coming back during choruses and lasting until the next verse starts.

The lyrics are fairly straightforward. They detail someone who seems disillusioned with life in general, seeing it as a constant struggle, leading inevitably to death. They have a desire to change but have difficulty actually doing so.

Another aspect that I think is important to the song is the music video, which shows lead singer Richard Ashcroft walking down the street, paying no attention to those in front of him and refusing to stop for them. He bumps into people, knocks them over, and walks over cars, all without reacting at all.

These all come together to create what I think is a really amazing song. The instrumental doesn’t do a lot as far as changing keys or having multiple, distinct sections, but in my opinion, it doesn’t need to. It’s good enough to go on its own for almost 6 minutes, which is not an opinion I hold for many songs. The lyrics put the song in a category of music expressing a kind of hopelessness that I actually find really cathartic. Similar to the line from “Bullet With Butterfly Wings” by Smashing Pumpkins that “despite all my rage I am still just a rat in a cage,” I think there’s a certain comfort to be found in the sentiment that “I am here in my mold.” Things are the way they are and sometimes, no matter how much we try (or want to try), we can’t change them. It’s not an attitude that I think should be applied to everything, but when a situation feels out of control, a reminder that we can’t do anything about it can be useful in coming to terms with it. This is probably why I thought it fit the “brutalist vibe” that I find myself drawn to.

The sentiment of lacking control and simply letting things happen definitely does not apply to the music video. Ashcroft is completely in control of whether he walks around the woman looking for something in her purse or if he collides with her head-on. Generally, I don’t find the trope of “being a jerk” to be particularly amusing or “cool,” even when it’s supposed to be portrayed that way. I guess I think it fits this video because it isn’t portrayed that way. For me at least, the manner in which Ashcroft continues to move forward, unphased of who is in his way or what effect he has on them, highlights the perceived pointlessness expressed in the lyrics.

To avoid turning this into a whole essay, I'll conclude with this: I think the best way to sum up “Bitter Sweet Symphony” is the title itself. It’s bitter, it’s sweet, and it’s a masterpiece of a song.