Belle and Sebastian is a band from Glasgow. Led by guitarist/vocalist Stuar… Read Full Bio ↴Belle and Sebastian is a band from Glasgow. Led by guitarist/vocalist Stuart Murdoch, the seven-piece band has an intimate, majestic sound that is equal parts folk-rock and '60s pop. Murdoch has a gift not only for whimsy and surrealism, but also for odd, unsettling lyrical detail which keeps the songs grounded in a tangible reality.

Belle and Sebastian released their first two albums in 1996: Tigermilk, recorded over three days, and If You're Feeling Sinister, recorded in a week, at the peak of the chamber pop movement. At first, some critics in Britain's music weeklies tied the band into the subgenre, yet the group was too pretty, too delicate, to bear that label. Through their first two years of public existence, the band shielded their personalities, submitting publicity photos featuring a girl, who was a friend of the band and reluctantly posing for photo shoots. Furthermore, they performed in odd venues, playing not only the standard coffeehouses and cafes, but also homes, church halls, and libraries.

Prior to the formation of Belle and Sebastian, Murdoch suffered from a protracted battle with chronic fatigue syndrome, which forced him to drop out of school and spend seven years living in his parents' home crippled by his condition.Whilst in his parents home, Murdoch wrote a short story about a boy named Sebastian and a girl named Isabelle based on the names from Madame Cecile Aubery's children's book Belle et Sebastian. On New Year's Day 1996, Stuart attended a party at which he met a young singer and cellist named Isobel Campbell. In a letter to his brother Fraser, Murdoch explained how he was making a single for Stow college at the end of February. Murdoch opted to use the name Belle&Sebastian for the project because it was occupying him at the time. Murdoch took to songwriting as an escapism from the four walls surrounding him in his room and eventually recorded demos with bassist Stuart David whom he met at a government training programme called Beatbox. Murdoch quickly met a series of other musicians through social and musical circles in his hometown Glasgow and they agreed to help with the Stow project. The members he found for this initial lineup were Stevie Jackson (guitar), Mick Cooke (trumpet), Chris Geddes (keyboards), Stuart David (bass), Richard Colburn (drums), and Isobel Campbell (cello). The Stow College record was to be issued by Electric Honey, but it turned into a full album. The course instructor Alan Rankine determined that Murdoch had enough good material to record a full LP and could do so if they could get it all done in three days, studio time allotted for the single. Murdoch and his musicians rose to the challenge and recorded ten tracks putting the songs in order as they would appear on the record and mostly completing them in just a few takes.

In May of 1996, Belle and Sebastian self-released their debut album, Tigermilk, on Electric Honey Records. Only 1,000 copies of the album, which was only pressed on vinyl, were released, but it unexpectedly became a sensation, earning terrific word of mouth throughout the UK. As a result, the band became slightly more than a school project — it became an actual band. If You're Feeling Sinister, released on the independent Jeepster label, followed in November of 1996. By the time the album was released in America on the EMI subsidiary The Enclave, it had earned considerable critical acclaim in the U.K. — not only from music weeklies, but from newspapers like The Sunday Times and magazines like The Face — and a large cult following; by some accounts, Tigermilk was being sold for as much as 75 pounds. Over the course of 1997, word of mouth continued to grow in America, even as the band pulled out of an American tour because The Enclave went bankrupt and closed.

As the band cult continued to build in 1997, Belle and Sebastian released three EPs — Dog on Wheels (May), Lazy Line Painter Jane (July), and 3.. 6.. 9 Seconds of Light (October). Each subsequent EP placed higher on the indie charts and received great critical acclaim. Later in the year, violinist Sarah Martin became a member of the band. By the end of the year, the group finalized an American deal with Matador Records, issuing The Boy With the Arab Strap in September 1998. The following year saw the eagerly anticipated wide re-release of Tigermilk, the album that started it all. It was the biggest selling album but is unpopular with the group themselves. Following completion of 2000's Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant, Stuart David left Belle and Sebastian to focus full-time on his solo project, Looper, being replaced by Bobby Kildea of V-Twin. In 2001, the group released two EPs — Jonathan David and I'm Waking Up to Us — and recorded the soundtrack for Todd Solondz's film Storytelling. Just before the soundtrack's release in spring 2002, Belle and Sebastian embarked on a comprehensive tour of the United States and Canada before returning to Europe for the summer festival season. Midway through the tour, Isobel Campbell left the band, citing the usual differences.

Another major change that soon took place was the band leaving Jeepster and Matador to sign with Rough Trade, with their next record, late 2003's Dear Catastrophe Waitress, produced by the inimitable Trevor Horn (who also produced Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Yes, and scores of others). The record spawned the brilliant "Step into My Office, Baby" and "I'm a Cuckoo" singles, the latter of which was the group's biggest U.K. hit, reaching number 14 in early 2004. After a long worldwide tour that found Belle and Sebastian reaching new levels of success, they retired to Scotland and began preparing for the recording of their seventh full length album, The Life Pursuit, released in 2006.
In 2010, they released their eighth full length album, Write About Love.

Official website: www.belleandsebastian.com

I Don't Want to Play Football
Belle and Sebastian Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

I don't want to play football
I don't understand the thrill of the game
I don't want to play football
I don't understand the thrill of running, catching, throwing

Taking orders from a moron
Grabbing for the sweaty crotches
Getting hit by people I don't know

Sugar, I'd rather play a different sort of game

Sugar, the girls are just as good as boys at playing

Overall Meaning

Belle and Sebastian's song "I Don't Want to Play Football" is a track that speaks of the singer's lack of understanding and disinterest in the sport. Football, being a game that is often associated with masculinity and strength, has never really appealed to the singer. In fact, he even goes as far as to say that he'd rather play a different sort of game.

The lyrics also speak of the singer's reluctance to take orders from a moron, indicating that he doesn't like the rigid and hierarchical structure that often comes with sports teams. Furthermore, "grabbing for the sweaty crotches" suggests a certain level of discomfort with physical contact and aggression that are often present in football games.

However, the most important message that comes across in this track is the idea that girls are just as good as boys at playing. This could be seen as a subversion of traditional gender roles, as football is often thought of as a typically male sport. The song encourages inclusivity and the breaking down of gender stereotypes.

Overall, "I Don't Want to Play Football" is a song that speaks to the disinterest and discomfort that many people, particularly those who do not conform to traditional gender norms, feel when it comes to sports like football.

Line by Line Meaning

I don't want to play football
I am not interested in playing football.

I don't understand the thrill of the game
I cannot comprehend the excitement of football.

I don't want to play football
I am not interested in playing football.

I don't understand the thrill of running, catching, throwing
I cannot find pleasure in the activities of running, catching and throwing.

Taking orders from a moron
I dislike the idea of following commands from a foolish person.

Grabbing for the sweaty crotches
I find the act of touching sweaty private parts unpleasant.

Getting hit by people I don't know
I do not fancy being bodily harmed by strangers.

Sugar, I'd rather play a different sort of game
I would prefer playing another kind of game.

Sugar, the girls are just as good as boys at playing
Females are equally talented as males when it comes to playing games.

Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: CAMPBE, COLBURN, COOKE, GEDDES, JACKSON, MARTIN, MURDOCH, Christopher Geddes, Isobel Campbell, Michael Cooke, Richard Colburn, Sarah Martin, Stephen Jackson, Stuart Murdoch

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

To comment on or correct specific content, highlight it

TRACKS