In The Beautiful South, Heaton shared the lead singer's role with Hemingway and female singer Briana Corrigan to create a trio of lead vocalists. This set-up helped to characterise the bittersweet kitchen sink dramas played out in Heaton's often-barbed songs.
The band's music might sound like bubbly, catchy, lightweight pop but Heaton's sour, savage and amusing worldview on everything and anything (alcoholism, religion, sex, politics and, mostly, the down side of relationships) is always lurking beneath the surface of the quirky melodies. The tastes and smells of the local pub are never far away either, with the band gaining a reputation for boozing. The band's first album was Welcome to the Beautiful South (1989) and spawned the hits Song For Whoever and You Keep It All In. The release of 1990's Choke album saw the band claim its only Number 1 hit to date, A Little Time. 0898 followed in 1992, with hits including Old Red Eyes Is Back.
In 1994, after Corrigan quit the band when she saw Paul's lyrics for the forthcoming album Miaow, St Helens supermarket shelf-stacker, Jacqui Abbott, was brought on board to fill in. Heaton had heard her sing at an after show party in St Helens and remembered her vocal talents.
Jacqui's first album with the band was Miaow in 1994. Hits included Good as Gold (Stupid as Mud) and a cover of Fred Neil's Everybody's Talking, previously popularised by Harry Nilsson. The end of that year saw the release of Carry on up the Charts, a "best of" compilation consisting of the singles to date plus new track One Last Love Song. The album was massively successful and it is said that 1 in 7 homes in the UK owns a copy.
Blue Is the Colour (1996), Quench (1998) and Painting It Red (2000) followed with varying success. Jacqui also quit the band in 2000. After a second Greatest Hits album Solid Bronze in 2001, they recorded Gaze in 2003 with yet another female vocalist, Alison 'Lady' Wheeler. Wheeler was still in place for 2004's Golddiggas, Headnodders and Pholk Songs, an album of unusually arranged cover versions including Livin' Thing, You're The One That I Want, Don't Fear The Reaper and I'm Stone In Love With You. In 2006 the band released their tenth studio album, Superbi.
The band broke up in January 2007, releasing the statement: "The Beautiful South have split up due to musical similarities. The band would like to thank everyone for their 19 wonderful years in music."
Former members of the group have since played Beautiful South songs together as 'New Beautiful South' and more recently 'The South'.
In 2007, Mercury Records released Soup: The Best of The Housemartins and The Beautiful South, a compilation album containing 7 hit singles by The Housemartins ("The Housemartins Condensed") and 15 tracks The Beautiful South ("Cream of The Beautiful South").
I Love You
The Beautiful South Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
As we rise up on a beautiful morning
But I can't hear
That beautiful sound
Because I'm permanently yawning
What about the time of the fancy dress
When you came dressed as your mum
So scared to show my bill
You must have been listening to your Carousel
Your Carousel, that Carousel
Remember the time
When I turned the house into a rocket ship
And you refused to come to Mars
You said "It's too far"
You had to be back by six to watch your Carousel
Saturn's much too far
You had to watch Carousel (What's going on in there?)
When we first met
I asked you for your hand
I didn't really mean that hand
I meant join hands
Bake phallic cake (Bake phallic cake)
Carry round sticky tape
And love those devil dogs
Be an Indian elephant (Be an Indian elephant)
Bait straight people
But you must have missed my wink
You must have missed my wink
(I love you,
But you're boring, you know,
I really do love you
But you're so particularly boring)
Maybe you were too busy listening to Carousel
Watching Carousel, living Carousel
You were listening to Carousel
You were watching Carousel
The Beautiful South's song I Love You is a love ballad with a cynical twist. It conveys a message of love that's slightly tainted and bored. In the first verse, the birds are singing on a beautiful morning, but the singer is yawning and unable to appreciate the beauty around because of the fatigue he feels in the relationship. The song progresses to reminisce about past memories, like the time they dressed up and went to a party or the time the singer tried to take her to Mars in his "rocket ship." However, she refused to go because she had to be back by six to watch her favorite TV show, Carousel.
Carousel serves as a metaphor throughout the song to illustrate how the other person is too busy living vicariously through the lives of the people on the TV screen to engage meaningfully in their own relationship. The singer feels neglected and unimportant because he is not as interesting to her as the fictional characters on TV. The song ends by repeating that the singer loves the other person, but they are boring, and they know it.
Overall, The Beautiful South's I Love You is a poignant reminder of how easy it is for people to forget what's happening in their real lives when they get caught up in a fantasy world. It warns that real love doesn't always involve fantastical gestures but requires mutual engagement and interest in the other person's life.
Line by Line Meaning
Birds are singing in the trees
The morning is beautiful with the sounds of nature
As we rise up on a beautiful morning
The start of a new day with beauty and potential
But I can't hear
The exhaustion and fatigue is overwhelming
That beautiful sound
The sounds of nature and the world waking up
Because I'm permanently yawning
The fatigue is constant and never-ending
What about the time of the fancy dress
Reflecting on a specific memory
When you came dressed as your mum
Remembering a humorous moment
And there I was splendid in my penguin suit
Remembering personal appearance and presentation
So scared to show my bill
Feeling insecure and vulnerable
You must have been listening to your Carousel
Assuming the other person was preoccupied
Your Carousel, that Carousel
Emphasizing the focus and fixation on something else
Remember the time
Reflecting on another specific memory
When I turned the house into a rocket ship
Remembering imaginative play
And you refused to come to Mars
The other person didn't share the same interest in the imaginative play
You said 'It's too far'
The other person had practical concerns that prevented them from engaging in imaginative play
You had to be back by six to watch your Carousel
Prioritizing something else over imaginative play
Saturn's much too far
The imaginative play was too unrealistic
You had to watch Carousel (What's going on in there?)
The fixation on something else is mentioned again
When we first met
Reflecting on a past relationship
I asked you for your hand
Literal request for physical touch
I didn't really mean that hand
Admitting a true intention behind the request
I meant join hands
A metaphorical request for connection
Bake phallic cake (Bake phallic cake)
Revealing a sense of humor, possibly inappropriate
Carry round sticky tape
Mundane tasks and responsibilities
And love those devil dogs
Lifestyle habits or preferences
Be an Indian elephant (Be an Indian elephant)
Role-playing and imagination
Bait straight people
Possibly controversial views or actions
But you must have missed my wink
Feeling misunderstood or misinterpreted
I love you,
Expressing love and affection
But you're boring, you know,
Honesty about a perceived negative trait in the other person
I really do love you
Reaffirmation of affection
But you're so particularly boring
Emphasizing the perceived negative trait in the other person
Maybe you were too busy listening to Carousel
Repeating the assumption that the other person is preoccupied
Watching Carousel, living Carousel
Further emphasizing the fixation on something else
You were listening to Carousel
Final repetition of the fixation on something else
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: DAVE ROTHERAY, PAUL HEATON
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
arklowrockz
mysterious little beautiful south song
Steve Lanciloti
Super post! Ty
jamie byrne
Peter doherty brought me here
Anthony Miller
kooples?
Sam Shapiro
+jamie byrne me too
Jon Hill
Me too :D
Josh Fourteen
Did he buy you a pint on the way?
Fil Baxter
How?
Elias Horton
big bean