Under The Influence: Graham Coxon (Blur)

I first heard ‘Revolution’ when I was four years old, I guess I was just lucky enough to be able to work the record player and recognise it from the apple in the middle. I liked to play with the knobs on the front of the record player, turn the bass right up… I probably even only got the right-hand speaker. I just wanted it to be as big as possible.


I’ve still got that record, I keep it in a box with loads of 45s I bought as teenager. As a kid it gave me that feeling. Later on my taste got more sophisticated, but probably not by much. I was still searching for that thing that made me feel the same. It informed my obsession with early Pavement, The Damned and Sonic Youth...that’s always been an influence on me. I like dynamic, reckless music.


I think someone had put something heavy on top of the arm when they played our copy of ‘Revolution’, so it destroyed the groove all the way through the song. It was scratched, which made everything twice as noisy. That informed my sense of what is correct, and how heavy sounds can be. Later on, listening to recordings of The Who and The Kinks, that informed my perversion even more. This is why I ended up liking fuzz and liking the noise of a guitar groaning under stress

Graham Coxon - The Song That Changed My Life: The Beatles – 'Revolution' in NME Magazine