Swamp Thing (song)

This article is about the Grid song. For other songs, see Swamp Thing (disambiguation).

"Swamp Thing"
Single by the Grid
from the album Evolver
Released23 May 1994 (1994-05-23)[1]
Genre
Length3:56
LabelDeconstruction
Songwriter(s)
  • Richard Norris
  • David Ball
Producer(s)The Grid
The Grid singles chronology
"Texas Cowboys"
(1993) 		"Swamp Thing"
(1994) 		"Rollercoaster"
(1994)
Music video
"Swamp Thing" on YouTube

"Swamp Thing" is a song by British electronic music group the Grid, released on 23 May 1994 by Deconstruction as a single and is included on the group's third album, Evolver (1994). The song peaked at number three on the UK, Australian, and Danish singles charts and reached the top five in an additional seven countries, including Finland and Norway, where it reached number two. Its computer generated music video, consisting of dancing robots and a crawling baby, received solid airplay on music television channels. The song was later sampled in "Banjo Thing" by Infernal and "Swamp Thing" by Pegboard Nerds. British magazine NME ranked "Swamp Thing" number 41 in their list of the 50 Best Songs of 1994.[2]

Background and release

"When we played it at Ministry of Sound with Roger, there was a girl at the front staring at his banjo like she'd never seen one before."

—Dave Ball talking to The Guardian about the song.[3]

The Grid formed in 1988, after Dave Ball and Richard Norris had worked with Psychic TV on the 1990 album Jack the Tab – Acid Tablets Volume One, which would later be described as "Britain's first acid house record".[4] "Swamp Thing" was made after Ball found banjo player Roger Dinsdale in a Irish pub in Marylebone and asked him to come to the studio. Dinsdale was a folk musician who also played the guitar and the mandolin.[5] The Grid got him to lay down some riffs written by himself over a bassline and drumbeat. No digital was used apart from computers, so the group had this massive tape loop spliced together, running all over the studio.[3] Dinsdale died in July 2009.[5]

Norris told in a 2024-interview, "'Swamp Thing' was meant to be joyous and immediate for the dancefloor, but we also knew that a banjo house record would piss off the people who were writing long, boring articles about so-called "intelligent techno". Mike Pickering from M People gave it the dancefloor seal of approval when he played it at The Haçienda in Manchester. The duo then performed at the Radio 1 roadshow in Cleethorpes, which led to "Swamp Thing" being included on their playlist. The single ended up going to number three on the UK Singles Chart, staying in the charts for 17 weeks over the summer and autumn of 1994.[3] It is almost completely instrumental, consisting mainly of: drums, synthesizer sounds and banjo. The only vocals are Well alright, watch out, Feel alright and I just dig it, sampled from the 1973 reggae song "Papa Do It Sweet" by Lloyd & Patsy.[6]

Critical reception

Music writer and columnist James Masterton wrote, "I can detect a theme developing here over who can make the best dance record out of the silliest original idea. As if Doop wasn't bad enough we now have the Grid moving away from ambient dub and scoring their biggest hit ever with a dance track based on a banjo reel." He added that it "actually is quite inspired".[7] Holly Barringer from Melody Maker complimented "Swamp Thing" as "a cheeky little number" and "a kind of Deliverance with disco up its butt", concluding, "You can't help but squeal like a pig at the sheer foot-tappingness of the darn thing."[8] Maria Jimenez from Music & Media constated that the group "storms through Europe with their banjo-ignited stormer".[9] Andy Beevers from Music Week's RM Dance Update commented, "Part Two of the Grid's US travelogue takes us east from Texas [with their 1993 single "Texas Cowboys"] to the Deep South, where they successfully set frantic banjo picking against uptempo house beats to create a high energy hoe down."[10] He also declared it as "a mad banjo and house hybrid [that] works surprisingly well."[11]

Another RM editor, James Hamilton, described it as "a breezy progressive throbber."[12] Ben Willmott from NME named it Single of the Week, writing, "Bonkers cowpunk disco of the highest order from the vastly underrated Texas cowboys. No need for reams of descriptive prose here — "Swamp Thing" is the first and last word in banjo house and, more to the point, it's damn good fun too. Roll on the kazoo-gabber crossover."[13] NME editor John Mulvey felt "Swamp Thing" "is veteran techno-esoterics the Grid's latest whimsical sonic journey; a long, fierce trip into Deliverance country that mixes square dance-friendly banjos with the kind of sleek trance disco perfected by Underworld and Fluke. A bit of a novelty — all that finger-picking nonsense gets royally on your tits after a while — but endearing enough in its own backwoods, inbred, rabble-rousing redneck way."[14] The magazine's Paul Moody named it a "brain-denting belter".[15] Mark Frith from Smash Hits deemed the song a highlight of the album.[16]

Chart performance

"Swamp Thing" was very successful on the charts across several continents. In Europe, it soared to number two in Finland, Norway and Scotland. It was a top-10 hit also in Austria (4), Belgium (4), Denmark (3),[17] Iceland (8), Ireland (4), the Netherlands (5), Spain (8), Sweden (4), Switzerland (6) and the United Kingdom. On the Eurochart Hot 100, it hit number four on 3 September.[18] In the UK, the single peaked at number three in its fifth week on the UK Singles Chart, on 26 June.[19] It also reached number-one on Music Week's Dance Singles chart.[20] Additionally, it was a top-20 hit in Germany (13) and a top-50 hit in France (45). Outside Europe, "Swamp Thing" reached number three in Australia as well as on the RPM Dance/Urban chart in Canada. It also peaked at number 41 in New Zealand.

The single was awarded with a silver record in the UK with a sale of 200,000 copies and a platinum record in Australia, after 70,000 units were sold.

Music video

"Swamp Thing" was accompanied by a music video. The video switches back and forth between two scenes: computer-generated imagery of a group of robots dancing to a techno beat and a blank white landscape with a crawling baby and music synthesiser instruments. The scene with the baby and the instruments also inspired the Evolver album cover art. The video received heavy rotation on MTV Europe[21] and was A-listed on Germany's VIVA.[22] Later it was made available by Vevo on YouTube, and as of early 2024, the video had generated more than 2.7 million views.[23]

Track listings

Charts

Certifications

Region Certification Certified units/sales
Australia (ARIA)[44] Platinum 70,000^
United Kingdom (BPI)[53] Silver 200,000^

^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

References

  1. ^ "Single Releases" (PDF). Music Week. 21 May 1994. p. 27. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
  2. ^ "Albums and Tracks of the Year". NME. Retrieved 3 May 2021.
  3. ^ a b c Simpson, Dave (8 July 2024). "'We knew a banjo house record would annoy the techno bores': how the Grid made Swamp Thing". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 October 2024.
  4. ^ Petridis, Alexis (6 March 2009). "Beyond the Wizard Sleeve's Hopes for a Third Summer of Love | Music | The Guardian". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 October 2024.
  5. ^ a b "Roger Dinsdale - Banjo God - Discussion Forums - Banjo Hangout". www.banjohangout.org.
  6. ^ "The Grid's Swamp Thing sample of Lloyd & Patsy's Papa Do It Sweet".
  7. ^ Masterton, James (29 May 1994). "Week Ending June 4th 1994". Chart Watch UK. Retrieved 6 September 2021.
  8. ^ Barringer, Holly (21 May 1994). "Singles". Melody Maker. p. 33. Retrieved 6 September 2023.
  9. ^ Jimenez, Maria (3 September 1994). "Groovemix: Short Grooves" (PDF). Music & Media. Vol. 11, no. 36. p. 10. Retrieved 8 October 2022.
  10. ^ Beevers, Andy (23 April 1994). "Hot Vinyl" (PDF). Music Week, in Record Mirror (Dance Update Supplemental Insert). p. 6. Retrieved 16 April 2021.
  11. ^ Beevers, Andy (14 May 1994). "Market Preview: Dance" (PDF). Music Week. p. 18. Retrieved 17 April 2021.
  12. ^ Hamilton, James (28 May 1994). "Dj directory" (PDF). Music Week, in Record Mirror (Dance Update Supplemental Insert). p. 5. Retrieved 17 April 2021.
  13. ^ Willmott, Ben (23 April 1994). "Groove Check". NME. p. 15. Retrieved 25 August 2023.
  14. ^ Mulvey, John (7 May 1994). "Singles". NME. p. 43. Retrieved 6 September 2023.
  15. ^ Moody, Paul (19 August 1995). "Long Play". NME. p. 47. Retrieved 11 March 2024.
  16. ^ Frith, Mark (14 September 1994). "New Albums: Best New Album". Smash Hits. p. 57. Retrieved 6 October 2024.
  17. ^ a b "Top 10 Sales in Europe" (PDF). Music & Media. Vol. 11, no. 34. 20 August 1994. p. 21. Retrieved 20 September 2019.
  18. ^ a b "Eurochart Hot 100" (PDF). Music & Media. Vol. 11, no. 36. 3 September 1994. p. 12. Retrieved 15 March 2018.
  19. ^ a b "Official Singles Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 20 September 2019.
  20. ^ a b "Dance Singles" (PDF). Music Week. 4 June 1994. p. 22. Retrieved 25 April 2021.
  21. ^ "Station Reports > MTV Europe/London" (PDF). Music & Media. Vol. 11, no. 38. 17 September 1994. p. 22. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
  22. ^ "Station Reports > VIVA TV/Cologne" (PDF). Music & Media. Vol. 11, no. 35. 27 August 1994. p. 22. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
  23. ^ "The Grid - Swamp Thing (Official Music Video)". YouTube. Retrieved 12 March 2024.
  24. ^ "The Grid – Swamp Thing". ARIA Top 50 Singles.
  25. ^ "The Grid – Swamp Thing" (in German). Ö3 Austria Top 40.
  26. ^ "The Grid – Swamp Thing" (in Dutch). Ultratop 50.
  27. ^ "Top RPM Dance/Urban: Issue 2679." RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved 28 September 2018.
  28. ^ "European Dance Radio Top 25" (PDF). Music & Media. Vol. 11, no. 32. 6 August 1994. p. 14. Retrieved 27 May 2023.
  29. ^ Pennanen, Timo (2006). Sisältää hitin – levyt ja esittäjät Suomen musiikkilistoilla vuodesta 1972 (in Finnish) (1st ed.). Helsinki: Tammi. ISBN 978-951-1-21053-5.
  30. ^ "The Grid – Swamp Thing" (in French). Les classement single.
  31. ^ "The Grid – Swamp Thing" (in German). GfK Entertainment charts. Retrieved 20 September 2019.
  32. ^ "Íslenski Listinn Topp 40 15.09.1994 – 21.09.1994". Dagblaðið Vísir (in Icelandic). 15 September 1994. p. 16. Retrieved 1 February 2018.
  33. ^ "The Irish Charts – Search Results – Swamp Thing". Irish Singles Chart. Retrieved 20 September 2019.
  34. ^ "Nederlandse Top 40 – week 34, 1994" (in Dutch). Dutch Top 40. Retrieved 20 September 2019.
  35. ^ "The Grid – Swamp Thing" (in Dutch). Single Top 100. Retrieved 20 September 2019.
  36. ^ "The Grid – Swamp Thing". Top 40 Singles.
  37. ^ "The Grid – Swamp Thing". VG-lista.
  38. ^ "Official Scottish Singles Sales Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 20 September 2019.
  39. ^ Salaverri, Fernando (September 2005). Sólo éxitos: año a año, 1959–2002 (1st ed.). Spain: Fundación Autor-SGAE. ISBN 84-8048-639-2.
  40. ^ "The Grid – Swamp Thing". Singles Top 100.
  41. ^ "The Grid – Swamp Thing". Swiss Singles Chart.
  42. ^ "Official Dance Singles Chart Top 40". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 20 September 2019.
  43. ^ "The RM Club Chart" (PDF). Music Week, in Record Mirror (Dance Update Supplemental Insert). 21 May 1994. p. 4. Retrieved 15 May 2023.
  44. ^ a b "ARIA Top 50 Singles for 1994". ARIA. Retrieved 20 September 2019.
  45. ^ "Jaaroverzichten 1994" (in Dutch). Ultratop. Retrieved 20 September 2019.
  46. ^ "1994 Year-End Sales Charts: Eurochart Hot 100 Singles" (PDF). Music & Media. Vol. 11, no. 52. 24 December 1994. p. 12. Retrieved 28 November 2019.
  47. ^ "Top 100 Singles–Jahrescharts 1994" (in German). GfK Entertainment. Retrieved 20 September 2019.
  48. ^ "Jaarlijsten 1994" (in Dutch). Stichting Nederlandse Top 40. Retrieved 29 November 2019.
  49. ^ "Jaaroverzichten – Single 1994" (in Dutch). MegaCharts. Retrieved 20 September 2019.
  50. ^ "Årslista Singlar, 1994" (in Swedish). Sverigetopplistan. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
  51. ^ "Schweizer Jahreshitparade 1994" (in German). Retrieved 20 September 2019.
  52. ^ "Top 100 Singles 1994". Music Week. 14 January 1995. p. 9.
  53. ^ "British single certifications – Grid – Swamp Thing". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved 25 June 2021.