(Credits: Autumn de Wilde)
Florence and the Machine – ‘One of the Greats’
Every now and then, a song comes out and it’s not only great, but of clear, genuine importance. ‘One Of The Greats’ by Florence and the Machine is one of them.
The subject matter this track hits on is nothing new for the singer. For albums now, Florence Welch has been grappling with how it feels to be a woman in music. ‘Girls Against God’ is devastatingly articulate on it, singing, “In my darkest fantasies, I am the picture of passivity / Waiting for you side of stage, suppressing all my private rage”, while ‘King’ is instead just a howl of that exact rage.
The examples go on: ‘Queen Of Peace’, ‘Delilah’, ‘Dream Girl Evil’. On ‘Choreomania’, she puts it plainly, asking the men, “You said that rock and roll is dead / But is that just because it has not been resurrected in your image?”
But on this second teaser track for her upcoming album Everybody Scream, Welch takes aim again and delivers an absolute killing shot.
Through the verses, she considers the sacrifices; the way she’s devoted her entire life to care, the way she’s surrendered past lovers up to it all for something to write about, the ways she’s self-destructed all for the sake of a song. She’s grappling with the letdown of it all, singing about struggles with addiction, the exhaustion of a life like that and even the ways the entertainment industry seems to want to bury women the second they’re no longer 20 and fresh.
All of this is done with an unflattering rockiness. The instrumentation here is plain and to the point, with a loud and chugging guitar, reminiscent of Nirvana, while her angelic and unmistakable voice marches over the top. There’s a precise determination to it, peeling back all the frills to make you hear.
And it’s the bridge that she wants you to hear clearest, so I’ll simply write it out here, to make sure you do:
“You’ll bury me again, you’ll say it’s all pretend
That I could never be great being held up against such male tastes
Because who really gets to be one of the greats, one of the greats?
But I’ve really done it this time, this one is all mine
I’ll be up there with the man and the ten other women
And the hundred greatest records of all time
It must be nice to be a man and make boring music just because you can
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan
You’re my second favourite front-man
And you could have me if you weren’t so afraid of me
It’s funny how men don’t find power very sexy
So this one’s for the ladies
Do I drive you crazy?
Did I get it right?“
Put it on the walls of the museums, send it in a letter to each and every male music executive, or at the very least, go to her upcoming tour and simply listen as the throats of a thousand women each night are ripped bloody and raw as they scream it too.
Where to even begin with it? The reference to the constant stream of ‘100 best X of all time’ lists populated prominently by men with a few token additions is like a savage kick. Then the follow-up with “It must be nice to be a man and make boring music just because you can”, it’s surely a knock-out. By the time she’s calling out to the girls, dedicating all of this to them and confronting dead on men’s fragility when it comes to powerful women, there is no coming back. It’s done, it’s dead, Florence Welch killed it, finally finding the exact right words to deal the ultimate blow.
It’s the sort of song that demands space and more than deserves it. Florence Welch is one of the greats, this song proves it – musically, lyrically, and because of the vital message put so powerfully.
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‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source faroutmagazine.co.uk ’
