My Top 1000 Songs #418: The Only One I Know

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.]

Killer single off Some Friendly, the 1990 debut from UK's Charlatans (or The Charlatans UK, here in the States). I had a brief window from '88-'91--my law school years--when I pivoted to a lot of UK music, the myriad Manchester/"baggy"/shoegaze acts of the day. There are a half dozen tracks I closely associate with that time in my life, for good or ill, and "The Only One I Know" is high on that list. (What else? House of Love's "Christine," Lush's "Sweetness & Light," Ride's "Taste," and pretty much anything from the Stone Roses' first album and My Bloody Valentine's Loveless.)

Sure, it's a bit of a mash-up of familiar sounds--the keyboard hook from Deep Purple's "Hush," the chorus lyrics repurposed verbatim from the Byrds' "Everybody's Been Burned"--but it's an undeniable song, a perfect dance/party track with a retro psychedelic groove that will always transport me back to a specific time & place (it was a mixtape must throughout the early 90s) but absolutely holds up today. 

Live in the studio, earlier this year: