My Top 1000 Songs #769: Credit In The Straight World

[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.]

I've previously kvelled about the lone 1980 LP from Young Marble Giants, among the original punk-era bedroom-pop originators, who used cheap keyboards and simple music and Alison Stratton's amiable voice to create their own musical genre. "Credit In The Straight World" didn't necessarily jump out from the album as a favorite; it's relatively straightforward, a bit more of a traditional rock song (within the confines of the trio's uniquely sparse sound)--or at least a Wire-like punk song as performed quietly at home--but just one of many interesting tunes that congeal into a unified whole.

But the song took on new life when it unexpectedly showed up on Hole's massive 1994 alt.rock breakthrough Live Through This. And while that album was dominated by Courtney Love's feminist proclamations and shocking intimacy (not to mention the whole Cobain mystique and, at base, some great next-generation punk music), it also found time to take this odd little track from an essentially unknown Welsh indie band and turn it into a blazing anthem. Which was kinda cool, right?

The original:

The Hole cover:

Hole, live 1994:

Young Marble Giants, live 1980: