19/2000 (Music Video Version)
19/2000 (Gorillaz Live Tour 2001)
19/2000 (2010 Live, with Miho Hatori)
19/2000 (2010 Live, with Roses Gabor)
19/2000 (Humanz Live, with Kilo Kish)
"Fun, natural fun."
- Tina Weymouth, "Genius Of Love"
"19/2000" (or "19-2000", as it is sometimes written) is one of Gorillaz happiest songs. It sounds as if it was written with the intention to make the perfect pop song. The track's rhythmic basis is based around a drum sample of Bit A'Sweet's cover of The Beatles' "If I Needed Someone" and on top of it, Damon delivers one of his catchiest synthesizer hooks, one of the song's main attractions. To provide some extra groove to this track is Junior Dan delivering a smooth soulful bass line which is doubled by a synth bass played by Damon. But the spotlight (as on most happy songs) is on the vocals.
Damon sings this song very differently than he does other Gorillaz tracks. On the rest of the band's debut album, he sounds angry, disaffected, paranoid, anxious, schizophrenic and even at times, suicidal. On "19/2000", Damon sounds happy, as happy as he was back in the early days of his Britpop band Blur. He sings about trying to move on from his past but is unable to, he compares this to being stuck in a pair of "lead Nike shoes." However Damon's mother (or maybe 2D's mother) tells him to make his "own shoes." His own will (or has he puts it, his lead Nikes) are what keep him "tethered" to "the days he tries to lose." But if he were to try to move on, he would feel better, he has to make his own happiness (or shoes) in order to truly be happy. As for the rest of this song, Damon is just being happy with no additional meaning, keeping his "groove on" one could say. He sings about monkeys in the jungle, listens to the music that he chooses, and he scats along in falsetto to the song's multiple hooks. However the most infectious part of this song, isn't Damon's doing. The hook of this track belongs to the voice of Noodle, Miho Hatori. "Here you go..."
Miho Hatori owns the chorus of nonsensical words, "Get the cool, get the cool shoeshine." While she sings this, Damon forms a choir of falsetto mouth trumpet noises. It has no deeper meaning, it's just a happy chorus sung by a contagiously happy ten year old Japanese girl who barely knows any English. Noodle is so happy, she is able to make the depressed and anxious 2D the happiest blue haired man in the world, at least for one song.
One of the biggest influences on the sound of this track (as well as a couple other Gorillaz tracks) is the band Tom Tom Club. Tom Tom Club are a funky dance group that have been majorly sampled in hip hop over the years and consist of the rhythm section of the brilliantly artsy and weird punk-funk band Talking Heads, bassist Tina Weymouth and drummer Chris Frantz. So when Dan The Automator thought the track needed something, he e-mailed the track to the duo and they were able to give the song it's finishing touches. At the band's home studio, Tina Weymouth recorded some smooth "la la" backing vocals over Damon's pre-chorus of scats and Chris Frantz added some finger snaps over the song's quiet and subtle ending. While these additions may not seem like much, these simple add ons are what got the track on to the album. So we can thank these two for allowing this brilliant piece of work to be released to the public (we should also thank them for their astounding work with Talking Heads and Brian Eno, but this blog isn't about the two of them, it's about Gorillaz).
Jamie Hewlett once again perfectly captures the song with the visuals he made for it. The video consists of the band driving in their Geep, the vehicle featured on the cover of the band's record. Murdoc drives the group on to a course full of safety hazards, ranging from a loop de loop to a broken bridge to even an alien invasion. However, their biggest obstacle is the giant elk at the end of the road. Murdoc tries to kill it with the Geep's weapon system, but the elk sneezes back the giant bullets, causing the band to be left in a pile of debris. In this video, the group goes through just as many obstacles as they usually do in their videos. But in this video, they don't fret and remain happy as can be, until the end that is. When the bullets hit them, the characters go back to being as unhappy as they are on the rest of the record, their happiness being only a brief 3 minute interlude on an album full of darkness and anxiety.
Miho Hatori was not able to go with Gorillaz on their first tour as she was (and still is) leading her own group, Cibo Matto. So on Gorillaz 2001 tour, the song was reliant on samples of her vocals as well as the song's main drum sample, leaving very little room for improvisation (excluding a cool slide guitar part by Simon Katz giving the song a blues edge). The track achieved radio success through a much faster dance-pop remix, by producers Stuart Bradbury and Electric Six's Damien Mendis under the name Soulchild. Unlike the remix of "Clint Eastwood" whose success quickly faded away, this remix is sadly the version of "19/2000" most people know as opposed to its perfect original. After not playing the track for 9 years, the track experienced a surprise revival on the band's "Escape To Plastic Beach Tour." On this tour, it was played much faster and was given more room to breathe. Tina Weymouth's backing vocals are covered by the tour's in-house choir, which along with Damon's vocals, convey a sense of energy which wasn't present in it's earlier live incarnation. However, it was on this tour that Damon finally got to play a Gorillaz song live with the voice who made this song, Miho Hatori. In the footage you can see how well they work off each other and how much fun they are having together (for all we know, the two haven't seen each other since 2001). On the nights Miho couldn't make it, Noodle's vocals were covered by her voice on "Demon Days", Gorillaz backing vocalist Roses Gabor. The Humanz Tour version featured her vocals done by Kilo Kish and the band would often extend the song's outro jam in a brilliant fashion. "19/2000" is one of Gorillaz best party songs and will most likely continue to not only be a part of the band's live performances and overall career, but the band's presence in the eyes of the masses.
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