The Burholme Tapes: "Mardy Bum"

"Mardy Bum"

originally by Arctic Monkeys

I remember my dad thinking that "Mardy Bum" was a Burholme original. I corrected him of that notion at the time, but something I've wondered about in the past sixteen years was whether that misconception acts as a compliment or an insult. Like, did we make this song our own to such a degree that it felt like a Burholme song, or was the execution so sloppy that one might find it hard to believe that a professional band had ever played it before we did? I could ask him, but I don't think I want to know.

Because the truth of the matter is that "Mardy Bum" is important song to us. Well, to me, anyway, and probably to Kev (Mike, like many of tapes of the songs were performed and many of the Burholme-related memories from back then, probably considers it a chink in his armor, as unwanted proof that he is not, in fact, a perfect human being—don't worry, Mike, I think you're perfect, even if you were clearly trying to speed up the tempo of this song in August 2007). I already touched on a lot of it in my review of the Arctic Monkeys album that you'll find this tune on. Record Club is nice because it allows me to get sappy sometimes. "Mardy Bum" makes me sappy for sure. (And "A Certain Romance" does too, probably more so, but that song will appear in this column eventually, so let's not get into the sappiness too much here.)

As Kev alluded to in a block quote in that album review (dude, you gotta write for yourself on PoYB more!!!), songs like "Mardy Bum" were special to us because it felt like we all had an equal stake in them. I don't remember who literally brought up the idea to play "Mardy Bum," but it doesn't really matter. Arctic Monkeys were a band that we all appreciated equally. This wasn't a "Mike song" or a "Kev song" or a "Joe song." The majority of the songs we played fell into one of those categories, but the exceptions stand out now. This was Burholme functioning how music between friends should function in general: "I like this song, and I think you will too; here, let me play it for you."

It definitely wasn't me who brought it to the group—that album review pinpoints my introduction to Whatever People Say I Am as a whole on April 2007, and we were definitely playing "Mardy Bum" prior to that. So maybe I'm just feeling the shine of this song (and subsequently the whole album) because I was originally on the receiving end of its joys. Still, at a certain point, the original direction ceases to matter. All that matters is the ultimate direction of that joy from band to audience.

I mean, that's why I'm really doing this, the weekly rehashing of a band long dead and a show that happened a decade and a half ago. I'm postulating that it's more than simple nostalgia. I think instead that Burholme and the experiences that we had in high school through that silly little garage band are indicative of the power of music in general. Here is this thing we did together. I hope it brought you a little joy.