Released 15 September 1997 Recorded 1996 Length 3:27 (Album version) | Format 7" vinyl, cassette, CD Genre Indie rock | |
B-side "Swallows in the Heatwave" (7")
"Swallows in the Heatwave", "Movin' On (William Orbit remix)", "Beetlebum (Moby's minimal house remix)" (CD) | ||
"M.O.R." is a song by English rock band Blur, from their eponymous album Blur. "M.O.R." reached number 15 in the UK singles chart on its release as a single in 1997.
Contents
The song's chord progression was borrowed from David Bowie's "Boys Keep Swinging" and "Fantastic Voyage". On the album Lodger Bowie and collaborator Brian Eno carried out a musical experiment in which multiple songs were written with the same chord progression, of which "Boys Keep Swinging" and "Fantastic Voyage" were the two that surfaced. M.O.R is both a continuation of, and tribute to that experiment, as its chorus also lifts the melody and call-and-response vocals from Boys Keep Swinging (Bowie and Eno both received credit for "M.O.R." after legal intervention).
"M.O.R." itself stands for "middle of the road", which appears in the lyrics.
Music video
The song's music video was directed by John Hardwick and is considered one of the most expensive videos the band ever made. It was shot in Sydney, Australia, and follows the misadventures of the band members (or rather, stuntmen in balaclavas pretending to be them) as they try to escape from the police. It was intended that the stuntmen wear masks of the band members to make it appear that the band were performing their own stunts, but the masks created for the video were such poor representations, that the decision was made to use balaclavas instead. The video also features cameos by stunt choreographer Grant Page as a helicopter pilot, and actor Noah Taylor as a truck passenger. It is included in the Blur: The Best of DVD/VHS released on 30 October 2000. The 'actors' in the video are all anagrams of the member of the band they play. They are as follows:
'Dan Abnormal' was an alias also used by Albarn whilst playing keyboards on the first Elastica album, as well as the title of a track on The Great Escape.
Track listing
All lyrics by Albarn. All music by Albarn / Coxon / James / Rowntree.
Notes: