Liz Phair - Stratford-On-Guy

[ahlemownzu]

Man, everything about this video screams 90s. And the way Liz looks.... GODDAMNIT I WANT MORE!!!

[Suiter03]

This album turned me on to Liz back then and it still turns me on.

[madeyes4u]

I'm 22 and I wish I was old enough to witness one of her shows "back in the day".

To me, this is the quintessential Liz Phair song. Rockin', hooky, ambiguous, and that "I don't give a fuck" attitude! And just for the record, it's strangely dark for a Phair song.

[mikr671]

i think back then this was called "trip hop acid folk "and some rock i didnt like it back then i like this song.

[Broblem12]

Lovely woman who sang kick ass songs. I am pleased!!! The video is cool!!

[mickdimas]

I was really was in a Galaxie 500 video +0p$#!+

[cuzzy2007]

This video was the first time I ever heard of Liz, probably on 120 Minutes. And that was the day I feel in love with her. The beautiful blue eyes had me from the second i them. Then I saw the I Never Said Nothing video and had to have the CD. And what an incredible album. One of the best ever and under appreciated.

Another album of the 90's that is not appreciated: Recovering The Satellites from The Counting Crows. Give it a good listen straight through and see for yourself.

[cuzzy2007]

This video was the first time I ever heard of Liz, probably on 120 Minutes. And that was the day I feel in love with her. The beautiful blue eyes had me from the second i them. Then I saw the I Never Said Nothing video and had to have the CD. And what an incredible album. One of the best ever and under appreciated.

Another album of the 90's that is not appreciated: Recovering The Satellites from The Counting Crows. Give it a good listen straight through and see for yourself.

[D1skobox]

This is definitely grunge. It's not angst-ridden or has heavy guitars, which is what people associate with grunge. It's got the attitude, though. What I think it's special from other grunge/alternative rock acts is that the fact that it was recorded/written by a woman gives a whole new perspective to a male-dominated genre.

[gyrate4]

Best lyrics

[12345random67890]

I think the Girlysound version of this song is much better: it's just so... mysterious, gorgeous and... timeless.

Still, this is pretty cool.

[Remeday]

I love this album so much. Exile in Guyville is in my top 3 albums of all time!! She even pays much tribute to the Rolling stones on this album! This song and video is excellent. It's Liz at her finest! Liz is still rocking to this day. :)

[Radamburns]

This is such a unique song... always the one that caused me to start the cd over. Hard to believe it's under 50,000 views. I love slinky, off-kilter guitar, drum and cymbals and the way she merges vocals at the end of lines.. Great lyrics too:

"..those eyes that you get when your situation is movie-sized"

So good.. One of my favorite songs from my wild youth.. still gives me chills.

[janotosinnumeros]

@Radamburns i love your description of the song, it's exactly what i like from it

[Radamburns]

@janotosinnumeros Glad you liked it. I still listen to "Exile" all the time.. It really holds up well considering it's age, and there is nothing on the radio these days which even sounds similar....

[janotosinnumeros]

@Radamburns totally agree :-)

[gerryisnotfunny]

i remember watching this video along with the spinanes, pavement, sonic youth, afghan wigs, and sunny day real estate on mtv 120 minutes while drinking king kobra malt liquor and doing lines of meth. cheers to the 90s motherfuckers.

[listentoalex]

Honestly, does anybody else think this song sounds scary??

[aidanday]

One of the best 5 albums of the 90s. Period.

[weareallanemic]

One of my favourite songs of all time.

[Exilemainstreet]

How does this compare in any way to Soul Survivor??!!

[rickman33]

Self's cover of Stratford-On-Guy is great. Go to RobGoodman (dot) com's blog and search for the link to hear it. (I did a "search on this page" for "guy").

[MrHavok29]

One of the greatest closing songs of a classic album ever! Liz phair is the Sh*t! Love it!

[o6x37]

this is Liz Phair pretending she's in a Galaxie 500 video.

[omca06]

I prefer the look on those 90s music videos, they used to be like home made, no photoshop, no expensive crap, no digital enhacements... now in 2010 I feel there is something missing in the music video industry

[b1llyw]

I think the album is cool and as has been said before she has never hit those peaks again......shame she didn`t enjoy playing live.

[yourswiththestars]

@ika2 get over it

[PinkTeardropos]

I so think that the low quality of this copy of the music video fits the songs mood.

[Vlad2375]

36,779 views? Not really a huge fan of hers but this song is underated

[pdscotia]

This entire album smoked. Buy it!

[ika2]

but she lost her indie cred after 90s and exiled in avril-ville

[TheOpiumDistrict]

She's always done it her way. She didn't form her style for us in the 90's, and she didn't in the early 2000's. So she lost nothing in my eyes. I can just get in where I fit in. She's the artist, and she's always done it as she wished. You can't expect a married mom to write the same songs she did as a wild single chick. I always want artists to come honestly from the heart, and she always has. More power to Liz!

[halleen]

@TheOpiumDistrict

Totally agree. Liz was knocked from day one by the Chicago critics, but I never cared. I love all her records, she's very diverse and does what she likes.

Table For One is heartbreaking.

I still remember first hearing this song on WXRT in 1994 and going out to by the CD. Radio? CD? What are those ancient things? :)

[TheOpiumDistrict]

@halleen

Well that;s still new technology to me. I still don't have an Ipod. :)

And I'm glad she's always done what she feels instead trying to please people. Too man people like to criticize. Heck, people got on Ani Difranco for wearing a skirt, and said she was selling out. They booed Dylan years back for going electric. People can be ridiculous when they assume they own an artist.

[BEATIFICVISIONS]

not a grunge record but an amazing record none the less!

[dsmundertaker]

This was actually one of the best Grunge records ever made.

[Gunnarsas]

@dsmundertaker this is not grunge - grunge was a fad. This was an alternative rock album - a very good alternative rock album - one of the best albums of the 1990´s. Don´t belittle art by calling it grunge.

[dsmundertaker]

@Gunnarsas - Belittle? Who says all grunge is bad? And this is a pretty grungey song, in my book? She sings like 3 notes? That's grunge.

[emilee537]

This is my favorite Liz song. I didn't even know there was a video for it!

[pathduck]

Like a Galaxie 500 video :)

[campbell49er]

brilliant and original.

[roginho84]

I was too busy with nirvana and other alternative groups when this was out but after recently investigating liz phair and all her music, I have found this to be the best track so far. Here her voice has this "I don't give a damn" sound and the rythm during the verses is just as lazy but tasteful. Factor in her looks/demeanor and supposed personailty, she is one attractive badass.

[campsoupster]

"Exile" is the best album of the 90's, period. Yeah, I hear all your objections, and I understand. There are a hundred "better" alternatives--more complex, more influential, more epic, much more skilled. But name one album that did more to keep the spirit of punk alive: total lack of pretension, all heart, all anger. A single star that flamed bright and was gone. Too bad this is all she ever did that really mattered, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

[smcobb99]

Exile was (is) totally amazing. When it came out I was bragging about it and everyone said, "Liz who?". I would go a step further and say it is amoung the top 50 or 60 greatest albums of all time.

[bogus1871]

top 50 or 60?

how about top 10.

[aidanday]

Of all that great shit at the time -

THIS is what I still listen to the most.

A perfect album, start to finish.

[davekat]

I have to agree. The 90's was just chock full of excellent music ( perhaps the best flowering of music in all history).

But in the end, "Exile" really stands out for me. Discovering this record was a defining moment : it is just one perfect song after another.

Liz Phair gets a free lifetime pass for making this:)

[magstoriches]

best liz phair song of all time

[weareallanemic]

If I made music, I'd sound like Liz Phair.

[remoman]

love the song, but I hate "literal" video clips. Get and imagination video director!!!

[subwooferjl]

Graet song. Thanks for posting this!

[56thFG]

I think this is the best video that Liz Phair has made. It really holds the interest of both your eyes and ears. Can't wait to see her perform again in Mpls next month.

[tedlicious]

amazing, really wonderful lyrics. " . . . and all of these people sitting totally still as the ground moved beneath them 30,000 feet down." we take so much of our modern world for granted.

Perhaps, because so much of it is crap. Not Liz-- outstanding.

[DJHarrie]

Another classic track, my favourite from the album. Man, '90s independent music was good. I mean, not to sound smug or anything, but I remember at some point discovering all this great music and being all "man, fuck the '60's, this shit's going down right now."

[rohgenextfan]

So beautiful.

[RedRibbon17]

I had no idea there was a music video for this song, one of my favorites in Exile. That's so awesome! And Liz looks so hot and sultry.

[Johnnyorganic]

Stratford-On-Guy is my favorite LP song on that groundbreaking album. Her first three albums were awesome. No compromises - just Liz. Magnificent Liz.

Liz Phair is Liz Phair. Juliana Hatfield is Juliana Hatfield. Musically they are worlds apart. I like 'em both. But the only similarities they share are: 1)Both are songwriters, 2) Both are exceptional guitarists, and 3) Both are female.

[gkg101]

I always loved that song and now I see the video for the first time and WOW it's just like I imagined. Just wonderful.

[fabiomandol]

Sorry guys but i really think this video is one of the best i ever seen and this song for me is the best of the album... my opinion. Liz Phair is one of the few girls that i would like to have a relationship!

[adamsteel00]

liz is so OBVIOUSLY not a "singer" in the sense that her voice isn't strong enough to carry the belt-out songs she has been doing lately. she is a songwriter. and an AWESOME one. exile in guyville is one of the best albums of all time because she doesn't go out of range. her voice is fairly weak, but that's what so many people love about her in the 90's.

[davekat]

Exile in Guyville really is one of the best albums ever.

One perfect song followed by another perfect song.

[stymye]

I don't get it, she's off key and there's like 3 chords to the song, what am I missing? shes no juliana hatfield

[JeremyEngle]

Listen again. She's actually not off-key, and there are like eleven chords to the song. As for Juliana Hatfield, I always thought she was kinda cute, a couple of her songs were okay, and that she was no Liz Phair.

[JeremyEngle]

Listen again. She's actually not off-key, and there are like eleven chords to the song. As for Juliana Hatfield, I always thought she was cute, a couple of her songs were okay, and that she was no Liz Phair.

[sellthesky]

she's not off-key, silly. she just isn't a stellar vocalist. of course, that doesn't matter at all, due to the fact that her lyrics, and CHORD PROGRESSIONS are amazing. guyville is, soup to nuts, a brilliant record.

[cbnd2000]

love this song, never heard it till today, and it's amazing! What do you think it means?

[jaimiepat]

love everything about this song, this video, and this girl. she'll always have the genius first 2 albums to be proud of.

[twentyoutoftwenty]

DIG the drums in this one. Reminds me a bit of the kinda backwards drums in "My Life" by the Beatles. Always think of this when I'm in a plane.

[davekat]

It is BECAUSE of this song and "Exile in Guyville" that I will always be a Liz Phair fan.

And, no, I don't wanna talk about her new stuff.

So anyway, I got to hand her a dozen roses when I saw her in Toronto, as my way of saying thanks for her quite literally saving my wife's life.

It's the song "Shatter".

That song and that record mean more to me than I could ever express here.

[xTheOxx]

Exile in Guyville was truly something special.

[popGoesAnthony]

to; maryjane blackhe below me here below; i anth concede yr right

i am a music genious n this tune rox as liz does, too

anth aka beatlebum1965nyc'usa hey

[portianewton]

this video was my first exposure to liz phair. Late night mtv in the early 90's. it must have been on 120 minutes. just as amazing now as it was in 10th grade!

[aidanday]

Turn it up. Seriously: the sound is super quiet and you absolutely really won't hear the production unless you crank it. She was legit Indie here - don't forget that!

[kirbivore]

Glen Ballard errr Alanis Morrissette really cashed in on the spirit of the angry chick groups of the early 90's by glossing the attitude just enough for a mainstream audience.

[MaryJaneBlackHeart]

This may be the coolest sound for a song i;ve ever heard..I love the atmosphere...basically because it's ALL atmosphere, all mood, not so much a song as a head trip, a total mellow mindfuck...This sounds like the music I want to make. I don't really like her music now, but back here she was nearly approaching Kim Gordon-levels of coolness, which is really saying something as Kim Gordon is the coolest person on earth.

[beefingfraeulein]

i couldn't have said it better...

[MFFilms815]

@MaryJaneBlackHeart Kim ain't that cool, but I agree. SY is overrated.

[unscientific]

Hey, check out my video of my friend playing the piano song by Liz Phair's, ' Why Can't I '. :)

[sixtyeightspecial]

The first album is genius

[Rodjeure]

From one of the best alubum of the 90's

Yes she's trying hard to be more popular and to sing for more people but there are still great songs on every album she does now.

She could have stay an Indie Godess more easily...

Sorry for my english but I'm french , saw Liz on stage juste once in 2003 but she still rules !!

[Pato100000]

this song! I love it!

[karlaanne]

this song is a time machine :)

[crfrank76]

"And I was pretending that I was in a Galaxie 500 video"

1994. Bitches.

[andydenson2000]

this video came out in 1993.

[geekyunicorn]

Yeah the violent femmes were tha best gurl group eva!

[SpartulaLovesMarilyn]

WHAT?! Wait, WHAT!?!? The Violent Femmes were composes of guys! ALL GUYS!! Jesus, you're stupid!

[ascgal]

Love it!

[FlatTax]

She turned 40, and still a babe!!

[kristin186]

This songs rocks. It really has that early-mid 90's alternative sound. What ever happened to all the female rock groups, anyways?  The Breeders? Violent Femmes? Concrete Blonde? Veruca Salt?

[AngelsUniverse]

i will bring the scene

[ceddyweddy]

Well the Viloent Femmes were not female at all...but I agree with you kristin...gimme the breders over wilson phillips anyday!

[elementz1986]

Yeah, it does have that lethargic 90's alt-rock sound.

[TheOpiumDistrict]

Man I forgot how sexy she was. Voice and all.

[duckman187]

I want to Marry Liz

[squeekytoe]

Liz was such a sensation when she first came out of the Wicker Park Chicago scene...it was soooo guy in the late 80's early 90's, that you would never even think of girl rockers as common. In Chicago, I was there when it was going on and everyone was talking shit about Liz, even Steve Albini tried to get in her way... I mentioned this on the CatPower, song HE WAR, but she really was different and cool, with her acoustic sardonic songs...

[biancahahne]

i remember the matador cd

what is up matador.

[stezton]

I never knew there was a video for this song. Thanks for putting it up.

[AngelsUniverse]

this is one of my favorite song of her

[methicillinresistant]

Whatthe hell happended to her?!?!?!?!!

[AcousticEvan]

she turned pop !

[bosco113]

the self titled album was pop. everything to me was just plain out GREAT

[AmericanMonk]

This is such a classic little video. Thanks for posting.

[mychemicalemopumpkin]

Awesome video! I wish Liz was still like this.