Sit Down
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| “Sit Down” | |||||
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| Single by James from the album Gold Mother (1991 re-release) |
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| Released | June 1989, March 1991, November 1998 | ||||
| Format | 7" single, cassette and CD single | ||||
| Recorded | Autumn 1988 | ||||
| Genre | Madchester | ||||
| Length | 4:03 (original form 7:39) | ||||
| Label | Rough Trade/Mercury | ||||
| Producer | Gil Norton | ||||
| James singles chronology | |||||
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| Re-release cover | |||||
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| Cover of the 1991 release on Mercury | |||||
"Sit Down" is one of the most famous tracks by James, released in 1989 by Rough Trade Records. In its seven-minute original form, the song only reached number 77 in the UK Singles Chart. Due to this unimpressive performance their record label's managing director, Geoff Travis, told them they were not a viable commercial proposition beyond an audience of 20,000.
The songs lyrics were written in Autumn 1988 as a thank you to two women who greatly inspired Tim Booth - author Doris Lessing and singer Patti Smith. After experiencing success as part of the Madchester music scene, with a rerecorded version of the song regularly causing clubbers to sit down when it was played, the single was rereleased in 1991. It spent three weeks at number 2 in the Singles Chart (kept off the top spot by Chesney Hawkes).
After the release of their 'Best Of' album the song was remixed by Apollo 440 and released as a single for a third time in November 1998, reaching number 7 (their biggest hit since the 1991 release).
The band had to sell the rights to the song to Mercury Records to help pay off debts to the record company. The song has been covered by Voice of the Beehive and played live by Carter USM in some 1992 shows, although no recorded version of this exists.
In 2006, Sit Down was used as a featured song in BBC Three's Manchester Passion, in which lead singer Tim Booth also appeared as Judas Iscariot. Darren Morfitt in the role of Jesus sang a less upbeat rendition of the piece to his resting disciples while the presenter hand-signaled the audience to literally sit down. Although Booth did not perform the song during the show, he did sing it in an encore after the credits rolled.
B-Side: "Sound Investment"
