Club Foot (Kasabian song)

"Club Foot" is a song by English indie rock band Kasabian, featured on their 2004 debut album, Kasabian. It was released on 10 May 2004 in the UK. The video of this song, directed by W.I.Z., is dedicated to Czech student Jan Palach who in 1969 set himself on fire in protest against renewed Soviet suppression of Czechoslovakia. The video also refers to the Soviet government's intervention in the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 on a banner showing the text in Hungarian (Szabad Európa Rádió), which translates as "Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty". The scene with the inspector girl who stands before the tank harks back to the young man who stood in front of the line of tanks in 1989 in Tiananmen Square, which itself has become an icon for resistance. In October 2011, NME placed it at number 108 on its list "150 Best Tracks of the Past 15 Years". The song is known for its distinctive distorted bass riff, played by lead guitarist Christopher Karloff as opposed to primary bassist Chris Edwards. Karloff would also play the bassline live, while Edwards played guitar. After Karloff's departure from the band in 2006, touring guitarist Jay Mehler would play the bassline, but from 2008 onwards Edwards has played the bassline in live performances. Serge Pizzorno said, "We were watching a Beach Boys documentary and saw they had a great kind of approach to making 'Good Vibrations.' We wanted to approach 'Club Foot' the same way, to mess with the landscape and give the listener something to hold on to." MTV.com described the song as "a quilt of relentless beats, hissing electronic noises, a buzzing guitar riff and Meighan's breathless, menacing vocals." The Morning Call said it "piles layers and layers of synths atop tight guitar work before coming to a fluttering, flutey end."