Primal Scream and Robert 'Throb' Young's most rocking moments
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Version 0 of 1. Robert “Throb” Young was more than just a guitarist for Primal Scream. With his leather trousers and untamed mane, he was symbolic of the rock’n’roll stance that defined the band, and his musical obsessions provided the gateway towards the band’s hard-rockin’, Stones’n’Stooges moments. And so to honour the passing of someone Bobby Gillespie once described as “an incredible musician … one of the most talented people I’ve ever known” here are five of the Scream’s most rocking – or throbbing – moments. I’m Losing More Than I’ll Ever Have Before making their classic LP Screamadelica, Primal Scream spent an album getting – or at least trying to get – their love of MC5-influenced rock’n’roll out of their system. I’m Losing More Than I’ll Ever Have, which featured Throb on the single sleeve, was a ballad that developed into a loose, druggy guitar swagger – perfect material for Andrew Weatherall to remould as their breakthrough hit Loaded. Slip Inside This House The Scream’s iconic version of the 13th Floor Elevators track – complete with lyrics altered to “trip” – might not have been a rocker, but it was a moment that allowed Throb to take centre stage. At least it was according to Bobby Gillespie, who told Uncut: “I’ll tell you a secret. I was so wasted on Slip Inside This House that I didn’t sing on it. It’s Robert Young’s voice on there!” Rocks The definitive Scream rocker – a Stonesy boogie in which “whores keep whoring” and “junkies keep scoring.” It certainly sums up the band’s mental state at the time: in an interview with the Guardian in 2013, they admitted they were so wasted during this period that they couldn’t actually remember writing the song. “[Alan] McGee phoned us up going: ‘You’ve got a great song,’ Andrew Innes recalled. “And I thought: what the fuck are you talking about?” Medication 1997’s Vanishing Point was a claustrophobic, often experimental affair billed as a return to form after the back-to-basics Give Out But Don’t Give Up. Yet the band still found room here for the dirtiest of riffs and a lyric that certainly chimed with the band members’ hard living lifestyle: “Shootin’, snortin’, smokin’ all they can.” Country Girl Riot City Blues was the last album Throb played on before leaving the group in 2006. The album might not be hailed as a Scream classic but its lead single – with its frenzied riffing and barnyard stomp – was joyous, good-time music and became their highest charting single of all time. |