St. Andrews

Album: Street Gospels (2007)
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Songfacts®:

  • In this upbeat breakup tune, reggae rockers Bedouin Soundclash evoke the jubilant feeling of a New Orleans second-line parade, where revelers follow the procession of a brass band - only the setting is relocated to Kensington Market, a neighborhood in the group's native Toronto, Canada. The song takes it name from a church and street in the area.

    "'St. Andrews' was about living in Kensington Market in Toronto at a time in my life when I was at the end of a relationship," lead singer Jay Malinowski told Songfacts in 2022. "I had the idea generally of it being a celebratory... almost New Orleans second-line vibe to it. And the video has that involved in it - a celebratory aspect to the passing of an era in my life."
  • This opens with a spoken-word verse by Vern Buckley aka Vernon Maytone of the Jamaican reggae duo The Maytones. Bedouin Soundclash covered the group's 1978 tune "Money Worries" on their previous album, Sounding A Mosaic, which also included Buckley as a guest performer.
  • This features guest vocals from Wade McNeil, the lead guitarist and backing vocalist of the Canadian post-hardcore band Alexisonfire.
  • Chaos ensues in the mostly black-and-white music video when Malinowski takes a break from performing at the pub to flirt with a girl who's already taken. When her jealous boyfriend confronts the singer, Malinowski throws a punch and incites an all-out brawl with the rest of the crowd. The frenzy leads to him getting knocked out and having a colorful dream about his own funeral procession.
  • Street Gospels is Bedouin Soundclash's third album. Like their previous release, Sounding A Mosaic, it was produced by Darryl Jenifer, the bass guitarist for the hardcore punk band Bad Brains, and the rap-rock group The White Mandigos.

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