Defining a Decade: Broken Social Scene You Forgot it in People (2002)

You Forgot It In People holds a very dear place in many people’s lives as well as a prestigious place in the cannon of indie rock music of this past decade, but that’s not why it is included on this list.  If the only criteria I set out for this list was “favourite music” then I’m not so certain that You Forgot it in People would end up making the top 10 cutoff; top 20 hands down, but I wouldn’t be honest if I said it was any higher than that.  The thing about going back and listening to albums that have been shelved for years now is that some that I would assume were shoo-ins for this list haven’t aged all that well, and others that I only gave a few fleeting moments to back in the day have really shown their staying power and beauty.  You Forgot It In People certainly falls into the latter camp (I’m listening to “Pacific Time” while I writing this, and I’m struck by just how marvelous a song it is, and why I never really noticed that before).  The criterion isn’t just “favourite music”, though; it’s about music and records, and feelings, and emotions, and associations.

Broken Social Scene is, in one definition, an association: a group of people organized for a joint purpose.  By its very nature, it’s a band of associates who have associations with other musicians in other bands, and therefore Broken Social Scene is an association in another sense:  a group of people who share a connection through one another to other groups of people who it so happens also organize for a joint purpose.  Do you see what I’m getting at here?

In January 2002 when Broken Social Scene first step through the doors of Dave Newfeld’s Stars and Sons studios, there was no indication that what would emerge from the hazy randomness of their shambolic live shows would be a far-reaching phenomenon that would take them out of the back rooms of Toronto bars to international attention.  As Stuart Berman says in his excellent history, This Book Is Broken, You Forgot it in People was “not a document of a Broken Social Scene performance but a dream of one, where the juxtaposition felt initially sudden, yet ultimately natural”.

The initial pressing of 1,000 copies sold out in less than a month, each of which featured two record label logos on its sleeve:  one for Paper Bag records, and one for Arts & Crafts, Broken Social Scene’s logo-only label.  The idea behind Arts & Crafts was simple:  a local association that was part record company, part business team, and part local music community support system.  As Berman notes, once those initial 1,00 copies were gone, a decision had to be made.  The band chose to part ways with Paper Bag and strike out on their own, building Arts & Crafts from the ground up, on the shoulders of You Forgot It In People.  From there the momentum was unstoppable.  One by one, the Broken Social Scene associations came to find a home on Arts & Crafts, and the little label that could, did.

So while You Forgot It In People may not be among the top 10 favourite albums on my imagined list, it’s very likely that at least 30% of the records what would make the list bear the Arts & Crafts logo:  Stars’ Set Yourself on Fire for sure; Fiest’s Let It Die and The Remainder would have a shot at being there, too.  Perhaps those records would have found their way out into the world all on their own, but it wouldn’t have been the same if they came from another label, or another collective.  It takes a village to raise a child, after all. You Forgot it in People is here to represent the village, the entire Arts & Crafts community, all the great bands and records they had a hand in creating.

MP3: Broken Social Scene “Cause = Time”
Myspace: Broken Social Scene

2 Comments so far
Leave a comment





Leave a comment
Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

Name (required)

E-mail (required)

URI

Your Comment