"Endless Art" is a song by Irish

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand in the early to mid-1980s. Although the term was originally used to describe rock music released through independent reco ...

band

A House A House were an Irish rock band that where active in Dublin from 1985 to 1997, and recognized for the clever, "often bitter or irony laden lyrics of frontman Dave Couse ... bolstered by the and'sseemingly effortless musicality". The single " En ...

, released initially as the lead track on the ''Bingo'' EP (1991), and then as a single from their 1991 album '' I Am the Greatest''. It was later included on the greatest hits album ''

The Way We Were ''The Way We Were'' is a 1973 American romantic drama film directed by Sydney Pollack and starring Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford. Arthur Laurents adapted the screenplay from his own 1972 novel of the same name, which was based on his ...

''. After the commercial failure of their 1990 album ''I Want Too Much'', A House had been dropped from their label

Blanco y Negro Records Blanco y Negro Records ( Spanish: "White and Black"), a subsidiary of WEA Records Ltd., was established in 1983 by Geoff Travis of Rough Trade Records and Mike Alway of él Records. Michel Duval of Les Disques du Crépuscule was also invo ...

, to be picked up by the indie label

Setanta Records Setanta Records was a British independent record label led by founder Keith Cullen. Setanta published UK and Irish indie music in the late 1980s and in the 1990s. History Setanta Records was started in a Camberwell, London squat by former bicyc ...

. They quickly released the EPs ''Doodle'' and ''Bingo'' at the end of 1990 and in 1991. The latter included the first appearance of "Endless Art", which A House recorded with

Edwyn Collins Edwyn Stephen Collins (born 23 August 1959) is a Scottish musician, producer and record label owner. Collins was the lead singer for the 1980s post-punk band Orange Juice, which he co-founded. After the group split in 1985, Collins started a so ...

as producer. Collins went on to work with them on ''I Am the Greatest'' from which "Endless Art" was re-released as a single, accompanied by a video. Although the song did not enjoy huge chart success, it reached number 46 in the UK - an achievement by A House's standards - and it gained a certain amount of airplay on

MTV Europe MTV Global (formerly MTV Europe) is the international version of the American TV channel MTV as 24-hour music video and entertainment pay television network officially launched on 1 August 1987 as part of the worldwide MTV network. Initia ...

. The lyrics to "Endless Art" begin with the line "All art is quite useless according to

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish author, poet, and playwright. After writing in different literary styles throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular and influential playwright ...

" and for their remainder are mostly a list of the names and birth and death dates of artists from various fields, with the chorus remark: "all dead but still alive, in endless time and endless art". This "list" style of song is characteristic of many of

Dave Couse Dave Couse (born 1965) is an Irish musician, producer, and radio presenter best known for being the lead singer and main songwriter with the band A House. Couse has also released three albums as a solo artist. Early career and A House Couse wa ...

's songs. The majority of the lyrics are declaimed rather than sung, over a repetitive electric guitar motif. Melodically, the song features a quotation from Beethoven's Fifth Symphony in the chorus.

Video

"Endless Art" was accompanied by an innovative

stop-motion Stop-motion (also known as stop frame animation) is an animation, animated filmmaking and special effects technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appe ...

video which received a lot of praise. When Paul King played the video on his final '' MTV's Greatest Hits'' show, as one "of those videos that I really do think deserve to be called great and classic", alongside others such as "Thriller" and " Ashes to Ashes".

Sexism

For the first appearance of the song on ''Bingo'', the band received some criticism for the fact that the artists listed in the song are all male, so they recorded a second version where all the artists are female. This is the version called "More Endless Art". In "More Endless Art", the melodic quotation from Beethoven is substituted with one from

Carl Orff Carl Heinrich Maria Orff (; 10 July 1895 – 29 March 1982) was a German composer and music educator, who composed the cantata ''Carmina Burana (Orff), Carmina Burana'' (1937). The concepts of his Orff Schulwerk, Schulwerk were influential for ...

Updated version

Dave Couse has subsequently performed a live version of "Endless Art" with a new list of artists, those deceased since the original release of the song. This is available as "Endless Art 06" on the B-side of his 2006 single "A Celebration".

Track listings

"Endless Art" single (1992) # "Endless Art" # "Freak Show"* # "More Endless Art" # "Charity"* ∗ From a live recording for a

John Peel session John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second Ep ...

on February 2, 1992. * All songs written by A House. * Produced by Edwyn Collins (1, 3) and

Dale Griffin Terence Dale "Buffin" Griffin (24 October 1948 – 17 January 2016) was an English drummer and a founding member of 1970s rock band Mott the Hoople. Later, he worked as a producer, and produced many of the BBC Radio 1 John Peel sessions from ...

(2, 4). ''Bingo'' EP (1991) # "Endless Art" # "Our Love Is Good Enough" # "Slipping Away" # "Baby You're Too Much" * All songs written by A House.

References

External links

Endless Art video on YouTube

More Endless Art on YouTube
(version retaining Beethoven chorus, not Orff; video visuals by YouTube user) {{authority control 1991 songs 1992 singles A House songs Animated music videos List songs Setanta Records singles Stop-motion animated music videos Works about artists 1990s in Irish music