“It was the wildest recording session we ever had. We rented this big stone gymnasium in Portland and turned it into this insane psychedelic setting with friends playing strip poker, a fridge full of beers, and all the other things you can imagine.”
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That’s how drummer Brent DeBoer of The Dandy Warhols explained the making of “Bohemian Like You” to The Guardian. (Also, DeBoer’s nickname is “Fathead” if you are feeling strong Dazed and Confused vibes.)
If you are familiar with the song, or The Dandy Warhols generally, you’d expect nothing less from the Portland, Oregon, rock band.
But the Car Didn’t Break Down
Before The Dandy Warhols signed a record deal with Capitol, the band’s leader Courtney Taylor-Taylor worked as a mechanic. One day, a BMW 320i pulled up in front of his apartment. Inside the car “was this super-cool-looking woman with bleached hair piled up with black roots and a shirt worn over a pink top.”
Unfortunately for the singer, the light turned and she drove off. He thought, maybe if the car stalled, he could fix it. But it didn’t. Instead, he wrote his band’s signature tune in five minutes.
So, what do you do?
Oh, yeah, I wait tables too
No, I haven’t heard your band
’Cause you guys are pretty new
But if you dig on vegan food
Well, come over to my work
I’ll have them cook you something
That you’ll really love
He started with a Rolling Stones-inspired guitar riff. Taylor-Taylor recalled how his mom called The Dandy Warhols hipsters because of their thrift store clothing. He said, “But ‘Bohemian Like You’ sounded better than ‘Hipster Like You.’”
Wait, who’s that guy?
Just hanging at your pad
He’s looking kinda bummed
Yeah, you broke up that’s too bad
I guess it’s fair
If he always pays the rent
And he doesn’t get bent
About sleeping on the couch when I’m there
It Wasn’t an Immediate Hit
“Bohemian Like You” didn’t break the Top 40. However, things changed when the British telecommunications company Vodafone featured the song in a commercial. Taylor-Taylor called it a “cultural turning point.” It also gave The Dandy Warhols new life with Capitol Records, who re-released the single following the commercial’s popularity.
Suddenly, bands like The Strokes and The White Stripes shifted the zeitgeist with a modern take on garage rock. An explosion of “The” bands transformed American rock music. While The Strokes and The White Stripes became household names, The Dandy Warhols existed in a subculture of artists like The Brian Jonestown Massacre.
But they also had the slacker pop sensibilities of The Lemonheads. It’s audible in “Bohemian Like You,” which offered a way into the mainstream.
The Dandy Warhols See the Future
DeBoer, Taylor-Taylor’s cousin, had just joined the band after the departure of original drummer Eric Hedford. He first heard the demo for “Bohemian Like You” on a tour bus in Holland. But the bandmates’ reaction wasn’t spectacular.
That changed when they entered the studio to record and Taylor-Taylor started playing the riff. Fellow guitarist Peter Holmström looked in DeBoer’s direction, who just realized he was playing “on a hit record.”
The marathon recording session left the band’s engineer Greg Williams in need of a professional massage. Soon, keyboardist Zia McCabe and friends were requesting help: “Man, I’ve smoked so much pot that my back’s sore. Can I have a rub?”
Last Classic Rock Album
The Dandy Warhols released Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia in 2000. It was the group’s third studio album and Taylor-Taylor said they wanted to make “the last classic rock album.”
Aiming for a cross between George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass and Grateful Dead’s Workingman’s Dead, Taylor-Taylor’s songwriting covers garage rock, psychedelia, shoegaze, country, and pop. Like the band name, the music makes no mystery of its range of influences.
Other standout tracks on the album include “Godless” and “Get Off.”
Even before the song charted, Taylor-Taylor got a glimpse of how people might respond to “Bohemian Like You.” He handed a DJ friend a copy of the single at a New York bar packed with celebrities. Once the guitar riff started, people pumped their fists and sang the hook “Ooh, ooh, ooh!”
He said, “I saw my future right there.”
’Cause I like you
Yeah, I like you
And I’m feeling so bohemian like you
Photo by Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images
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