not quite the one I love, the one I've left behind or the simple prop who occupied my time.Nope. This is for Dick Van Dyke. Much loved Sunday Correspondent who has been having a wee bit of a tough time recently (hence the lack of postings) but who last Friday left behind a comment saying this was one of his favourite album tracks by The Jam.
mp3 : The Jam - Down In The Tube Station At Midnight
It's one of mine too....but was disqualified for inclusion in last Friday's posting thanks to a slightly different version being released as a single in October 1978, which reached #15 in the UK charts.
Again, it is astonishing to think that this lyric and tune were the work of someone who was barely out of his teens. Sadly, there was never a promo video made. But there was a TOTP appearance:-
Here's yer b-sides:-
mp3 : The Jam - So Sad About Us
mp3 : The Jam - The Night
The former is a cover of a song by The Who. The latter is a Bruce Foxton composition.
Hope this is accepted as a way of an apology for my rudeness old boy. Hope also you're able to entertain your many fans with another contribution to the Sunday series.
9 comments:
Amen to that.
Ah, the lyric. We thought it was genius poetry at the time. Spent hours writing it out again and again in our school jotters. But years later, I have many questions.
What was he doing on the tube with a take away curry at that time of night in the first place? Maybe he's been out on a bender and has the munchies, but if his wife's at home alone, shouldn't she have eaten by now?
Does 'brown leather' have a particular smell then? As opposed to leather generally?
Wine doesn't go flat. Unless it's sparkling wine. Or champagne. Very posh.
So they took the keys and she'll think it's him, but how will they know where he lives? He hasn't been a chump and put his address on the key ring has he? Or inside his jumper like when you were six?
(It's still a fabulous song, obv).
Aw shucks. JC - you're such a shaft of golden sunlight in a dark and dangerous world. (Much like the one portrayed by Weller).
At every disco I went to for years after '78 I would request 'Tube Station' - only to receive very short shrift from the DJ. My plaintive, 'Got any Jam?' would receive the predictable (hilariously witty) response about Bread or Marmalade. How wonderful for you to 'play it' for me old boy.
Good old Davy - ya grumpy old fecker. I bet you saw that dodgy brush stroke on the Cistine Chapel ceiling, or a weed in the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, and that poor pointing on the Great Pyramid.
I suspect The London Underground system was a bit of a novelty for Woking boys. (Certainly as a 16 year old northerner, I'd never been on the capital's Tube). But my, how the boy Weller could paint pictures with words.
In later years, I found it very dificult to find a bloody train at midnight - certainly to the suburbs.
At the time, it was their best song ever. Perhaps it still is?
"So Sad About Us" was recorded as a tribute to the then recently departed Keith Moon.
HD
I saw 'From The Jam' recently and despite Bruce being the only original member left,they still knock out a stonking version of this. Some may say that having Mark Breizicki on drums is an upgrade from Rick Buckler anyway
Brilliant mate. Now you're rocking .
Funny you mention it because there was a lot of very poor pointing on the Great Pyramid. Slave labour you see, you get what you (don't) pay for.
Word verif - 'oustized' (me from DVD's Christmas card list, prob)
Indeed, some of the lyrics now seem painfully 6th form. But it still makes the hairs stand up on the back of my neck...
There aren't that many pop songs that tell a story, let alone leave you hanging about what happens after it reaches the inner groove. As a teen living in NYC there were loads of English references which I would learn - hell in NYC in the 70's there weren't any take away curry restaurants I knew of and I grew up in a family that owned an Indian restaurant! I certainly had no idea what Wormwood Srubs was. To this day I think Weller can tell a wonderful story in song as well as provide the soundtrack to good night out with the lads.
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