"Down In The Tube Station At Midnight" by The Jam - What Does It Mean?

'She'll be lining up the cutlery,
You know she's expecting me'

Here lies a symbolic expression of the author's primal fears of impotence, of not performing in the way his wife expects. 'The wine's gone flat' is another. It would be more honest to say 'my joystick's gone limp'.

He doesn't want to go "down in the tube station" - the birth canal?

His horror of being unmanned before, or enclosed within, the female body is matched only by his terror of the gynaecologists and obstetricians - probably women, too - who heckle and harass him within the womb ("hey boy"); particularly those in private practice ("have you got any money"), and whom he metaphorically depicts as a gang of male muggers (their *surgical* scrubs being translated into "*Wormwood* Scrubs").

I think what's been missed here is that the term "right-wing" in the line "too many right-wing meetings" is undefined.

We have to remember that this song was recorded in the General Election year of 1979. Therefore, a lot of active Conservative parliamentary groups would have been meeting frequently to plan Mrs. Thatcher's election campaign.

I therefore suspect that the assailants, rather than being National Front, are tired, irrascible members of the Conservative Backbench 1922 Committee, who are letting out the frustrations of endless meetings on polling strategies, tax-and-spend policies, anti-union laws etc. by beating up a harmless passer by.

The tragedy is that if Weller had been less coy about identifying these assailants, the resulting scandal might have fatally damaged the Tory election campaign, with the possibility of us being spared the predations of monetary economics.

To conclude: It's because of that cunt Weller we no longer have a steel industry.

Appendix 4 is now written!

This thread cheers me up like nothing else. it's got to the stage where i giggle when i see Weller records in used bins

The all-enclosing womb metaphorised as 'the tube' - the sense of entrapment by and within the smothering female - I think we have hardly touched upon this matter.

New People!

This is the ""Down In The Tube Station At Midnight" by The Jam - What Does It Mean?" thread.

Read All, and smile.

Revive! I've just done a phone interview with Bruce Foxton, during the course of which I took him to task about some of the more troubling lines.

He has no idea what Weller meant by "I pulled out a plum", and has been puzzling over it for years.

The maximum quota of right wing meetings that one might reasonably attend before picking up their distinctive odour: "Not even one."

And he thinks that the wine might have been a Lambrusco. (He tried palming me off with the "flat" = "stale" argument, but I persisted.)

I hope this helps.

this thread! holy shitbags what a joy.

but he pulls out a plum "behind me" when he's put the coin in the machine, which is presumably in front of him?

No, it's his assailants who are behind him, not the plum

I always thought the line was "too many right wing beatings", not meetings.

No, it's his assailants who are behind him, not the plum

― Ich Ber ein Binliner (Tom D.), Tuesday, 21 October 2008 16:03 (44 minutes ago)

That's not how it sounds on the record. It's all very well be clever with the commas on the lyric sheet Mr Weller.
I've always puzzled about where that plum got pulled from myself
it was a troubling part of my youth

Best thread ever.

Once we're done with this thread, I think Oasis's 'Wonderwall' could use some of our expert analysis too.

OK, so let's give Bruce Foxton the right of reply here:

http://troubled-diva.com/brucetube.mp3

I did my best!

^^^
Bumping this for the office workers.

Good effort!

Hurrah! No one can even MENTION it now without reference to this thread! =

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/table/2009/mar/16/people-and-places-1000-songs-everyone-must-hear

Though it seems straightforward enough, the lyric of Down in the Tube Station at Midnight has provoked a memorably tortuous thread on music-geek discussion site I Love Music. Ostensibly the tale of a man beaten up on the way home to his wife, it does pose some curious questions. His assailants apparently smell of “too many right-wing meetings” (begging the question, how many is acceptable?). For that matter: why is our hero transporting a curry on the tube in the first place? And would his wife really be laying the table and uncorking the wine in expectation? Whatever, it’s textbook punk-era Weller: a deftly observed, quietly shocking suburban vignette. MH

Hurrah! No one can even MENTION it now withiut reference to this thread! =

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/table/2009/mar/16/people-and-places-1000-songs-everyone-must-hear

Though it seems straightforward enough, the lyric of Down in the Tube Station at Midnight has provoked a memorably tortuous thread on music-geek discussion site I Love Music. Ostensibly the tale of a man beaten up on the way home to his wife, it does pose some curious questions. His assailants apparently smell of “too many right-wing meetings” (begging the question, how many is acceptable?). For that matter: why is our hero transporting a curry on the tube in the first place? And would his wife really be laying the table and uncorking the wine in expectation? Whatever, it’s textbook punk-era Weller: a deftly observed, quietly shocking suburban vignette. MH

Enshrined forever. As it should be.

Now I want to hear that vocalese "So What" by Eddie Jefferson that's listed right below on that link.

oh i said that twice. hm soz.

Perhaps clues can be found in another of Weller's songs, Mr Clean. Look at the evidence in the lyrics.

Daylights dawns, you wake up and yawn - Mr. Clean
A piece of toast from the one you love most - and you leave
You get the bus in the 8 o'clock rush,
And catch the train in the morning rain
Mr. Clean - Mr. Clean
If you see me in the street - look away
Cause I don't ever want to catch you looking at me - Mr. Clean
Cause I hate you and your wife
And if I get the chance I'll fuck up your life
Mr. Clean - etc. -
IS THAT SEEN!
Surround yourself with dreams, of pretty young
girls, and anyone you want, but -
please don't forget me or any of my kind
cause I'll make you think again
When I stick your face in the grind -
Getting pissed at the annual office do -
Smart blue suit and you went to Cambridge too -
You miss page 3, but the Times is right for you -
And mum and dad are very proud of you -
Mr. Clean - etc.

It could be Mr Clean himself lying battered in the Tube station. Did Paul Weller catch up with him and give him the promised kicking and stick Mr Clean's face in the Grind? Paul is able to see the result of this somewhat class-based hatred as well as the anticipation of it.

first time seeing this thread, crying with laughter, well done all

To retread some old ground re the too many right wings odour, I wonder if a visual representation helps? See: http://crappygraphs.com/user_graphs/?id=5443

Previous posters have assumed that "they took the keys and she'll think it's me" means that the thugs will use his keys to get into his home.

My interpretation is that he will get home very late and will have to wake his wife up to let him in. He will say that he had his keys stolen but she will think that it is him who lost them.

PS Who is this Paul Weller you all speak of?

Is mweller any relation?

deserves a bump, as every time i hear this now i can't stop laughing

People, check the Uncut Weller special, specifically the page where they review "All Mod Cons", you may find some parts you recognise...

..

Do tell.

this thread is all-time

There was Throbbing Gristle song about Genesis P-Orridge getting beaten up down in a tube station (hour not specified) that I'm certain Paul Weller never heard before writing this.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FU0OC8IWYAEuYB5?format=jpg

I've been spinning this song for 40 years, and now I don't feel like I've ever heard it at all.

The morning paper is probably the NME or Sounds. Weller was a teenager and would be oblivious to the normal tabloids (cf. It was Foxton, a few years older, who composed "News of the World"). This part of the song references the biggest news story for mods that year - Keith Moon's death ("headlines of death and sorrow") and the poor reception that Kenney Jones received as his replacement in The Who ("Mr Jones got run down").

I've found the transcript of my interview with Bruce Foxton in 2008, which concludes thusly:

That’s all my main questions, but I have got a couple of cheeky extras for you, because I can’t resist the opportunity to take you to task over some of the lyrics of Down In The Tube Station At Midnight. It is one of your greatest songs, and I know you didn’t write it, but I’ve always found some of the lyrics a bit puzzling.

Firstly, there’s the moment when the man in the song uses a vending machine, and the line goes “I put in the money and pull out a plum”. Now, even in 1978, I don’t remember seeing vending machines that sold fresh fruit. Was that a metaphor?

(Laughs) You’ve got me there! I think you’d best ask Paul about that. That’s one that has bemused me for a while.

And then we meet his assailants, who “smelt of pubs and Wormwood Scrubs and too many right wing meetings”. What is the maximum quota of right wing meetings that you might reasonably attend, before being tainted by their characteristic odour?

Well, I wouldn’t want to go to one! They were cheeky questions, you’re right.

And right at the end of the end of the song, when he’s lying semi-conscious on the platform, he says “the wine will be flat and the curry’s gone cold”. Now then, sparkling wine with curry? These people were fancy.

Now, I can answer that one. It could go off, couldn’t it? I’m not sure what wine he was drinking, but it may have been a Lambrusco or something. (Laughs)

She would have done better to have left the cork in until he got home – but thanks for clearing that up.

You’ve made me think about those other couple. I’ll put my thinking cap on. But it was a pleasure, anyway.

Do remember vending machines on tube station platforms but can't remember exact contents. Fruit being left in a vending machine would tend towards rotten fruit and a spread of mildew anyway. Might be something you might find on teh continent with adequate technology etc but not in dear old blighty.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/41/8c/0a/418c0aa98772339b08fe5c399439531d.jpg
I thought of this but grape doesn't rhyme as well as plum and so on. But did remember a purplish fruit on the packaging.

& isn't plum a lift from Little Jack Horner or something?

Right, see, Woking Station has a stinky, pissy underpass and if you come through it from the south and walk a few yards up Broadway, there's an Indian restaurant which used to (still does?) have as its unique selling point CURRIES AT 1978 PRICES, 1978 being the year it opened, so that's about £4.50 then.

need to know if this place is still going

'It's a muddle ok palimpsest if you like' makes most sense to me: weller wants to write a song about getting mugged in a tube station but all the concrete details come from Woking experience - he's remembering picking up a curry and cutting through the station; he's trying to re-imagine it as a tube journey, so he adds in the ticket machine which dispenses a 'plum' - plausibly a 70s dark pink cheap day train return to London from Woking, because that's the ticket he's most used to seeing. (I can find period examples on eBay from Guildford that could plausibly be 'plums').

The sneaky chocolate bar hypothesis is very appealing, but I suspect he's just picturing the wrong kind of ticket.

no idea about that wine though

Weller can be pretty Bernard Sumneresque when it comes to lyric writing, pulling out any old rubbish just because it rhymes. There's that line in Paris Match "As I tread the boulevard floor, will I see you once more"... Tread the boulevard floor???

the entire curry discourse comes from a speech whose sole purpose is to save him from a mugging = nothing in that entire quotation need to be taken as truthful (the curry does not exist, it is a feint, his wife's supposed activities are invented to make him seem harmless and likeable and not worth a mugger's energies)

his return to the curry and win all post-beating is thus to be read as a crestfallen and ironic analysis of the failure of this speech to do the work intended: hence "the curry is cold" means "my spur-of-the-moment invention failed and curdled bcz i was set upon anyway, thus all aesthetic endeavour" [swoons, dies*]

as for plum: it's a metaphor entirely interrupted by the arrival of the crime - he pulls out a "queen" (= smiling, beguiling) and then a "plum" (= characterisation never arrives), there's a rhythm to the figure (one metaphor followed by another) but his happily inept and self-absorbed attempted poetics is smashed to pieces by harsh hateful reality and we never learn how effective his metaleptic device was going to be: thus all art (good or bad) in the face of implacable violence

*more metaphor maybe

in conclusion the gang is basically saying "tear him for his bad verses" (shakespeare) and the tragedy is that we never discover if they're right abt how bad they are