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

Liv
x

" Smiling, beguiling
I put in the money and pull out a plum"....

it is actually the curry afficionado himself who is doing both the smiling and the beguiling.
in fact, if "plum" does indeed refer to testicles, it's a fairly heavy-handed attempt at beguiling.
read this way, perhaps the attackers are simply local rent boys who rise to the bait, request confirmation of sufficent funds beforehand, and are then driven to violence by his meandering, overly detailed answer, as postulated by yourself in your post of 3rd September, 2004.

In which case - is the rapidly cooling "take-away curry" literally a "take-away curry", or code, palare, for some special sexual feature or predilection, recognised only by a select few?

And if so, how much would it have cost in 1978?

This would make perfect sense because, of course, anyone who made a habit of wandering about down in a tube station at midnight accompanied by an asian rent boy; and with one of his bollocks hanging out of his trousers; back in the unenlightened days of 1978; was bound to get his head kicked in before too long.

Does anyone happen to know whether £4.50 might have been the going rate for asian rent boys in the Woking area in 1978?

i think finally we have an exegesis that addresses the true complexities of the song. we understand more deeply weller's rendering of those insomnia prone, feverish late 70s days, when as morley put it "we were all pale hysterical ghosts of who we are now"; that bygone era swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, where ignorant armies clash(ed) by night.

Not a strange thought. But Weller referring to this person as a 'Curry' is clearly racist - then why berate his attackers for smelling of 'right-wing meetings'?
Unless he only called his rent-boy a 'curry' to their faces, to come over as "one of them" (hoping to avoid the kicking).

It does have quite some implications.
When the thugs shout "Hey boy", they may well have been addressing the prostitute, and not the narrator. If he hadn't opened his big mouth, they might have completely left him alone - it's the prostitute's money they were after.
Of course, it also means the song gets a lot darker, as "the curry's gone cold" probably means they killed his companion.

As has already been observed, he actually commented that they had attended too many right wing meetings - the implication clearly being that attendance at such meetings (like the using the occasional racist slur) was OK as far as Mr. Weller was concerned, provided that it was in moderation.

"Paul Weller - My Rimming Shame"

Does anyone actually know what the "D" and the "C" in "D.C. Lee" stand for?

It couldn't possibly be "David" and "Christopher" or "Derek" and "Colin", could it?

Really? Running around with male prostitutes at all hours, while his wife is, as we now know, not just "lining up the cutlery", but making their supper as well [he isn't bringing any].

A new question: do you think that 'the deed' had already been done at the time of the attack? "I've a 'little' money" he says, so he has probably already paid up.

what a great lyric.

"Down a back alley with an asian rent boy at midnight
Whoa Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh"

It would certainly explain why the queen in question was "smiling, beguiling".

It'd be just the thing one of these tabloids might print, unaware that it's an urban legend.
It also explains why Weller has to take the tube in the first place: he wasn't able to complete his driving test.

I'm staring to move towards the belief that when "he fumbles for change" (within himself) he's actually wrestling with his own conscience because he knows that he shouldn't be lurking about in subterranean passageways, seeking out opportunities to provide hand-relief to passing homosexuals, when his wife is at home "polishing the glasses and pulling out the cork" and generally fulfilling her role as a dutiful wife, in blissful ignorance of his sordid hidden activites and proclivities.

However he ultimately loses this battle and gives in to his baser instincts.

too many right wing meetings ?

An 'acceptable' number being one. Where you go 'fuck that bollox' and never go again.

(fwiw, I have not.)

No, wait, sorry, those weren't right wing meetings, they were right wing rallies.

Exactly.

(Unless they were of the same prim Victorian mindset that resulted in piano legs being covered up with little velvet curtains, that is. "My God... those steps... they're practically NUDE.")

I put it to you that what Weller actually wrote was:

"I'm partially naked, except for toffee wrappers and this morning's papers. etc."

This fits the "tube nutter" theory admirably. Drunk, shirtless, covered in litter, one bollock hanging out of his trousers, rent boy on his arm, rambling on about his transexual "wife"... well, you can see why he might have attracted some unwelcome attention.

So he's at very least imagining what it would be like to wander 'round the cities subterranean transport system "partially naked, except for toffee wrapers and this morning's paper....".

In reality 'though I don't think he's prepared to risk the shame and public humiliation attendant on his actually being caught wandering 'round the tube station completely starkers, and is forced to settle for surreptitiously pulling out one "plum", attempting to disguise the action of so doing by pretending to be getting his money out of his posket and purchasing either a ticket or a bar of chocolate from a vending machine (it is unclear which).

These are strangely prescient newspapers. My money's on The Fortean Times.

(For just after he loses consciousness, his attackers push his body over the platform edge, where he remains until savagely mowed down by the first train of the morning.)

I can't believe it has taken so long to deduce this simple, yet crucial, fact.