Mr. Jones got run down.
I still find this curious. Even in 1978, newspapers were no longer quite this formal and deferential. Surely this isn't simply a case of a young and still impressionable Weller getting carried away and trying too hard to ape his hero Ray Davies?
Instead, I submit that this was a local newspaper, and that the photograph on the front cover depicted someone of the narrator's acquaintance: A neighbour maybe, or a shopkeeper, or a prominent member of the Woking Rotary Club. (("My God, that's poor old Jonesie...")
Or - and here it gets really interesting - could this news item actually refer to the untimely demise of Semi-Detached Suburban Mister Jones? If so, then this represents a breathtaking leap of daring on Weller's part.
― mike t-diva (mike t-diva), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 14:40 (nineteen years ago) link
― dave amos, Tuesday, 7 September 2004 14:44 (nineteen years ago) link
Please stop (a) failing to properly read things I have written and (b) not believing me about the price when I have eaten there.
Cheers pal.
― Madchen (Madchen), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 14:46 (nineteen years ago) link
http://www.i-way.co.uk/~tristang/DADS/jones.JPG
"They don't like it up em sir, etc. etc."
― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 14:48 (nineteen years ago) link
(a) sorry, I'll certainly try harder in future;(b) I don't disbelieve you abou the price they're charging for the curries at all; I disbelieve the curry vendors assertion that they were able to persuade anyone to part with four and a half bleedin' quid for a ruby in 1978 and I think enormous fun could be had in challenging them to prove this.
― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 14:50 (nineteen years ago) link
This line's always jumps out at me because "black" leather just wouldn't work here - for various reasons.
― Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 14:51 (nineteen years ago) link
― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 14:53 (nineteen years ago) link
― Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 14:55 (nineteen years ago) link
Or maybe - if we accept the theory that the song was indeed written from the future - the newspaper headline refers to the untimely demise of the "Mr. Jones" from the annoying Counting Crows song of the same name. (Who, by this time, would surely be the "big star" that the song condiently asserts that he will become.)
I need some fresh air.
― mike t-diva (mike t-diva), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 14:57 (nineteen years ago) link
Careful where you go now
― Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 14:58 (nineteen years ago) link
Livx
― Liv, Tuesday, 7 September 2004 15:03 (nineteen years ago) link
You should call them Curryoke Machines
― Joe Kay (feethurt), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 15:09 (nineteen years ago) link
― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 15:11 (nineteen years ago) link
― the music mole (colin s barrow), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 16:42 (nineteen years ago) link
In what sense "beguiling"? Does he really think that a coiny likeness of HRH is giving him the glad eye?
Is it this that prompts the (involuntary?) reaction in his sadly singular "plum"?
― Neil Willett (Neil Willett), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 16:51 (nineteen years ago) link
― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 16:55 (nineteen years ago) link
― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 16:56 (nineteen years ago) link
― Neil Willett (Neil Willett), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 17:02 (nineteen years ago) link
― Neil Willett (Neil Willett), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 17:22 (nineteen years ago) link
― Liv, Tuesday, 7 September 2004 20:22 (nineteen years ago) link
" Smiling, beguilingI 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.
― m0stly clean (m0stly clean), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 21:21 (nineteen years ago) link
― the music mole (colin s barrow), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 21:32 (nineteen years ago) link
― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 22:36 (nineteen years ago) link
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?
― Neil Willett (Neil Willett), Wednesday, 8 September 2004 05:38 (nineteen years ago) link
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?
― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Wednesday, 8 September 2004 09:22 (nineteen years ago) link
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.
― dave amos, Wednesday, 8 September 2004 09:26 (nineteen years ago) link
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.
― Vasquesz, Wednesday, 8 September 2004 09:36 (nineteen years ago) link
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.
― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Wednesday, 8 September 2004 09:43 (nineteen years ago) link
"Paul Weller - My Rimming Shame"
― NickB (NickB), Wednesday, 8 September 2004 09:46 (nineteen years ago) link
― splooge (thesplooge), Wednesday, 8 September 2004 09:49 (nineteen years ago) link
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?
― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Wednesday, 8 September 2004 09:53 (nineteen years ago) link
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.
― Vasquesz, Wednesday, 8 September 2004 10:01 (nineteen years ago) link
what a great lyric.
― splooge (thesplooge), Wednesday, 8 September 2004 10:04 (nineteen years ago) link
― Dadaismus (Dada), Wednesday, 8 September 2004 10:06 (nineteen years ago) link
― splooge (thesplooge), Wednesday, 8 September 2004 10:07 (nineteen years ago) link
― splooge (thesplooge), Wednesday, 8 September 2004 10:08 (nineteen years ago) link
"Down a back alley with an asian rent boy at midnightWhoa Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh"
― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Wednesday, 8 September 2004 10:11 (nineteen years ago) link
― Dadaismus (Dada), Wednesday, 8 September 2004 10:14 (nineteen years ago) link
― Dadaismus (Dada), Wednesday, 8 September 2004 10:16 (nineteen years ago) link
It would certainly explain why the queen in question was "smiling, beguiling".
― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Wednesday, 8 September 2004 10:17 (nineteen years ago) link
― Vasquesz, Wednesday, 8 September 2004 10:20 (nineteen years ago) link
― dave amos, Wednesday, 8 September 2004 10:23 (nineteen years ago) link
― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Wednesday, 8 September 2004 10:26 (nineteen years ago) link
― dave amos, Wednesday, 8 September 2004 10:28 (nineteen years ago) link
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.
― Vasquesz, Wednesday, 8 September 2004 10:30 (nineteen years ago) link
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.
― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Wednesday, 8 September 2004 10:32 (nineteen years ago) link
― Dadaismus (Dada), Wednesday, 8 September 2004 10:36 (nineteen years ago) link
― splooge (thesplooge), Wednesday, 8 September 2004 10:37 (nineteen years ago) link
too many right wing meetings ?
An 'acceptable' number being one. Where you go 'fuck that bollox' and never go again.
(fwiw, I have not.)
― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 8 September 2004 10:40 (nineteen years ago) link