These poor people with nothing better to do than frequent tube stations at midnight (and - earlier in the evening, perhaps - attend excessive quantities of right-wing meetings with special smells) were DRIVEN to violence by "the victim's" incessant chatter about place-settings.
― Neil Willett (Neil Willett), Friday, 3 September 2004 05:06 (nineteen years ago) link
― the music mole (colin s barrow), Friday, 3 September 2004 05:09 (nineteen years ago) link
It's just the story of a random mugging, perhaps one with a little Daily Mail-esque opinion of 'Youth Thugs Today'. Weller was a Conservative at the time, so he may well have been reading the Daily Mail.
― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Friday, 3 September 2004 07:24 (nineteen years ago) link
maybe he was in Dollis Hill, wherethe tube station indeed provides a handy cut through
― Porkpie (porkpie), Friday, 3 September 2004 07:43 (nineteen years ago) link
I DO THIS.
― Dr. C (Dr. C), Friday, 3 September 2004 09:12 (nineteen years ago) link
― Gerrit, Friday, 3 September 2004 12:49 (nineteen years ago) link
But the song is "Down In the Tube Station at Midnight!" I always pictured it as underground.
― mike a, Friday, 3 September 2004 13:54 (nineteen years ago) link
mmm, lessee... one crafty pork pie please.
― m0stly clean (m0stly clean), Friday, 3 September 2004 14:54 (nineteen years ago) link
― m0stly clean (m0stly clean), Friday, 3 September 2004 14:55 (nineteen years ago) link
Also, the first line 'The distant echo - of faraway voices boarding faraway trains', suggests a big station, possibly one with British Rail connections
― Joe Kay (feethurt), Friday, 3 September 2004 15:24 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ally C (Ally C), Friday, 3 September 2004 17:51 (nineteen years ago) link
― Gerard Mc Cavana, Friday, 3 September 2004 18:02 (nineteen years ago) link
― Alba (Alba), Friday, 3 September 2004 18:03 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ally C (Ally C), Friday, 3 September 2004 18:13 (nineteen years ago) link
― Anna (Anna), Friday, 3 September 2004 18:30 (nineteen years ago) link
A bloke's in the tube station on his way home(lots of descripton), buys a ticket, gets spotted by thugs, they ask him for money, he gets beat up and they take his keys, the bloke worries because the thugs will get into his house and the bloke's wife will think it's him ("'Cause they took the keys and she'll think it's me."). Now by the time he gets home the wine his wife had pulled the cork on will be flat, and the curry he has will be cold.
― Chris W, Friday, 3 September 2004 19:57 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ferdie, Friday, 3 September 2004 20:47 (nineteen years ago) link
― cºzen (Cozen), Friday, 3 September 2004 20:53 (nineteen years ago) link
― Le Brain Boy (Slim Pickens), Friday, 3 September 2004 21:42 (nineteen years ago) link
check out the weller tattoo
― pompey lad, Friday, 3 September 2004 21:45 (nineteen years ago) link
― pompey lad, Friday, 3 September 2004 23:06 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ally C (Ally C), Friday, 3 September 2004 23:38 (nineteen years ago) link
― the music mole (colin s barrow), Saturday, 4 September 2004 00:26 (nineteen years ago) link
― fact checking cuz (fcc), Saturday, 4 September 2004 00:30 (nineteen years ago) link
― Bumfluff, Saturday, 4 September 2004 00:32 (nineteen years ago) link
― Rancid, Saturday, 4 September 2004 11:58 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ally C (Ally C), Saturday, 4 September 2004 17:52 (nineteen years ago) link
― the music mole (colin s barrow), Saturday, 4 September 2004 22:46 (nineteen years ago) link
Is Weller thick enough to print his adress on his keyring?? How the hell are the muggers going to know where the hell he lives by just stealing his keys?
― mahoney, Monday, 6 September 2004 19:33 (nineteen years ago) link
I think this part shows the attack took place close to home because he seems sure that they will know the area well enough to get there without directions
― Chris Duffy, Monday, 6 September 2004 19:39 (nineteen years ago) link
― Queen Electric Butt Prober BZZT!! BZZZZZT!! (Queen Electric Butt Prober BZZ), Monday, 6 September 2004 23:01 (nineteen years ago) link
Perhaps the thugs are local thugs who have seen him around. Perhaps they have a grudge.
― Alba (Alba), Monday, 6 September 2004 23:11 (nineteen years ago) link
― the music mole (colin s barrow), Monday, 6 September 2004 23:22 (nineteen years ago) link
― the music mole (colin s barrow), Monday, 6 September 2004 23:35 (nineteen years ago) link
Plum, because a yellow ticket would be banana but it doesn't scan.
Cheers otherwise.
― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 06:05 (nineteen years ago) link
― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 07:26 (nineteen years ago) link
I refer anyone to a station like Bank (there are many others) where you go down into the tube station to cross the junction. They do have said Cadbury's machines (though they normally are jammed) and they are a very good place to go if you are looking for a kicking.
I am surprised in my brief scan of this that noone has mentioned he is very unlikely to be getting a train. Turn of midnight, your kind of pissing in the wind with LU.
― ___ (___), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 08:00 (nineteen years ago) link
i'll field this one: as the older among us remember, there wasn't much of a premium on male colognes in Britain in the 70s. Brut 33 had to enlist the help of renowned boxer Henry Cooper to give their product the required masculine cache. Several other companies tried to jump on this bandwagon, often with disastrous results. I refer in particular to Estee Lauders' short-lived flirtation with macho chic: the scents 'pubs' and 'wormwood scrubs' were withdrawn from stores in 1979 after catastrophic sales. generally being seen as a sign of downward mobility by consumers, the bouquet of sweat, fear, fermenting fruit and woodbines these colognes gave off never took off in the UK, except in Northern Ireland.
Could Weller have been intimating that his assailants were Irish? republicans, even?
― dave amos, Tuesday, 7 September 2004 08:08 (nineteen years ago) link
― cis (cis), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 09:26 (nineteen years ago) link
― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 09:44 (nineteen years ago) link
― Joe Kay (feethurt), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 09:49 (nineteen years ago) link
Or is that for another thread?
― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 09:50 (nineteen years ago) link
The entire lyric is clearly all slightly paranoid conjecture about what might have happened to him if he had attempted to go home by tube, rather than taking a taxi like any sane person would do if they'd bought a curry and didn't want it to get cold before they got it home to their wife.
He's obviously imagining all this after having comsumed best part of that bottle of wine, hence why so much of it appears not to make sense.
The clearly nonsensical bit about pulling out a plum occurs when he's temporarily distracted from his reveries by the discovery that the pudding that his wife's served up after the curry, is in fact plums and custard when he'd evidently been expecting something different; possibly rhubarb.
― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 09:53 (nineteen years ago) link
xpost wait I like Stewart's version.
― cis (cis), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 09:56 (nineteen years ago) link
― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 09:57 (nineteen years ago) link
I read to many thrillers
― Porkpie (porkpie), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 10:01 (nineteen years ago) link
― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 10:04 (nineteen years ago) link
― Porkpie (porkpie), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 10:16 (nineteen years ago) link
― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 10:17 (nineteen years ago) link
I put in the money and pull out a plum, Behind meWhispers in the shadows - gruff blazing voices, Hating, waiting"Hey boy" they shout - "have you got any money?"And I said - "I've a little money and a take away curry,
He's not saying "I've a little money and a take-away curry and a plum". Though, with drunken thugs in front of him, he's not going to hide this Fruit&Nut from them and anger them further, is he?So the "plum" must refer to the curry, that he just took out of the machine. Probably a vegetable curry or it refers to a chutney, whatever. Or it really is just a clever Jack Horner reference.
In any case, it sheds light on why he's down in the tube station: to get the curry. He might live next door, for all we know.
― Vasquesz, Tuesday, 7 September 2004 10:24 (nineteen years ago) link
https://www.mixcloud.com/FrenchSpurs1/retropopic-727-the-jam-the-evolution-of-down-in-the-tube-station-featuring-drummer-rick-buckler/
"Alongside two group classics The Saint talks with The Jam's drummer Rick Buckler about the creation of "Down In The Tube Station At Midnight'.
Why did Paul Weller throw the lyrics of Tube Station in the bin? What was so complex about the song? Who was responsible for the group revisiting the song until completion? How highly did the group themselves regard the song? On what basis did they insist on the song being a single? What was their attitude towards their record company? Why were The Jam not necessarily the best judge of just how great some of their songs were?"
― MaresNest, Tuesday, 9 August 2022 17:30 (one year ago) link
That's a lot of questions. A lot of questions.
I'm puzzled by the line about fumbling for change and then pulling out the Queen. Presumably a £1 note, but a £1 note was never change, and it would have been too much. And yet the narrator doesn't seem displeased. This is what the ticket machines used to look like:https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/London_Underground_ticket_machines_-_Flickr_-_James_E._Petts_%281%29.jpg
The wording implies it's a ticket for the tube, and perhaps the line that Weller used most often had plum-coloured tickets, but they don't seem to have been all that common though:https://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/collections/the-collection?f%5B0%5D=collection_type%3ATickets&f%5B1%5D=object_type%3Aticket&f%5B2%5D=topics%3ATube
If that was the case how come no-one else used that slang? Was it just Paul Weller's mum? Hmm? Paul Weller and his mum, and no-one else? Not even his bandmates? When they were on Top of the Pops did Topper Headon and Billy Bragg look at Paul Weller and think "what's he talking about" and "I have no idea what I'm singing" and "this is rubbish" and "at least The Human League make sense".
Is Weller implying that the machine crushed his thumb, so it looks like a plum? Is it plumb, like a plumb line? Is it "pulled out aplomb" but someone has misheard? On a more serious level my reading of the lyrics is that they're padded out for style, and a more mature Paul Weller would probably be more direct and less Pete Bloody Sinfield.
I've never got The Jam. They were massive from 1979-1982, when I was three years old, but unlike e.g. Madness or The Clash they were never played on the radio after that point - they didn't have wide, uncontroversial crowd-pleasing appeal - so if you weren't alive at the time they were lost to time and memory. The same thing happened to most of Elvis Costello's singles, at least the ones that aren't "Oliver's Army".
I mean, I don't remember hearing their hits on the radio when I was growing up, but there was Madstock, and Keith Floyd's TV shows had The Stranglers, but the other second-wave Ska / Mod / post-punk-punks seemed to vanish from the airwaves post-1982.
― Ashley Pomeroy, Tuesday, 9 August 2022 19:17 (one year ago) link
I grew up in the western United States, far, far from Woking. The Jam have always struck me as the most British of the post/post-punk bands. To my mind, Setting Sons is a near-perfect snapshot of lower-middle-class life in the U.K. in 1979 (keeping in mind that I have never set foot in the U.K.). Nevertheless, I have always found them to be a particularly compelling band. I think this comes primarily from Weller's vocal delivery, in which I find no artifice, even when his lyrics are risible (or unintelligible), as well as the instrumental chops of the band, which are as good as anyone's of that era. I mean, it's 40 years on, and the opening of The Gift still gives me chills. From the video evidence, they were a very potent live band as well.
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Wednesday, 10 August 2022 17:19 (one year ago) link
*punk/post-punk
I spy plumshttps://i.imgur.com/4lY2DaB.jpg
― Alba, Monday, 27 March 2023 18:07 (one year ago) link
taco laser dick
― hootenanny-soundtracking clusterfucks about milking cows (Neanderthal), Monday, 27 March 2023 18:17 (one year ago) link