Above is a picture of The Jam, a very popular, influential (and very English) band from the late seventies/early eighties. This song, which for me typifies late seventies London, is about a racist attack on a man travelling home from work. I'm afraid I can't find it on MP3, so to hear it you'll have to buy or borrow it. It's on a few of their 'greatest hits' packages - I have it on the compilation 'Compact Snap'.

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DOWN IN THE TUBE STATION AT MIDNIGHT - Paul Weller and the Jam

The distant echo of faraway voices boarding faraway trains,

To take them home to the ones that they love and who love them forever

The grey dirty steps, repeat my own and reflect my thoughts

Cold and uninviting, partially naked except for

toffee wrappers and this morning's papers: "Mr. Jones got run down"

Headlines of death and sorrow, they tell of tomorrow: "Madmen on the rampage"

And I'm down in the tube station at midnight

I fumble for change, and pull out the Queen; smiling, beguiling

I put in the money and pull out a plum

Behind me......

Whispers 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, I'm on my way home to my wife.

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

Polishing the glasses and pulling out the cork"

I'm down in the tube station at midnight

I first felt a fist, and then a kick, I could now smell their breath.

They smelt of pubs and Wormwood Scrubs and too many right wing meetings

My life swam around me, it took a look and drowned me in its own existence

The smell of brown leather: It blended in with the weather

It filled my eyes, ears, nose and mouth: it blocked all my senses; couldn't see, hear, speak any longer

And I'm down in the tube station at midnight

I said I was down in the tube station at midnight

The last thing that I saw as I lay there on the floor was "Jesus Saves" painted by an atheist nutter

And a British Rail poster read "Have an Awayday, a cheap holiday, Do it today!"

I glanced back on my life, and thought about my wife, because they took the keys, and she'll think it's me

And I'm down in the tube station at midnight: the wine will be flat and the curry's gone cold

I'm down in the tube station at midnight

Don't want to go down in a tube station at midnight

Glossary:

beguiling: charming and attractive, but often in a false way

Wormwood Scrubs: a famous prison in Britain

nutter: madman, lunatic (slang)

toffee: a type of sweet / candy

 gruff: low and rough, often angry

an Awayday: a cheap rail ticket

blazing: in a noisy and excited way, strongly emotional

(get) run down: (when a pedestrian is) hit by a motor vehicle, e.g. a bus/car

on the rampage: rushing around in a wild, violent way, often causing destruction

 

Comprehension questions:

  1. What can he hear as he enters the station?
  2. How do the steps ‘repeat’ his?
  3. What are ‘Mr Jones got run Down’ and ‘Madman on the Rampage’?
  4. Why does he mention the Queen?
  5. What is he doing when he ‘pulls out a plum’?
  6. Who are ‘they’?
  7. Why can he smell leather?
  8. Where does he see ‘Jesus Saves’?
  9. Why is he worried about his wife at the end?

Find words (in bold) or phrases (in bold and underlined) in the song, which mean the same as the following:

  1. having lost its fizz / sparkle
  2. ready to eat food which you take home
  3. knives, forks and spoons
  4. getting onto a plane, train or boat before it leaves
  5. someone who doesn’t believe in God
  6. not completely
  7. look quickly at sth
  8. make sth shiny
  9. the stopper in a bottle of wine
  10. clumsily try to get sth out of your pocket
  11. paper which covers sth, often sth you eat
  12. become so similar that it is difficult to see or hear seperately
  13. sadness
  14. putting sth in the right place, often in preparation for sth

14. A hand in this shape:

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These lyrics came from:

http://members.tripod.co.uk/lambretta/lyrics.htm