The songs were about London...if you want to be particular, South London
August 26, 2015 6:52 PM Subscribe
Squeeze - Take Me I'm Yours (2012) | Squeeze - Bands Reunited (2003). Previously: Up the Clapham Junction
I bought a CD of "Sweets From A Stranger", for the car (which has only a CD player) at the library sale, this Spring, and I have been revisiting this fantastic band. Thanks!
posted by thelonius at 7:10 PM on August 26, 2015
posted by thelonius at 7:10 PM on August 26, 2015
I had a boss in the late 80s who only let us play three tapes at the ice cream store, one of which was the Squeeze Singles album. Nonetheless, I still love these guys, and their music really does hold up as great pop.
posted by wenestvedt at 7:16 PM on August 26, 2015 [5 favorites]
posted by wenestvedt at 7:16 PM on August 26, 2015 [5 favorites]
Wait I just realized that Pitchfork 80s list had no Squeeze on it what is going on here
posted by escabeche at 7:24 PM on August 26, 2015 [14 favorites]
posted by escabeche at 7:24 PM on August 26, 2015 [14 favorites]
I graduated high school in 1983; Singles – 45's and Under was issued to all incoming college freshmen.
posted by kirkaracha at 7:33 PM on August 26, 2015 [14 favorites]
posted by kirkaracha at 7:33 PM on August 26, 2015 [14 favorites]
It replaced our copies of Steve Miller Band - Greatest Hits 1974-78 that we were issued as high school freshmen.
posted by kirkaracha at 7:35 PM on August 26, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by kirkaracha at 7:35 PM on August 26, 2015 [3 favorites]
Why'd you make me listen to Up The Junction!
Such a sad tale, beautifully sung...
posted by Windopaene at 7:39 PM on August 26, 2015 [4 favorites]
Such a sad tale, beautifully sung...
posted by Windopaene at 7:39 PM on August 26, 2015 [4 favorites]
I am an '80s music fangirl and Black Coffee In Bed is one of my very faves
posted by flex at 7:45 PM on August 26, 2015 [7 favorites]
posted by flex at 7:45 PM on August 26, 2015 [7 favorites]
I saw them in concert a couple of years ago, with The (English) Beat as an opening act. They were pretty good!
posted by chinston at 7:54 PM on August 26, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by chinston at 7:54 PM on August 26, 2015 [3 favorites]
Saw Squeeze on the pier on the west side of Manhattan in the early 80s. Great show is all I remember. Muscles from a Shell?
posted by AugustWest at 7:55 PM on August 26, 2015
posted by AugustWest at 7:55 PM on August 26, 2015
I somehow mostly (except for their one brief odd MTV heyday) missed Squeeze the first time through; I was a New Wave kid and then a goth and I guess we just passed in the night. But it's extraordinary how many songs of theirs I absolutely know the words to somehow, and how extraordinarily unapologetically amazing those songs are.
posted by Lyn Never at 8:12 PM on August 26, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Lyn Never at 8:12 PM on August 26, 2015 [1 favorite]
Paul Carrack is such a great vocalist. "Man with the golden voice" indeed.
He was only briefly a member of Squeeze (replaced the departing Jools Holland), but bounced around through a lot of bands, both as a vocalist and a keyboardist. I doubt one radio listener in a thousand ever connects the voice from "Tempted" with the one from Mike and the Mechanics' "In the Living Years," or knows that that is the guy playing piano or organ on several Pretenders/Smiths/Elton John tracks.
Perhaps inevitably, he has played with Ringo Starr's All-Starr Band.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:57 PM on August 26, 2015 [5 favorites]
He was only briefly a member of Squeeze (replaced the departing Jools Holland), but bounced around through a lot of bands, both as a vocalist and a keyboardist. I doubt one radio listener in a thousand ever connects the voice from "Tempted" with the one from Mike and the Mechanics' "In the Living Years," or knows that that is the guy playing piano or organ on several Pretenders/Smiths/Elton John tracks.
Perhaps inevitably, he has played with Ringo Starr's All-Starr Band.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:57 PM on August 26, 2015 [5 favorites]
Squeeze was my first concert in 1988. I was only 6 at the time, but in the following few years my dad would take me to see Ray Charles, Little Feat (post Lowell George, of course), and countless others. I have him to thank for my current musical taste, which still includes frequent plays of XTC, and Squeeze.
posted by onehalfjunco at 9:12 PM on August 26, 2015
posted by onehalfjunco at 9:12 PM on August 26, 2015
Heavenstobetsy, this is an amazing docomentary. Yes, I'm of a certain age, for whom Squeeze was a part of a proufound-feeling soundtrack -- even if only in the background where the songs were 'walking by themselves' -- but wow, is that not the half of it. Whatever you think of music, or love, or mortality, or fate, or poetry, or fame, or synergy, or friendship... I dunno. I don't even know how to finish that sentence. Squeeze would.
Thanks so much for this, jcifa.
posted by argonauta at 9:38 PM on August 26, 2015 [1 favorite]
Thanks so much for this, jcifa.
posted by argonauta at 9:38 PM on August 26, 2015 [1 favorite]
Paul Carrack will only be in your band if he gets to sing your biggest hit/most familiar song:
posted by kirkaracha at 9:38 PM on August 26, 2015 [13 favorites]
- Ace, "How Long"
- Squeeze, "Tempted"*
- Mike + The Mechanics, "The Living Years"
posted by kirkaracha at 9:38 PM on August 26, 2015 [13 favorites]
JCIFA, thank you so much for this! It stopped me in my tracks.
I had this weird clear-vinyl record called "No-Wave". "Take Me I'm Yours" I think led side 2. What a weird vocal combo. I was 19 when this came out, a left-coaster just beginning to learn about more than Van Halen, Rush and the like. Cool song, but I didn't pay Squeeze any attention until "Tempted". Bought Eastside Story and was just blown away. It's still one of my favorite records to play when I want to throw glass objects or cuddle with a buddy, or both, or neither.
I never went beyond that album. I knew they had other stuff. I certainly didn't know how long-lived they were or any of their history. This video was a learning experience for me and so much fun to watch.
posted by wallabear at 10:11 PM on August 26, 2015 [2 favorites]
I had this weird clear-vinyl record called "No-Wave". "Take Me I'm Yours" I think led side 2. What a weird vocal combo. I was 19 when this came out, a left-coaster just beginning to learn about more than Van Halen, Rush and the like. Cool song, but I didn't pay Squeeze any attention until "Tempted". Bought Eastside Story and was just blown away. It's still one of my favorite records to play when I want to throw glass objects or cuddle with a buddy, or both, or neither.
I never went beyond that album. I knew they had other stuff. I certainly didn't know how long-lived they were or any of their history. This video was a learning experience for me and so much fun to watch.
posted by wallabear at 10:11 PM on August 26, 2015 [2 favorites]
I don't want to hear old men talk about the songs. Play the songs!
posted by notyou at 10:26 PM on August 26, 2015
posted by notyou at 10:26 PM on August 26, 2015
I saw Squeeze last year in Kentish Town, with my pal and his brother Steve. Steve pointed out the last time he saw Squeeze was 1979, so just a mere 23 years earlier. He also had just remembered that he had forgotten that he (a musician) had once been asked to audition for the keyboard job in the very early eighties but didn't get it (that might have been when Paul Carrack left).
I see a lot of gigs, and this one was at the top of the range. Great energetic performances and stagecraft, great musicianship and sound, and the refreshing sight of not a single god damned iPhone held up for recording it. All of the fun loving but a bit grey crowd just lived the moment like concert goers used to. One of my top gigs.
posted by C.A.S. at 12:10 AM on August 27, 2015 [2 favorites]
I see a lot of gigs, and this one was at the top of the range. Great energetic performances and stagecraft, great musicianship and sound, and the refreshing sight of not a single god damned iPhone held up for recording it. All of the fun loving but a bit grey crowd just lived the moment like concert goers used to. One of my top gigs.
posted by C.A.S. at 12:10 AM on August 27, 2015 [2 favorites]
Muscles from a Shell?
Pulling Mussels From the Shell - I realised that in the title alone there's an essay's-worth of material, but I have to get to work. In any case, it places them in a precise place in geography, class and time.
It may also well be a sexual innuendo.
(And I listened to that video while writing this, after pulling it up. What a great song!)
posted by Grangousier at 1:24 AM on August 27, 2015 [2 favorites]
Pulling Mussels From the Shell - I realised that in the title alone there's an essay's-worth of material, but I have to get to work. In any case, it places them in a precise place in geography, class and time.
It may also well be a sexual innuendo.
(And I listened to that video while writing this, after pulling it up. What a great song!)
posted by Grangousier at 1:24 AM on August 27, 2015 [2 favorites]
I saw the documentary when it first was on BBC and I could have sworn they talked more about the lyrics to Mussels From a Shell, maybe it was something else but it had something to do with fake sophistication plus sexual innuendoes.
Back in the day I thought Squeeze was the height of sophistication and real grown-up music. It's amazing to see them looking so young.
posted by maggiemaggie at 4:32 AM on August 27, 2015 [1 favorite]
Back in the day I thought Squeeze was the height of sophistication and real grown-up music. It's amazing to see them looking so young.
posted by maggiemaggie at 4:32 AM on August 27, 2015 [1 favorite]
ha ha ha ha, yes, 1979 was more than 23 years ago. That is the brain imposing its own needs, pardon. 33/34 years. Just a pip
posted by C.A.S. at 5:18 AM on August 27, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by C.A.S. at 5:18 AM on August 27, 2015 [2 favorites]
I was at school in Clapham when Up the Junction came out - we were chuffed.
posted by dprs75 at 5:18 AM on August 27, 2015 [6 favorites]
posted by dprs75 at 5:18 AM on August 27, 2015 [6 favorites]
It may also well be a sexual innuendo.
It's a spot of teenage tongue-wrestling while on holiday at a British seaside resort. She's on her tip-toed feet because the bloke's taller than her.
They were more innocent times.
posted by Paul Slade at 5:31 AM on August 27, 2015 [4 favorites]
It's a spot of teenage tongue-wrestling while on holiday at a British seaside resort. She's on her tip-toed feet because the bloke's taller than her.
They were more innocent times.
posted by Paul Slade at 5:31 AM on August 27, 2015 [4 favorites]
dprs75: "I was at school in Clapham when Up the Junction came out - we were chuffed."
I was at Eton when 'Eton Rifles' came out. We were also chuffed.
posted by Hogshead at 6:05 AM on August 27, 2015 [6 favorites]
I was at Eton when 'Eton Rifles' came out. We were also chuffed.
posted by Hogshead at 6:05 AM on August 27, 2015 [6 favorites]
Saw them back in the day a couple of times, both awesome gigs.
One was just after Jools Holland had been sacked from Channel 4's The Tube for swearing on live tv... early on he ran to the middle of the stage to do the intro of the band members - pointing then out by name and their instruments in turn for them to do a bit of a solo... he finished with: "And I'm Jools... and what's that over there?... it's a FUCKING PIANO!" Runs back to his thing to massive crowd applause.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 6:15 AM on August 27, 2015 [1 favorite]
One was just after Jools Holland had been sacked from Channel 4's The Tube for swearing on live tv... early on he ran to the middle of the stage to do the intro of the band members - pointing then out by name and their instruments in turn for them to do a bit of a solo... he finished with: "And I'm Jools... and what's that over there?... it's a FUCKING PIANO!" Runs back to his thing to massive crowd applause.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 6:15 AM on August 27, 2015 [1 favorite]
If you love Squeeze and you haven't heard Chris Difford's solo take on some of those songs from when he was touring about 2006-2007, I recommend that album (South East Side Story) highly. I was lucky enough to see him at the Tin Angel on the third(?) show of his first US solo tour, and he looked like he was going to cry because he was so happy to see the fans remembered him and the music and how much it meant to a lot of us.
posted by immlass at 8:49 AM on August 27, 2015 [5 favorites]
posted by immlass at 8:49 AM on August 27, 2015 [5 favorites]
It may also well be a sexual innuendo.
that was our theory in high school
posted by thelonius at 9:36 AM on August 27, 2015
that was our theory in high school
posted by thelonius at 9:36 AM on August 27, 2015
it's a FUCKING PIANO!
I thought Holland got sacked for using the phrase "groovy fuckers" in a 5pm live trailer for The Tube?
posted by Paul Slade at 9:53 AM on August 27, 2015
I thought Holland got sacked for using the phrase "groovy fuckers" in a 5pm live trailer for The Tube?
posted by Paul Slade at 9:53 AM on August 27, 2015
I saw Squeeze several times in the mid-'80s, twice with The Hooters opening. Great shows!
Great fast version of "Goodbye Girl" from 6 Squeeze Songs Crammed Into One Ten Inch Record.
posted by kirkaracha at 10:00 AM on August 27, 2015
Great fast version of "Goodbye Girl" from 6 Squeeze Songs Crammed Into One Ten Inch Record.
posted by kirkaracha at 10:00 AM on August 27, 2015
Immediately following the contraception sketch. 853-5937 is no 867-5309, but, hey.
posted by Sys Rq at 12:01 PM on August 27, 2015
posted by Sys Rq at 12:01 PM on August 27, 2015
Thank you, immlass: "South East Side Story" is really interesting!
posted by wenestvedt at 12:40 PM on August 27, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by wenestvedt at 12:40 PM on August 27, 2015 [1 favorite]
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