Up The Junction

Around 1981 or so, the song "Tempted" by Squeeze was getting heavy airplay, and my take was 'fuckin kill me if I ever like shlocky, horseshit like this'.  Well now, fast-foward to 1985 or so, and me and my buddies are into Echo and the Bunnymen, Husker Du, English Beat, The Replacements, and errrr, Squeeze. We wore out the "Cool For Cats" CD that summer. Ironically, that album came out in 1979. Our favorite was always "Up The Junction" because we seemed to always be getting ourselves in trouble in one way or another. If you were in a jam ie; arrested, about to get into brawl, or any other unsavory situation, you were "up the junction"   The point of this post?  Last night I watched a show of the nowadays Squeeze performing in Bryant Park in NYC. Sure, they are a bit long in the tooth, but still sounded good and when they played "Up The Junction", I think I dug it more than I ever had. Just a simple pop tune, good lyrics, and catchy riffs.

With all of the BRIT GRIT posts going around lateley, especially over at Ashedit, I think the lyrics of UTJ are just so cool, especially the English slang sprinkled throught. Plus, if you listen, it tells a pretty cool story as well.  Any Squeeze fans out there?