The dying art of story telling.

The first time I was introduced to the music of Squeeze was as I watched an advertisement for milk that used in a 1991 UK milk advertising campaign. I remember thinking the song ‘Cool For Cats’ was a little too clever for what the company was trying to promote so I remember asking my father what the song was. Being a big fan of Squeeze he was quick to tell me that it was one of their most famous tracks and promptly gave me a ‘Best Of’ compilation to listen to that night.

I have always had a great fondness for songwriters who could tell a story and that night tracks like ‘Labelled With Love’ and ‘Tempted By The Fruit of Another’ really touched something inside of me and, in a way, inspired me to try my hand at writing, although as I readily admit to no avail as yet! Tillbrook and Difford, the songwriters of the band, had obviously experienced enough about life in order to write about it and on no other track they wrote is this more pronounced than on the majestic ‘Up The Junction’. An almost Shakespearean tale of romantic tragedy that follows the fortunes of a young couple whose deep descent into love is quickly followed by the struggles of life’s realities, the shortage of money, the lack of time they are able to spend together, and the desperate living arrangements are expertly drawn to the attention of the listener.

Throughout the song, the young man’s deep love for the girl never falters but the struggles of fatherhood take their toll on him and we are told of his daily trips ‘From Bar to Street to Bookie’ that were the main causes, we are led to believe, of the breakdown on his relationship, although his lover is now living with a soldier for perhaps other reasons than we are told, though if they were, writers as skilled as Tillbrook and Difford would certainly have made us aware or this, raising the daughter of the broken-hearted man who tries to get her to at least write to him, perhaps hoping for another chance with the girl, it seems, is the only one for him.

This is more a short synopsis of a song that is criminally underrated but remains a true great amongst those fortunate to have, not just heard, but actually listened to it, which I have at least hundreds of times. Musically good, beautifully sung and lyrically sublime ‘Up The Junction’ will forever be a timeless classic and hopefully will remain a steady regular on all the popular radio stations for many years to come.

The ultimate irony, however, is that if one wants to have what these two young lovers once had or interpret the song as a warning to the perils of falling in love too young in a world that only exists in the likes of Hollywood movies.