Eigenlijk niet bedoeld als songtekst, maar als gedicht. Paul Weller werd door producer Vic Coppersmith overgehaald het gedicht om te smeden tot een song. Het is één van de meest beklemmende songs van The Jam, geschreven vanuit het perspectief van een Pakistaanse man die ’s nachts in een verlaten, spookachtig metrostation aangevallen en in elkaar geslagen wordt door een groep skinheads. Het ontroerende beroep op de humaniteit van zijn belagers (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”) blijkt tevergeefs te zijn.
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 glazed, dirty steps, repeat my own and reflect my thoughts
Cold and uninviting, partially naked
Except for toffee wrapers 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”
And 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
‘cause they took the keys and she’ll think its 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
Uitgelichte afbeelding: By Mcginnly – Self-published work by Mcginnly, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1186401
