1979 single by Squeeze
"Up the Junction" was the third single released from Squeeze's second album, Cool for Cats. Sung by Glenn Tilbrook, it is one of the band's most popular and well-remembered songs (especially in the UK), and reached number 2 on the UK Singles Chart, the same position as its predecessor, "Cool for Cats".[1]
History
Up the Junction is also the name of a collection of short stories by Nell Dunn, first published in 1963.[2] Lyricist Chris Difford said the title phrase was lifted from the 1965 TV play version of the work, directed by Ken Loach, and the subsequent 1968 movie version.[3][4] The film had a soundtrack by Manfred Mann, and a song by them, also called Up the Junction.[5]
Although the song is not specifically about the TV drama, it alludes to its themes and location:
- Portrayal of life in Battersea (the song begins "I never thought it would happen with me and the girl from Clapham")
- "Junction" refers to Clapham Junction
- Colloquial working-class language
- The subject of pregnancy
Chris Difford wrote the lyric in New Orleans while Squeeze were on tour. Difford passed it to Glenn Tilbrook, who then wrote the music.[6] The song is known for its use of half-rhymes, such as "ready" and "telly" or "kitchen" and "missing". The title is not sung until the final line. Difford has been quoted as saying he took the lead from Roxy Music's "Virginia Plain", in which the title also appeared only at the end. Glenn Tilbrook has said the music was partly inspired by the Bob Dylan song "Positively 4th Street", and the lack of a chorus or lyrical repetition—unusual in a mainstream pop hit—was due to Tilbrook feeling a repeated section would upset the flow of Difford's narrative lyric.[7]
The phrase 'up the junction' is London slang for being in deep trouble, as in the American 'Up the creek without a paddle'. It is also, like other lines in the song, a reference to the (at the time) working-class area of Clapham Junction in Battersea in London. Clapham Common—the "windy common" of the first verse—is a popular courting spot.
The language of the song uses a terse, acerbic 'working-class' humour in lines like
…where she dealt out the rations
With some or other passions
I said, "You are a lady"
"Perhaps," she said, "I may be"
At first, it is an idyllic story of proletarian happiness: the couple's courtship swiftly moves into living together; they have a child; the man gets a job, saves money. But by the end of the song, he has fallen into alcoholism, she is with another man, his machismo is such that he cannot beg forgiveness, and "so it's [his] assumption, [he's] really up the junction"—that is, both "up the junction" in the sense of living in the area of Clapham Junction, and in that of having comprehensively wrecked his own life.
The video showed the band playing inside a flat—actually the kitchen of John Lennon's old house, where Lennon had made the promotional film for "Imagine".[7] One of the two girls in the background was Michelle Collins. Also, similar to the "Cool for Cats" music video, even though Harri Kakoulli played bass in the recording, he had left the band, and John Bentley takes his place in the music video. Difford and Tilbrook explained their calmer performance in the video saying that they recorded the "Up the Junction" music video the same day as "Cool for Cats", and they were drunk and exhausted.[7]
Difford's performance of the song live on Platform 10 at Clapham Junction railway station was featured on the BBC Radio 4 programme Lyrical Journey in September 2011.[8]
The song's "girl from Clapham" made an appearance on the later song "A Moving Story", from the band's 1998 album Domino.[7]
