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Posted by: totally at March 29, 2009 01:38 AMI remember hearing this on WBCN in Boston when it came out. These guys were "New Wave" with some prospect of cross-over to mainstream. Soundwise, they are not really punk rock, but almost Slade-like thudding glam rock, or maybe even pre-punk Brit pub rock. The skinny ties and white shirts are protective coloration, but this would work the same in gold lame spandex and vests. I remembered the chorus word for word, and have found myself singing it over the years. Cannot say when I heard it last. Probably around when it came out, so getting on 30 years. i recall that Tom Robinson was openly gay, which got the band and the song a certain amount of attention but may have prevented radio play, etc. I could never figure out if this song has any gay symbolism in it. If so it was invisible to a suburban, straight teenager at the time, and the slang will have long moved on by now even if so.
Good memory. Good song from a time before the exciting, transatlantic new wave (lower case) of rock music, circa 1976-79, which I think of as firstwave punk, hardened up into formulas and labels and uniformity and rigid lines of demarcation.
That was a golden age second only to 1963-68.
15 years ago I backpacked through Europe for the first time with only one tape, a UK punk compilation I had bought at a flea market in London. For over a month this song was on rotation. Every time I hear it I can feel the train tracks clacking beneath me.
Posted by: Tom Parker at April 1, 2009 07:49 PMThis is the kind of song that makes me wish I knew how to play guitar. So good and so timeless.
Posted by: Trey at April 3, 2009 02:44 AM