Up The Junction by Squeeze
Squeeze Up The Junction
Up The Junction was the first UK chart hit for Squeeze, an English band that hit the charts during the New Wave period of the late 1970s, and continued recording successfully in the 1980s and 1990s.
Squeeze formed in London in 1974, and are known for their hit songs Cool for Cats, Up the Junction, Tempted, Black Coffee In Bed, Pulling Mussels (From the Shell), and Hourglass among others.
The band broke up in 1999, but reunited for a tour of the USA and UK in 2007, the reunion being so successful that Squeeze have continued to tour as well as record, with dates booked into 2013.
The band's founding members in 1974 were Chris Difford (guitar, vocals, lyrics), Glenn Tilbrook (vocals, guitar, music), Jools Holland (keyboards), and Paul Gunn (drums), with Gilson Lavis replacing Gunn on drums and Harry Kakoulli on bass in 1976.
Squeeze's early career was spent perfoming live gigs in the Deptford area of Southeast London, where they were part of a lively local music scene which included other new bands at the time including Alternative TV and Dire Straits.
Cool For Cats, their second LP which was released in 1979, spawned four hit singles, the first Up The Junction which was losley based on the 1960s cult film of the same name, then Cool For Cats, Goodbye Girl and finally Slap And Tickle. The first two of these both reached #2 in the UK charts, and between them brought about success worldwide for the band.
Jools Holland left the band in 1980 and was replaced by highly-rated singer-keyboardist Paul Carrack, a former member of the British soul-pop band Ace. In 1981 Squeeze released perhaps their best-known album, East Side Story. This was produced by Elvis Costello and Roger Bechirian, and featured Carrack's lead vocals on the radio hit Tempted. Carrack himself left after the release of East Side Story, and was replaced by Don Snow. This line-up recorded the Sweets From A Stranger LP in 1982. Negative reviews, the stresses of touring, and conflicts between band members led the band to break up later that year, after releasing a final single, Annie Get Your Gun.
I remember listening to Up The Junction and Cool For Cats and the radio stations were likening the sound to The Beatles. I used to love this band, still do, and it's a pleasure to create this tribute lens to one of their great hits, the song that first endered me to them.
Song Lyrics: Up The Junction by Squeeze
Written by: Squeeze from the Album: "Cool For Cats" - 1975
I never thought it would happen
With me and the girl from Clapham
Out on the windy common
That night I ain't forgotten
Where she dealt out the rations
With some or other passions
I said you are a lady
Perhaps she said I may be
We moved into a basement
With talks of our engagement
We stayed in by the telly
Although the room was smelly
We spent our time just kissin'
The Railway Arms we're missin'
But love had got us hooked up
And all our time it took up
I got a job with Stanley
He said I'd come in handy
And he started me on Monday
So I had a bath on Sunday
I worked eleven hours
And bought the girl some flowers
She said she'd seen a doctor
And nothing now could stop her
I worked all through the winter
The weather brass and bitter
I put away a tenner
Each week to make her better
And when the time was ready
We had to sell the telly
Late evenings by the fire
And little kicks inside her
This morning at four fifty
I took her rather nifty
Down to an incubator
Where thirty minutes later
She gave birth to a daughter
Within a year a walker
She looked just like her mother
If there could be another
And now she's two years older
Her mother's with a soldier
She left me with my drinkin'
Became a proper stingin'
The devil came and took me
From bar to street to bookie
No more nights by the telly
No more nights nappies smelling
Alone here in the kitchen
I feel there's somethin' missin'
I beg for some forgiveness
But beggin's not my business
And she won't write a letter
Although I always tell her
And so it's my assumption
I'm really up the junction
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Squeeze Up The Junction Videos
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About The Author
Tony is a freelance writer who lives on the South Coast of England with his wife Debbie.
He has worked in the IT Industry all his life, and has been writing on various sites for the last 10 years.
Tony has traveled extensively, both for business and leisure, and has lived in New Zealand and the USA as well as his native England.
He enjoys writing about many different topics, often writing about something that grabs him impulsively at the time.
Ancient History and Humor are just two diverse topics that he has a passion for, and he also likes to write about his travel experiences and to share his love of photography.
Tony would love to write a book one day, but so far the closest that he has come to finding a topic is an autobiography. He is not confident that there is a large enough audience for a 12 volume book entitled "I Only Wanted A Simple Life".
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