Down in the Tube Station at Midnight

"Down in the Tube Station at Midnight"
Single by The Jam
from the album All Mod Cons
B-side "So Sad About Us / The Night"
Released 13 October 1978
Format 7" vinyl
Genre Mod Revival
Label Polydor (UK)
Songwriter(s) Paul Weller
Producer(s) Vic Coppersmith-Heaven
The Jam singles chronology
"David Watts"
(1978)		 "Down in the Tube Station at Midnight"
(1978)		 "Strange Town"
(1979)

"David Watts"
(1978)		 "Down in the Tube Station at Midnight"
(1978)		 "Strange Town"
(1979)
Back cover
Keith Moon, who died shortly before the single's release

"Down in the Tube Station at Midnight" was the second single taken from the album All Mod Cons by The Jam. Released on 13 October 1978, it reached #15 in the United Kingdom's Singles Chart on release.[1] The single was backed by a cover version of The Who's song "So Sad About Us", and the song "The Night", written by Bruce Foxton. (Some copies of the single were pressed with "Down in the Tube Station" as the B side, with "So Sad About Us" and "The Night" appearing on the A Side).

Development

Originally Paul Weller had wanted to exclude the song from the All Mod Cons long-player release,[2] on the grounds that the arrangement had not sufficiently developed during the recording sessions.[3] He was persuaded to include it by the record's producer Vic Coppersmith-Heaven.[3] The British Broadcasting Corporation banned the song from being played or performed via its radio and television network.[1]

Lyrical theme and musical composition

The song tells the story of an unnamed narrator traveling on his own who enters a deserted London Underground Tube station at midnight to get the last train home, where he is attacked by a gang of skinheads as he buys a ticket from an automated machine.[4] The song starts with the atmospheric sounds of a London Underground station, then a tense, syncopated beat carried by the bass guitar. The lyrics are sentimental, contrasting the warmth of home and domestic life with the dangers of 1970s London's urban decay and casual late-night violence. Tension is heightened by a heartbeat audio effect in the left stereo channel at points during the song.

Cover art

The front cover photograph was taken at Bond Street tube station, on the back cover a portrait photograph of Keith Moon was printed, who had died a month prior to the single's release.[5]

Cover versions

References

  1. 1 2 The Jam, The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll (Simon & Schuster, 2001) accessed 8 November 2010.
  2. ↑ "The Jam: All Mod Cons Revisited". mojo4music.com.
  3. 1 2 "CLASSIC TRACKS: The Jam 'The Eton Rifles' -". www.soundonsound.com.
  4. ↑ "Down In The Tube Station At Midnight by The Jam Songfacts". www.songfacts.com.
  5. ↑ "Down in the Tube Station at Midnight". snapgalleries.com.

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