Squeeze – Piccadilly

I owned the album East Side Story, the fourth album by Squeeze, and this song caught my attention right off. It drew comparisons to the Beatles, especially in Rolling Stone Magazine at the time. That’s usually the kiss of death, and so unfair to any artist to start comparing to Dylan or anyone else.  This album was hyped, but it paid off. This song wasn’t a hit, but it was a hit in my car and at home because I wore it out. So, #1 on Max’s chart.

One of the strengths of Squeeze was always their ability to shift gears within an album. On East Side Story, you get upbeat pop, soul influences, and a few slower pieces. In my opinion, they were one of the best pop bands of the 1980s, but didn’t get played here as much, except for a few big hit singles. Their songs were quality and good, and they didn’t sound thrown together to get a hit. 

It was written by Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook, and the song shows their usual approach with sharp observations about what is around them. Like Tempted, they use adjectives SO well in this, and it puts you in the song. You can see what they are talking about. As in a purple hairdryer, begging folk singer, the neon club lights of adult films and Trini Lopez, and just visuals, you can see. Tilbrook’s vocal keeps things straightforward, which fits the tone of the lyrics.

By 1981, Squeeze had become one of the most reliable songwriting bands of the British new wave era. After the success of Argybargy, the group wanted to try something broader for their next record. Instead of using one producer, the band worked with a couple, Elvis Costello and Roger Bechirian, which helped give the album its varied sound.

When the album was released in 1981, it became one of Squeeze’s most respected records. Songs like Tempted, Labelled With Love, Messed Around, Is That Love, and In Quintessence were the singles, but deeper cuts like this song show another side of the band, just as well-crafted.

The album peaked at #44 on the Billboard 100 and #19 in the UK in 1981. 

Piccadilly

She’s not a picture above somebody’s fireShe sits in a towel with a purple hair dryer,She waits to get even with me.She hooks up her cupcakes and puts on her jumperExplains that she’ll be late to a worrying mother,She meets me in Piccadilly.A begging folk singer stands tall by the entranceHis song relays worlds of most good intentions,A fiver a ten p in his hat for collection.She talks about office she talks about dressesShe’s seen one she fancies her smile is impressing,So maybe I’ll treat her someday.We queue among strangers and strange conversationLove’s on the lips of all forms of engagements,All queuing to see tonight’s play.A man behind me talks to his young ladyHe’s happy that she is expecting his baby,His wife won’t be pleased but she’s not been round lately.The girl was so dreadful we left in a hurryWe escaped in the rain for an Indian curry,At the candle lit Taj Mahal.My lips to a napkin I called for a taxiThe invite of eyes made it tense but relaxed me,My mind took a devious role.The cab took us home through a night I’d not noticedThe neon club lights of adult films and Trini Lopez,My arm around love but my acting was hopeless.

We crept like two thieves from the kettle to the fireWe kissed to the sound of the silence that we’d hired,Now captured, your love in my arms.A door opened slightly a voice spoke in worryMum went to bed without wind of the curry,Our secret love made its advance.Like Adam and Eve we took bite on the appleLoose change in my pocket it started to rattle,Heart like a gun was just half of the battle.

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

18 thoughts on “Squeeze – Piccadilly”

  1. Pingback: Squeeze – Piccadilly – MobsterTiger

  3. I love this album. I have to say I follow Paul Carrack wherever he goes so your praise for this album is not a big surprise. You mention stuff I was not aware of and Piccadilly takes on a new meaning for me now.. And a reminder – due respect for Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook as this is not the only stuff from them that is amazing.

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  5. One I hadn’t heard by them, but good …as usual with them. Always great observational , slightly wry lyrics and catchy tunes. Another band whom I can only guess were ‘too British’ for Americans, they really should have done better.

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    1. The observational part I love…it’s like Chuck Berry songs…he will describe something and you can see it in your head….even if you never saw a “coffee colored cadillac”…
      Yea that is my only guess…Rolling Stone hyped this one to death…I think it was one of their biggest albums….as far as charts.

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      1. probably was their biggest I’d guess, of the non-compilation ones. The ‘new Lennon and McCartney’ comparisons didn’t help them any. The thing that gets me is if you look at their early videos like ‘Cool for Cats’, Difford and Tilbrook were so young! I’d always kind of thought they were a lot older, even back then.

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      2. Yea that label didn’t help at all…it probably makes some people think…oh yea right.
        Funny…they broke up but then a TV show in the 2000’s got them back together…and they are still together I believe….another band that show got together was Scandal.

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  6. Something to investigate later this morning, I’m looking forward to it.

    You obviously like Squeeze, Oh, I’m not talking about what you say. I think that Squeeze is one of the most frequently mentioned bands on this blog, excepting of course the stalwarts of Beatles/Stones/Who and so forth. That, in and of itself, is high praise.

    THANKS.

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      3. ‘Take Me I’m Yours’ was the first cut I ever heard. grabbed the album and it was pink vinyl. Jools Holland was in the band. They might even have been called UK Squeeze if I remember correctly.

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