Squeeze Concert including one odd tidbit


I saw Squeeze (or, more precisely, Chris Difford and Glenn Tillbrook of Squeeze) in concert at a local club last night. They performed mostly acoustic versions (tho Tillbrook played some electric guitar) of Squeeze's greatest hits and they did so with great style. The simpler arrangements still managed to capture a lot of the kinetic energy that is central to so many Squeeze songs. Overall, a very fun show and one worth catching for any Squeeze fan.

Squeeze is a band that I admire greatly: IMO, they combine outstanding songs (irresistible hooks) with excellent musicianship (Tillbrook is a fine, under-appreciated guitarist) and they often provide witty lyrics rife with clever wordplay. When the band performs, they rock with much more power than you might expect from such shiny songs. When they perform as a duo, however, the concert is less manic and involves more interaction with the audience. I've seen them do request-heavy shows in the past, but last night they had a guy with a mic walking thru the audience to take questions.

While most of Squeeze's best lyrics are probably best characterized as "clever good fun", one of their songs, "Some Fantastic Place", is a kind of pop elegy. The song is sung as a paean to a lover who died young. I've always wondered whether it was a true story or an imagined one. I've also always found it to be a tremendously moving and inspirational statement at a time of great sadness. I like a lot of Squeeze's lyrics, but I've always felt that "Fantastic Place" is a cut above anything else that Squeeze has done lyrically. (Actually, I find it a cut above all but a very few lyrics from anyone - there's just a very intense personal connection with that song on my part.)

When the mic came my way, I asked if a two part question was okay. They approved and I first asked:

"What lyric are you most proud of?"

Tillbrook hemmed and hawed for a minute ("That answer might change every day"), before he eventually settled on...... "Some Fantastic Place". Tillbrook said he was very proud of that one and then he thanked Difford for penning the lyric that told the story so movingly. He then asked me for part two of my question.

I told him that my second question was about..... "Some Fantastic Place". I asked whether the song was about an actual person in his life and, if it was, whether he might share that story.

He explained that his first great love died young of Leukemia. When Difford first provided his lyric shortly after her death, Tillbrook said the chords just spilled out of him in a spontaneous torrent. It was evident that it was a moving moment for him. It was satisfying to see that I had shared that sentiment with him regarding the power of the song.

It was a nice cap to a really fun evening with two terrific pop musicians. It also made it clear that a chance to interact with the people who write our favorite songs is an opportunity that happens way too rarely. If you like Squeeze, and Difford/Tillbrook comes to your neighborhood, I'd urge you to check this one out. Come armed with a question, too - it might make the night special.

martykl
FWIW, after the very early years McCartney and Lennon hardly wrote together--they just kept the legal credit arrangement intact.
good story, marty. to me, tho, their great lyric is "up the junction," which is like a great tragicomic novel in three minutes.
I am a Squeeze fan and have seen them 3 times in their prime. I will be seeing Difford and Tillbrook in December. To compare them with Lennon McCartney as a songwriting team--let alone to find them better, must be from one who does not truly know the entire Beatles catalogue or who simply does not like the Beatles.
That being said, they are very good lyricists
Loomis,

"Up The Junction" is another personal favorite, but....

It's a great example of narrative lyric writing. (What I believe that Mark Knopfler was referring to as "Making Movies" when he so titled a Dire Straits LP.) "Junction" effectively tells a story and fleshes out characters in - as you note - 3 minutes. That's pretty rare. Even rarer, that story is IMO quite poignant.

I agree that that is a tremendous achievement. Few songwriters can pull that off consistently and Diffford and Tillbrook are in that select company IMO. The comments that follow are not intended in any way to diminish "Junction", because I fully agree that it's among the best songs of its type and is a great lyrical achievement in its own right.

What separates ""Fantastic Place" (for me) is that it bites off an even bigger task. Losing a loved one is probably the most painful experience most people ever live through. Over time, our society has developed elaborate rituals (like funerals/clergy) to help at these times. Therein, we are usually provided some standard advice that's supposed to help, along the lines of:

"We're here to celebrate a life as well as mourn a death."

Two unfortunate things about that advice, IME - it almost always rings hollow and it's even worse when the person has died young since there's less life to celebrate.

For me - "Some Fantastic Place" is actually a convincing celebration of a life lost too young. As such, it's - in my view - almost a singular achievement in pop music. Richard Thompson, Mark Knopfler, Dar Williams, Townes Van Zandt and Bob Dylan (among others) have penned narrative lyrics that I'd put alongside "Junction", but I know of no one who has written a "pop elegy" as effective as "Fantastic Place". Again, Just MHO.

Gpgr,

IMO, John and Paul were unparalleled as songwriters in certain respects, but not in every respect. They certainly provided an elegant solution to the problem of integrating their own brand of (relentlessly creative) harmony into rock n roll music (as opposed to, say, Brian Wilson whose solution was also brilliant but often messy/inelegant). As to the balance of their work, there are many other artists who I prefer.

My own view is that, while the Lennon/Macca achievement is justifiably recognized for its brilliance, it's not necessarily that important to me. I appreciate what they did, but I tend to look for other things in my favorite music. Just personal preference and different priorities.

BTW, I'm not arguing that I'm right here (re: "Up The Junction" vs "Some Fantastic Place" or re: The Beatles vs the rest of the songwriting world). I'm just explaining my own views on these two issues. In my book, this kind of stuff definitely falls under the heading of "To each his own" .
"She pours milk into the cat's saucer/I'm John Wayne as I'm walking towards her/She's like to dance, but not this minute/She's the fish I'd like to fillet."

That's from memory, but those are some great lines!

Remember the English pronounce it "fill it" not "fill a"