In the tradition of the Mr Jones song about worker drones commuting, having heart attacks, wasting away in an office cubicle etc ("Echo Beach", "Cardiac Arrest", "Solitary Confinement", "The British Way of Life", etc)
Despite a Top of the Pops appearance and the support of Radio 1 deejays who liked that sort of thing, "The Worker" was not quite a hit, loitering just outside the Top 50
But Fischer-Z enjoyed more success in Europe, apparently selling a couple of million albums over a long career
And they're still going, all ready to celebrate in 2026 the 50th anniversary of the band's formation
Still plugging away into the Wide Brim Hat era
Clever, perhaps even clever-clever - but are they Clever Dick?
Turning pop into a career with greater longevity than an office job!
ReplyDeleteIf he’d worked in a bank he’d have been given his gold watch a long time ago.
Mr Jones pop is an interesting sub-genre. For Bob Dylan he’s the archetypal square, but for the Counting Crows he’s a bit of a hero, or at least a friend and partner in crime. And then as the Jam’s Smithers-Jones, he’s a reminder that the pinstriped office worker is still working class, in the Marxian sense of his relationship to the means of production.
"Smithers-Jones" is a perfect example.
DeleteAnd there is another Jam song about a commuter called "Just Who Is The 5 O' Clock Hero?":
Hello darlin' - I'm home again
Covered in shit and aches and pains
Too knackered to think so give me time to come round
Just gimme the living room beat to the TV sound -
My hard earned dough goes in bills and the larder
And that Prince Philip tells us we gotta work harder!
It seems a constant struggle just to exist
Scrimping and saving and crossing of lists -
From this window I've seen the whole world pass
From dawn to dusk I've heard the last laugh laughed
I've seen enough tears to wash away this street
I've heard wedding bells chime and a funeral march
When as one life finishes another one starts -
Alright then love so I'll be off now
It's back to the lunchbox and workermanagement rows
There's gotta be more to this old life then this
Scrimping and saving and crossing of lists
That's funny, I've had the same doubts about the scenario. Love the song and thinks it brilliant writing but it doesn't quite add up. He's on the Tube platform at midnight, which in those days was cutting it very close in terms of getting anywhere. He's bought a curry - wouldn't it make more sense to get one near where he lives? And yes the wife must be starving, and they are going to eat after midnight (a recipe for acid reflux). He's worried that she's opened a bottle of wine and it'll be going flat. Sparkling wine doesn't like a good combo with curry and why wouldn't she just wait to open it when he gets back? Its like not letting a bottle of red breathe.
DeleteAnd then there's his anxiety that the thugs "took the keys, and she'll think it's me" - how would they know where he lives?
He rules his wife with an iron fist, is what I learned from the song.
DeleteGreat bassline, btw, as in so many Jam songs.
Yes! It always struck me as incongruous that they were called the Jam: it’s hard to imagine a group further from being a “jam band”. But they could really play. And those heart-racing bass runs are a case in point.
DeleteProbably there's some examples from the Kinks
ReplyDeleteAlso "Matthew and Son" is kind of on this vibe...
"Beat the Clock" by Sparks is different because he is workaholic, self-driven
Probably true of the Kinks, although I can’t think of any examples right now.
DeleteBut see also Waterloo Sunset, which makes exactly the opposite point: being a 9-to-5 drudge released from your weekly grind to meet your boyfriend / girlfriend and go up West is a literal Paradise, heaven on earth.
Shangri-La is probably the best song of all time in this genre.
DeleteThat one was new to me: what a great song! Charming and devastating. Makes a lot of Blur’s career obsolete before it even began.
Delete'Sweet Jane' is about not looking down on those who do a 9 to 5, I believe. I'm also reminded of a sympathetic portrayal of the working man's lot in Steely Dan's ''Only A Fool Would Say That':
ReplyDeleteThe man in the street dragging his feet
Don't wanna hear the bad news
Imagine your face there in his place
Standing inside his brown shoes
You do his nine to five
Drag yourself home half alive
And there on the screen
A man with a dream
SD's 'Showbiz Kids' touches on a similar theme IIRC.
(Written during my lunch break).
Think there are loads of XTC songs in the Mr. Jones vein - Respectable Street, Making Plans For Nigel, Ball & Chain, etc.
ReplyDeleteIt’s not about office workers, but this discussion reminds me of my long-held hatred of Dire Straits’ Money for Nothing. It always seemed like the most despicable sneering from pampered rock stars at people trying to do an honest day’s work. Made even more insidious by the fiendishly catchy guitar riff.
DeleteI have mellowed towards it since then. Maybe those guys did deserve some mockery. But it does definitively mark the point where Knopfler’s talent as an observational songwriter deserted him.
My beef with the song is that it doesn't really live up to the fab intro.
DeleteThis is much more fun:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cS06eprlj2I
I thought "Money For Nothing" was Knopfler defending rock musicians from the accusation that it was an effete pastime - sort of "i got this blister on my finger from playing", "soundchecks are really boring", "you don't know what the grind of touring is like", etc. It's not sneering at plumbers and bricklayers - in fact the he overheard some hard hat type sneering AT rock stars as pampered and overpaid.
DeleteYes, I think that's the point. His inspiration was hearing some delivery men sneering at rock stars, and the song is his retort. He makes them sound stupid with their racist and homophobic language, and implies that - as you say - they have no idea how tough being a rock star really is.
DeleteIt's underlined in the video, where the delivery men are crudely animated caricatures.
Just remembered the Groundhogs' contribution to the genre:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7J3fXWC-Fs