SQUEEZE UP THE JUNTION REACTION (First time listening)

[@RajBlake7]

"She looked just like her mother, if there could be another". He was paying her a compliment, he still loved her. The lyric's are so well crafted in this song it takes you on a three minute journey of life, with no judgements. The fact that I grew up in the era of Squeeze means not a lot I know, but they look so young looking back, yet they had talent like no other band, and the fact that they filmed this video (in John Lennon's old house), yet made it look like any-other teenagers jam session, I still love to this day ...

[@simes2762]

The story teling is incredible. From looking to the past, the present as the baby is born, then what has happened, then the present with hindsight. Awesome.

[@zippybanana2691]

Was sure it was one of their Mum's flats ? (Mum in background making tea 😂)

[@TheZodiacz]

Based on themes in the 1965 TV adaptation by Ken Loach of Nell Dunn's 1963 collection of short stories about young working class people in Battersea and Clapham by the same title. Up The Junction was also made into a film in 1968 starring Dennis Waterman. The music for the film was by Manfred Mann.

[@deanwrigleyuk]

Chris Difford 'borrowed' 50p from his mum's purse and put an advert in a Post Office window. Glen Tilbrook answered it. Chris has said it was the best 50p he had ever spent.

[@Jessica_Roth]

Yes. that's Jools. He played keyboards on the first three albums (and the 1985 reunion). It was just last week when I realized none of the reactors I watch had done ANYTHING by Squeeze. Since there seems to be some overlap (people see a reaction and that gives them an idea) we should get lots of it now. Good. "Another Nail in My Heart", please?

[@GinMae]

Yes, Jessica! thank you - I also love "Another Nail.." and "Cool for Cats," as well....

[@deegomez2089]

Living under a rock I guess, never heard this. The melody with his vocal....just killer 🎶🎵

[@personalcheeses8073]

wow

[@Pomdownuder]

Worth following up now Dee it's never too late.

[@ugadawgs1990]

Squeeze put out some of the best music in the 80s. Clever writing with amazingly layered music. I love the track and your reaction.

[@ericanderson8886]

Love this Squeeze song, so catchy and at the same time so sad.

[@deanwrigleyuk]

Cool For Cats, Take Me I'm Yours, Tempted. So many great Squeeze songs

[@patdonnelly9392]

Yup, Jools played with Squeeze. Such a genius, underrated band...

[@Cynthia...]

Pulling Mussels, Another Nail in my Heart. Great songs by Squeeze.

[@nicolesinclair8873]

He means the baby looks just like her mother not the girlfriend looks like her mother, anyway song relates to a young couple get a bedsit,cheap room to turn into a home,they are playing at being grown up but it all becomes too real with the job ,baby and in those days jobs weren't very well paid,especially if someone/Stanley, gave you a job requiring no skills and you got some cash in hand at the end of the day.I don't think they are stereotyping anyone or anything, just back when that song was released it was a well known route a lot of young couples went down,sadly did myself,SQUEEZE are an amazing band and I think that their music and lyrics are as wonderful today as when written.xxx

[@Cosmo-Kramer]

Love Squeeze, saw them in concert in Delaware circa '86. Excellent reaction, governor! This song is great, but they have others I love more--my favorite among them, "Annie Get Your Gun". Try it, you'll love it! (The STUDIO version is a must!)

[@GinMae]

Yes - "Annie" is an awesome song!

[@jacquelinetimestep5048]

Just my all time favorite band in the world.

[@221b-Maker-Street]

Lovely to see your intelligent, observant reaction. Too many lazy reactors on YT, and you're clearly a class apart. Keep up the fine work, Sir!

[@dannaphys5008]

He didn’t pay enough attention to the lyrics. He was saying the baby “looked just like her mother. If there can be another,” meaning the mother was so beautiful that he didn’t think there could be “another” as beautiful.

[@highpath4776]

Chris always seemed to write lyrics that could be read more than one way

[@billder2655]

love squeeze - born in 2001 and my dad put me onto them, class band, so much great lyricism

[@frombrum]

"she left me when my drinking became a proper stinking - the devil came and took me from bar to street to bookie"

[@andyoke50]

Stinging

[@zippybanana2691]

I thought it was Barter street to Bookie 😂 oh well, still a great lyric, all of it is

[@teknikel]

Yes, Harri, that is jools Holland. He left the band in 1980. He joined the band when the band reformed in 1985. He left again in 1990.

[@davidsweeney4021]

My late younger brother got me into Squeeze many years ago + the Pogues and Billy Bragg. Thank you, Mark. RIP Oh it is Jools

[@kevcall]

I love love love this song, remember when it was first released. Some of the story I find very relatable but I'm still with the girl 30 years later... Your comment re the baby was a bit awry.. He was stating that the baby was as beautiful as the mother, if that was possible (in his eyes).

[@markgatica12]

This is the Squeeze formula. Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy can't get over girl. Works every time.

[@davidkarr1490]

Great song, without a chorus! Straight narrative.

[@mmurphyCHC]

First single I ever bought. Memories of living near Clapham Juntion in the 80s ❤️

[@sircosmos6359]

This song always reminds me of my eldest daughter and her mother. Only difference is my daughter stayed living with me, thank my lucky stars!

[@wayne_twentyfive]

Fantastic song ! .. Squeeze ( or UK Squeeze, as they are known here in Australia ) are one of my favourite bands, and their many wonderful songs combined great melody with excellent lyrics .. Do yourself a favour and please go further down this rabbit hole .. Cheers, Wayne

[@macjam9090]

their finest , a great song from a really good band. Bought it first time around still sounds great.

[@LeftLib]

They are the masters of storytelling. Try Labelled with Love, a real classic

[@sicr7373]

Many years have past and this song still breaks my heart every time I hear it.

[@dannaphys5008]

Squeeze, one of the greatest bands of their era and genre. I wish I didn’t stumble on this

[@shaunfinch1190]

Difford and Tilbrook, the best song writers since Lennon and McCartney

[@gigantor62]

Best comment!

[@dexstewart2450]

Put the two teams from 10cc in the middle of that - and you're on the money

[@capstan50g]

It's my first time hearing this Squeeze song, but I owned and enjoyed their album East Side Story. I'd recommend their song Tempted for something soulful, or their country "flyin' and cryin'" song Labelled With Love.

[@Andy-hb8kl]

Up The Junction.....Clapham Junction.....Clapham Common,,,,,,,,,SW london lads!!

[@highpath4776]

from Deptford .

[@johnianknox1629]

Harri, great video, you've got to hear TEMPTED fantastic number from SQUEEZE. Take care kid.

[@Cannon-Fodder]

You should listen to "Black coffee in bed", another song about relationship. Squeeze are one of the most influential bands of the eighties, and I have their C D playing in my car right now.

[@JD_Cool]

Emotional "story songs" pierce me like a steak knife into jello. (Also clever: the words "Up the Junction" are never uttered until the last lyric.) Harri, the other unheralded, mesmerizing story song you're missing is Paul Simon's "Duncan."

[@Pomdownuder]

Some of the great 70s/80s UK story tellers, a prolific catalogue of social commentary work jumping into the rabbit hole H.

[@ZigbertD]

The key lyric is "she left me when my drinking became a proper stinging, the devil came and took me from bar to street to bookie". The narrator was too young and immature to handle being a father so he started drinking heavily and gambling, so she left and his life fell apart. Now he's alone, can't see his daughter, and realizes he's "up the junction" (slang that's similar to "up sh*t creek without a paddle").

[@gsd4me00]

Squeeze music then was more a metaphor of those days than just a pop song. A person would have had to be alive then and had British experience to fully understand the meaning of the lyrics.

[@johnmclean1046]

She’s so lucky she doesn’t shave, a fantastic song, one of their best.

[@faithhofeldt2283]

Difford, Tillbrook and Jools Holland. Great stuff.

[@walshaw2]

@Harri.....You really must do "Cool For Cats" by Squeeze next,

[@ed.z.]

Glenn Tilbrook has said that the music was partly inspired by the Bob Dylan song "Positively 4th Street", and the lack of a chorus or lyrical repetition-unusual in a mainstream pop hit-was due to Tilbrook feeling that a repeated section would upset the flow of Difford's narrative lyrics. The phrase 'Up the junction' is London slang for being in deep trouble, as in the American 'Up the creek without a paddle'. It is also, like other lines in the song, a reference to the working-class area of Clapham Junction in Battersea in London. Clapham Common-the "windy common" of the first verse-is a popular courting spot. The language of the song uses a terse, acerbic 'working-class' humour

[@jeffreybooth5129]

Excellent group love cool for cats and any other of their songs

[@StaceyEllis1968]

Story of a guy who never thinks he'll get the girl, they finally hook up and move into a small flat, they have no money for the pub and spend all their time in together, the girl wants a baby so goes to the doctor to stop protection, he gets a job to try and support her, she gets pregnant and had a baby girl, they sell their items to try and get by, two years later and the girl has left and now lives with a soldier, he has declined into drinking and gambling, wants her , but can't bring himself to beg for her back as its unmanly, he's all alone in his kitchen and realises his life is at an all time low. All written by a 20 year old Chris Difford, amazing song.

[@TheMichaelseymour]

its from a Sid James film "Carry on up the junction " .....ooo'er missus !!!

[@alundavies5171]

the girls in the kitchen were from the cool for cats video! recorded later!

[@johnbarrick80]

Yes, that's Jools. I saw them live in 1979 and then again in 1982.

[@mrjoepad1]

Great song and with no bridge.

[@zippybanana2691]

Lyrucs are Fab but ... That keyboard riff though ..

[@GrumpyOldGuy534]

Squeeze, "Tempted by the Fruit of Another"

[@ed.z.]

…”so it’s my assumption, I’m really up the junction”.

[@johnbrookes3261]

Your right Harry Jools with a cigar playing the keyboards.

[@highpath4776]

Similar in a way , about a place (and prob a longer term relationship) Chas and Dave - Edmonton Green

[@leshammond9816]

Roy Orbison say no more slight diffrence

[@jaccilowe3842]

Squeeze's song writing genius had them heralded as the new Beatles, rather like Oasis was later.

[@pauldover1403]

I've always taken "If there could be another" to be double-edged: First, she looks just like her mother Second, but not like him which makes him think she's not his daughter.

[@KevinGriffiths-v4q]

If you like up the junction then check out Vicky Verky from Argy Bargy Album Pure Class

[@maine420grow]

Hey Harri. I've got a question for you. I love this band and this is my favorite song of theirs. But I've always been mystified by what a "railway arm" is. I'm assuming that is a British term. I'd love an explanation if you have one. Just to clarify; there is a line that goes we spent our time just kissing the railway arms were missing

[@dancarter482]

_The Railway Arms_ - He can't go to the pub 'cause of his domesticated entanglement!

[@maine420grow]

@@dancarter482 yes. I had a British fella explain that to me a while back. Now I'm trying to figure out what he means when he refers to the woman by saying that she became "a proper stinging"

[@dancarter482]

@@maine420grow It's his drinking.

[@leshammond9816]

Roy Orbison

[@77Xd2]

England does it best 😅

[@djpaul146]

Great video reaction ive got this on a music dvd in 5.1 surround and a bit faster

[@robertknuist9754]

u should try If I didn't love you

[@elad463]

Hey here if you want another by Squeeze try Black Coffee in bed

[@MrWeAllAreOne]

Two ladies are his woman and his daughter.

[@Cobalt-Jester]

Please Please tell me where you got that T-shirt from... Replies dont show up as notifications. If you like my comment I get a notification.

[@leshammond9816]

Mickey Newbury rember the good

[@personalcheeses8073]

It didn’t really start off beautifully. Having sex in Clapham Common

[@highpath4776]

which is not normally a guy and girl place, but she came from Clapham ( oddly though the Up The Junction / Lavender Hill mob portrayed it as working class rough ( I suppose Winstanley Estate and similar was back in the 60s ), I found some of the classiest girls were from that area - not as stuck up as those from Chelsea. There are other commons nearby - Wandsworth, and the best one Tooting Bec

[@jdbroders64]

I'm a huge Squeeze fan, but the audio on this just sucked. You need to do a better job of finding the right video and adjusting your playback mix right.

[@highpath4776]

You can only use what is on YT a vid of a poor BBC or even MTV promo tape - it was exactly as I remember the broadcast version on a 14in CRT in the day

[@pauldover1403]

I didn't like the members of Squeeze, Jools Holland in particular grates on me BUT They did write some brilliant songs and they performed them well. Which meant that I did like their songs despite everything and I was pleased to see that this had been chosen.