Friday, February 11, 2005

"Slap and Tickle"

For a while in the 80s, Glen Tilbrook and Chris Difford were regarded as the new Lennon and McCartney, and listening to this, you can almost see why. A rattling, urgent beat and rapid-fire lyrics tell the story of everyone's teenage dramas: "He put his hand on her leg/You should have heard what she said/He tried again much later/It seemed to aggravate her/He drove home in silence/Avoiding more violence". Kitchen-sink operas like this and "Up The Junction" or "Pulling Mussels from a Shell" are what made Squeeze so special, in the same tradition as the Kinks. Sadly, Difford and Tillbrook mellowed out with age and couldn't quite seem to find the spark again, though they did create some beautiful music.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I'm reading this on the same day my 2-disc deluxe edition of "Argy Bargy" arrived in the mail. Synchronicity?!?