15/01/2011

Waterloo Station


Mention has been made before of the nostalgic lure of the train and the station in British psyche, a way of time travel to the past. In the very first column of this blog, Waterloo Sunset showed the interplay of past and present and the repository of memories lodged at Waterloo Station that the song tapped into. Ray Davies revisited the same place and the themes of nostalgia, regret and a lost England in Return to Waterloo in the mid-1980’s. In 2006, both station and song cropped up again in a record by another artist also associated with the heyday of Swinging London, Jane Birkin.

Despite a dozen or more albums and the 50+ films over the years since appearing in The Knack and Blow Up in 1966, Jane Birkin will probably always be first associated with her 1969 Number One record with Serge Gainsbourg, Je t’aime...moi non plus. Gainsbourg had previously recorded the song with Brigitte Bardot (though it wasn’t released till years after) and had also apparently asked Marianne Faithfull – who later said, ‘Hah! He asked everyone’. It is the Birkin collaboration, however, that became the definitive one and established a number of ‘firsts’ in the UK.

1)The first banned record to get to Number One. It was also banned in many other European countries, though radio play in France was only restricted until 11pm. Top of the Pops got round the problem of the ban by getting a group of session musicians to record an instrumental version called Love at First Sight, which sort of missed the point but promptly became a hit in its own right. At least mums and dads could safely tap their feet as Herbie Flowers, Clem Cattini and co doodled away.

2) The first foreign language song to get to Number One. The title itself , Je t’aime... moi non plus, was a sort of Gallic existentialist joke –Woman: ‘I love you’. Man: ‘Me neither’ – that was totally lost on the British. Instead, schoolboys searched their French dictionaries to find what on earth Gainsbourg was muttering about with ‘ l'amour physique est sans issue’ and could it perhaps work as a chat-up line on the next school trip to Calais.

(3) More debatable this –it is often solemnly cited as the ‘rudest pop record ever ’. When, rather predictably, a comic and very British version involving golf was done in 1971 by Frankie Howerd and June Whitfield, it was also banned by the BBC, presumably on the strength of the title alone.

However, despite Je t’aime, her relationship with Gainsbourg and the decades living in France, on Waterloo Station Jane Birkin sounds so awfully British that it could be Mary Poppins singing – which leads to the uncomfortable thought of Mary Poppins doing Je t’aime...moi non plus with Serge Gainsbourg. In some ways Waterloo Station, from her 2006 album Fiction, almost sounds incomplete. The song was written for Birkin by Rufus Wainwright and she seems to have difficulty fitting some lyrics to the tune, stretching the word ‘Abba’ to such an extent it is scarcely recognisable. There is also a point towards the end where it sounds as if the song has run out of steam, before suddenly picking up again.

However, there is also something haunting and poignant about it, something to do with Jane Birkin’s slightly weary tone over the delicate backing and shimmering guitar work of Johnny Marr, with the 'la la la la la' refrain from Waterloo Sunset that drifts in and out like a puff of smoke from a steam engine and with the theme of re-visiting the past. This emerged in several of the songs on Fiction. In Home, a song again written for her - this one by Neil Hannon of Divine Comedy – she wistfully recalls ’skipping ropes and pipe smoke, church bells..., marmalade on cold toast, endless summer holidays’ and , in a oddly effective video of meeting herself as a child, wonders where home is; London? Paris? Neither?


In this song, Waterloo Station takes on the guise of a portal to the past, a version of Over the Rainbow. Imagine this. Jane Birkin returns to London from years living in Paris. As the Eurostar pulls into Waterloo there is a blur of memories. Though it is 2006 it is also a sun drenched afternoon in the summer of 1967. The new Kinks release , Waterloo Sunset, plays from a transistor radio and Blow-Up is still showing at the cinema outside the concourse. It is also the summer of 1951 and a porter helps a young Jane Birkin climb into a carriage with her parents en route to the Isle of Wight for their summer holidays. No Waterloo Sunset then but Ray Davies passes through the station with his father to see the Festival of Britain on the South Bank. Fast forward to 2010. On the now disused Eurostar terminal, (the link having shifted to St Pancras in 2007), a staging of The Railway Children, set in an Edwardian golden summer a hundred years before, is taking place. Forward again to 2011. Ray Davies is Director of the Meltdown Festival, a few minutes away from Waterloo Station and celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Festival of Britain.

If you miss one memory there, another will be along in a minute.

39 comments:

  1. What a beautiful column Geoff! I loved this one and read it several times - just wonderful. THANK YOU!

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  2. I didn't know of this song at all, but loved it and just bought the album Fictions that it comes from. Thank you so much!

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  3. "Waterloo Station" seems bit lacking in bounce -- there's something snippet-ish about it, and maybe that's appropriate for the song: it's like it's only a wisp of a memory in the singer's mind.

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  4. "And of course I'll sing the song by The Kinks/And not the one by ABBA"

    :) GOOD!!!

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  5. I LOVE Jane Birkin- I saw her a couple of times on her "arabesque" tour where she performed the late Serge Gainsbourg's songs with North African muicians- fabulous stuff...

    Haven't listened to Fictions yet- interesting to see she's now recording more in English......

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  6. I think Jane has a kind of love hate relationship with England. Other highlights on the album for me are :

    Home - written by Neil Hannon (Divine Comedy)
    My Secret - written by Beth Gibbons (Portishead)
    Harvest Moon - written by Neil Young
    Mother Stands for Comfort - written by Kate Bush

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  7. From what I can understand, this whole album is about one's relationship to the idea of "home." Which is very interesting, especially as a theme for your column Geoff.

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  8. I just think that Jane's weary voice isn't especially suited for this style. The writer has a tendency to stretch words out. It's one reason why his critics call him "overly theatrical," or, even more harshly, "whiney," since he often sounds like he stays on one word forever and takes it, with his voice, through a million wailing banshee turns. And so she seems unsure of how exactly to phrase "so, soon" for example, or listen to the way she struggles to reconcile the fact that "ABBA" has too few syllables with which to fill all the notes of that melodic line.

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  9. What a wonderful line and column ending:

    If you miss one memory there, another will be along in a minute.

    LOVE THIS.

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  10. Here is the "Return To Waterloo" by Ray Davies that Geoff mentioned - which is fascinating and cool: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGK1jo7LeBw

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  11. Beautiful column this week Geoff, just gorgeous!

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  12. Geoff - I loved the "firsts" you described! I wonder if there is a whole book like this, you know, "firsts" in music. If not then you should write it!

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  13. I'm pretty sure that my mum and dad were some of those who safety tapped their feet as Herbie Flowers, Clem Cattini and co doodled away.:) Brilliant stuff Geoff.

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  14. I have to say, I'm a little bit Gallic (on my mum's side) and I don't get the joke either:) - Woman: ‘I love you’. Man: ‘Me neither’ :)

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  15. Oh Geoff, this made me laugh:

    "schoolboys searched their French dictionaries to find what on earth Gainsbourg was muttering about with ‘ l'amour physique est sans issue’ and could it perhaps work as a chat-up line on the next school trip to Calais."

    Those who nominate you for blogs should put you in the comedy category too. :)

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  16. As always, I went in search of the various things you mentioned (part of the education into music / history / British culture your blog offers), and found the British version of the "rudest song ever" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzOsUAPZGn8 - which didn't make 100 percent absolute sense to me, but was culturally interesting!

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  17. I WANT TO SEE MARY POPPINS DOING JE T’AIME...MOI NON PLUS WITH SERGE GAINSBOURG.

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  18. Thanks for posting the link to the "Home" song Geoff, which I think I preferred to "Waterloo Station" although both are just lovely.

    Also, I actually couldn't make that link work - it opened the site "Muzu.tv" but said "the video is unavaible for playback" - so I found it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ssWRDk-0rs

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  19. No one does England better than you, Geoff. Here you are quoting - ’skipping ropes and pipe smoke, church bells..., marmalade on cold toast, endless summer holidays’ - but it was reminiscent of several earlier columns where you painted such vivid, emotive pictures - for example:

    "the funfair seems tatty, sitting huddled and cocooned in a towel like a hibernating tortoise behind a windbreak whilst sand blows into your hardboiled egg and mug of tea loses its charm" - from your "Everyday Is Like Sunday" - and this is just one example of many from this column. Just marvellous.

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  20. I love whenever you write about trains - as an American I find it fascinating how much the train is associated with nostalgia in England. As opposed to adventure / open space in the U.S. I just don't think this column could have been written about a U.S. train station, although I could be wrong.

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  21. What a great thought - "the 'la la la la la' refrain from Waterloo Sunset that drifts in and out like a puff of smoke from a steam engine" - I love when it's possible to see the form (music) connecting with the content (place). It's a perfect "song about a place" when that happens.

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  22. Thought you might like this short film I made, Geoff. Cheers for the brilliant column.

    http://www.howtobearetronaut.com/2010/09/rush-hour-waterloo-station-1970/

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  23. It's a bit off topic, but maybe you'll be interested in shots of that art exhibition that took place in the tunnels under Waterloo Station recently: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ianvisits/sets/72157625046334449/ - it was great. There is more info about the exhibition here: http://www.lazinc.com/exhibitions/off-site/past/

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  24. In case you didn't see the Railway Children there, here's a review/summary I wrote about it: http://westendwhingers.wordpress.com/2010/07/20/review-the-railway-children-waterloo-station/

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  25. I love Waterloo. Thanks for that black and white photo you posted! I’m always taken aback by how grand our old train stations are, and rather wish we could still build like this. I love the entrance: http://www.arksark.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Waterloo-Station-Entrance-Clock-550x338.jpg and http://www.arksark.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Waterloo-Station-Entrance-Statue-Left-550x396.jpg

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  26. Oh how brilliant. I feel like I spend much of my childhood coming in and out of Waterloo so I always love to read about it. Also, don't forget here's rather a lot of footage in the Pet Shop Boys 'West End Girls' video.

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  27. And another memory that arrives could maybe be May 10, 1941, when Londoners packed the basement toilets during the bombings.

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  28. Geoff, I just read that the original "Waterloo Sunset" wasn't even originally about Waterloo, which kind of shocked me! Here's the interview with Ray Davies, where he explains it was originally about Liverpool!!

    http://musicblog.merseyblogs.co.uk/2011/01/interviews-of-2010-ray-davies.html

    "Liverpool is my favourite city, and the song was originally called Liverpool Sunset," smiles its writer, Ray Davies. "I was inspired by Merseybeat. I'd fallen in love with Liverpool by that point. On every tour, that was the best reception. We played The Cavern, all those old places, and I couldn't get enough of it.

    "I had a load of mates in bands up there, and that sound - not The Beatles but Merseybeat - that was unbelievable. It used to inspire me every time.

    "So I wrote Liverpool Sunset. Later it got changed to Waterloo Sunset, but there's still that play on words with Waterloo.

    "London was home, I'd grown up there, but I like to think I could be an adopted Scouser. My heart is definitely there."

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  29. Geoff - do you know Joe Jackson's Steppin Out? - www.youtube.com/watch?v=dopneKcyNXU - It is is one of my all-time favourite songs. I realised recently that it reminds me of Waterloo Sunset by The Kinks. Set aside the difference in pace between the songs. Go for the feel. Both have a descending riff or featured phrase and the dominant direction of the tune is downwards rather than hovering round a central tone. Both have a downbeat feel, and both are songs about the romance of a night out in the Big City: the difference between the 60's passive loner protagonist of the Kinks' song, and 80's active, coupled-up protagonist of Jackson's song is somehow not as important as the fact that for both of them, the Big City beckons. Manhattan in Joe Jackson's song is as inviting and comforting as Ray Davies' sunset over Waterloo.

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  30. This is a great song - although not one of the top ones about London I don't think. Here's my top ten list of songs about London in case you're interested:

    http://thecity-litcafe.typepad.com/the_citylit_cafe/2011/01/what-are-the-ten-best-songs-about-london-and-the-ten-best-books-to-read-with-them.html

    Kudos on the wonderful blog and huge audience response! I've been around since April 2010 and have yet to get up to an average of 1 comment per column!

    You might enjoy the book series I direct, which publishes a volume per city of great short writings about the place: http://www.oxygenbooks.co.uk/

    Here's the London book for example: http://www.oxygenbooks.co.uk/london.htm

    Anyway, cheers and congratulations!

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  31. Here are the lyrics, which were strangely hard to find online so I thought I'd offer them up!

    Soon beneath the awning of the train station,
    Soon amongst the yawning of a great nation.
    So, soon.
    I'll be arriving at Waterloo.

    Laughing at the joke on poor Napoleon
    Whistling a melody fit for Nelson.
    So, soon.
    And of course I'll sing the song by the Kinks.
    And not the one by ABBA
    Waterloo Station.

    Many years ago I up and left my homeland,
    To make my fortune far from England.
    Had to go,
    Far away.
    The furthest place,
    Paris, France.
    Tell all of the world,
    All of the while that I was parted.
    Fair visions of dark rivers,
    And green parks.
    I was haunted by,
    Finally ahead of all the hijinx
    That this girl's had to go through
    To get back.
    To Waterloo Station.

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  32. Funny...I heard this song for the first time in Le Gallerie Lafayette's music section in Paris after a short stay in London a few days before.

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  33. I like the album cover: http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000EJ9LES.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

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  34. Here's a whole list of songs banned by the BBC in case you're interested: http://kattstephens.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!C1383AEC5415FF41!3382.entry

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  35. I'm pretty sure that the Pope spoke out against ‘Je T’Aime … Moi Non Plus’ - which I imagine was great publicity.

    Thanks for this wonderful column Geoff, truly one of your best. Now, the full circle element of "Waterloo Sunset" to "Waterloo Station" doesn't imply that "Songs About Places" is coming to an end, does it?

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  36. There’s a kind of “broken englishness” to the way she sings, I think, reminds me of the first songs Vanessa Paradis sang in English.

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  37. I watched a Kinks documentary once where one of the critics compared "Waterloo Sunset" to William Wordsworth's "Composed Upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802." So this tribute by Birkin to the Kinks has a double layer tribute within it to Wordsworth possibly. There is something interesting here about the layers of memory within music (even as the song is about memory, the music itself remembers the Kinks, which remembered Wordsworth).

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  38. Thanks for all the links and lists and the fascinating glimpses of Waterloo.
    No, it wasnt intended as a finale, Laura!

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  39. I'm very glad about that (although of course if would have been a neat and clever finale!).

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