10/08/2010

Oxford Street


The suburbs and small towns of England have never been highly thought of in songs. Suburbia has been shorthand for mediocrity, drab provincialism, respectable dullness, limited horizons, from where anyone with any imagination got out of as soon as possible. This point of view had a respectable history in literature. The characters of H G Wells in Mr Polly and Kipps and of George Orwell in Coming Up For Air and Keep the Aspidistra Flying all have aspirations and hopes crushed by the mundanity of provincial life.

Yet in this is a contradiction, for the same places have also provided a source of inspiration for a long lineage of songs. Ray Davies turned his sight from Waterloo to the outermost edges of London in Shangri-La (‘all the houses in the street have got a name, cos all the houses in the street they look the same’). The Bonzos trod the same path with My Pink Half of the Drain Pipe (‘My pink half of the drainpipe separates next door from me’). Paul Weller (Woking) created a whole line of songs about small town suburbia, as did Andy Partridge (Swindon) for XTC. Then there was Sound of the Suburbs by The Members (‘Same old boring Sunday morning, old man’s out washing the car’) or Newtown People by the Newtown Neurotics and a score of others

The song here, Oxford Street by Everything But The Girl, approached this theme from a different direction and with the subtlety that was the hallmark of much of their work. Though Oxford Street is the title, and plays a part in the lyrics, the song is really about growing up in one of the small towns circling London, in this case Hatfield in Hertfordshire, original home town for Tracey Thorn of EBTG.(and also Donovan and Mick Taylor of the Rolling Stones). It is best heard in conjunction with another of their songs, Hatfield 1980,which gives a depressing picture of daily life there (‘You'll have to go through Suburban shopping centre ,Pedestrian walkways ,I think they were meant to make things better, But it's just emptier').
Hatfield was one of the New Towns developed after WW2 and dotted round London like a marauding army just within sight: Hatfield, Stevenage, Welwyn Garden City, Letchworth, Hemel Hempstead. The original intention was rebuilding a new, futuristic world and re-housing post-War Londoners as a brighter alternative to London itself. By the time Tracy Thorne was growing up - the 1970’s- the initial sheen had gone and the inadequacies of the original concept were fairly glaring, especially to a teenager. There was plenty of modernist architecture, inspired by Le Corbusier, that reflected the desire to build from Year Zero and ignored the core Old Towns that were already there in some places- so instead there were tower blocks like huge bunkers; glorification of the car that pushed people into the underpasses to cross town and saw the appearance of a whole rash of roundabouts, the jewel in this crown being Hemel Hempstead’s ‘magic roundabout’,(voted Britain’s second worst roundabout in 2005. Swindon’s own magic roundabout topped the poll.); the occasional bit of abstract sculpture that was later taken down for its own safety. In keeping with the laudable aims of creating a better future, some thought was given to parks and water gardens but seemingly little to the amenities of life other than schools and some shops. ‘No soul’ and ‘a graveyard with lights’ were some of the kinder things said about Hatfield and, at the time the song refers to, cinemas, clubs, theatres had to be sought elsewhere.

Oxford Town is an interesting comment on the experience of living this. It isn’t a rant about suburbia as such nor a critical observation on other people’s lives. It is a wistful piece of self-reflection in Thorn’s distinctive and rich alto voice, seen through the eyes of a teenage girl who had lived her whole life to date in ‘a little world’ and for whom the park that was once a playground has become a place for drinking with mates and the underpass to the shops a no-go area on the way back from a night out. Oxford Street was 40 minutes and a whole world away. Oxford Street in the 1970’s - 3 Virgin Megastores at one point, enough to turn anybody’s head and especially if your local Woolworths or W H Smiths was the only source of records otherwise. London was exciting and scary at the same time. Tracey Thorn has written somewhere of the exhilaration of going to an Anti-Nazi League gig in Victoria Park at the age of 15 or 16 and then feeling panic at trying to find her way back to Hatfield.

It is possible that a lot of the musical angst about alienation and small towns comes from the state of mind whilst growing up more than anything. No doubt a morose 15 year old could live in the middle of Leicester Square and still imagine that the whole world is at a party whilst they sit at home with their mum and dad watching Bruce Forsyth on the TV. However, the sort of towns described in the songs here were particularly bland and lacked individuality and could turn a teenage mood into frustration or, equally, introspection.. There is something in the rather mournful sound of EBTG and the small detail of the lyrics that conjures up the very ordinary, the feel of a Sainsbury’s car park on a wet afternoon. In the song, the author thought University would provide an escape route but discovered there was no ‘real world’ out there after all. Probably not a place to go back to once you’ve left -but difficult to leave entirely behind.

41 comments:

  1. I grew up in Stevenage in the 70s, so your comments, especially regarding roundabouts, struck a chord with me. I passed my driving test without ever encountering traffic lights! It was an insular environment to grow up, I was part of the first generation to be born and grow up in the town, and this may well have stifled creativity, but there was something I quite liked about the homogenity too - I was unaware of class difference till I moved away, in Stevenage virtually everyone lived in a similar house and went to a similar school.
    Thanks for bringing back some of the memories.

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  2. Wow - this captures it all perfectly: "the feel of a Sainsbury’s car park on a wet afternoon".

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  3. I wonder if Suede were talking about Hatfield too in their song "The Power" - with the line "enslaved in a pebble-dash grave"......

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  4. Geoff! How interestng. I wonder if the British-suburbia vibe is different to the US one. Over here I think songs about suburbia are about a kind of stifling domesticity, like "Little Boxes" (made of ticky tacky) by Malvina Reynolds. The emphasis is on middle-class conformity but also on the horror of pretend happy families, hiding behind white picket fences. And behind those fences is often something sinister and dark - unlike British ones which seem to emphasize dullness on the surface AND inside (Bruce Forsyth on every TV!).

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  5. Hi Geoff, I'm pretty sure the first Megastore opened on Oxford Street in 1979 - I definitely remember it being a 1980s/1990s phenomenon.......... But maybe I'm wrong!

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  6. Another genre! Brilliant! For UK music I think it would include:

    Sound of the Suburbs by The Members
    Suburbia by the Pet Shop Boys
    Sweet Suburbia by The Skids
    Semi-detached Suburban Mr James by The Manfreds
    Our House by Madness

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  7. I think I disagree with Jim (a little). For example Elvis Costello's "Little Palace" is pretty dark. I think the genre of songs about British suburbia definitely includes a lot of darkness, maybe not the pretend happy families stuff of US ones though, I agree. Unless "The Carmichaels" by Al Stewart is an example of secret deviancy behind the image of happy families in the British suburbs.

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  8. Nice list Mick! Plus of course The Beatles - "Penny Lane" :)

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  9. Don't forget The Clash - Lost In The Supermarket:

    We had a hedge back home in the suburbs
    Over which I never could see

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  10. It's interesting how few of the songs that Mick and others list are about specific places though - as though suburbia really is all one grey homogenous place. The Hatfield song Geoff discusses, with its specificity, seems unusual in this mode of song.....

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  11. Maybe also Flight Path Estate by Sabres of Paradise. The sleevenotes use extracts from a fictional novel, Haunted Dancehall by James Woodbourne.

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  12. Also the Kinks Dead End Street that Geoff mentioned - classic suburbia and one of their best songs I think.

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  13. But I think the point, Chris, is that the Hatfield song is really about ALL suburbia, at least the ring of cities around London. It's about Hatfield but the town symbolises a whole way of life.

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  14. I totally agree with Jim. Think about The Monkees - "Pleasant Valley Sunday." Great example of what Jim is talking about.

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  15. The "little boxes" trope is transatlantic:

    Muswell Hillbillies by The Kinks:
    "They're putting us in little boxes,
    No character just uniformity,
    They're trying to build a computerised community,
    But they'll never make a zombie out of me."

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  16. Maybe Pulp, "Joyriders" counts? :
    We like driving on a Saturday night
    Past the Leisure Centre, left at the lights.
    We don't look for trouble but if it comes we don't run.
    Looking out for trouble is what we call fun.
    Hey you, you in the Jesus sandals
    Wouldn't you like to come over
    and watch some vandals smashing up someone's home?

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  17. I think there is a confusion here between small town songs and suburb songs. In the US, the songs being listed in this discussion could be small town songs - with all the imagery of mowing lawns, middle class conformity, the dark angst behind the bliss of apparent domestic bliss, etc. I think US suburb songs are rarer than British ones. Maybe because they are supplanted by the small town song..... Which I'm not sure Britain has as a exact match of songs.

    Totally fascinating column and debate! Geoff - write a book already! "Songs About Places" would be a good title too!

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  18. Tales from Turnpike House - Saint Etienne

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  19. Maybe this counts; I'm Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town by Ray Charles

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  20. Surely there are some positive visions of suburbia in music?? How about Martha and the Muffins, "Suburban Dream"?

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  21. I'm not sure if we're taking into account all the variety of suburbia. There can be just little clumps of houses on a city's edge. There can be a whole brand new town that is supposed to be self-contained. There can be a place that existed before and then got a bit absorbed by a large city. They might all be called 'suburbia' but all feel different.......

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  22. But K.B., I think the point is that the SONGS don't take any differences into account....

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  23. Semi-Detached Suburban Mr James by Manfred Mann. Best song EVER.

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  24. Love the Orwell reference!

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  25. I feel like I learn a lot about the UK from this column. I just googled 'roundabouts'! Not sure but I think we don't have them as much in the US.

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  26. I think what Geoff's column suggests is that suburbia in music is about a state of mind rather than a geographical location. It's about the colonization of space and culture. This is perhaps why there is so much satire and rejection of suburbia - it's about rejecting a particular point of view, an emptiness.

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  27. Oh dear, the word that the blog made me type to post that comment just now - you know the thing that proves it isn't spam - was "trite". I hope your blog hasn't taken on a life of its own and is judging our comments Geoff........ :)

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  28. We have roundabouts over here, Jan, but they are much rarer. To prove they exist though, here's the one near me! - http://www.cityoforlando.net/transportation/TransportationEngineeringDiv/pdfs/Cinderlane%20roundabout.jpg

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  29. I'd recommend for this amazing and growing list, 'Out of Vogue' (1978) by The Middle Class, and 'Subdivisions' (1982) by the Canadian rock band Rush.

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  30. I love the column and the debate, but hate this band. I feel like Everything but the Girl just whitewashes various genres of music, making everything from breezy Latin jazz to spartan folk sound tasteful but invariably bland.

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  31. Even if that were true, Andre (which I don't agree it is), that would suit the subject matter of suburbia!

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  32. I love her vocals. She is very restrained (no diva antics) in her singing. It's pretty unusual.

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  33. I sort of agree with Andre. Not that Geoff is particularly setting out to write about great songs (witness the column about "Watford Gap"), rather to talk about memory, geography, etc. Everything But the Girl belongs with Eurythmics and Simple Minds as boring boring semi-alternative but really mainstream bands. All the more credit to Geoff for thinking of so much to actually say about them!:)

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  34. hey there geoff and friends, maybe you'll like my mashup of Everything but the Girl’s “Missing” with Shadow’s “Blood on the Motorway”:

    http://soundcloud.com/tigermendoza/missing-on-the-motorway-shadow-vs-everything-but-the-girl

    Cheers for the blog.

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  35. The EBTG approach to music, and this song, is interesting. A comforting kind of melancholy rather an oppressive one.

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  36. This is a fascinating debate about suburbia and small towns. I am sure there is a difference here between the UK and USA, where maybe 'small town' doesnt have the same connotations as here. I think too there is a difference between suburbia and the sort of town like Hatfield, which was consciously built as something new-so lacked the sort of reference points that suburbs had.

    I think the last comment about comforting melancholy sums up the sound of EBTG-v different from the usual take on suburbia/small towns

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  37. I think the first Virgin store opened in Oxford Street in 1972

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  38. Great column Geoff - it takes a true writer, historian and music buff to produce 1000 quality and provocative words about Hatfield.....

    A Hatfield resident

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  39. I think music by EBTG is perfect urban walking music - maybe they are songs FOR places as well as songs ABOUT places. They are my favorite band to listen to as I walk around New York. It has the perfect cadence to match my steps and enough synth to drown out urban sounds. It makes walking like swimming -- fluid movement through millions of people and places. On the train, up the stairs, avenue by avenue, street by street.

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  40. I used to work at the shop that gave the band their name. "Everything but the Girl" was the slogan of a furniture shop called Turners on Beverley Road in Hull. Anyone driving from Paragon Station to the University of Hull would have driven past the store. Turners has long since been demolished though.

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  41. Yes I agree with Simone and Geoff. This is music with patterns of loss, loneliness, and a slightly unsettled happiness.

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