"Down in the Tube Station at Midnight" | ||||
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Single by the Jam | ||||
from the album All Mod Cons | ||||
B-side | " So Sad About Us / The Night" | |||
Released | 13 October 1978 | |||
Genre | Mod revival | |||
Label | Polydor (UK) | |||
Songwriter(s) | Paul Weller | |||
Producer(s) | Vic Coppersmith-Heaven | |||
The Jam singles chronology | ||||
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Back cover | ||||
"Down in the Tube Station at Midnight" is a single by the Jam, and was the second single from their third album, All Mod Cons. Released in October 1978, it reached No. 15 on the UK Singles Chart. [1] The single was backed by a cover version of the Who's song " So Sad About Us", and the song "The Night", written by Bruce Foxton.
Originally, Paul Weller had wanted to exclude the song from the All Mod Cons album, [2] on the grounds that the arrangement had not sufficiently developed during the recording sessions. [3] He was persuaded to include it by the record's producer Vic Coppersmith-Heaven. [3] [4]
The song tells the story of an unnamed narrator travelling on his own who enters a London Underground tube station at midnight to get the last train home, where he is attacked by a gang of men who 'smell like pubs, and Wormwood Scrubs, and too many right-wing meetings' as he buys a ticket from an automated machine. [5] The song starts with the atmospheric sounds of a London Underground station, then a tense, syncopated beat carried by the bass guitar. The lyrics are sentimental, contrasting the warmth of home and domestic life with the dangers of 1970s London's urban decay and casual late-night violence. Tension is heightened by a heartbeat audio effect in the left stereo channel at points during the song. [6]
The sound of an Underground train at the beginning and end of the song was recorded at St John's Wood Station. [5]
The front cover photograph was taken at Bond Street tube station, on the westbound Central line. On the back cover was a portrait photograph of Keith Moon who had died a month prior to the single's release. [7] The Who's "So Sad About Us" was included as a tribute to Moon. [8]
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
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United Kingdom ( BPI) [9] | Silver | 200,000‡ |
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. |
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