We Hate The Kids
It’s easy to think of ‘Baggy Trousers’ as a song more about pupils than teachers. And although much of it is about “naughty boys in nasty schools”, the description of their teachers is wonderfully of its time.
All the teachers in the pub
Passing ’round the ready-rub
Trying not to think of when
The lunch-time bell will ring again.
Better still is the song’s headmaster, sitting alone in his office, breathing a silent sigh of relief that his pupils have all scived off today for a punch-up with another school, bending his cane as he ruminates on punishments yet to be meted out to “the same old backsides again”. Not to start some big debate on corporal punishment… but them were the days.
Mad World
I was eight years old when Madness released this single… and I absolutely hated it. All the other kids thought it was the best song on the radio. Maybe it was just a little too close to reality for me… or maybe I never liked to follow the flock, even at that age. I grew to love Madness in later years, yet there’s always a part of me that secretly shudders when I hear this record. Especially when Suggs is using it to pay his mortgage on lager adverts.
Lager Lager Lager
It’s not Madness at their best. Far too gimmicky. I’m ambivalent about House Of Fun for the same reason though I do like the lyrics. Embarrassment is, for me, Madness’s finest track.
I loved Madness but I was a big two-tone/Ska fan as a yoot. There was a certain mates together vibe with them which appealled as a kid. I was one of the few who liked Uncle Sam more than Trousers. Their finest track however is Night Boat to Cairo.