Lordy, lordy, only two three four five days late...
My introduction to this week's tune actually came with its inclusion on a 1981 album...however as the years passed and I moved from shiny new object to shiny new object it kind of got forgotten. Fast forward to the pandemic, when businesses were first allowed to open up and taking my youngest son to his Tae Kwon Do lessons, wherein the school was only allowing students in the building for health and safety reasons. I'd have an hour to kill twice a week in the parking lot and I began listening to old favorites on YouTube Music, when lo and behold one of those old favorites had a "You might also like..." feature. This week's song popped up at some juncture and it was one of those Holy Shit I Forgot All About This Great Tune moments and began listening to it again. Which is a rather long way to note how it became another Friday Night Jukebox post....
This will be the third time I've written about Squeeze (Vol. CCXXVII and Vol. CCCXIX), with the last being in 2021. The band continues to tour and has plans to record two albums in the near future. Sadly, as I noted in the 2021 post, the band has still not been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. An absolute travesty.
Fun Fact: A lot of great bands in their early days opened for Squeeze, including R.E.M., U2, The Specials, XTC, The Jam, and Dire Straits.
"Messed Around" appeared on Squeeze's classic LP, East Side Story. The song was released as a single only in the U.S. but did not chart. The album reached #19 in their native U.K., while it peaked at #44 on the Billboard 200 here in the States.
"Messed Around" is a delightful slice of rockabilly (Chris Difford has said the song was influenced by the Stray Cats) that sounds quite unlike anything Squeeze ever did. The song features the usual deft lyrics, an impassioned vocal from Glenn Tilbrook, a brilliant piano solo from Paul Carrack, and a guitar solo from Tilbrook that could have come out of the Sun Sessions. It also has a catchy as all hell--and incredibly short--chorus ("She feels messed around"). Quite simply, this one is a lot of fun, will stay joyfully in your head for days, and is one hell of a closing song for a brilliant album.
Lyric Sheet: "She wants to give up love for good/She kicks the fence and splits the wood/She cries her eyes out in the rain/She swears aloud and so again/She feels messed around..."
Enjoy:
Republicans = Nazis
Peace,
emaycee
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