Their trench coats and freezing breath will remain with me always. You feel like you know these people – and that’s especially true for those of us who watched the video, spellbound, that Christmas (1981) on Top of the Pops, inwardly cheering at Susan Ann Sulley’s skilful riposte to Phil Oakey’s wicked insinuations in the first verse. The song also has to leave enough room for one of the catchiest choruses in pop history. We’re given just enough information for the listener’s imagination to take over and do the rest. And it’s all about creating an other-worldly glamour. If you try to stuff long lines full of plot, they become horribly unwieldy. The structure wouldn’t allow for it even if they’d wanted to. The songwriters don’t go into great detail about the relationship. I picked you out, I shook you up and turned you around, ![]() You were working as a waitress in a cocktail bar when I met you The Human League’s 1981 synth-pop blockbuster “Don’t You Want Me”, however, tells an endearingly slight tale of a would-be Svengali, jilted by the female star he believes he created: “Up the Junction” can synopsise several years’ worth of a relationship in just three minutes and ten seconds because of its seven- or eight-syllable lines, its concise – nay, abrupt – style of language and the way that it doesn’t have a chorus. There is often a limit to how much of a story you can safely put into a song before it crumbles under the weight of its ambition. ![]() At that time, I was only interested in musicians who stood behind synthesisers, looking bored. But it was a bridge too far for the ten-year-old Hannon. So, notably, did Difford and Tilbrook in their 1981 Squeeze single “Labelled With Love”. Most of the writers I have mentioned would have run a mile from such an association, though some, such as Costello, drew proudly from the country well. I still have a sneaking regard for Shel Silverstein’s “A Boy Named Sue”, which was a hit for Johnny Cash. Most were vile and drenched in sentimentality, but some had a certain charm. Story songs in those days were more generally associated with maudlin country singers. Science and Technical Research and Development.Infrastructure Management - Transport, Utilities.Information Services, Statistics, Records, Archives.Information and Communications Technology.HR, Training and Organisational Development.Health - Medical and Nursing Management.Facility / Grounds Management and Maintenance.
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