11/20/2022 0 Comments If the kids are united live![]() While the subject matter and the record sleeve would suggest a collective escapade, the lyrics are an unusually solitary Johnny Cash-style confession/denial of past deeds thrown into sharp relief by an uncertain future as an outlaw. The key text other than "If The Kids Are United" is probably "Angels With Dirty Faces": "We're the people you don't wanna know We come from places you don't wanna go Kids like you and me." A weird anomoly in his repetoire is "Borstal Breakout". There's very few bands where the lyrical content invites such a close association with the listener's own experiences. How many of us DIDN'T go down the pub, wear laced up boots and corduroys and consider ourselves undesirable to the USA. The point is that he's not talking about "his" fellows, but "our" fellows, a group which includes the listener. Generally Jimmy's ouvre is easier to understand and more enjoyable if you assume that "the kids" are the same group of people as the Hersham Boys and are also the "we" who are goin' dahn the pub and the "us" who are unwanted in the USA, told what to say and do etc etc. This surely pays homage to Joe Meek's masterful production on 'Have I The Right?'. Is there a homoerotic subtext? I think so - perhaps a further clue is provided by the stamping feet echoing the drumbeat on the chorus. But now we see a tension that has not hitherto been revealed. Until this point, one has been led to believe that the situation is entirely resolved and that the protagonist is happy and secure in the comradeship of his fellows. The intro is good : "Hello mate, are you awright?" "Yeah, I'm awright" There is more borderline tautology in the opening couplet : "For once in my life I've got something to say/I wanna say it now for now is today" I mean now can hardly be anything other than today, can it? And what about the lines "Understand him and he'll understand you/For you are him and he is you" Have they been putting something in Jimmy's lager top? The middle section : "I don't wanna be rejected/I don't wanna be denied" is interesting and something far more complex than the matey bonhomie of the intro and the stirring call-to-arms of the chorus would suggest. ![]()
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