I never thought it would happen
With me and the girl from Clapham
Out on the windy common
That night I ain't forgotten
When she dealt out the rations
With some or other passions
I said "you are a lady"
"Perhaps" she said. "I may be"

We moved in to a basement
With thoughts of our engagement
We stayed in by the telly
Although the room was smelly
We spent our time just kissing
The Railway Arms we're missing
But love had got us hooked up
And all our time it took up

I got a job with Stanley
He said I'd come in handy
And started me on Monday
So I had a bath on Sunday
I worked eleven hours
And bought the girl some flowers
She said she'd seen a doctor
And nothing now could stop her

I worked all through the winter
The weather brass and bitter
I put away a tenner
Each week to make her better
And when the time was ready
We had to sell the telly
Late evenings by the fire
With little kicks inside her

This morning at four fifty
I took her rather nifty
Down to an incubator
Where thirty minutes later
She gave birth to a daughter
Within a year a walker
She looked just like her mother
If there could be another

And now she's two years older
Her mother's with a soldier
She left me when my drinking
Became a proper stinging
The devil came and took me
From bar to street to bookie
No more nights by the telly
No more nights nappies smelling

Alone here in the kitchen
I feel there's something missing
I'd beg for some forgiveness
But begging's not my business
And she won't write a letter
Although I always tell her
And so it's my assumption
I'm really up the junction


Lyrics submitted by sambo28

Up the Junction Lyrics as written by Glenn Martin Tilbrook Christopher Henry Difford

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

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Up The Junction song meanings
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  • +5
    General Comment

    The "Railway Arms" is a common name for an English pub.

    It really helps to understand Squeeze songs if you understand English culture, especially working and middle class culture. Their songs are very English.

    The railway arms we're missing means that he is no longer hanging out at the pub, because he's spending his time with his new love. Sadly, his behavior reverts to his old drinking habits, and it costs him his happiness in life--he loses his wife and daughter because he refuses to grow up and out of his adolescent behavior. He comes to understand this, but it's hard-earned knowledge.

    I love how this song paints a picture of a life with a couple of simple verses. One minute, he's experiencing the joy of his daughter's birth. A couple of lines later, his daughter's two years older and he's lost his wife and child to another man, a solider who will provide.

    He's really up the creek w/out a paddle.

    rbraxleyon July 13, 2012   Link

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