Aisle Of Plenty

see the deadly nightshade grow. night shade is belladonna atropa, bella donna is 'beautiful woman maturing'. see the belladona grow, seeing her become "hip to the game". It's a story that began with the first song of the album 'Selling England by the Pound" where the woman is with her soldier boyfriend who is swearing his love to his romantic lover, assuming they will making love "for her merchandise...he traded in his prize" and then later on in the song Cinema show, the woman is meeting her beau for a movie. She has innocent thoughts on her mind of making her bed before leaving for her date, while her boyfriend's thoughts are about making his bed with her. This song is "the woman" after her date immediately saying "I don't belong here."

Where is she? What is this safe way home? Why is she getting a fare discount? What is she cooperating with? Yes we know the grocery store puns, but this is another kind of "market" being hinted at. Peter and company have once again hidden a dark story beneath the many layers of their lyrical and musical art. This woman is learning the rules of commerce, the selling of england, the coarse exchange of something for something, hopes and dreams for continued existence, underlined by the vague but unmistakable feeling of doom and degradation. The difference and the relationship between man and woman, and the inequalities and sorrows of both sides.

This may be obvious, but for those who wern't alive in England in the 1970s, Safeway, Fine Fair and Tesco were all (and some still are) supermarkets.

This song gives me goosebumps. Its decades before its time and the tune is very close to what r&b artists are doing today. I can't just play this song once... have to listen to it over and over again.

A song about consumerism...about selling out your values...which loosely connects the entire Selling England album.

"Take the Safe Way Home...Thankful for her Fine Fare discount, Tess Co-Operates"....Safeway, Fine Fare, Tesco and the Co-Op all were/are supermarkets in the UK. Although they had been around 20 years, it was the early to mid 70s that saw the British supermarkets take over from the independent butchers and greengrocers, who might well have been selling English ribs of beef of the highest quality....but the supermarket had conveniently packaged beef cheaper.

A little bit dated lyrically,,,Has that 1970's clever word pun (Two Ronnies) with a lot of Python (Monty) thrown in.

The 'I don't belong here' here line I like the most................Very much felt like that when I had to work at Sainsburys in the 80's to earn some extra cash and continue to feel that way every time I set foot in Tescos, Waitrose and Sainsburys these days although I like Lidl because it's a little bit smaller and more manageable.