nglish Beat singer/guitarist Dave Wakeling says of this song: "I wrote it when I was a teenager. I wrote it before The Beat (outside of the US, the group is known as The Beat) started. And it was about turning from a teenager to someone in their 20s, and realizing that the effortless promise for your teenage years was not necessarily going to show that life was so simple as you started to grow up. So it was about being lost, about not really knowing your role in the world, trying to find your place in the world. So, you couldn't find your own way in the world, and you'd have all sorts of people telling you this, that, and the other, and advising you, and it didn't actually seem like they knew any better. So it was like keep your advice to yourself. Save it - for later."
Listeners often find salacious subtexts in songs when in fact, none exist. In this case, however, it does. Wakeling explains: "The actual hook line itself was just a dirty joke, I just thought it was hilarious that you could get in a song: 'save it – comma – for later – F-E-double L-A-T-O-R.' So I thought it'd be really neat to get that in a song and everybody would be singing it. I didn't know it was going to be a joke that lasted for 30 years." (Read Dave's full interview in the Songfacts Interviews. His website is davewakeling.com.)
nglish Beat singer/guitarist Dave Wakeling says of this song: "I wrote it when I was a teenager. I wrote it before The Beat (outside of the US, the group is known as The Beat) started. And it was about turning from a teenager to someone in their 20s, and realizing that the effortless promise for your teenage years was not necessarily going to show that life was so simple as you started to grow up. So it was about being lost, about not really knowing your role in the world, trying to find your place in the world. So, you couldn't find your own way in the world, and you'd have all sorts of people telling you this, that, and the other, and advising you, and it didn't actually seem like they knew any better. So it was like keep your advice to yourself. Save it - for later."
Listeners often find salacious subtexts in songs when in fact, none exist. In this case, however, it does. Wakeling explains: "The actual hook line itself was just a dirty joke, I just thought it was hilarious that you could get in a song: 'save it – comma – for later – F-E-double L-A-T-O-R.' So I thought it'd be really neat to get that in a song and everybody would be singing it. I didn't know it was going to be a joke that lasted for 30 years." (Read Dave's full interview in the Songfacts Interviews. His website is davewakeling.com.)