From the third Madness album, 7, this is very different from most of the Nutty Boys fare that had propelled them up the charts to that point, a downbeat tune with depressed lyrics and a video full of anxiety dreams. Note also the pallid make-up, the falling backwards, the manic clown grin... even the trademark nutty conga line sees the seven in identical grey suits, peeling off one at a time to enter identical houses. Was fame losing its sheen for the boys? Did they feel on a treadmill? A commercial product, rather than a band, perhaps? Performing in a shop window might be emblematic of that.
All of which speculation makes it even more interesting to learn that Mike Barson wrote this song in 1978, when the band were still The Invaders, but that it didn't get recorded until 7, three years later. Of course, what's also interesting about that is how much can change in three short years.
Despite the minor keys, brooding sax and atypical video, Grey Day spent ten weeks in the singles chart and reached a highpoint of #4, such was Madness's power at the time. All together now...
In the morning I awake,
My arms, my legs, my body aches,
The sky outside is wet and grey,
So begins another weary day...
We've all been there, right?
Some food for thought there Martin.
ReplyDeleteIt was a pretty intense and action packed three years
Action packed is right, so much changed for them, so fast, from 79-82.
DeleteYou don't get too many songs about depression nestling in the Top 10 - certainly not in 1981 anyway.
ReplyDeleteAnd a later single was a jaunty sing along Music Hall number about a commuter having a heart attack
"Like a big American car..."
DeleteTop stuff and quietly subversive.
ReplyDeleteYes, more nuanced than it seemed at first.
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