i saw a reel a few months ago dramatising the first person to put a dusty 50s vocal sample over a lofi beat. this technique is apparently so ubiquitous that comedy skits are being made about it, but in all my 20+ years of composing, i’d never had a chance to give it a go. so, once the vague musical shape of ‘go to work. do me work, and enjoy meself for that day’ started coming together in a jam session, i realized this was the opportunity i was waiting for. for context, i was also experiencing a post-phd longing for the chaotic energy and culture of london, the city of my birth.
so i went searching for 1950s films about london on youtube and found an old bbc documentary called 'the more we are together' (www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EMWJwMRCxo). the film itself comes from 1958 and follows a reporter with the finest received pronunciation interviewing the various adult members of an east-end, working class family. it’s very much a product of it’s time, and to read the comments would be to believe it reveals some kind of paragon for life that we have collectively let die under the weight of ‘progress’. you know the argument, how it is ‘sad’ that england has changed irrevocably in such a short space of time, how life was simpler back then and people cared for each other back then. the subtext being that if we were only to reverse the advances made in the past 70 years, socially, culturally, technologically, then everything would be better.
nostalgia like this does my head in. nostalgia in general does my head in. i chose to illustrate the underlying awfulness to this nostalgic ideal by sampling a particularly telling section from the documentary. in it, one of the working-class patriarchs talks about his disdain for the middle classes and how he enjoys the simple things in life; golf, football, alcohol. to his side sits his wife who, when questioned, shares her despondent resignation to a life of service and unfulfillment. i dunno, it just got me.
i don't believe music can say anything in of itself. meaning in music requires written context. i don't know what i'm trying to say with this piece beyond that life in the past seems utterly awful for everyone involved. whether it’s the bigoted patriarch drawing lines between his personal culture and the hated middle-class, the wife who is denied a fulfilling life by a society that inhibits her, or the son who just wants to enjoy his music. sometimes it’s just nice to remember that, despite everything, we're moving in the right direction.
lyrics
- Doesn’t that sort of life appeal to you at all?
- What, buying me own house? No, I should think not.
I, er, see these bank clerks, middle-class I call ‘em.
Fifteen pound a week, all worry.
No, I don’t think that life would suit me.
- Well what is your idea of life?
- Of life? I’d like to build my life around me pleasures.
I go to work, I don’t think about work, I just do me work.
But I’m think of me pleasures all the time.
Me dart match. What I’m going to do at the weekend. Me little bit of golfing or football.
I’d like to build me life around that.
- Well Johnny you’ve talked about those bank clerks looking worried, probably they’re thinking of the future, their old-age pension and so-on.
Don’t you ever have those sort of...?
- No, no, I just worry about today. And when tomorrow come, just go to work, do me work. And enjoy meself for that day.
And enjoy meself for that day
- Well now, Johnny’s been talking like he’s the only one concerned but what about you?
- Yeah, well. I think it is a man’s world meself, cos, um.
I mean, he goes to the dart match on Wednesday, Friday he goes over the Cornwallis, Saturday morning over the Cornwallis.
And then again Sunday, and Sunday morning, Sunday night.
- And what do you do?
- Ooh, I-I just, erm. I could go over there but I, you know, it don’t really appeal to me, drinking.
Sort of thing.
So I stay with the children and get them bathed and ready for the next day.
- And are you content with that?
- Well not really but, I mean, you can’t do much else about it.
- Well Johnny, what do you think about that?
- What do I think about that? She’s not as silly as she looks!
- Well you’re your own boss, but what about security?
- You know I earn a wage but if I want to earn a pound extra, two pound extra, well then, I’ll help me brother-in-law in his iron yard or anything.
Help a friend one their potato stall.
That’s what I mean, with these middle-class people they’ve just got their job, they go home and do their gardening.
I think they’d be too proud to earn an extra few shillings like I would. I’d do anything for a pound.
Go to work, do me work. And enjoy meself for that day.
And enjoy meself for that day
Johnny, turn that gram off! Can’t hear myself speaking here.
credits
released September 21, 2023
All production, mixing, and composition: Harry Perry
British : Composer : Performer : Producer :
Writer
But of course it's a bit more complicated than that. For now, you just need to know that I'm not that cool or particularly interesting but I do like expressing myself through music. But most importantly, I'm just a fan....more
An absolute slab of angular power mixed with effortlessly pop hooks. I love tricot and this third album is an incredible blend of stylistic nuttiness. Harry Perry / rryrry
Reuben's third and final album on Bandcamp is a marked blend of extreme dissonance (Blood, Bunny, Larkhall) and pop hooks (Deadly Lethal Ninja Assassin) make this an epic but thought-provoking listen. Harry Perry / rryrry
Still one of my favourite albums of the last few years. Densely intelligent lyrics over eclectic accompaniments have changed my perspective. 'Isn't Dinner Nice' broke me. A timely, yet important song. Harry Perry / rryrry
On their sixth studio album, The Album Leaf flesh out their post-rock dynamics with ambient synths and keyboards, driving percussion, and swelling trumpets. Bandcamp Album of the Day Aug 31, 2016
