I’ve had this new favourite old Dexy’s Midnight Runners song stuck in my head on repeat for days, and since the best way to get rid of an earworm is to share it, that’s exactly what I’m going to do.
First the lyrics, which are smart and angry, and at least half of the fun of the song:
Dear Robin,
Hope you don’t mind me writing, its just that there’s more than one thing I need to ask you. If you’re so anti-fashion, why not wear flares, instead of dressing down all the same. It’s just that looking like that I can express my dissatisfaction.Dear Robin,
Let me explain, though you’d never see in a million years. Keep quoting Cabaret, Berlin, Burroughs, J.G. Ballard, Duchamp, Beauvoir, Kerouac, Kierkegaard, Michael Rennie. I don’t believe you really like Frank Sinatra.Dear Robin,
You’re always so happy, how the hell do you get your inspiration? You’re like a dumb patriot. If you’re supposed to be so angry, why don’t you fight and let me benefit from your right? Don’t you know the only way to change things is to shoot men who arrange thingsDear Robin,
I would explain but you’d never see in a million years. Well, you’ve made your rules, but we don’t know that game, perhaps I’d listen to your records but your logic’s far too lame and I’d only waste three valuable minutes of my life with your insincerity.You see Robin, I’m just searching for the young soul rebels, and I can’t find them anywhere. Where have you hidden them? Maybe you should welcome the new soul vision.
Now for the song. The video is just weird, so I’m going for the audio only here:
After searching for the song by title on Spotify, I made the awesome discovery that The Wonder Stuff had covered it (intriguingly, they drop the horns in favour of strings, which is exactly what Dexy’s ended up doing when they moved into their Come On, Eileen phase):
Finally, and this one is admittedly for the purists, Dexy’s (now in their Come On, Eileen phase) gave the song a radically slower and more soulful interpretation back on The Tube in 1984: