Down In The Tube Station At Midnight - Single Edit

This anti-racism song was a first-person narrative about a brutal mugging by jackbooted right-wing thugs in London. Despite having a BBC airplay ban due to its "disturbing nature," it became The Jam's second UK Top 20 hit. The then Radio 1 DJ Tony Blackburn complained that, "It's disgusting the way punks sing about violence. Why can't they sing about trees and flowers?"

In his teens Paul Weller idealized London. He would catch a train from Woking and carry a tape recorder around the capital just to be able to hear the streets again and again. However, after writing and recording two Jam albums in six months and endless touring he suffered premature burnout. Chastened by the experience, he emerged a more bitter, cynical person and he penned this song from the perspective of an ordinary working man on the way back to his suburban home, who is beaten senseless by skinheads.

The sounds of an Underground train at the beginning of the song was recorded at St John's Wood Station.