Pulling Mussels (From The Shell)

According to Squeeze lyricist Chris Difford, this song was inspired by a vacation (or as he says, "holiday") that his parents sent him on to Margate, which is a seaside resort in Kent, England. Difford told us: "We stayed in the caravan at a holiday camp. There was a club there where bands played and the song reflects that atmosphere of the traditional working class 'get away from it all' weekend. It was the first time I had really looked up into the sky to see what it was like. It was a beautiful dark sky and it felt amazing to be away from London."

Difford wrote this in the style of Small Faces, which he describes as "An English band that wrote very English lyrics." A breakdown of some of the lyrics:
Camber Sands - a resort in Camber, England.
Harold Robbins - an American author whose books include Never Love A Stranger and Where Love Has Gone.
William Tell - an expert marksman who, according to legend, shot an arrow off his son's head with a crossbow.
Maid Marian - Robin Hood's girlfriend.

Glenn Tilbrook, who writes the music for Squeeze, told us about writing the song: "Songs to me are like diary excerpts, as musically when I hear them, I go right back to where I was at that point. Where I was at that point, I don't know whether you call it an apartment, but it was basically just one room and a kitchen. And from my first royalty check I bought a piano, I bought a mini Moog, I bought a 4-track recorder. And that was all I needed, I was happy. So I'd just stay in the middle of the night and write and write and write, and that was great for me. It was really good. I was also smoking a bit of weed at the time, so everything was very slow. But 'Pulling Mussels' and 'Another Nail For My Heart,' which we wrote within days of each other, were really, really slow." (Read more in our interview with Glenn Tilbrook and Chris Difford of Squeeze. The Squeeze site is squeezeofficial.com.)