Mekons Where Were You

There has never been enough written about Mekons Where Were You. I bought it on the same day as Siouxsie and The Banshees Staircase mystery single (was that 79?) and remember showing my haul to a mate who I saw on the bus going home. He already knew it and loved it, but I don’t think I’d heard it before and I can’t remember why I bought it. I’ve played it hundreds of times since though and it’s still one of my favourite singles.

As a record it’s got everything. Smudgy cover, optimistic gold discs on the front and a great label (Fast). A love song stripped down to the absolute bone…but no sex.
“I wanna talk to you all night, do you like me
I wanna find out ‘bout your life, do you like me
Could you ever be my wife do you love me?”

“I was standing in the queue did you see me
I was standing in the queue did you see me
You had yellow hair did you see me”

What a fantastic, moronic line that is. Impress girls…tell them you love their yellow hair. Go on ….I bet you it works. Better still though it’s a pop song without a chorus. Well what it has got is …

“I was waiting at the bar where were you, I was buying you a drink where were you.”

…But the tune doesn’t change so it might not convince anyone outside the band or the wilfully obscure that it’s a chorus up there with Lennon and McCartney and The Cheeky Girls. Works for me though.

The vocals sit on top of the one chord backing, with a 1 note (it might even get up to a crazy 3 at times) guitar line and then the only change in melody is a 2 chord link back. It’s the 3 chord trick, the 8 bar blues. The records short. It begins with lone guitar and the worlds longest drum roll. Once the songs got going the bass and guitars don’t really change, so it’s the increasingly busy drums and the vocals that push the song to it’s climax and then it just finishes (exhausted) with the guitar hammering on a single note.

The B side is the (I’ll just have to) Dance then on my own. Much more complex, ringing guitars, and a predecessor to The Fire Engines, Big Flame, Josef K sound, with Beefheart as an ancestor. I’ve got to admit, it doesn’t get played very often. But then I never liked any other Mekons record as much as Where Where You.

Whenever I play Where Where You I always think of (and usually play) The Scars Adultery (also on Fast) and Blue Orchids Work. But that’s another story.