Illustration by Fritz Bergen from F.W. Hacklander's Namenlose Geschichten, 1800
During their initial run of albums, UK pop band Squeeze was defined by the songwriting of Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook. I'm naturally more drawn to the conventional pop writing style of Tilbrook, but Difford's songs are fascinating as poetic character studies, giving them a different feel and structure. His best-known narrative song is probably the teen romance single "Up the Junction" from Cool for Cats, but I'm also quite fond of "Vicky Verky" from the following album, Argybarby. "Vicky Verky" is a mirror image and companion piece to "Up the Junction" in a way - both songs are about teens in love and pregnancy. But, where the couple in "Up the Junction" is driven apart by the birth of their daughter, things play out differently in "Vicky Verky".
Here's how my reading of "Vicky Verky" goes - a boy gets his 14-year-old girlfriend "in a family way" and is driven to burglary to try to support her. He ends up getting incarcerated, which is where this song's great bridge comes in. While in the borstal, our boy gets a letter - as he reads the letter, in which the girl lets him know that she's decided to terminate the pregnancy, the song modulates into a different key and strings and harpsichord enter the arrangement. In the break after the bridge, the song returns to its original key but the strings stay in the arrangement, possibly indicating how these kids' lives have been changed irrevocably. In the final verse, the lovers are reunited and decide to stay together and make their relationship work. It's a good example of how song structure can elevate a song's narrative, and I also just really like the melody and vocal delivery on this bridge - one of my favorites.
"Vicky Verky" by Squeeze
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