Happy New Year form Squire!
This week we are starting anew with a deep dive into the lyrics of the Squire songs! While the music is underscored with the rhythm of ensemble playing and the ever characterful melodies, often the lyrics go by unnoticed! Well, to be fair, some jump right off the page, and ‘Its A Mod Mod World’ is a key example!
Yet, music's meaning often emerges not from what the artist intended but from the audience's individual and collective responses. Listeners bring their own experiences and interpretations, giving the song its meaning, often with more significance than the original purpose! We find this in many ‘throwaway’ lyrics or more serious attempts. For example, ‘The Place I Used To Live’ is a very matter of fact narrative about growing up in New Malden. But so many fans have translated the emotion into their own childhood geographies and experiences. So the road map of New Malden is irrelevant! Its about a moment of innocence and exploring. Its about when and where you grew up.
Similarly, ‘Its A Mod Mod World’, may be based on my sisters recollections of growing up as a mod in the 1960s. Her stories of her boyfriend’s scooter, ride outs to Box Hill in Surrey on Sundays, and the other facts that never made it into the lyrics - like seeing the Motown Review in 1965 in at the Kingston A.B.C., are very 1960s reminiscences told to me, which later acted as half remembered triggers for song ideas.
Yet whether you listen to it or dance to it, it is of no consequence how I expected you to hear it! Unexpectedly, it became an anthem for the 1979 Mod Revival, the very phrase ‘Its A Mod Mod World’ became an umbrella catch phrase for all mod eras’s, just as ‘We Are The Mods’ became an enduring battle cry of collective celebration.
So various songs are often adopted like a manifesto, a personal statement of identity, how it makes you feel, regardless of the detail. Indeed, the phrase ‘Its A Mod Mod World’, is repeated 16 times! Perhaps it’s all you hear? (Beaten only by Get Ready To Go’s 21 times!- and they both share the forward facing ‘ready, steady, go’)
What triggered this reflection was being asked for - indeed pestered for - a signed hand written copy of the ‘Its A Mod Mod World’ lyrics as a Christmas gift. It made me accept that something so second nature to me could also be a deeply personal artefact of creativity and connection, a tangible piece of a shared experience that transcends its origins. That request sparked an idea: let's explore all the lyrics of the Squire songs. They all have a back story, they all carry pieces of me—my stories, my intentions—but those meanings are just the beginning. What matters most is what you hear. That connection is what makes the music alive.
And so while I tell the ‘secrets’ behind the songs, their inspiration, whether mundane or joining the dots on all the different threads, I hope you can share your story as well. What you feel, experience and like (or dislike) about the song is just as important. It’s all part of the dialogue of music.
And so over the next few weeks, we will be revisiting the Squire songs through the lens of the lyrics. While we have previously reflected on how songs were created in the studio, we’ll explore they came to be!
And as a special treat to kick off this series, this week, we’re excited to launch something truly special on the website: we’re going to do a limited run of signed and handwritten by Anthony - copies of ‘Its A Mod Mod World’! Each lyric sheet is written in fountain pen on high quality, acid-free heavyweight art paper. Each one is a unique keepsake, a bridge between the stories that inspired the songs and the meanings you’ve brought to them over the years.
We realised, whether as a gift or a personal memento, these lyrics aren’t just words on a page—they’re pieces of history, snapshots of the moments that made us all feel something unforgettable. So why not make these lyrical treasures available to those of you who hold these songs close to your hearts? We’ll give it a try and see!
