Pop Matters: The Housemartins, "Hopelessly Devoted to Them"

"In the morning, when I’m woken
By the sound of my alarm
Stretching out my arm
I want to screw it up in my palm

And I’ve taken this route to work
A thousand times or more
And when you’ve seen it all before
you tend to get a little bored

They’ve got the keys to all my doors
They hold my where and when
So I guess I’ll always be
Hopelessly devoted to them

In the office when I’m working
There’s a funeral atmosphere
I know I lost someone dear
But I didn’t see him disappear

And I’m lying in my bed
'Cause its keeping me awake
And you think there's no escape
They’ve bound me up in their tape

They’ve got the keys to all my doors
They hold my where and when
So I guess I’ll always be
Hopelessly devoted to them."

One of the great, underrated bands of the 1980s, The Housemartins combined great pop melodies and harmonies with radical and biting lyrics by lead singer Paul Heaton, who was concerned with social inequality, and the class system, often reflecting a fair dose of social gospel Christianity (although Heaton has repeatedly stated that he is an atheist). As the phrase on the cover of their classic album London 0 Hull 4 said: "Take Jesus - Take Marx - Take Hope".

I heartily recommend listening to both London 0 Hull 4 and The People Who Grinned Themselves to Death (their second and final album) while reading Situationist philosopher Raoul Vaneigem's The Revolution of Everyday Life.

Paul Kimball