Tom Robinson part 3

After several years without a hit, Tom Robinson hit it big again in 1983, with War Baby.

The start of the 80s found Tom bankrupt and depressed, so in 1982 he went to stay with a friend in Hamburg, Germany. He wrote this song, whilst stoned, after a bad experience at a gay sauna. The lyrics were cryptic enough to avoid being banned on the radio, so his second biggest hit was born, peaking just one place shy of the #5 peak of 2-4-6-8 Motorway, in 1983.

This is how it began:

Only the very young and the very beautiful can be so aloof

Hanging out with the boys, all swagger and poise

I don't even care what other people are there

I just stare and stare and stare

I see your shadow in the swimming pool

I see your face in the shaving mirror

Time and time and time again

I follow your footsteps so quietly up the backstairs

And I hope and I pray you ain't never going to find me there

Smooth skin and tenderness long ago on a dark night

Wish I could see you once again just to remember it was true

I wanna be still beside you - quiet and still beside you

Listening to your breathing and feeling your warmth again

Lovely video:

In 1986, the "Still Loving You" album came out and included the song You Tattooed Me. The song takes place in a hypothetical 3d World War in 1954. The lyrics:

I was stranded up in Antwerp in the Summer of '54

There were teeming streets full of refugees

And rumours of a new world war

I was waiting at the station when a newcomer arrived

You took your place and fixed me with those crazy hazel eyes...

The boarding house was crowded where I followed you in fright

You slammed the door behind us and smashed the electric light

You said 'why try to fight it?' - I could feel my racing heart

Then you nuzzled up like an animal

And you kissed me in the dark

We wrecked the bed and went, and never paid a cent

I drank the fare and never made the train

Till I was 25 I was only half alive

And I hardly knew what hit me when you came

And tattooed me... tattooed me

No, I hardly knew what hit me when you came

We shacked up in a basement after breaking down the door

With bedbugs in the blankets, broken bottles on the floor

We were penniless and hungry, having arguments and fights

I was coughing blood all winter but I'd never been more alive

And then one fatal day you volunteered your life away

While I was way too weak to be alarmed

And when I was drunk asleep as you left to join the fleet

You tattooed your name with a needle in my arm

You tattooed me... tattooed me

Tattooed me with a needle in my arm

With the peace talks in Geneva we slowly crawled away

From the brink of the unthinkable and began to breathe each day

There were rumours you'd deserted, then no more letters came

My life was wrecked but I did my best to pick up the bits again

And when I was on the mend I drifted back to Zaventem

And worked unloading cargo from a plane

I began to pay my way on a thousand francs a day

And as time went by I realised we'd never meet again

You tattooed me... tattooed me

And I knew that we would never meet again

This is the original (audio only):

You Tattooed Me

This is the video from a performance in 2013:

In 1990 a collaboration with Jakko Jakszyk produced Blood Brother. Here are the lyrics:

Ben was born in Lincoln County and he grew up in the fens

Teased and bullied by his brothers in a family of ten

Sociable and easygoing - helping out around the home

While his inner life ticked on like an unexploded bomb

Just waiting for his moment

Going shopping with his mother like a whippet on the leash

Always straining at the traces - out of sight and out of reach

And anytime the house was empty he would work out on his own

Disappearing on his bike in the middle of the night

And stealing from the kitchen

Open your eyes...

Open your eyes... here I am

I'm your blood brother

Well he saved up his allowance and he studied like a slave

Worked his passage to Australia to try and make his getaway

I was single when I met him - he was bitter and nineteen

And he so reminded me of someone I used to be

A long long time ago

Open your eyes... I said

Open your eyes... here I am

I'm your blood brother

Now the years have been and vanished and I've lost a lot of friends

I do twenty at the pool then take my kid to school

Since the party had to end;

But at a benefit last Sunday we met again as if by fate

I barely recognised Ben when he grabbed me again

And whispered in my ear:

Open your eyes... he said

Open your eyes... here I am

I am your blood brother

And here's the song:

Tom Robinson is still making music today. His latest album, Only The Now, came out a few months ago. It contains collaborations with Ian McKellen and John Grant. Home In The Morning is about the narrator giving instructions to a friend or lover in order to have a "clean" departure. Here are some of the lyrics:

Hey pretty David I'm so glad you made it

Come sit over here in the light

Sorry the setting is kind of depressing

But I need a favour tonight

That laughs & parties were good while they lasted

But now that it's time to move on

I need a friend who can tie up some ends

Tomorrow I'm gonna be gone

Shred all my letters and burn all the polaroids

Throw my old mags in the trash

Empty the treasure chest under my bed

And flush every crumb in my stash

Swear on your life that you'll wipe my hard drive

Smash any backups you find

No need for my mother to ever discover

The life I'm leaving behind

Goodbye to London, so long to St Mary's

I only wish I could have stayed

You nephews and nieces I love you to pieces

But let's just call it a day

Goodbye you ravers, you movers and shakers

You lovers and brothers I've known

Kiss me goodnight as you switch out the light

Cos I'm going home in the morning

Here's the video:

From the same album, Don't Jump Don't Fall is about a teenage runaway who's dangerously on the edge. This is the first verse:

I still remember first meeting you when

You were a small blond kid about nine or ten

Your mother went missing and your father drank

For your first real home you had an aunt to thank

You came to stay when you were still quite young

You had mischievous eyes and a razorsharp tongue

Life has its interludes and this was one

As we'd pretend for the weekend you were our son

We used to pick you up when you were feeling blue

Take you out to the movies & the circus too

But nothing's forever and it couldn't last

We had our own baby, and the moment passed

If you felt betrayed, boy, you hid it well

But when I think back now I feel guilty as hell

You hit the bottle when you hit your teens

Became runaway jailbait for chicken queens

CHORUS

Don't jump, don't fall - there's a world of love out there & you can have it all

And here's the video: