Metamatic Forums John Foxx John Foxx Young Man

“So now I was Electro Sid Lennon with a sampler and a sunset." Assembly sleeve notes

As well as Martin’s questions regarding ‘My Face’, I feel another song that could also do with some scrutiny is ‘Young Man’ – notably the vocal.

We all know the influence The Beatles have had on his work – ‘When You Walk Through Me’, ‘Sitting at the edge of the world’, ‘Shifting City’ being perfect examples. But the vocal inflections on ‘Young Man’ sound very much like an attempt at a young John Lennon to me, right down to the ‘Oh Yeah / Shoop-shoop’ lyrics which, I feel deliberately invoke early Beatles records.

I did wonder at one point if the title 'Young Man reflects on Lennon's passing and that it was in Foxx's own way a tribute to one of his heroes; Lennon has seemingly been canonised and rendered immortal in much the same way as Presley or James Dean. But looking through the lyrics there's little evidence of this, although I do feel strongly that the song as a whole is a homage to Lennon and the early Beatles work.

Any thoughts/views?

my main thoughts are just that those sleeve notes on the Assembly CD were a treat! Every sentence was jam packed full of revealing references all spun with a lovely playful sense of humour.
(And it got me reading Ballard too!)

Maybe im being simplistic, but ive always thought the song title to mean staying young at heart. Theres a few references to things we do particularly in our youth too.

Hi Newvox,

I think you’re quite right regarding the song being about ‘Young at heart’. As I said, my initial theory of it being about Lennon himself has no evidence to support it in the lyrics.

I do feel however, that the music and in places, his vocals – are directly (and deliberately) influenced by the early Beatles material.

Yes its one of the most Beatle's influenced tracks along with others you listed. He did appear to make it that way intentionally.

My favorite lyric has to be 'Remember the first time.....'.
Obviously a 'burning car' moment.

The guitar riff is from a Beatles song, but I don't know which one.

'Annexe' almost nicks the riff from 'Taxman' - that's one of my favourite Foxx songs. 'Into the Glow' would have been a fabulous album:
1. Endlessly (Original)
2. Annexe
3. The Lifting Sky
4. Dance With Me
5. Young Man
6. Sitting On The Edge Of The World (?)
7. A Woman On A Stairway

And others, who knows. But it would have had a Beatles feel to it.
Cheers

John's vocals are spookily Lennon-like at times.

Young Man is a track that never grew on me, so I haven't really paid attention to the lyrics.

I've never seen the Assembly booklet.. sounds like an informative read?

Hi Alex,

If you go to the 'Discography' section of this very site and click on any solo album between '79-'85 The first thing you'll see are the sleevenotes from Assembly.

Craig mentioned 'Annexe' - I'd almost forgotten that one was very Lennon-esque also.

Aaah!! Right! Makes sense now!

Cheers! Time for a read!

That's it! Annexe, not Young Man.

I love the overall feel of Endlessly, Young man, Annexe etc. That happy poppy whimsical romantic 60's psychedelia vibe.

When Endlessly v.1 was on Roundtable one of the reviewers accused John of ripping off The Beatles. I didn't really associate Young Man with The Beatles at the time, though it was clearly retro. It was also clear that John was in a very sunny state of mind. It was all very different from the two solo albums but I liked both tracks. They're distinctive, and there's a nice bit of humour with the shoop-shoops. A

I missed a couple from my list of tracks fro 'In The Glow' - 'A kind of wave' and 'Lumen De Lumine'.
Cheers