- Just Who Is the 5 O'Clock Hero?
Infobox Single
Name = Just Who Is the 5 O'Clock Hero?
Artist =The Jam
from Album = The Gift
B-side = War, The Great Depression
Released =1982-07-03
Format =
Recorded =
Genre =
Length = 2.15
Label =Polydor
Writer = Paul Weller
Producer =
Certification =
Chart position =# 8 (UK Singles Chart )
Last single =Town Called Malice (1982)
This single = "Just Who Is the 5 O'Clock Hero?"
(1982)
Next single = "The Bitterest Pill (I Ever Had to Swallow) "
(1982)"Just Who Is the 5 O'Clock Hero?" is a song and single released byThe Jam on 3 July, 1982, it features on their sixth studio album "The Gift". Contrary to popular misconception the single was not released as a single in Britain but was a Dutch import. Despite this it still made the number eight in the UK singles chart on June 11, 1982, The Jam has performed a similar feat the previous year with "That's Entertainment". The single came with two B-sides a version of "War" and an original Weller B-side "The Great Depression".The song
The song addresses those in day-to-day, 9-to-5 jobs as a nameless factory worker returns home to his wife wanting nothing but to sit in the front room and watch television and before he has to go back to the 'lunch box and the worker/management rows', while in the choruses focuses on the character having lived in the same street for years and highlights the futility of his life ('and as one life finishes the other one starts') before the character wishes that there has to be more to life than 'scrimping and saving and crossing off lists'. According to interviews with Weller (and the booklet accompanying the
Direction Reaction Creation box-set) the point was not to point fun at or criticize the character (such as Mr. Clean onAll Mod Cons ) but rather to bring attention to them and highlight them as 'real heroes of Britain' the song was conceived at the height of The Jam's fame when Weller was very uncomfortable with being a 'hero' himself.ources
*Direction Reaction Creation box-set released May 26, 1997 by Polydor Records
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