The View from the Afternoon

Song infobox
Name = The View from the Afternoon


Artist = Arctic Monkeys
Album = Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
Released = January 23, 2006
track_no = 1
Recorded = September, 2005
Genre = Indie rock
Length = 2:53
Writers = Alex Turner, Jamie Cook
Label = Domino
Producer = Jim Abiss
Misc = Extra tracklisting
Album = Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
Type = studio
Tracks =
# "The View from the Afternoon"
# "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor"
# "Fake Tales of San Francisco"
# "Dancing Shoes"
# "You Probably Couldn't See for the Lights But You Were Staring Straight at Me"
# "Still Take You Home"
# "Riot Van"
# "Red Light Indicates Doors Are Secured"
# "Mardy Bum"
# "Perhaps Vampires Is a Bit Strong But..."
# "When the Sun Goes Down"
# "From the Ritz to the Rubble"
# "A Certain Romance"

Song infobox
Name = The View from The Afternoon


Artist = Arctic Monkeys
Album = Who the Fuck are Arctic Monkeys
Released = April 24, 2006
Misc = Extra tracklisting
Album = Who the Fuck Are Arctic Monkeys?
Type = studio
Tracks =
# "The View from the Afternoon"
# "Cigarette Smoker Fiona"
# "Despair in the Departure Lounge"
# "No Buses"
# "Who the Fuck Are Arctic Monkeys?"

"The View from the Afternoon" is a song by Arctic Monkeys originally released on the band's first album "Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not" in January 2006. It was also the lead track on the "Who the Fuck are Arctic Monkeys" EP. This release had an accompanying video.

Themes

The themes of "The View from the Afternoon" are based around observations of behavior on an excursion into local nightlife. In a repeated verse, the singer comments on the expectation that an evening will be enjoyable will likely lead to disappointment. The singer describes various scenes; a group of meretricious females who have rented a limousine for a fancy dress party; a gambler who has won and then lost the jackpot on a fruit machine; text messaging through the lock/unlock function on a Nokia mobile phone; "two for the price of one" drinks promotions, which the singer explicitly blames for the drunkenness of the sender and his predicament.

Composition

Alex Turner: cquote|“This is one of the last songs written for the album. There’s nothing clever, it’s just about anticipating the evening, finding comfort in familiarity and the fact that you know you’re bound to send a daft message or something before the sun comes up. I think I’ve stopped doing that now.” [cite web | url = http://www.nme.com/arcticmonkeys/ownwords | title = Arctic Monkeys - In The Own Words | author = NME | accessdate = 2006-06-04 | date = 01-06 | publisher = IPC MEDIA ]

Music video

The video [ [http://youtube.com/watch?v=BS_QpuDfCoY YouTube - Arctic Monkeys - The View From The Afternoon ] ] is based around a young male in a parka jacket playing the drum part of the song in the middle of a courtyard between blocks of flats. Then, there is a sequence of surreal elements; an Indian schoolgirl walks past wearing plastic devil horns; a running fox; three men are curious about the lone drummer and try to attract his attention while he ignores them; he is fed milk by the schoolgirl and then a brief shot in colour of him washing himself in shallow water; a shot of man in the dark wielding a baseball bat; a brief shot of the moon which then explodes into pieces. Finally the man with the bat comes near to him and is about to strike him, but the audio stops and we see a last shot of the male being showered in what could be rain or the fragments of the moon. The video is shot in black and white. It was filmed near Parkhill flats in the Arctic Monkeys' native city of Sheffield, directed by W.I.Z. for Factory Films. The video is analogous to the Hindu story of Shiva (dancer, drummer and master of creation) and his devoted girl who revitalizes and pays tribute to him by bathing him in milk and honey (viewed by the Hindu religion as sacred) and his battle against those who wish to destroy all that is good.

Trivia

The lyric "you can never beat the bandit, no" refers to the same fruit machine that the Reverend and the Makers sing about on the song Bandits. Both of them describe losing out to the fruit machine.

References