THE 7″ LUCKY DIP (35) : The Style Council – The Boy Who Cried Wolf

Quite a number of years ago, 2015/16 to be precise, I pulled together a series on all the singles released by The Style Council.  As always with these things, it was the singles released in the UK which were featured, meaning that this one was missed out.

The stomping Walls Come Tumbling Down was selected, in May 1985, as the advance single for band’s second album, Our Favourite Shop. It was a hit, reaching #6, and giving the band its eighth successive Top 20 appearance, with six of those being Top 10.  The selection of the politically cynical song, Come To Milton Keynes, as the next single was, on reflection, a bit of a mistake as it stalled at #23, and was therefore something of a flop all things considered.

It was very much a UK release, with the markets in mainland Europe, Japan, the USA, Australia and New Zealand being exposed to a different song altogether from the album:-

mp3: The Style Council – Boy Who Cried Wolf

I’ve mentioned before that this one always reminds me of the break-up of what I felt was a serious relationship in the later years of my student days.  An upbeat and uplifting tune which masks a very sad and sentimental lyric, packed with regret and more than an element of self-loathing.  It could have been subtitled ‘All Men Are Bastards’.  It’s a break-up song which is the complete opposite of The Bitterest Pill, an earlier composition from Paul Weller and one of the most underrated singles released by The Jam, as its narrative came from being blameless for a relationship coming to an end.

I picked up this 7″ in a charity shop a few years ago.  It was issued by Polydor Records for the Dutch market.

Its b-side was the same previously unreleased song as had been found on the b-side of Come To Milton Keynes:-

mp3: The Style Council – (When You) Call Me

A rather lovely romantic number, almost perfect for daytime radio, that might well have made a fine single of its own,

JC

PS : The mp3s that should have been included in yesterday’s post on The Fall, but weren’t properly linked, have now been sorted.  Apologies for the technical mishap.