Finding It So Hard To Stay In Tune

Dumb Dumb Dumb by Teenage Fanclub originally closed side 1 of Howdy!, their seventh album released in October 2000 and was subsequently released as a single in April 2001.

Whilst the album got to #33 and lead single I Need Direction peaked at #48 in the UK, Dumb Dumb Dumb doesn't appear to have troubled the singles charts at all. Which is a shame as it's got all of the classic TFC elements and deserved better. Maybe it was just too nice: lairy Bicester pop punkers Crackout released a single called You Dumb Fuck six months later, but that at least managed a week at #87...

Dumb Dumb Dumb is not Teenage Fanclub's - or Norman Blake's - finest three minutes perhaps, but it's good enough for me. Especially on a sodden Tuesday morning in July, where this part of the world seems to have forgotten it's summer.

 

It's been playing on my mind
I don't want to waste your time
And the thought of you is tearing me apart

Had a name but now that's gone
I don't know where I went wrong
Now I'm all alone and drifting in the dark

Take me back to what I know
Cos I don't know where to go
And I'm finding it so hard to stay in tune

But it's hard to comprehend
Getting closer to the end
And I hope that I'll be feeling better soon

Now I'm just a fading light
But I want to feel alright
And I hope that you can help me through the days

And I find it hard to sleep
Cos I sold myself so cheap
Do you think about me when I go away