Album: Sweets From a Stranger
Year: 1982
. . .
Clearly, after Squeeze’ minor splash with the Paul Carrack-sung “Tempted,” they figured that they’d venture into blue-eyed soul again. But this time, with Paul Carrack one-and-done on the keyboard front, and that meddling Elvis Costello not their producer this time around, Chris Difford would be singing.
And so we got “Black Coffee in Bed,” which Glenn Tilbrook sang the absolute fuck out of, without ever once pretending to be a soul singer.
“Black Coffee in Bed” opens with an organ lick by new keyboardist Don Snow, which is then echoed by Tilbrook’s guitar, and the rest of the band comes in — a little bit slowly, according to both Tilbrook and Chris Difford, who was inspired to write the song by an actual coffee stain on his notebook, and ended up telling a story of what happened next to the protagonist of “Tempted.”
There’s a stain on my notebook where your coffee cup was
And there’s ash in the pages, now I’ve got myself lost
I was writing to tell you that my feelings tonight
Are a stain on my notebook that rings your goodbye
Where “Black Coffee in Bed” really cooks is the long melody of the chorus, which unfolds gorgeously every single time.
Oh, now she’s gone
And I’m back on the beat
A stain on my notebook
Says nothing to me
Oh, now she’s gone
And I’m out with a friend
(Out with a frrrrrrrrrriend)
With lips full of passion
(Oooooooooooooooooh)
And coffee in bed
And while Gilson Lavis’s builds in the chorus are definitely part of that unfolding, what really makes the chorus are the backing vocals, consisting of that meddling Elvis Costello and Paul Young, who would eventually join Paul Carrack in Mike & The Mechanics because the U.K is a tiny island and there are only so many fauxl singers there, but at the time hadn’t yet recorded his first album, but was clearly already a known quantity. Anyways, I really do kinda love how Costello is a bit flat on “out with a frrrrrrrriend” and it’s a hook rather than an irritant.
From the moment they chime in with “out with a frrrrrieeeennnd”, it’s just fantastic, topped by the “ooooooooooooooh” (over a Lavis build) just before Difford plaintively sings. “and coffeeeeeeeee innnnnnn bed”.
After that, Costello and Young are all over the song — responding to a line here, adding “ooh oohs” there, or repeating the title at the end — they totally make it utterly gripping, like on the second verse.
With the way that you left me, I can hardly contain
(Hardly contain)
The hurt and the anger and the joy of the pain
(Joy of the pain)
Now knowing I’m single, there’ll be fire in my eyes
(Fire in my eyes)
And a stain on my notebook for a new love tonight
(New love tonight)
I’ve loved the optimism of “there’ll be fire in my eyes,” because that’s how it goes: you think that getting out there is going to get you over them, but it does and it doesn’t, and I feel like “Black Coffee in Bed” gets all of that. Especially in its album version, where it keeps adding more and more goodies as it unfolds.
First, there’s a stellar Glenn Tilbrook guitar solo, which comes up on of nowhere in between choruses, and then there’s a fantastic bridge, with Costello and Young switching up from “ooh-oohs” to joining in when Tilbrook sings “coffee in bed” the first time.
Oh, from lips without passion to the lips with a kiss
There’s nothing of your love that I’ll ever miss
The stain on my notebook remains all that’s left
Of the memory of late nights and coffee in bed
Of the memory of late nights and coffee in bed
And as Tilbrook sings that last line, the whole band drops out entirely and Tilbrook sings “coffee in bed” acapella, before the rest of the band crashes into the chorus yet again.
In the end, Costello and Young chant variations on “black coffee in bed” while Tilbrook sings the words from the chorus until eventually just giving them the song.
As a follow-up to “Tempted” and “Labelled With Love,” it didn’t do as well on the charts — stalling at #51 on the U.K. charts, while only making it to #26 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Chart — as those songs did. There was also a video played on MTV, but that is a shorter, and much inferior version of the song, which doesn’t even have either the bridge nor the outro I mentioned above. That said, I love it more than “Tempted” and maybe even “Labelled With Love.” Maybe.
“Black Coffee in Bed”
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