How Getdown Services provided Britain with its best lyric in years on ‘Get Back Jamie’
Jamie Oliver has become a bit of a taunted musical figure as of late. Yes, you may have seen CMAT dragging his name through the mud on one of the countless big stages she has played recently, but let me make it clear, she didn’t start this trend. It was Getdown Services.
The turkey-twizzling crusader is indeed an easy target for not only art but any critical diatribe of modern living. His toe-curling enthusiasm, combined with an overzealous use of euphemisms, has isolated a modern audience. An audience more in tune with the genuinely desperate state of society, not distracted from it by the apparently charming use of the word “pukka”.
Of course, his push to move Britain into a more health-conscious and self-sufficient landscape was a noble quest indeed. And realistically, my life has probably been subconsciously informed by his one-pot and 15-minute meals. Thanks, Jamie.
But the genuine ludicrousness of the idea that it’s Jamie Oliver who has directed the consumption habits of our country was only made apparent to me by what has to be my favourite band in the world. Getdown Services’ ‘Get Back Jamie’ was a simple, honest rebuttal to the idea that lives spent at arm’s length from the microwave were wasted.
Or, as lead singer Josh Law more eloquently put, “The angle of the show [Jamie’s 15 Minute Meals] is that no one has any time or money to prepare nice food anymore and for some reason millionaire campervan twat, Jamie Oliver is going to help us with that.”
But when you take a step back and listen to the song’s lyrics, the wider message at play becomes increasingly clear. And if you’re going to dive headfirst into the discography of Getdown Services, then it’s worth knowing that underneath what seems flippant humour is genuinely poignant and heartfelt musings on the emotional limbo of modern life.
Because, while Jamie Oliver is the easy face of their critique, the song is about so much more than a floppy-haired chef. It’s about this constant state of hopeful ideas that get rammed down our throats as fitting alternatives to the everyday struggle, which ultimately is the pattern of systemic hustle that seems to relentlessly beat on. An idea beautifully summed up in the bridge of ‘Get Back Jamie’, which, to me, remains my favourite lyrical verse of the past five years.
“If time’s money and money talks / My watch is chatting shit when it says get back to work / Quarter of an hour barely enough time to get the bread stacked / Earn a few extra quid / I put the clocks back”.
It’s comedy and tragedy in equal parts, bottling up that sense of humour that we so faithfully rely on to pull us through in times of despair. Because in the vacuum of social media influences, get-rich-quick schemes and science bros, it’s easy to forget that for most of us, the genuine reality of life is taking solace in the brief moments of rest we are given. And if a microwave meal gives 75% of our well-needed break back to us, then so be it, Jamie.
