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"Just Who Is the 5 O'Clock Hero?" is a song and single released by The Jam on 3rd July 1982, it features on their sixth studio album The Gift. Contrary to popular misconception the single was not released as a single in Britain but was a Dutch import, despite this it still made the #8 in the UK singles chart on June 11th 1982, The Jam has performed a similar feat the previous year with That's Entertainment. The single came with two B-sides a version of War and an original Weller B-side The Great Depression.
[edit] The Song
The song addresses those in day-to-day, 9-to-5 jobs as a nameless factory worker returns home to his wife wanting nothing but to sit in the front room and watch television and before he has to go back to the 'lunch box and the worker/management rows', while in the choruses focuses on the character having lived in the same street for years and highlights the futility of his life ('and as one life finishes the other one starts') before the character wishes that there has to be more to life than 'scrimping and saving and crossing off lists'. According to interviews with Weller (and the booklet accompanying the Direction Reaction Creation box-set) the point was not to point fun at or criticize the character (such as Mr. Clean on All Mod Cons) but rather to bring attention to them and highlight them as 'real heroes of Britain' the song was conceived at the height of The Jam's fame when Weller was very uncomfortable with being a 'hero' himself.
[edit] Sources
- Direction Reaction Creation box-set released May 26, 1997 by Polydor Records
