Magazine: A Song From Under the Floorboards
On February 8, 1980 Magazine released "A Song From Under the Floorboards", a single that didn't cause a ripple in the UK charts despite its status today as a post-punk classic. Inspired by the Dostoevsky novella Notes from (the) Underground, the rambling rantings of a retired civil servant in 9th-century Russia, the literary-minded Howard Devoto's song opens with the memorable lines "I am angry, I am ill and I'm as ugly as sin, my irritability keeps me alive and kicking" while Barry Adamson's bass dances along.
Smash Hits' David Hepworth was unimpressed writing "Magazine out to face the fact that a million neat ideas don't make up for the lack of one really string one. "A Song From Under The Floorboards" sparkles with good lines--the title being one of them - but doesn't really have a core and I've forgotten it already."
The first single from The Correct Use of Soap has since become one of the band's best remembered songs. Morrissey was a Magazine devotee and eventually covered " A Song From Under the Floorboards" in 2006.
The B-side scares my cat.
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