Two Fingers

Album: Jake Bugg (2012)
Charted: 28
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Jake Edwin Kennedy is an English singer songwriter who records under the name of Jake Bugg. He grew up in the Clifton area of Nottingham and started playing guitar at the age of 12. Five years later, Bugg was signed by Mercury Records after being chosen by the BBC to appear on their "Introducing" stage at the 2011 Glastonbury Festival. This song finds him singing of scheming and growing up on the streets of Clifton.
  • Bugg's eponymous debut album has a vintage sound to it. He told The Sun that it was his original demo version that was used. "It was recorded as a demo," Bugg explained. " I wanted to go back in to the studio and perfect it. But the label were like, 'This demo sounds great so let's put it out like this.' I trusted the label and I was really happy with it in the end."
  • This song was Bugg's first to enter the UK top 75 singles chart.
  • Jake Bugg's eponymous album debuted at #1 on the UK chart. At just short of 19 years old, he became the youngest British male ever to have an album enter the charts at top position. The youngest artist ever to have a #1 British album was Neil Reid who was 12 years old when his self-titled LP climbed to the summit in 1972.
  • The "two-fingered salute" in which the index and middle fingers are put up at or to another person with the palm outward, is an obscene gesture of scorn or defiance. Its use as an insulting sign is largely restricted to the UK, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand. Legend has it that the gesture originated at the 1415 Battle of Agincourt during the Hundred Years' War. The French, certain of victory, had threatened to cut off the bow-fingers of all the English archers. When the English were victorious, the archers held up their fingers in 'defiance.' However, most experts consider the insulting sign to be of unknown origin.
  • Jake Bugg's parents separated when he was a child. He admitted to the Daily Telegraph that it wasn't quite the broken home that features in this song's video, "but it's not far off."
  • The Jamie Thraves directed music video takes place in Clifton, Nottingham, and brings the song's story of domestic abuse to life. English actor Craig Parkinson (Control, Four Lions) plays the abusive boyfriend.
  • Bugg recalled writing the song in a video track-by-track. "It's a very personal song for me, I wanted to express how I felt," he said. "Its a song about growing up and escaping and just life in general. I wanted to put it in the best words possible but also detailed and keeping everyone happy."

Comments: 1

  • Abhishek from Indiagreat song <3
see more comments

Editor's Picks

90s Music Quiz 1

90s Music Quiz 1Music Quiz

First question: Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson appeared in videos for what artist?

Adam Schlesinger of Fountains of Wayne

Adam Schlesinger of Fountains of WayneSongwriter Interviews

The guy who brought us "Stacy's Mom" also wrote the Jane Lynch Emmy song and Stephen Colbert's Christmas songs.

Bob Daisley

Bob DaisleySongwriter Interviews

Bob was the bass player and lyricist for the first two Ozzy Osbourne albums. Here's how he wrote songs like "Crazy Train" and "Mr. Crowley" with Ozzy and Randy Rhoads.

Who Did It First?

Who Did It First?Music Quiz

Do you know who recorded the original versions of these ten hit songs?

Jesus In Pop Hits: The Gospel Songs That Went Mainstream

Jesus In Pop Hits: The Gospel Songs That Went MainstreamSong Writing

These overtly religious songs crossed over to the pop charts, despite resistance from fans, and in many cases, churches.

P.F. Sloan

P.F. SloanSongwriter Interviews

P.F. was a teenager writing hits and playing on tracks for Jan & Dean when he wrote a #1 hit that got him blackballed.