Come Home

Album: Gold Mother (1989)
Charted: 32
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Songfacts®:

  • James frontman Tim Booth wrote "Come Home" about walking away from his partner and son not knowing if he'd done the right thing.

    He explained to the BBC that the mother of his first child was also James' manager and she would send them on tour for months at a time. The singer added: "I felt so bad about being away from my son in particular and I felt a lot of guilt and shame."
  • The song was first released by Rough Trade on November 20, 1989, but received little attention and led to James parting ways with the label. A successful winter tour in 1989 earned the group a deal with Fontana Records just as the 'Madchester' movement of Manchester-based bands such as Happy Mondays and Stone Roses was taking off. This focused public attention on James and when they earned their first Top 40 hit with "How Was It for You" Fontana re-released "Come Home" in June 1990 in a version remixed by Flood. This time it reached #32 in the UK singles chart.
  • The song was included on James' critically acclaimed 1990 LP Gold Mother, which was placed by NME at #5 in their list of Albums of the Year.
  • In 2018 James recorded a sequel of sorts "Coming Home (Pt 2)," for their Living in Extraordinary Times album.

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