Glad Times

Album: Fat Pop (Volume 1) (2021)
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Songfacts®:

  • Paul Weller married backing singer Hannah Andrews in 2010. They have three children: twins John Paul and Bowie (born in 2012) and a daughter, Nova (born in 2017). This stately song is about the nitty-gritty of a long-term relationship, when it's so easy to pass each other.

    We go for days without a word
    Without a kiss
    Both looking for something that we missed


    Weller told Mojo: "It's about that thing that happens to a lot of couples, especially with kids. You just miss each other. Everyone's walking around the kitchen, doing different things and you... don't notice each other."
  • I thought I'd lost you for a while
    Couldn't find you in a crowd
    Hey baby, where you been?
    I get so lonely waiting for you
    Thought you didn't love me anymore


    During these periods of passing each other by, insecurity plagues Weller. He told Mojo: "You wonder, 'Are you still in love? Is it still working?' Because everything is so practical you need to work hard to see what you loved about that person."
  • Weller wrote the song with Anth Brown and Mojo writer Tom Doyle. The two sent Weller the backing track a while before he recorded Fat Pop; it nearly made it onto his 2020 album On Sunset but didn't quite fit.
  • Anth Brown and Tom Doyle recruited Dundee multi-instrumentalist Paul "Lefty" Wright to play his sitar on the track.
  • Weller also wrote about his relationship with Hannah on another Fat Pop track, "Failed." That one finds him reflecting on his shortcomings after a blazing row.

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