Paul Weller’s best lyrics

6 September 2023, 14:00

Paul Weller in 2015. Picture: Samir Hussein/Redferns via Getty Images

From The Jam to The Style Council to solo, Paul Weller has written some amazing songs and iconic lyrics o go with them. Is your favourite on here?

  1. “Some people might get some pleasure out of hate / Me, I've enough already on my plate”

    Going Underground, 1980

  2. “Are you gonna try to make this work / Or spend your days down in the dirt”

    Walls Come Tumbling Down, 1985

  3. “Stop apologising for the things you've never done / 'Cos time is short and life is cruel”

    Town Called Malice, 1982

  4. “For the bitterest pill is hard to swallow / The love I gave hangs in sad coloured, mocking shadows”

    The Bitterest Pill (I Ever Had To Swallow), 1982

  5. “My hard earned dough goes in bills and the larder / And that Prince Philip tells us we gotta work harder!”

    Just Who Is The 5 O'clock Hero? 1982

  6. “It's not important for you to know my name nor I to know yours / If we communicate for two minutes only it will be enough”

    Start! 1980

  7. “Two lovers kissing amongst the scream of midnight / Two lovers missing the tranquility of solitude”

    That's Entertainment, 1980

  8. “Sup up your beer and collect your fags - there's a row going on down near Slough”

    The Eton Rifles, 1979

  9. “They smelt of pubs and Wormwood Scrubs and too many right wing meetings”

    Down In The Tube Station At Midnight, 1978

  10. “High tide, mid afternoon / People fly by, in the traffic’s boom”

    Wild Wood, 1993

  11. “I’d send you a flower - a sunflower bright / 'Cause you cloud my days messing up my nights”

    Sunflower, 1993

  12. “Numbed by the effect, aware of the muse / Too in touch with myself, I light the fuse”

    The Changingman, 1995

  13. “I don't need a ship to sail in stormy weather / I don't need you to ruffle the feathers of my Peacock Suit”

    Peacock Suit, 1996