Whenever I'm asked if I believe in UFO's, my usual response is along the lines of there being two propositions at stake; either there is life on other planets or else we are the only living entities in the entire universe. One of these statements must be true and, as both are equally staggering concepts to comprehend, it doesn't matter which. Which reasoning brings me to 'Get Down'. There are two propositions at stake here too; either it's a song recounting how O'Sullivan doesn't like his dog jumping up on him or else he's using 'dog' as a term of endearment for his lover. Both of these are equally fantastic.Or rather the former is - after describing a night babysitting in 'Clair', it would appear that O'Sullivan is dead set on obsessively compulsively documenting the minutiae of his life like some proto Tweeter - does he truly think world needs to know about his dogs antics? No wonder then that his next single was all about him trying to decide between milk or plain chocolate biscuits at the local supermarket.* If, however, the latter proposition is in fact true then it's not fantastic at all. Just very wrong.
But whatever - 'Get Down' is a rockier affair than previous (that's Chris Spedding and Herbie Flowers on guitars), a tougher Chas and Dave knees-up that bounces with purpose despite O'Sullivan's trademark flat vocal trying to keep it earthbound. Yet as fun as the tune is, I keep coming back to those lyrics; no matter what interpretation you adopt, they still come across like a hastily improvised guide vocal for a tune he forgot to write 'proper' words for. More than that, the 'Once upon a time I drank a little wine' middle eight suddenly appears as if it wandered in from a different song altogether. All very strange. 'Get Down' is light hearted and jolly enough if playing in the background, but look too closely and you'll end up wondering just what the hell it is you're listening to.
* This is not in fact true.
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