Behind the Songs: Mr. Jones

A selection of quotes from The Psychedelic Furs on the song "Mr. Jones".

Duncan Kilburn: "[Talk Talk Talk] didn't come easily, but it did come naturally. The first one took two years to write. Talk Talk Talk we wrote in less than three months, with the exception of 'Mr. Jones' and 'So Run Down', both of which had been around for a while." (Hot Press 1981)

Tim Butler: "The only song we ever wrote specifically as a single. The Ian Taylor-produced version was released a few months before we recorded Talk Talk Talk. Re-recorded with Steve Lillywhite, this album version is infinitely better." (Should God Forget liner notes, 1997)

Interviewer: "I imagine during a song like 'Mr. Jones,' it's fun for you to watch some in the audience mentally buckling their seatbelts... it's hardly a Human League concert."

Tim Butler: "(Laughs) Some people who haven't seen us before, perhaps they come to the show because of the name — sometimes I think they expect a 'laid-back' performance.  But we are a hard-rocking band, and I think many people who see us once are pleasantly surprised, and come back over and over again." (Intermittent Signals 2011)

Roger Morris: "John [Ashton] played most of the lead parts and I played mostly rhythm. Although this was not a set-in-stone formula. Sometimes there was a call-and-answer pattern going on, as in 'Mr. Jones'. Usually these ideas were worked out during band rehearsals." (Uncut 2018)

Interviewer: "One of your Talk Talk Talk songs I've always been intrigued by is 'Mr. Jones,' which has followed you around - you've been playing it in concert for a while. Could you tell me where the title 'Mr. Jones' came from?"

Richard Butler: "Well, I'm a huge Bob Dylan fan and I'm a huge David Bowie fan, and so it was on the tip of my tongue because Bob Dylan mentions Mr. Jones in 'Ballad Of A Thin Man,' and David Bowie's name is David Jones really.

"But it came to be a peculiar thing, like an everyman, like 'Mr. Smith.' It's just one of those really common names that I took to be an everyman."

Interviewer: "There are some lines in there about movie stars, ads, media. Can you talk about what you're getting at with that?"

Richard Butler: "Yeah. It's basically saying that advertising and radio and pop songs sell you an idea of what love is and what it should be like, and it's largely idealized and very difficult to realize in the real world. It was a criticism of that really. Movie stars and ads define romance, don't they?" (Songfacts 2020)