When the Sun Goes Down Arctic Monkeys meaning

Arctic Monkeys – When the Sun Goes Down – Music Video Analysis from benpainter221

"When the Sun Goes Down" is a song by English indie rock band Arctic Monkeys. It was released on 16 January 2006 as the second single from their debut studio album, Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not (2006). It followed debut single "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor" to number one on the UK Singles Chart.

The song is about prostitution in the Neepsend district of Sheffield. Originally known as "Scummy", early reports had also suggested its name would be simply "Sun Goes Down", but the full name was confirmed on Arctic Monkeys' website.

Content[edit]

The song's lyrics tell a story narrated from the point of view of a concerned individual who is approached by a scantily-clad girl, heavily implied to be a prostitute; he then observes a "scummy man" who has been hanging around the neighbourhood; the man is implied to be either the prostitute's pimp or a 'client' who is picking her up for sex. This section of the song musically consists of just vocalist Alex Turner singing accompanied by a pattern of electric guitar chords with a conspicuously clean tone. After the line "I said he's a scumbag don't you know" the song then changes drastically into a heavy rock style with a fast beat and driving guitar riff which is also played identically on the bass guitar. In the song's lyrics, now delivered a lot more venomously, the prostitute propositions the song's narrator and he turns her down politely; he then observes the "scummy man" arriving to pick her up in a Ford Mondeo. The girl is "delighted when she sees him" because "she must be fucking freezing, scantily clad beneath the clear night sky".

The song's chorus consists of the repeated line "they said it changes when the sun goes down around here", noting the stark difference between the appearance of the city at daytime and the dark prostitution trade the narrator observes at night. After the second refrain of the chorus, the song reverts to the style of the introduction. The last line, "I hope you're not involved at all", is either the narrator expressing his disappointment that the girl has turned to prostitution or a warning to the person to whom the narrator is telling the story, who also may be involved with the scummy man – or the listener themselves.

The line "and he told Roxanne to put on her red light" is a reference to The Police song "Roxanne", which is also about prostitution.

Music video[edit]

The song's music video was directed by Paul Fraser and premiered on MTV2 on 21 December 2005. It starred Lauren Socha and Stephen Graham. The video used footage from a longer film, Scummy Man, which used the same actors who appeared in the music video to tell the story of 'Nina', the nameless "that girl there" from the song.

One of the band's earliest singles delved into the bleaker side of Sheffield life - and featured Line Of Duty star Stephen Graham in the video...

Arctic Monkeys released their When the Sun Goes Down single on 16 January 2006.

The second cut to be taken from the band's debut album - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not - When The Sun goes Down told the dark tale of prostitution in the Neepsend area of Sheffield.

Watch the Paul Fraser directed video, which starred Lauren Socha (Misfits) and Stephen Graham (This Is England and Line Of Duty) here.

If the promo isn't enough to make you feel depressed, then Scummy Man (the longer film it was taken from) definitely will.

Like the song, which is also known as Scummy Man, it tells the dismal story of a prostitute (Nina) and what appears to be her unscrupulous pimp.

Told from the perspective of a concerned narrator, we're given a snapshot of the young woman's life as he wonders what set of circumstances led to her unfortunate position".

"So who's that girl there?/ I wonder what went wrong/ So that she had to roam the streets/ She don't do major credit cards/I doubt she does receipts"

Alex Turner doesn't stop there though, conjuring up images of the life of the opportunistic "scumbag" beside her who forces her out onto the streets, leaving her at risk to sexually transmitted diseases and probable acts of violence.

Despite the shocking lyrics, Turner didn't have to dig as deep into his imagination for them as you might think.

Like much of Arctic Monkeys debut album, the frontman evoked the sights and sounds of his surroundings, and it is said the band would witness similar sights near their rehearsal rooms in Neepsend.

The refrain: "They said it changes when the sun goes down," perfectly encapsulates how areas can completely transform at night, forcing you to see another side to the city.

Talking to NME, Turner said of the area."You’d see a bloke with a carrier bag or summat and it’s like, ‘What the f*** is he doing here at this time of the night?’ Or you’d be packing your guitars away and somebody’d walk past and be like, ‘How much is one of them worth?"

Though he may have never met a "Scummy Man," as frightening as Stephen Graham's character, you can easily see how the real-life people he encountered may have been transformed into the frightful pimp we witness in their video.

When The Sun Goes Down might have been fictional, but it's clear the lyrics came from a very real place and captured the reality of some of the poverty-stricken desperation he witnessed in that area of the South Yorkshire city.

While it's hard to say for certain whether it's Alex Turner's most dark and depressing track, it's undoubtedly one of the band's most raw and honest.

Whether or not the frontman thinks much of the song now compared to his later works, we're just glad he never sold that guitar.

Now Stephen Graham is a household name - and he appeared late last year in the video to Sam Fender's moving song Spit Of You.

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