Double Trouble

Album: What the World Needs Now… (2015)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This song about relationships arose from an argument between frontman John Lydon and his wife, Nora Forster, over some plumbing. Seems one of their toilets had broken, and they needed it fixed - an issue that can lead to significant domestic disquiet.

    In our interview with Lydon, he explained: "I wanted to accurately portray how a domestic issue can be blown out of all proportion, but it can also be resolved - i.e., we got a plumber in, rather than an analyst."
  • The impetus for this song was a riff that the band's guitarist, Lu Edmonds, came up with. When Lydon heard this "beautiful little angry sort of pattern," he thought of the toilet repair scenario and wrote the lyric to match.
  • Lydon calls this a "happy song" and says that he and his wife laugh when they hear it. "It reminds us just how ridiculous rows can be," he told us. "But oddly enough, they're very important at the time, because you free up your mind of all that debris you might be hanging onto. So the idea in life is to really be as transparent as possible, and to get all that stuff out, and then laugh at how idiotic you sound when you say it."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Philip Cody

Philip CodySongwriter Interviews

A talented lyricist, Philip helped revive Neil Sedaka's career with the words to "Laughter In The Rain" and "Bad Blood."

Rob Thomas of Matchbox Twenty

Rob Thomas of Matchbox TwentySongwriter Interviews

Rob Thomas on his Social Distance Sessions, co-starring with a camel, and his friendship with Carlos Santana.

Mike Scott of The Waterboys

Mike Scott of The WaterboysSongwriter Interviews

The stories behind "Whole Of The Moon" and "Red Army Blues," and why rock music has "outlived its era of innovation."

Metallica

MetallicaFact or Fiction

Beef with Bon Jovi? An unfortunate Spandex period? See if you can spot the true stories in this Metallica version of Fact or Fiction.

Dwight Twilley

Dwight TwilleySongwriter Interviews

Since his debut single "I'm On Fire" in 1975, Dwight has been providing Spinal-Tap moments and misadventure.

Leslie West of Mountain

Leslie West of MountainSongwriter Interviews

From the cowbell on "Mississippi Queen" to recording with The Who when they got the wrong Felix, stories from one of rock's master craftsmen.