"Sit Down" is a song by English band James, originally released in June 1989 by

Rough Trade Records Rough Trade Records is an independent record label based in London, England. It was formed in 1976 by Geoff Travis, who had opened a record store off Ladbroke Grove. It is currently run by co-managing directors Travis and Jeannette Lee and ...

. In its eight-and-a-half-minute original form, the song reached number 77 on the UK Singles Chart and was ranked number eight in

John Peel John Robert Parker Ravenscroft (30 August 1939 – 25 October 2004), better known as John Peel, was an English radio presenter and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original disc jockeys on BBC Radio 1, broadcasting regularly from ...

Festive Fifty The Festive Fifty was originally an annual list of the year's 50 (though the exact figure varied above and below this number) best songs compiled at the end of the year and voted for by listeners to John Peel's BBC Radio 1 show. It was usually do ...

of that year. After experiencing success as part of the

Madchester Madchester was a musical and cultural scene that emerged in the English city of Manchester during the late 1980s, closely associated with the indie dance movement. Indie dance (also referred to as indie rave) blended indie rock with elements o ...

music scene, a new version was released in March 1991 that was shorter and with new lyrics. Released via

Fontana Records Fontana Records is a record label that started in the 1950s as a subsidiary of the Dutch Philips Records. Fontana Distribution, an independent label distributor, takes its name from the label. History Fontana began in the 1950s as a subsidi ...

, it reached number two on the UK Singles Chart, spending three weeks there. It was the 20th best-selling single of 1991 in the UK. In 2013, the song placed fourth in a poll by

BBC Radio 2 BBC Radio 2 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It is the List of most-listened-to radio programs, most popular station in the United Kingdom with over 14 million weekly listeners. Since launching in 1967, the sta ...

and the

Official Charts Company The Official UK Charts Company Limited (formerly Music Industry Chart Services Limited), trading as the Official Charts Company (OCC) or the Official Charts (formerly the Chart Information Network), is a British inter-professional organisation ...

to find the greatest track to miss out on the number-one spot in the UK charts. In the same year, James performed the song with

Peter Kay Peter John Kay (born 2 July 1973) is an English comedian, actor, writer, and director. Born and raised in Farnworth, Kay studied media performance at the University of Salford and later began working part-time as a stand-up comedian. In 199 ...

for

Comic Relief Comic Relief is a British charity, founded in 1986 by the comedy scriptwriter Richard Curtis and comedian Sir Lenny Henry in response to the 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia. The concept of Comic Relief was to get British comedians to make t ...

. On 30 March 2017 a version of the song was used in the promo of the seventh season of the hit

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

series ''

Game of Thrones ''Game of Thrones'' is an American Fantasy television, fantasy Drama (film and television), drama television series created by David Benioff and for HBO. It is an adaptation of ''A Song of Ice and Fire'', a series of high fantasy novels by ...

''.

Background

The song's lyrics were written in late 1988 as a homage to author

Doris Lessing Doris May Lessing ( Tayler; 22 October 1919 – 17 November 2013) was a British novelist. She was born to British parents in Qajar Iran, Persia, where she lived until 1925. Her family then moved to Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), where ...

and singer

Patti Smith Patricia Lee Smith (born December 30, 1946) is an American singer, songwriter, poet, painter, author, and photographer. Her 1975 debut album '' Horses'' made her an influential member of the New York City-based punk rock movement. Smith has fu ...

, who had inspired James' lead singer

Tim Booth Timothy Booth (born 4 February 1960) is an English singer-songwriter, actor and dancer. He is the lead singer and co-founder of the indie rock band James, and co-wrote several of their hit singles including " Sit Down", " Come Home", and " La ...

. Booth told the '' Daily Record'' in June 2004: "Sit Down is about me feeling so alone in my 20s and reading books by a writer called Doris Lessing which made me realise I wasn't. It was about being awake at 4am and having no-one to talk to." In a 2014 interview with Dave Simpson of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' on the effect of the song, James guitarist

Larry Gott James Lawrence "Larry" Gott (born 24 July 1957, Manchester) is an English musician, formerly of the band James, originating from Manchester. He is also a designer. Music Within the band Gott mainly played guitar and provided backing vocals, b ...

stated, "Sit Down is one of those songs that encourages people to put their arms around strangers. As soon as we launch into the opening bars, they start smiling. Then they turn to someone next to them or their girlfriend or boyfriend and hug them, and then they start singing every single word. As a musician, that's incredibly humbling." The original cover depicts an image of the former

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies in a loop on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea, London, Chelsea ...

goalkeeper Tony Macedo.

Music videos

The music video for the original 1989 Rough Trade release was directed by Ed Barton. It features Booth wearing a

kaftan A kaftan or caftan (; , ; , ; ) is a variant of the robe or tunic. Originating in Asia, it has been worn by a number of cultures around the world for thousands of years. In Russian usage, ''kaftan'' instead refers to a style of men's long suit ...

, against a white background, with the band performing the song. At one stage Booth hugs a sheep. The video was banned for two weeks by the Musicians Union as Jim Glennie took the role of a drummer, which the union felt displaced a professional musician. Another video was made for the 1991 re-release, which featured the band performing the song in front of a live audience.

Track listings

1989 original release

# "Sit Down" (7-inch and 8:31 extended version on 12-inch) # "Goin' Away" (12-inch and CD) # "Sound Investment" (12-inch and CD) # "Sky Is Falling" (7-inch, 12-inch and CD)

1991 release

# "Sit Down" (new version) (7-inch, 12-inch and CD) # "Tonight" (12-inch and CD) # "Sunday Morning" (Canadian CD) # "Sit Down" (live at G-Mex) (7-inch, 12-inch and CD)

"Sit Down '98"

* CD1 # "Sit Down '98" (Apollo 440 remix) # "Sit Down" (original) # " China Girl" (Radio One Iggy Pop tribute) * CD2 # "Sit Down '98" (Apollo 440 remix) # "What For" (Glr Session) # "Sit Down" (Glr Session)

Charts

Weekly charts

"Sit Down" "Sit Down '98"

Year-end charts

"Sit Down" "Sit Down '98"

Certifications

Release history

In popular culture

On 4 June 2017,

Coldplay Coldplay are a British Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1997. They consist of vocalist and pianist Chris Martin, guitarist Jonny Buckland, bassist Guy Berryman, drummer and percussionist Will Champion, and manager Phil Harvey (band m ...

performed "Sit Down" at the One Love Manchester benefit concert for the victims of the

Manchester Arena bombing The Manchester Arena bombing, or Manchester Arena attack, was an Islamic terrorism in Europe, Islamic terrorist suicide bombing of Manchester Arena in Manchester, England, on 22 May 2017, following Dangerous Woman Tour, a concert by the Americ ...

, before performing their song "

Fix You "Fix You" is a song by British rock band Coldplay. It was written by all four members of the band for their third studio album, '' X&Y'' (2005). It was released on 5 September 2005 as the second single from ''X&Y'' and reached number 4 on the ...

". Fans of

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

club

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

rewrote the lyrics of this song in 2018 as a new terrace chant for 2017–18

Premier League Golden Boot The Premier League Golden Boot is an annual association football award presented to the leading goalscorer in the Premier League. For sponsorship purposes, it was called the Carling Golden Boot from 1994 to 2001, the Barclaycard Golden Boot from ...

winner

Mohamed Salah Mohamed Salah Hamed Mahrous Ghaly (, ; born 15 June 1992), also known as Mo Salah, is an Egyptian professional Association football, footballer who plays as a right winger or Forward (association football), forward for club Liverpool F.C., L ...

. Booth thought the version was witty and welcomed its use for Salah.

References

External links

James revisit "Sit Down"
– on '' Later... with Jools Holland'', 5 June 2018
"Sit Down"
at One of the Three

at One of the Three {{Authority control 1989 songs 1989 singles 1991 singles 1998 singles James (band) songs Fontana Records singles Rough Trade Records singles Song recordings produced by Gil Norton Song recordings produced by Steve Power