Watching Glenn Tilbrook

It was by luck — sheer luck — that I caught 90 minutes of Glenn Tilbrook on VH-1 Classic. It is sheer luck that VH-1 Classic replays all its programs three or four times in a 24-hour period. The stars were clearly aligned this week for the nation's No. 1 Squeeze fan.

In the 1980s, when I was a teenager, in high school, they were my band. The band that I stumbled upon watching MTV videos, as they weren't really getting lots of airplay on KWTO/Rock 99 in Springfield, MO. They had it all — cute guys, witty lyrics, tight musicianship. Why they never hit it big in the U.S.A. is beyond me; they were so much better than much of what was played on hit radio. But — let's face it — success would have ruined them for me. In the long run, it's probably better that they had that sort of fringe, fleeting fame; people knew who they were, could name a song or two, even if it was the one — the only one — sung by Paul Carrack. And that was that.

But I loved them. I played my cassette of Singles over and over. I bought everything I could find, including a now rare 10-inch EP. I remember watching their final performance on Saturday Night Live, with my older brother. I remember hearing the announcement they were getting back together in 1985. They were part of the music scene that grabbed me during high school and college — that group encompassing the likes of Nick Lowe, Dave Edmunds, Elvis Costello, Graham Parker.

Mostly I remember the music. Pop music, no statements, no political agenda, Just music. I saw them, re-formed, in St. Louis in 1987 or '88, opening with "Pulling Mussels." Then, much later, we caught them while on vacation in San Francisco, at the Fillmore no less — just Difford and Tilbrook, with another guitarist, but billed as Squeeze. It was an amazing show, near the top of the live performances I've seen in my life (but not above Alex Chilton, who played a song just for me — we'll save that story for another time ...)

And now, the man that rocked the Fillmore is reduced to a VH-1 special where he appears to be singing "Is that Love?" for someone's family reunion and has jumped into the back of a van in Boston to play "Goodbye Girl." Hmmm.

But no matter — not to me. I know that life for a former pop semi-star can be tough and you've got to do what you can. To be artistic. To pay the bills.

The real fans know him as he once was. And the music lives on.