The Song:
"'London' was written on the road.  I still remember my brother Rob and I playing it for the first time, at a sound check for Jaggers bar in Pontiac, MI, in early 1987.

Lots of influences from other songs made it into this one.  The main hook for the song, its quarter-note, gated-snare triplets, came from the song 'Be Near Me," by ABC.  The 'La-la- Lon-,' which opened the live version of the song and can be heard on the bridge of this take, was inspired by the decade's early attempts at sampling by bands such as Duran Duran on songs like 'The Reflex.'  Before 'In the Face,' we performed this hook live by sampling the 4-track cassette demo vocals with the Ensoniq Mirage sampling keyboard as a Miller Rock Network sponsorship freebie.

The lyric was meant to pay homage to the heavy influx of trendy, chic British (and European) bands, which were flooding the 'new wave' / 'new music' airwaves in the late 80s, while criticizing MTV and bands in the United States for their lack of imagination.  'London' referred not only to London, England, where Caruso had never played, but also to London, Ontario, where they had.  The line 'England swings, why can't we?' came from the title of a Roger Miller song.  The closing 'dit, dit, did-dit' refrain recalls the ending of The Ramones' 'I Wanna Be Sedated."

(left to right) Mike, Joe, and Dave Caruso