Down in the Tube Station at Midnight

Originally, Paul Weller had wanted to exclude the song from the All Mod Cons album,^[2] on the grounds that the arrangement had not sufficiently developed during the recording sessions.^[3] He was persuaded to include it by the record's producer Vic Coppersmith-Heaven.^[3][4] The song was recorded on 7 August 1978 at RAK Studios in London together with "Mr. Clean", "In The Crowd" and "The Place I Love", all of which also appeared on All Mod Cons.^[5]

The song tells the story of an unnamed narrator travelling on his own who enters a London Underground tube station at midnight to get the last train home, where he is attacked by a gang of men who 'smell like pubs, and Wormwood Scrubs, and too many right-wing meetings' as he buys a ticket from an automated machine.^[6] The song starts with the atmospheric sounds of a London Underground station, then a tense, syncopated beat carried by the bass guitar. The lyrics are sentimental, contrasting the warmth of home and domestic life with the dangers of 1970s London's urban decay and casual late-night violence. Tension is heightened by a heartbeat audio effect in the left stereo channel at points during the song.^[7]

The sound of an Underground train at the beginning and end of the song was recorded at St John's Wood Station.^[6]

The front cover photograph was taken at Bond Street tube station, on the westbound Central line. On the back cover was a portrait photograph of Keith Moon who had died a month prior to the single's release.^[8] The Who's "So Sad About Us" was included as a tribute to Moon.^[9]