The Peel Session version of this track has already been covered here and I’m including the studio version for reasons of completeness on the metaphorical mixtape. The bookending of the song with a clip from The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show with Linus rebuffing the advances of an obliviously smitten, Sally Brown and a short playlet in which a tongue-tied young man attempts to express his love towards a girl are of a piece with Hopscorch’s themes of moving from an unsatisfying relationship to pastures new with someone else and the traducing of love and relationships to a game in which we can jump from one prospective partner to another as though playing the game from which Hopscorch derives its title. Until we reach emotional maturity - and that varies from person to person - love remains a childhood game in which people can be replaced on a moment’s notice if someone else’s face fits better.
There remains some disagreement over the spelling of the track title. On the sleeve of Our Troubled Youth, Discogs list it as Hopscotch, but the Peel Session called it Hopscorch and Chris Rowley is clearly singing “…scorch” on the second beat of the word. Huggy Bear were also notable for their Slade-like misspelling of song titles such as Carnt Kiss, so with that in mind, I will stick with Hopscorch.
Though I see Wikipedia spell it Hopscortch. Oh bugger….
Video courtesy of smallerdrums.
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