Working on the Counter Space exhibition, particularly in relation to the third section, Kitchen Sink Dramas, reminded me of an obscure British pop song of thirty years ago. The singer-songwriter Jona Lewie was one of a series of odd, humorous post-punk acts brought on by the Stiff Records label in the late 1970s, along with groups like Madness, Ian Dury and the Blockheads, and Elvis Costello and the Attractions. You don’t have to identify with the music to recognize what Jona Lewie is talking about—the way we often gravitate at parties towards the reassuring, familiar space of the kitchen, and linger there.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTns_N9NcMg[/youtube]

You’ll Always Find Me in the Kitchen at Parties
Jona Lewie
Recorded on Stiff Records, UK (1980)

I’m no good at chatting up and I always get rebuffed.
Enough to drive a man to drink I don’t do no washing up
I always leave the stuff piled up
a-piled up in the sink

But you will always find him in the kitchen at parties.

Me and my girlfriend we argued and she ran away from home
She must have found somebody new and now I’m all alone

Living in my own
What am I supposed to do?

That’s why always find him in kitchen at parties
You will always find him in the kitchen at parties
You will always find him in the kitchen at parties

Then I met this debutante I said I like new wave rock.
She was into French cuisine but I ain’t no cordon bleu
This was at some do in Palmers Green
I had no luck with her

You will still find him in kitchen at parties
You will still find him in kitchen at parties

At last I met a pretty girl she laughed and talked with me
We both walked out of the kitchen and danced in a new way

And now I’ve done my time in the kitchen at parties
I’ve done my time in the kitchen at parties

He’s done his time in the kitchen at parties
He’s done his time in the kitchen at parties