The story of ‘Two Fingers’
Two Fingers was released in 2012 and was the fifth single from Jake Bugg’s self titled debut album. The song was written by Jake and Iain Archer, and was one of the first songs along with ‘Lightning Bolt’ that bought Jake Bugg into the pubic eye.
‘Two Fingers’ is very autobiographical and talks about growing up in Clifton (an area in Jakes home city of Nottingham) and dealing with a number of things, his parents separated when he was young and Jake sometimes struggled to deal with that. ‘Holding two fingers up to yesterday.’ Is his attempt with trying to move on from the bad things he had experienced.
Holding up two fingers is common in Britain, the two fingered salute is used to usually tell someone to ‘piss off’ and in this song Jake uses his two fingers to signify a change for the better. Holding up 'Two Fingers' to the bad things that had happened in his life, as I said previously Jake had a difficult childhood at times, and it was only natural that he would want to move on from that.
'Two Fingers' and the subsequent Self-Titled debut album that followed propelled Jake Bugg to the British public, and the album was well received by both fans and critics. Rightfully so it is a brilliant album. It gave Jake a new life, and he continues to release music today.
He became a stalwart within the world of UK guitar music, Noel Gallagher, Johnny Marr, Michael Kiwanuka all became fans, taking him on tour and even stepping out on stage with him at the Royal Albert Hall.
‘Two Fingers’ is still one of Jake Buggs most popular songs to date and a firm fan favourite. Having seen him live twice, I can easily say this song got the biggest cheer of the night. Although he may have moved on from this type of songwriting. ‘Two Fingers’ was the song that made me fall in love with his songs.