Thursday 11 November 2021

The Stranglers - 2.01 - I feel like a wog


The Stranglers released their second album in September 1977, only five months after "Rattus Norvegicus". Nobody can accuse them of wasting time. Critics consider "No more heroes" to be their best album. They say that it's a pure punk album, not mixed with rock music like their first album. I understand the critics, but I still prefer "Rattus Norvegicus". It's slightly better, in my opinion, but only slightly. The three first albums recorded by the Stranglers are all masterpieces.

The album "No more heroes" creates a dilemma for me. It contains a lot of bad language in the lyrics, including words that I've never used in my blog. They're also words that never pass my lips. The last time that I uttered a swear word was in my first year of senior school. I visited the Walsall Swimming Baths and saw something written on the wall. I repeated it when I went home, and my mother punished me by washing my mouth out with soap. I'm thankful to her. I've never repeated this word since.

But now this word, and others like it, are in the song texts of this album. I can accept the texts as art when I hear them, but I feel uncomfortable about repeating them in my blog. What would my mother say if she could read it? Should I censor the texts? No, that would spoil them. The only thing I can do is put a disclaimer at the beginning of my posts.



I feel like a wog

I feel like a wog,
People giving me the eyes,
But I was born here just like you.
I feel like a wog,
Got all the dirt shitty jobs,
But everybody's got to have something to do with their time.

I feel like a wog,
I don't wanna go home,
I've got a lot of life to run through.
I feel like a wog,
I don't mean you no harm,
Just don't ask me to shine your shoes.

Golly gee! Golly gosh!
Don't call me your Golly Wog.
Golly gee! Golly gosh!
Don't call me your Golly Wog.

Let me tell you about Pimpo.
We met him down at the After Eight.
He wanted to sell us some limbo,
But we said "Mister,
You've just got to wait,
You've got to wait,
You've got to wait,
You've got to wait".

He wanted to take us down to Sao Paulo,
But we said "Mister,
We ain't got no bread".
I tried to make him laugh,
But he didn't get the joke,
And then he said I wasn't right in the head.
And then he made me,
And then he made me,
And then he made me,
And then he made me feel,
And then he made me feel like,
And then he made me feel like,
And then he made me feel like,
You know I feel like,
You know I feel like,
You know I feel like,
You know I feel like a wog.

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