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Old 15-06-2008, 00:15
calais
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I've just watched the Sex Pistols at the Isle of Wight Festival.
The last song they sung was bodies. I didn't get all the lyrics from the performance so I looked them up.

I still don't get that song which is credited to all members of the vicious era SPs.

Can someone please explain the lyrics.
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Old 15-06-2008, 00:49
gazwah
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From what i heard the song was about a crazy female fan who followed them around and sent odd letters to the band. something like that. Maybe she had an abortion and was from birmingham?
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Old 15-06-2008, 10:48
eugenespeed
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I've took it at face value and read it as an anti abortion song.

According to Wikipedia, however, I am wrong:

It is mostly about a fan named Pauline, who was (as the song states) from Birmingham. She had been in a mental institution, where she apparently lived in a tree house, in the garden of the institution. This was where the line 'Her name was Pauline, she lived in a tree' comes from. The institution was also where she had apparently got pregnant from one of the male nurses. When she was released, she travelled to London, where she became a punk rock fan. She had several abortions. According to legend, she showed up once at John Lydon's door wearing nothing but a clear plastic bag and holding an aborted fetus in a clear plastic bag as well.

However, what is known from Lydon's autobiography, is that she would tell Lydon about becoming pregnant and then having abortions and describing them in detail to him. This affected Lydon enough to write the song. Most of the band also had experiences with Pauline, but have spoken less about it.

With its repeated mentions of "I'm not an animal," of "Mummy," and of a dying "baby," the song is widely interpreted as being anti-abortion. In 2006, National Review magazine put the song at #8 on its list of the "50 Greatest Conservative Rock songs", citing a pro-life message . Yet both Steve Jones and John Lydon have stated in interviews that the song reflects a pro-choice view in its lurid description of an illicit abortion[citation needed]. In 2000, John Lydon went on the record as pro-choice, supporting the choice of a 13 year old French girl to use the morning after pill without her parents' knowledge.

However, in an interview, Lydon is quoted as identifying himself as neither anti- nor pro-abortion. However, he believes the decision belongs to the pregnant woman. In the same interview, Lydon speaks of the song in relation to his mother's miscarriage and how one should not misconstrue that incident as being anti-abortion[5]. This may indicate the song's lyrics describe that situation to some degree.
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Old 15-06-2008, 19:31
gazwah
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ah they don't write songs like that anymore
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Old 16-06-2008, 00:59
Neck_Romancer
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JL once said it was neither a pro-abortion or anti-abortion record.

Great song though but I couldn't pick a favourite from the album because they're all class!
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Old 16-06-2008, 01:58
tinman
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JL once said it was neither a pro-abortion or anti-abortion record.

Great song though but I couldn't pick a favourite from the album because they're all class!

My all time favourite album.
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Old 16-06-2008, 05:16
performingmonk
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John is right in saying it's the choice of the pregnant woman. You just can't be totally pro-life or pro-choice or whatever because every single pregnancy is different, every mother is different and in a different situation.

I hate it when people who've had zero experience with abortion bang on about pro-life.
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Old 16-06-2008, 07:55
oxford4eyes
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Great track like the rest of the album
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Old 16-06-2008, 08:02
whiterose
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Great track like the rest of the album
and they are making a new one!
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Old 16-06-2008, 16:34
Neck_Romancer
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OMFG

Not only speaking about the new album's plan, in the interview, Johnny also had some harsh comments for the currently popular English band, Coldplay. "I pity the poor b*****s who have to watch them. They are utterly humorless. I met them a few years ago, said hello and realized they were just men in anoraks. They looked like a gang of little poncy masturbators. There is no fun, they don't offer joy. Their music has a couple of quite nice tones here and there but it's a box of tosh sold to slightly inadequate, half-baked people," Johnny said.
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Old 16-06-2008, 18:49
gazwah
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A new album? it'll probably be a swing version of Never mind the bollocks, The swindle continues
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