> I'm working on a project which entails deciphering some Sex Pistols
> lyrics, on several levels. So, what's Lydon referring to when he asks,
> "Is this the MPLA? Is this the UDA?" Dunno the acronyms: help.
Ah, the Sex Pistols -- truly one of the greatest aesthetic producers of the Seventies. The thing to remember is this: the Pistols are actually a reggae band. No, seriously -- the structure of their music is basicaly inspired by the reggae dub revolution, plus lots of studio technology and fuzz guitars.
"I am an anti-Christ... don't know what I want, but I know how to get it..."
A clever rewriting of Hendrix' more hopeful "I know what I want/ but I just don't know... how to go about gettin' it..." ("Manic Depression", Are You Experienced)
"Anarchy for the UK is coming sometime and maybe I give a wrong time, stop a traffic light your future dream is a shopping scheme"
Brilliant, radical eco-socialist critique, thirty years before the Central European Greens would put the theory into practice.
"Is this the MPLA or is this the UDA or is this the IRA I thought it was the UK or just... another... country Another Council tendency"
Possibly a reference to the London Council which Maggie T. abolished, but you could also argue that the European Council is being invoked. Note the musical high-point here, the guitars go into a frenzy and reverb a couple octaves above the lyric line (really an early version of the high-tech hip hop electronic sample or whine). Strange as it sounds, the Pistols have some of the most sensitive and expressive guitar licks around; you could argue they employed guitars where Bob Marley used vocal instrumentation.
-- Dennis