“Oh, Bondage! Up Yours!” – X-Ray Spex
“Some people think that little girls should be seen and not heard. But I think- Oh, Bondage! Up Yours! One, two, three, four!”
This is one of the handful of songs that really remind me of listening to the first local punk show on the radio in Boston back in ’77. That would be a show on college radio, WMBR, Saturday’s afternoon, that went on roughly about the same time that I now attend Saturday punk matinees at the Midway now. And they were manned by the DJ, Oedipus, who went on to be the program director at WBCN, the most popular Boston radio station at the time.
I can still remember hearing “White Riot” by The Clash and “Anarchy In The UK,” by The Sex Pistols the very first time I tuned in, and it was the very first time I heard either one of these bands. I became addicted with my very first hit.
This particular song, states from a women’s point of view- Hey! You’re going to try to keep me down. Well, good luck tryin’ ’cause, “Oh, Bondage! Up Yours!”
This song sounds like a tornado ripping tree trunks out of the ground or roofs off of houses, or teeth being pulled straight out of your jaw. Or ears being ripped from your head and then filling your skull, like a torrid pinata, with raging passion, unwarranted excitement and uncontrolled glee.
It explodes into your soul with an explosion full of intense drive. It breathes the very essence of desire and life into every ounce of your skin, your bones and your brain.
Johnny Rotten, who never really liked anyone or anything, unless it was obscure rock folks like Captain Beefheart or Can, had high praise for X-Ray Spex. And I recently read that he was actually, a bit intimidated by their female lead singer, Poly Styrene. I can honestly say that I’ve never read, or could imagine, someone intimidating him!
She railed against consumerism and placid commercialism in many of her songs and was aided and abetted by her saxophone player, Lora Logic, who’s musical interlude here is as great as it’s minimal, the dissonance thrown in at the end of the sax line- sounds like jagged pieces of glass stuck into the belly of an overfed, tame society.
This song intro reminds me of The Damned’s “New Rose” where they petulantly state, “Is she really going out with him,” and is borrowed from a sixties girl group, The Shangri-las song “Leader Of The Pack”, that Joe Jackson, also borrowed for the title of a hit song. (BTW I love sixties girl group music and I consider, The Shangri-La’s, one of the best bands of all time!)
“Bind me, tie me, chain me to the wall. I want to be a slave to you all. Oh, bondage? Up yours! Oh, bondage, No more! Oh, bondage, Up yours! Oh, Bondage? No more!”
Though the beginning of this line might reflect my true feelings, the ending part is of a woman, rightly rejecting the submissive role that society thrusts upon her.
This song is very repetitious in its structure, both lyrically and in it’s arrangement. But that only intensifies the feeling of the song, like- “How may times do I have to tell you, to repeat myself? To get my point across to you?”
“Thrash me, crush me, beat me till I fall. I want to be a victim for you all.” What a great line!
The true fury and pure, female emotion and anger when left unrestrained, as I see here, is more powerful and devastating, more potent and more true than any simple, dull-witted male violence, though ugly as it is, that fails completely void of any meaning or substance.
And this song still rings true as a feminist rant against the patriarchy, and what could be more poignant than what we face today?
Along with The Avengers, I feel you won’t find any better female fronted punk band from back in the day.
And those that are amongst us, you know, those old, white, white haired men down in Washington D.C.- who look like they should be in nursing homes instead of destroying our lives, while we can only take comfort that, the ideas they foster will die out soon with them. I think this song is valid against everyone that they try to hinder, that they don’t want, don’t deem worthy to accept.
So this song is relevant for any one who’s a minority, anyone who’s female, anyone who’s gay or trans, anyone who’s an illegal immigrant or simply, a punk rocker who doesn’t fit in the narrow constraints of what you’re supposed to be in life. For all those who don’t fit in with the nice, neat categories that society has asked us to check off on- be it gender identity, sexual identity or submissive/dominant preference.
Let us all join Poly, in four little, but four very strong words-
“OH BONDAGE, UP YOURS!”
(Slimedog)
