Perhaps Jagger's finest song, but what does it all mean?
Looking round the net it seems that for some prayer rituals orthodox Jews wear a religious garment which can be described as a sleevless shirt. The writer goes on to say that describing the man as 'Spanish speaking' is a reference to the Jews' exile from Spain in, I think, the middle ages. Though why he has a German-sounding name like Kurt isn't explained.
The dominant theme is, of course, one of homosexuality. I think it may be the first time in popular culture where gayness is linked not with effeminacy but with an overt masculine sexuality. For examply the same year that Performance was released The Boys in the Band showed us a selection of campy self-hating drama queens. Also the line "the young girls eat their mother's meat from tubes of plasticon" is the kind of queasily sexual/violent image you'd find in William Burroughs. Also, just remembered that there is indeed a Burrough's book called The Soft Machine.
I suppose the song, and the film Performance, were informed at some level by the fact of Reggie Kray's sexuality and the fact that an incredibly masculine (in fact psychotic) man could be gay.
1968 was MJs Annus Mirabulus. You've made more sense of Memo From T than I did! I always associated the gay references with Orton's diaries, though they were not published until the mid seventies. "Sympathy" with it's reference to Thugee, was written at the same time.
1968 was MJs Annus Mirabulus. You've made more sense of Memo From T than I did! I always associated the gay references with Orton's diaries, though they were not published until the mid seventies. "Sympathy" with it's reference to Thugee, was written at the same time.
Spanish gentleman: In the Middle Ages, Edward Longshanks (I think) evicted the Jews from England. While Judaism was still proscribed (the ban wasn't lifted until Cromwell's Commonwealth in the 1650s) in the Elizabethan period Spanish and Dutch Jews, displaced by the Inquisition, (the Marranos) were allowed to covertly settle in England, where they formed an invaluable fifth column to inform English privateers about Spanish gold argosies, and ultimately about the Armada.
Of course this song was written on the heals of the murder/suicide of Joe Orton by his spurned lover Kenneth Halliwell. Orton, like Reggie Kray, was a switch-hitting practitioner of male-intensive "rough trade" "muscular homosexuality".
The Kray's of course, were the models for the notorious Piranha Brothers: 'sooch a loverly boy! 'e nailed me 'ead to the wall but then I transgressed the unwritten law I did!" DIMSDALE!
Perhaps Jagger's finest song, but what does it all mean? Looking round the net it seems that for some prayer rituals orthodox Jews wear a religious garment which can be described as a sleevless shirt. The writer goes on to say that describing the man as 'Spanish speaking' is a reference to the Jews' exile from Spain in, I think, the middle ages. Though why he has a German-sounding name like Kurt isn't explained. The dominant theme is, of course, one of homosexuality. I think it may be the first time in popular culture where gayness is linked not with effeminacy but with an overt masculine sexuality. For examply the same year that Performance was released The Boys in the Band showed us a selection of campy self-hating drama queens. Also the line "the young girls eat their mother's meat from tubes of plasticon" is the kind of queasily sexual/violent image you'd find in William Burroughs. Also, just remembered that there is indeed a Burrough's book called The Soft Machine. I suppose the song, and the film Performance, were informed at some level by the fact of Reggie Kray's sexuality and the fact that an incredibly masculine (in fact psychotic) man could be gay.
1968 was MJs Annus Mirabulus. You've made more sense of Memo From T than I did! I always associated the gay references with Orton's diaries, though they were not published until the mid seventies. "Sympathy" with it's reference to Thugee, was written at the same time.
1968 was MJs Annus Mirabulus. You've made more sense of Memo From T than I did! I always associated the gay references with Orton's diaries, though they were not published until the mid seventies. "Sympathy" with it's reference to Thugee, was written at the same time.
Spanish gentleman: In the Middle Ages, Edward Longshanks (I think) evicted the Jews from England. While Judaism was still proscribed (the ban wasn't lifted until Cromwell's Commonwealth in the 1650s) in the Elizabethan period Spanish and Dutch Jews, displaced by the Inquisition, (the Marranos) were allowed to covertly settle in England, where they formed an invaluable fifth column to inform English privateers about Spanish gold argosies, and ultimately about the Armada.
Of course this song was written on the heals of the murder/suicide of Joe Orton by his spurned lover Kenneth Halliwell. Orton, like Reggie Kray, was a switch-hitting practitioner of male-intensive "rough trade" "muscular homosexuality".
The Kray's of course, were the models for the notorious Piranha Brothers: 'sooch a loverly boy! 'e nailed me 'ead to the wall but then I transgressed the unwritten law I did!" DIMSDALE!
soft machine is supposedly slang for underhanded business "You're the misbred, gray executive I've seen heavily advertised
soft machine is supposedly slang for underhanded business "You're the misbred, gray executive I've seen heavily advertised
You're the great, gray man whose daughter licks Policemen's buttons clean"
You're the great, gray man whose daughter licks Policemen's buttons clean"
i sense themes of corruption, and collusion of police (gov) and private industry...
i sense themes of corruption, and collusion of police (gov) and private industry...