Germ Free Adolescents

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Christgau, Robert (26 April 2011). "Poly Styrene, Punk Pioneer, Dies at 53". NPR . Retrieved 23 October 2020. In July of 1976, Marianne Joan Elliott-Said, a Scottish-Somali girl from London’s inner-city Brixton district, celebrated her 19th birthday by going to see the Sex Pistols. Marianne dropped out of school at age 15, and had spent the last few years drifting between music festivals, crash pads, and recording studios in an attempt to get her music career off of the ground. She had even released a single, a novelty reggae song called “ Silly Billy,” with Donna Summer’s U.K. distributor, GTO Records. But she was frustrated—frustrated with not being taken seriously as a musician, and frustrated by the racism, sexism, and classism that seemed to make achieving her dreams impossible. When you look in the mirror do you see yourself?/Do you see yourself on the T.V. screen?/Do you see yourself in the magazine/When you see yourself does it make you scream? Selected items are only available for delivery via the Royal Mail 48® service and other items are available for delivery using this service for a charge.

Sheffield, Rob (1995). "X-Ray Spex". In Weisbard, Eric; Marks, Craig (eds.). Spin Alternative Record Guide. Vintage Books. p.441. ISBN 0-679-75574-8. In public, Poly Styrene and her bandmates put forth a playful image of happy pigs heading to the self-aware synthetic slaughter. But in private, the band’s meteoric rise to fame was starting to weigh on its leader. In 2017, Poly’s daughter, Celeste Bell, wrote in The Guardian, “I wonder if my mum might have had a happier life if she hadn’t had that level of fame,” a question that’s all but answered by this classic introvert statement Poly made in 1978: “You feel all the time that people are draining you, draining off your energy all the time until you think, ‘Blimey, I haven’t got anything left to give. Leave me alone.’” Germfree Adolescents erupts like a moralistic maelstrom, a fiery distillation of a highly-involved period, when stranded youth and socioeconomic politics ran into one another at full speed. Class warfare, sexism, ethical vacancy, a chronically-declining industry and the ensuing joblessness and ‘brain drain,’ and just about every other deficit that plagued urbanized living as Britain transitioned from the discontented Heath administration into the first Thatcher era, all get carbonized and spat out in the record’s every vitriolic line. In that, despite their sonic allegiances, the Spex would feel distanced from first-wave punks and ply closer to the Oi movement and skinhead ska, which championed the working class, all the while gnashing their teeth down against racial and gender divides and loss of identity.Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrateded.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. p.344. ISBN 0-646-11917-6. X-Ray Spex: Germfree Adolescents". Mojo. p.131. The band's entire studio output in just over an hour... Long-running California punk band NOFX has performed a cover version of Germfree Adolescents live. [24] MercuryPrize (15 September 2014). "FKA twigs Q&A – 2014 Mercury Prize". Archived from the original on 13 December 2021 – via YouTube.

Dolan, Jon (May 2001). "The 50 Most Essential Punk Records – 5. X-Ray Spex: Germfree Adolescents". Spin. Vol.17, no.5. p.108 . Retrieved 23 October 2020.

Due to this obsession, she sees in a boy “cleanliness,” and is attracted to him for that reason. Cleanliness in this song denotes the expectation of physical and sexual “purity” for women and girls. This could also signify the subject’s age; puberty is often thought of as gross, and society deems bodies and bodily functions as inherently dirty or disgusting. The song hints towards the girl’s abnegation of her body as it is changing and growing. The album was not a large commercial success, and never charted, however it was critically praised, with the prolific Robert Christgau of the Village Voice regretting the fact that Poly Styrene’s “irresistible color” was not released in the US, rather released only in Britain by label EMI. The album was also produced by Falcon Stuart, who also housed all the band’s members, advertised, and even photographed for them. Stuart would also go on to spawn Adam Ant’s career, and others.

X-Ray Spex: Germfree Adolescents". Uncut. p.132. [T]he heat and intensity of this debut has never been repeated. Nearly 30 years after it was recorded, Germfree Adolescents is as timely as ever.NOFX – Germ Free Adolescents (X-Ray Spex cover) Lyrics – SongMeanings". SongMeanings . Retrieved 4 July 2018. When sounding off the first classics that came to be of punk, especially ones led and forged by women, Germfree Adolescents by X-Ray Spex stands as a bit of an oddity. Never as blatantly discordant as Crass, and musically much more muscular than The Slits, the Spex carved one near-perfect album of artful revolt, a rough and turbulent lament of social inequity in the metropolis. Vexed, stylishly raw and supremely agile, there isn’t a record like it out there. In 2020, Rolling Stone ranked the album at number 354 in their list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. [23] Cover versions and cultural references [ edit ] The album’s focus on feminism, identity issues, and mass consumerism is prophetic in the issues discussed in the 2010s, with the song “Identity” being a particular heavy hitter with lyrics such as Christgau, Robert (26 February 1979). "Christgau's Consumer Guide". The Village Voice . Retrieved 23 October 2020.