X-Ray Spex - Identity
X-Ray Spex's songs are the archetypes of punk rock: simple, short and anti-establishment. Forming in 1976, the band was fronted by Poly Styrene who was said to be so strange that she even freaked Johnny Rotten from the Sex Pistols out. That's not the only thing John said about X-Ray Spex though and in a documentary he stated that "they came out with a sound and attitude and a whole energy—it was just not relating to anything around it—superb" which is high praise. The album Germfree Adolescents is often considered to be a classic and it's from this album that Identity comes from. The track was partly inspired after Styrene saw a girl slashing her wrists in a toilet and for me it represents how some people have almost lost their own identity, simply imitating what they've seen "on the TV screen" and "in the magazine" to fit in which is still a relevant topic now. Also, saxophone in a punk song? Hell yeah.
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