“Two fat persons, click, click, click.”

The late British musician Ian Dury’s track “Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll” became an anthem for many of my fellow DJs on college radio in 1977. It would not be until the early ’80s that a friend turned me on to another Dury track, “Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick”, that I like much more. In fact, it’s one of my favorites.

Game for a live performance? YouTube has one of those too.

“Stick”, on which Dury teams with his band, The Blockheads, was released in late 1978 and topped the UK pop charts in early 1979. It’s turn at the top came between two other noteworthy tracks, “YMCA” by The Village People and another one of my faves, “Heart of Glass” by Blondie. Here in the states, unlike “YMCA” and “Heart of Glass,” which were smashes, “Stick” was not a hit. That might explain why I didn’t even become aware of it until years after its UK chart run.

The lyrical subtext of “Stick”is S & M — a major reason for its appeal to this chronically repressed (well, not really) blogger. According to Dury, however, the message was one of anti-violence. (Wikipedia lacks a cite for this.) In rereading the lyrics, which include the title of this post, I’m not deducing much of a message at all. They seem nonsensical. Maybe I’m too fixated on the stick angle to get it.