Tonight was only the second time I have heard this song. I heard it once, when I was eleven, on a Boston radio station (I think it was a college station, before anything was called alternative lol). However, I never forgot the lyrics (or lack there of) and on a whim I looked it up tonight. Apparently the song has a really cool history: Spasticus Autisticus was written in 1981 as a protest against the International Year of Disabled Persons, which Dury considered to be patronising. Dury was himself disabled by polio contracted in his youth. Fed up with repeated requests to get involved with charitable causes, Dury wrote an anti-charity song. The song was a cross between a battle cry and an appeal for understanding: Hello to you out there in normal land. You may not comprehend my tale or understand. The repeated refrain Im Spasticus, Im Spasticus, Im Spasticus Autisticus made explicit reference to the line Im Spartacus from the 1960 film Spartacus. Dury was considering touring under the name Spastic and the Autistics for the record, playing on his disability and the term blockhead, but his friend Ed Speight suggested that the song should be about the freed slave of the disabled. It was banned from airplay in Britain because spastic was considered a derogatory term. It was even performed by Orbital and members of the Graeae Theatre Company. at the 2012 Paralympic opening ceremony!
Posted on: Tue, 02 Dec 2014 01:33:33 +0000
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