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Didn't I see you down in San Antone on a hot and dusty night?
We were eating eggs in Sammy's when the black man there drew his knife
Aw, you drowned that Jew in Rampton as he washed his sleeveless shirt
You know, that Spanish-speaking gentlemen the one we all called Kurt
Come now, gentleman, I know there's some mistake
How forgetful I'm becoming now you fixed your business straight
I remember you in Hemlock Road in nineteen fifty-six
You're a faggy little leather boy with a smaller piece of stick
You're a lashing, smashing hunk of man your sweat shines sweet and strong
Your organs working perfectly but there's a part that's not screwed on
Weren't you at the Coke convention back on nineteen sixty-five?
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 man who squats behind the man who works the soft machine
Come now, gentleman your love is all I crave
You'll still be in the circus when I'm laughing, laughing in my grave
When the old men do the fighting and the young men all look on
And the young girls eat their mothers meat from tubes of plasticon
Be wary of these my gentle friends of all the skins you breed
They have a tasty habit they eat the hands that bleed
So remember who you say you are and keep your noses clean
Boys will be boys and play with toys so be strong with your beast
Oh Rosie dear, don'tcha think it's queer so stop me if you please
The baby is dead, my lady said, "You gentlemen, why, you all work for me"
We were eating eggs in Sammy's when the black man there drew his knife
Aw, you drowned that Jew in Rampton as he washed his sleeveless shirt
You know, that Spanish-speaking gentlemen the one we all called Kurt
Come now, gentleman, I know there's some mistake
How forgetful I'm becoming now you fixed your business straight
I remember you in Hemlock Road in nineteen fifty-six
You're a faggy little leather boy with a smaller piece of stick
You're a lashing, smashing hunk of man your sweat shines sweet and strong
Your organs working perfectly but there's a part that's not screwed on
Weren't you at the Coke convention back on nineteen sixty-five?
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 man who squats behind the man who works the soft machine
Come now, gentleman your love is all I crave
You'll still be in the circus when I'm laughing, laughing in my grave
When the old men do the fighting and the young men all look on
And the young girls eat their mothers meat from tubes of plasticon
Be wary of these my gentle friends of all the skins you breed
They have a tasty habit they eat the hands that bleed
So remember who you say you are and keep your noses clean
Boys will be boys and play with toys so be strong with your beast
Oh Rosie dear, don'tcha think it's queer so stop me if you please
The baby is dead, my lady said, "You gentlemen, why, you all work for me"
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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. <br /> <br /> 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. <br /> <br /> 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". <br /> <br /> 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<br /> "You're the misbred, gray executive<br /> I've seen heavily advertised<br /> <br /> You're the great, gray man whose daughter licks<br /> Policemen's buttons clean"<br /> <br /> i sense themes of corruption, and collusion of police (gov) and private industry...<br /> <br />