Charlie Big Potato

After a few listenings, I came up with a theory. I snooped around the internet to see if this theory was valid at all, but I'm either not too good at looking for this stuff, or didn't try hard enough.

So here's the theory - It's about abuse and its consequences. Charlie is actually mentioned only once throughout the song, but it doesn't say that much. Even so, I'd say Charlie likes to abuse. Or likeD - She's awake, while Charlie "sleeps".

In that sense, it could very well be a reminiscent piece. Song about a past, and what it's like now. She's supposed to "tell it like it is", but it's no easy task when the subject is something so personal; so deeply emotional and vulgar.

After I looked up the meaning for "Charlie Big Potato" on wikipedia, I found out it's also used as slang (originally British) to say "Give it your Charlie Big Potatoes!". It's supposed to be a kind of substitute for "giving your best", and is arguably derived from male testicles. Which, to a degree, supports the abuse theory...

So who is Charlie anyway? A father? A brother? Lover? Or is he just fictional? He might not even have anything to do with Skin to begin with, yet... The song is sung so earnestly I wouldn't dare say he isn't.

I think the clue is in the video, with little kid in the bed and the creepy adult touching him while the kid looks panicked.

It's about child abuse (probably sexual), brother, sister and an adult. "Tell it like it is" is a clue to the fact that the girl is trying to keep her sanity by observing and being aware of what is happening, and her brother is in denial.

When a child is a victim of abuse, it develops an alternative reality (denial) as a defense mechanism, because it cannot overcome its abuser, neither physically nor mentally. The song is also a statement that even living in horror and being aware of it is better then denial, because at least you are not lost.

The song is about incest between brother and sister (the protagonist).

Brother is propably older and has used his power over his sister, to abuse the girl in their home ("a lone brother, a lone sister, a home cover.") The girl is awake while the brother is sleeping. She is feeling ashamed and bitterly thinking that now that her borther has "seduced" her ("broke the hard girl, good to please") he probably sees himself as "Charlie Big Potato" (slang term, meaning "the man" or "the big shot" or more literally "the one with the bigest balls around")

one of the best skunk's songs. Very complex both musicaly and lyricaly... absolutly excellent... But i absolutly don't know what it means. Though, in the cd, they say that song describes a certain type of person...

I love this song but I'll be damned if it makes that much sense to me, either. The title doesn't help, but so few skunk titles do. Something deep is going on here between what is and what appears to be. It almose seems like something from a movie, a scene where you have a girl screaming at a guy with a guilty secret in front of a group of people whom she believes deserve to know the truth... "tell it like it is! tell them!" The song changes its mood from ominous to violent to soft several times. I just enjoy it for the musical euphony it is. You could go with a lot of theories on this one from what i just said to maybe, a kidnapping victim escaping. Thinking too much about a song ruins it... just listen in awe like the mortal you are ;).

The certain type of person is probably a liar.

I think it is about incest and the guilty conscience that comes with it.

So simple yet so right... I think jackass00 has the right meaning here.

Pretty much right :) though I should add that "Charlie Big Potatoes" here is like the phrase "Billy Big Bollocks"...i.e. someone who goes around being boastful, arrogant and callous. The sort of person who might ruin someone's childhood with sexual abuse, for example.

So what's with the muezzin at the start?

It's about child abuse, video backs that up and also the fact that in the UK royalites from the single went to charities dealing with victims of child abuse.