"Peaches" was controversial because of its anarchist, non-conformist, "sexual" content, primarily aimed at shaking up the establishment and poking the eye of the new politically correct punk movement. The song's narrator is girl-watching on a crowded beach one hot summer day. It is never made clear if his lascivious thoughts (such as "there goes a girl and a half") are an interior monologue, comments to his mates, or come-on lines to the attractive women in question. Critic Tom Maginnis writes that Hugh Cornwell sings with "a lecherous sneer, the sexual tension is so unrelenting as to spill into macho parody or even censor-baiting territory".
This just shows how values change with time. That a song that was rebelling against censorship and macho, misogynistic views of women could become a problem itself. In the past I would not have "got" the parody and taken the song at face value but now in 2018 the misogynistic lyrics make me uncomfortable and I'm a 50+yr old white male who thinks of women as equals.
"Peaches" was controversial because of its anarchist, non-conformist, "sexual" content, primarily aimed at shaking up the establishment and poking the eye of the new politically correct punk movement. The song's narrator is girl-watching on a crowded beach one hot summer day. It is never made clear if his lascivious thoughts (such as "there goes a girl and a half") are an interior monologue, comments to his mates, or come-on lines to the attractive women in question. Critic Tom Maginnis writes that Hugh Cornwell sings with "a lecherous sneer, the sexual tension is so unrelenting as to spill into macho parody or even censor-baiting territory". This just shows how values change with time. That a song that was rebelling against censorship and macho, misogynistic views of women could become a problem itself. In the past I would not have "got" the parody and taken the song at face value but now in 2018 the misogynistic lyrics make me uncomfortable and I'm a 50+yr old white male who thinks of women as equals.