Music Monday: Wot! by Captain Sensible

Music Monday is a meme that was created by Drew from The Tattooed Book Geek. Bjørn and I will pick a song alternatively on each Monday and share our thoughts about them. Bjørn’s pick this week is Wot! by Captain Sensible.

Captain Sensible’s album, Mad Cows and Englishmen, ranks among the finest in brit-pop. As you’d expect from the guitarist of the punk band The Damned. Who also started a political party called Blah! Party (they did not achieve great success). ‘Wot!’ was, as Wikipedia puts it, ‘a specialist hit in the United States’. The original album version is rock meets punk, the hardest sounding track on the record. For the single release, it was re-recorded with Dolly Mixture on backing vocals, providing the finest variation on Grandmaster Flash’s ‘The Message’ where the message is that there was noise in the hotel and Sensible got no sleep all night.

“It was coming from a building site and as it was so early and he wanted to sleep in the hotel, he recorded the noise to make a complaint. He played it to the reception, informing them that it was disgusting and a ploy to upset British bands, and he was trying to get some sleep. They just said, “Have a nice day” and nothing was done. […] This sound loop formed the basis of the song. The loop can be heard clearly at the beginning and near the end of the song. The song’s lyrics were also based on his lack of sleep and noisy events. Captain explained that they simply ‘added more rubbish on top of the track’ to build up the song.” Quite! Some of my favourite rubbish ever.

When I woke up this morning I was feelin’ fine
But this cat starts banging, man, what a swine
So I called reception but to no avail
That’s why I’m telling you this sorry tale
It went bang (Bang!), I said shut up
It went bang (Bang!), I said rap up
Well, I’m aware that the guy must do his work
But the piledriver man drove me berserk

He said captain, I said wot?
He said captain, I said wot?
(He said captain, he said wot?
He said captain, he said wot d’ya want?)

Once a lifetime, twice a day
If you don’t work you get no pay
I’ve been to the east, I’ve been to the west
But the girls I like most are the ones undressed
Well, hello Adam, where you been?
I said a’stand aside ’cause I’m feelin’ mean
I’ve had a gutful of you and I’m feelin’ bad
Well, you’re an ugly old pirate and ain’t I glad

He said captain, I said wot?
He said captain, I said wot?
He said captain, I said wot?
He said captain, I said wot d’ya want?
(He said captain, he said wot?
He said captain, he said wot?
He said captain, he said wot?
He said captain, he said wot? Oooh!)