Brian Molko, singer, songwriter<\/p>\n
Nancy Boy was about reclaiming the homophobic insults that were hurled at me every time I went out because I had long hair and wore eyeliner and nail polish. I\u2019d walk into a bar and people would react vociferously, or guys would think I was a girl then get really aggressive when they found out my name was Brian. I thought I could regain some power by writing a celebration of debauchery that was so brazenly sexual it would piss off the people who insulted me even more.<\/p>\n
Also, [Suede singer] Brett Anderson had recently told NME he was a \u201cbisexual man who\u2019d never had a homosexual experience\u201d, which I thought was bollocks. I thought he was being a sexual tourist. We know each other now and he\u2019s a fantastic person \u2013 back then we all said cheeky things for effect \u2013 but part of my motivation was to write a song about a bisexual man who has had a bisexual experience.<\/p>\n
I was living on income support in Deptford, London, when I came up with the chorus, but I thought the chords were too catchy or mainstream. I wasn\u2019t sure if I liked them, but when I played them round at Stefan\u2019s \u2013 he lived with his parents \u2013 he said: \u201cMan, that\u2019s such a hook.\u201d In the rehearsal room it became this distorted punk thing.<\/p>\n
double quotation markI was a very green songwriter and they\u2019re not my best lyrics<\/p>\n
The words almost wrote themselves. I was trying to tell a story of a wild night out, so started: \u201cAlcoholic kind of mood, lose my clothes, lose my lube.\u201d It was the kind of night we\u2019d have on rare occasions but it certainly wasn\u2019t our lives yet. \u201cHad some help from insect ways\u201d is a reference to Spanish Fly or any substance that made you horny \u2013 you could buy GHB in shops then. The line: \u201cEyeholes in a paper bag, greatest lay I\u2019ve ever had\u201d was also reclaiming an insult, because at school people would point at girls and say: \u201cI wouldn\u2019t fuck her with a paper bag on her head.\u201d I was a very green songwriter and they\u2019re not my best lyrics.<\/p>\n