Wilfrid LI'll tel you a little story about a friend I used to have. I long ago realised he wasn't a good friend, and a recent trip to my home town I saw he had a union flag up outside his home. I don't know for sure, but it wouldn't surprise me if he is now a Tommy Robinson fan.
I've known him since I was about 4 but haven't seen him in many years. If you want to get an idea of what he is like, he is a bit like Jay from the #Inbetweeners - always bragging about imaginary things to make himself look cooler and generally full of shit. Which is why when i first watched the Inbetweeners I didn't find it funny. I was like, this is a documentary, right?
Anyway, in the 90s we were listening to my #Nirvana CDs and Nirvana's cover of #TheVaselines Molly's Lips came on.
And my friend said to me that the line 'If I stay clean' was a reference to drugs. It was a call by Molly for Kurt to stay clean off drugs.
I hadn't given that song much thought, so I didn't argue and just said something sarcastic like it was obvious.
He replied that he thought that I would think it meant keeping literally clean and washing your face. He just wanted to be condescending.
Anyway, years later, I finally bought some of the Vaselines' music. And Molly's Lips is sung by Frances McKee and the original lyrics are slightly different. So the song is really about a lesbian relationship.
And the line that Kurt sings as 'stay clean' is actually 'As long as I'm good and clean'.
The irony is, the original song appears to be literally talking about washing with soap and being clean.
I agree Kurt's version might have a slightly different meaning (but also maybe not.) But it makes me smile when I hear the original version and think of my friend being condescending yet completely not understanding what the song was really about.