I’ve heard that song dozens of times and (apparently) never paid attention to the lyrics. Disgusting.
>> I’ve heard that song dozens of times and (apparently) never paid attention to the lyrics. Disgusting. <<
Oh, no! You misunderstand! The title character is sneering at all the pop-culture creeps and perverts wanting to go to Thailand for sex with boys! I get my kicks ABOVE the waistline, Sunshine!”) If there’s anything disgusting about the song, it’s that the character (simply named, “The American”) is presented as a bit of a racist for seeing only that perversion.
I left off a line I should have kept in for clarity, simply because it’s not catchy:
“So you better go back to your bars, your temples, your massage parlors...”
Other lines:
“you’re talking to a tourist/ whose every move is among the purest/ I get my kicks above the waistline,/ Sunshine!”
“AMERICAN: One town’s very like another
When your head’s down over your pieces, brother
LOCALS: It’s a drag, it’s a bore, it’s really such a pity
To be looking at the board, not looking at the city
AMERICAN: Whaddya mean? Ya seen one crowded, polluted, stinking town...”
“Siam’s gonna be the witness
To the ultimate test of cerebral fitness
This grips me more than would a
Muddy old river or reclining Buddha”
If you want to be disgusted, there’s the video, “Save a Prayer” by Duran Duran, which sounded and cool but visually seemed perfectly innocent just kinda boring and pointless to me as a teenager. They were playing with a bunch of native kids in an exotic land. But then I learned that one of the members became a gay porn star, and when I saw it again, I was like, “Get away from those kids, you pervert!!!!”