Baggy Trousers
SONG COMPOSERS, LYRICS AND BACKGROUND
LYRICS
Naughty boys in nasty schools
Headmaster’s breaking all the rules
Having fun and playing fools
Smashing up the woodwork tools
All the teachers in the pub
Passing round the ready rub
Trying not to think of when
The lunchtime bell will ring again
Oh what fun we had
But did it really turn out bad
All I learnt at school
Was how to bend not break the rule
Oh what fun we had
But at the time it seemed so bad
Trying different ways
To make a difference to…
The headmaster’s had enough today
All the kids have gone away
Gone to fight with next door’s school
Every term that is the rule
Sits alone and bends his cane
Same old backsides again
All the small ones tell tall tales
Walking home and squashing snails
Oh what fun we had
But did it really turn out bad
All I learnt at school
Was how to bend not break the rule
Oh what fun we had
But at the time it seemed so bad
Trying different ways
To make a difference to the days
Lots of girls and lots of boys
Lots of smells and lots of noise
Playing football in the park
Kicking pushbikes after dark
Baggy trousers dirty shirt
Pulling hair and eating dirt
Teacher comes to break it up
Back of the head with a plastic cup
Baggy trousers
COMPOSERS
| Composer | Role |
|---|---|
| Graham McPherson | Words |
| Chris Foreman | Music |
BACKGROUND
Suggs later recalled in an interview that “I was very specifically trying to write a song in the style of Ian Dury, especially the songs he was writing then, which [were] often sort of catalogues of phrases in a constant stream.” He contrasted “Baggy Trousers” with Pink Floyd’s hit “Another Brick in the Wall”: “I was writing about my time at school. Pink Floyd had that big hit with ‘teacher, leave those kids alone’. It didn’t really relate to me, because I hadn’t been to a public school where I was bossed about and told to sing “Rule Britannia!” and all that”, having instead attended a comprehensive school with much less strictly enforced discipline.
References
| Representation | Company | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Publisher | Nutty Sounds Ltd. | |
| Publisher | Warner Chappell Music Ltd. |
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