The rockin' side of Robyn Hitchcock often comes as a bit of a surprise in these old Soft Boys songs—could it be that Kimberly Rew has more influence than I know? Dunno. But the big attack of this is formally up to the implications of the title. It's reaching for ringing anthemic heights, however ironically, and hits some nice peaks, particularly at the top of their lungs, in harmony. Hitchcock is speaking metaphorically, of course, as he typically does, but he's also serious that he wants to destroy you. Has he positioned himself with yippies attempting to levitate the Pentagon, feeble blows against the empire, making small cracks in the foundation, some figment of Greil Marcus research streaming from past centuries into Johnny Rotten and the (no) future? More likely he's mad at a girl, who may not even know he exists at all, although the general drift is more on the lines of really bummed about war: "They feed your pride with boredom / And they lead you on to war." That was a popular route at the time, with various world events going on such as the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the U.S. hostages held in Iran, and general Cold War strains. You could get a lot of aggression out by being against war. And who isn't against war (besides Dick Cheney)? But the capper sounds more like a spurned lover: "And when I have destroyed you / I'll come picking at your bone / And you won't have a single item / Left to call your own." And then the band shakes up the whole house knocking it down on the way out. This is a good way to construct rock songs.
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