Has any other band in the past 30 years truly understood the alternately excruciating and delicious self-torture that is teenage longing quite the way The Buzzcocks did? Even the song titles, from "Orgasm Addict" to "Why Can't I Touch It?" encapsulate those hormonal and emotional excesses that we may grow out of but never forget.
One of The Buzzcocks' most popular songs, "What Do I Get," has taken a lot of abuse over the years. I seem to remember a car commercial (believe it or not, the "What do I get?" part seemed to refer to the safety package and other exciting extras), among other indignities. Despite all of this, the song still packs that intense punch of yearning and loneliness.
"You're talking like someone who knows first-hand," you're thinking. Well, yes, guilty. For me, "What Do I Get" will always bring me back (DeLorean style, guys) to a time in college of which I am not particularly proud. The particulars aren't terribly interesting, and to be quite honest, what I cherish most these days is the intense relationship I formed with The Buzzcocks' entire Singles Going Steady album during that time. Although I haven't felt that kind of solitary misery in quite a while, I will always somehow identify with lines like, "I'm not on the make/ I just need a break" and "I only get sleepless nights/ Alone here in my half-empty bed." I suppose, if you pressed, you could get me to admit that I screamed along with them as often as I could get my roommate to leave our room.
In the end, it's the relentless repetition of those title words, "What do I get?" that pour salt in that wound we all love to scratch open. It's the contrast between what we want and what we've got that really burns.
Not exciting enough for you? Well, next Valentine's Day, if you're good, I'll talk about what "Orgasm Addict" means to me.