X-Ray Spex ‎- Oh Bondage Up Yours! (1977)

"Oh Bondage Up Yours!" was the band's debut single. Released in September 1977, it is regarded by critics as a prototypic example of British punk, though it was not a chart hit.

Lead singer Poly Styrene told Mojo magazine September 2008 about this song: "Most people think it was a kinky S&M song. But it was about breaking free from the bondage of the material world. I come from a religious background and in the scriptures the whole idea of being liberated is to break free from bondage. I had an idea of the bondage of slavery and all those images in history like the suffragettes or slaves being chained up. When I saw Vivienne Westwood's shop (Sex) and all her bondage trousers it symbolized all the other bondage elements I'd grown up with."

In Gillian G. Gaar's analysis, the song "eagerly steamrolled over the idea of objectifying women by confronting the notion head on". Raha writes, "Styrene and Logic were joyfully angry, liberated by the freedom punk afforded them." In Lauraine Leblanc's view, Styrene's compositions, and "Oh Bondage Up Yours!" in particular, exemplify the emphasis female punk artists placed on parody and paradox. As she describes, the first verse goes "Bind me, tie me, chain me to the wall / I wanna be a slave to you all!" Paradoxically, the chorus [runs]: "Oh bondage! Up yours! / Oh bondage! Come on!" As Styrene continue[s] on to the second verse, she reveal[s] that the song is not about sex, but about consumerism: "Chain store, chain smoke, I consume you all / Chain gang, chain mail, I don't think at all!" In this one utterance, Styrene transformed a seemingly masochistic plea into an indictment of consumer culture, denouncing the blind impulses of the mainstream shopper. In depicting herself as both an agent of and resister to her submission, she created a parody of both positions, juxtaposing them powerfully against each other.

Tracklist:
A - Oh Bondage Up Yours!2:45
B - I Am A Cliché1:53

X-Ray Spex ‎- Oh Bondage Up Yours! (1977)
(320 kbps, cover art included)