Spasticus Autisticus

Album: Warts 'N' Audience (1981)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • The United Nations proclaimed 1981 the International Year of Disabled Persons. Although disabled himself - due to childhood polio - Dury found this patronising, and came up with "Spasticus Autisticus", his first single on the Polydor label. Like Noël Coward's "Don't Let's Be Beastly To The Germans" it missed the mark, and was boycotted by many radio stations.

    According to Dury's biographer Richard Balls, he felt "The Year of the Disabled... implied that everyone who was disabled was going to be okay in 1982..." Dury said it was the second best song he'd ever written, and that it had actually been inspired by a spastic, an Oxford educated scholar, who'd told him the most difficult thing for him was that "nobody knows what I'm on about."
  • Dury co-wrote "Spasticus Autisticus" in the Bahamas with his regular partner Chaz Jankel; it was released in August 1981 in 7 and 12 inch formats backed by an alternative version credited to The Seven Seas Players; the record was deleted the following month, and was also rejected by the United Nations, although the passage of time has led to its re-evaluation. >>
    Suggestion credit:
    Alexander Baron - London, England, for above 2

Comments: 1

  • AnonymousIan Dury confessed to being inspired by a scene from Kubrick's movie when gladiators praised Spartacus with a raised fist: "Spartacus, Spartacus".
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Sugarland

SugarlandSongwriter Interviews

Meet the "sassy basket" with the biggest voice in country music.

Chris Rea

Chris ReaSongwriter Interviews

It took him seven years to recover from his American hit "Fool (If You Think It's Over)," but Chris Rea became one of the top singer-songwriters in his native UK.

Billy Gould of Faith No More

Billy Gould of Faith No MoreSongwriter Interviews

Faith No More's bassist, Billy Gould, chats to us about his two new experimental projects, The Talking Book and House of Hayduk, and also shares some stories from the FNM days.

Gary Numan

Gary NumanSongwriter Interviews

An Electronic music pioneer with Asperger's Syndrome. This could be interesting.

Name the Character in the Song

Name the Character in the SongMusic Quiz

With a few clues (Works at a diner, dreams of running away), can you name the character in the song?

Rob Thomas of Matchbox Twenty

Rob Thomas of Matchbox TwentySongwriter Interviews

Rob Thomas on his Social Distance Sessions, co-starring with a camel, and his friendship with Carlos Santana.