Songfacts®:

• John Lydon told Mojo magazine July 2008 that the lines "getting rid of the albatross, sowing the seeds of discontent" were a reference to the Sex Pistol's former manager Malcolm McClaren, and "his bragging and pontificating that he took part in the riots outside the American Embassy."
  
  Lydon felt that McClaren was a pontificator, who wanted to be a activist but never actually contributed anything essential to anything. He wanted, for instance, to take credit for the 1968 Grosvenor Riots in London, when thousands of anti-Vietnam War protesters rallied outside the American Embassy in Grosvenor Square.
• The Metal Box album was named after its original packaging of three vinyl discs in a metal film canister. It was ranked #469 on Rolling Stone magazine's 500 greatest albums of all time.