Songfacts®:

• The Sex Pistols wrote "Liar" mostly about Malcolm McClaren, who put the band together and was their first manager. In the song, they accuse him of greed and incompetence.
  
  "We were just hapless young idiots really and we were really unprepared for the world of greed and adulthood that we were thrown into so quickly," lead singer John Lydon told Rolling Stone. "Everyone had their piece of poisonous influence to whisper in your ear, and that could cause great division. So I just came around to the point where instead of allowing division, I would unleash my derision."
• According to Lydon, this song isn't exclusively about Malcolm McLaren. It also takes on those outside the band who tried to manipulate them.
• All four group members contributed to this song, including Glen Matlock, their original bass player who was soon replaced by Sid Vicious.
• The line, "You're in suspension, you're a liar" is something Matlock came up with. He liked the double meaning of the word "suspension" - it can hanging from something, or on probation like what happens if you get suspended from school. "It was not long after I was finishing school, and getting in trouble, they suspend you," he said in a Songfacts interview. "I thought it was a weird kind of idea, but he ended up using it."