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Footnotes to "Look Sharp!"

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[ Sunday Papers [ Is She Really Going Out With Him? | Happy Loving Couples | Throw It Away | (Do the) Instant Mash ]

Sunday Papers

"You can read it in the Sunday papers ..."
Specifically the British 'tabloid' Sunday newspapers (LINK:"News of the World", LINK:"The People", etc.) which publish sex, scandal and other sensational stories.

Is She Really Going Out With Him?

The song's title was inspired by the spoken opening line of The Damned's first single LINK:New Rose, released in 1976. In turn, The Damned were inspired by a line from LINK:Leader Of The Pack, a 1964 pop song recorded by girl group The Shangri-Las. (Here it is also spoken at the start of song.)
Joe Jackson acknowledged this in his book "A Cure for Gravity": I got the song's title from a line on The Damned's first album, and they, of course, had got it from an old hit by the Shangri-Las.

Happy Loving Couples

"Reading Ideal House magazine ..."
Even though he says "Ideal House magazine" this is probably a reference to LINK:"Ideal Home" which has been Britain's leading home decorating magazine for many decades.

Throw It Away

"Big Brother wanna know where little brother's at again"
Big Brother was the non-existent but all-pervading character in George Orwell's novel LINK:"Nineteen Eighty-Four", representing the state of Oceania which kept a strict control over its people's thoughts and actions.

(Do the) Instant Mash

"In the cinema tonight they sit and watch the robots fight ..."
Probably a reference to the film LINK:"Star Wars", released in 1977, and the many spin-offs and imitators its success generated, where special effects became more important than plot and character.

LINK: Internet Movie Database entry for "Star Wars"

"Robots making lots of cash and all they eat is instant mash ..."
Probably a reference to the LINK:Smash Martians, the stars of a 1974 TV advertising campaign in the UK for Smash instant mashed potatoes.

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