Safety Pin Stuck In My Heart Trivia Quiz

Answer: Punk music

The full title of the song is "Safety Pin Stuck In My Heart (a love song for punk music)".

The genesis of Punk was strictly commercial (Malcolm McLaren, Vivienne Westwood, The Sex Pistols). Next came the second wave of punk musicians who believed and conveyed the message that something actual was coming out of it and that "punk is going to change the world". Finally the bubble reduced right back to the commercial buzz. This disillusion left artists such as Patrik Fitzgerald disappointed and angry. "Safety Pin Stuck In My Heart" goes on to isolate his love for punk music and the positive momentum and hope it brought along with it from his disaccord with other aspects of punk culture.

An excerpt from his poem "Fashion Design" on designer Zandra Rhodes, the kahuna of safety pins: "First you took the safety pin and called it all your own / Some little punk you saw from off the bus on your way home / First you took the safety pin and then the hair grip from her hair / And then you ripped off everything / And left everything bare".

Patrik Fitzgerald was born and bred in East London and many of his songs are a genuine London soundscape-mindscape. He became disenchanted with English football after the multitude of violent incidents in the 70s and even dedicated the song "No Fun Football" to this plague. Nowadays, living in New Zealand, he is still an armchair supporter of Tottenham Hotspur (despite it being a North London bourgeoisie team), Leyton Orient, Dagenham and Redbridge.

Answer: I don't love you for you're out of date

"I don't love you for your painted shoes / I don't love you for your friends you never choose / I just love you for that / Beat-beat-beat-beat-beating"

The structure of the lyrics sharpens the song's message by forming a crude verbal separation between non-authentic aspects of punk such as its external corporal manifests, the hype about it and two-bit ideologies endorsed in its name (i.e. "your professed hate" mentioned in another verse) and its authentic aspect - the music.

"I've got a safety pin stuck in my heart / For you, for you"

The chorus is a brilliant lyrical twist, taking an object which is the centre of the song's antagonism (safety pin, the punk fashion accessory) and changing its context altogether by linking it with the core of the song's protagonism (safety pin, stuck in my heart, for punk music).

Answer: False

It is a catchy punk chord progression. You may listen to the poem "Make It Safe" followed by "Safety Pin Stuck In My Heart" at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvFsnRGprs0 (video by Dom Shaw).

Both "Work.Rest.Play.Reggae" and "Set We Free" from his debut EP demonstrate that Patrik Fitzgerald did experiment with reggae from the very start of his recording career. The following quote reveals that a reggae version of "Safety Pin Stuck In My Heart" was also considered: "...we did rehearse a reggae version of Safety Pin, but it was pretty terrible (I have rehearsal tapes to prove it). I don't think we ever played it live."

Answer: The front cover misspells Patrik's name as "Patrick Fitzgerald"

Though born Patrick Joseph Anthony Fitzgerald, the name he used throughout his recording career is Patrik Fitzgerald, possibly because this particular spelling conveys a more "European" feel. In any case, he is not to be mixed up with Patrick Fitzgerald, lead singer of Kitchens Of Distinction.

The EP came into being after he left a few home tapes (known as "the bedroom tapes") at the door of the Walthamstow record shop Small Wonder (to which I have dedicated a separate quiz). Pete Stennet, the shop owner, was enthusiastic on turning it into a formal release. They did spend some time at a professional studio but Pete eventually decided to go back to a home studio in South Woodford in order to get a more "natural" sound. The unorthodox final product omitted a few of the recordings as they included irrelevant noise such as ringing phones, but included the acoustic guitar with a broken string (partly because there was no music shop in the neighbourhood).

Released in January, 27th 1978, the 7" EP contains five songs: "Banging And Shouting", "Safety Pin Stuck In My Heart", "Work.Rest.Play.Reggae", "Set We Free" and "Optimism|Reject".

Answer: Excited

"An unusually generous eepee, giving the world five tracks of the voice, guitar and Cosmic Worldview of one Patrick [sic] Fitzgerald. On the cover he resembles a young Bill Nelson in modern-world clobber; on the record he sounds like ... punk folk? Acoustic punk? A young Paddy Roberts? None of these descriptions make any sense at all, but it'd be a misdirection of energy to attempt to construct a neat little category for such an genuinely interesting oddball... this guy is GOOD; someone should buy him a band immediately..."

It is said that the above-quoted "NME" review resulted in a second pressing of the EP, adding 5,000 copies to the 2,000 originally released. I like this review because it identifies Patrik Fitzgerald as the unique "creature" he truly was in the post-punk scene. To date, he is tagged as a "punk poet" which does little justice to his versatile composition skills which kept developing over the years, ages away from the somewhat limited stints of punk.

It would be safe to say that post-punk artists such as Patrik Fitzgerald paved the way for indie artists such as Billy Bragg who started their careers in the early 80s. The will of the likes of Billy Bragg to be "a one-man Clash" must have been fed by them seeing the rare likes of Patrik Fitzgerald go on stage on their own and giving the world a piece of their minds.

Answer: True

The song was included in his first Peel session which was aired on February 15th, 1978. Two subsequent sessions were aired on July 31st, 1978 and on April 17th, 1979. All of these sessions are in the "do-it-yourself" spirit, basically Patrik going solo with his acoustic guitar.

Answer: Make It Safe

"Come and get your punk in Woolworth's / Bondage trousers, 12 pounds", thus opens "Make It Safe".

A rather famous quote from a reader's letter to the "Gasbag" fanzine sometime in 1979 claimed that "Punk died the day Patrik Fitzgerald signed with Polydor".

It becomes clear that Patrik Fitzgerald was ahead of his time. As can be seen from the Charles Shaar Murray review, the music community expected him to form a band - staying solo was still perceived as a folk singer type of career, which he was not. Also, the mindset in the industry was still at a stage where small labels such as Small Wonder were perceived as stepping stones to the major labels - the concept of indie labels only began to sprout at the time (and more so in Manchester in the initial phase). Thus, Patrik Fitzgerald's move to Polydor and recording "Grubby Stories" (1979), his excellent debut LP (all the options in the question are tracks from which), was much of a wrong-place-wrong-time affair. This eventually led to his 80s re-birth as a full-fledged musician walking the corridors of various styles, always maintaining an edge of uniqueness to his art.

Answer: Safety Pin Stuck In My Heart

The Anagram compilation also imitates the cover of the original EP. It seems that "Safety Pin Stuck In My Heart" remains the best entry point to the world of Patrik Fitzgerald. This definitive anthology of his early days includes the three Small Wonder EPs, remakes of a few songs from the Polydor era, and a taste of the exquisite music he had coming to his audience in the 80s. The wrong options are the titles of his revolutionary 80s albums.

Answer: False

I for one was there in his 2006 tour of Scandinavia and the UK when those familiar sounds came bursting out of his guitar and voicebox, fresh and ragged as they were way back in 1978. A fine rendition of the song is included in the CD issued along with this tour, titled "Floating Population".

A quote from the man himself: "I did stop playing Safety Pin and most of my early stuff for a very long time when I was dropped by Polydor and in fact 2006 was probably the first time since 1979 or so that I played Safety Pin. I used to get into trouble with people for not playing favourite songs. At one gig at a pub in Stoke Newington, North London, a group of punks had come from Leeds to the gig and when I wouldn't play Safety Pin they started turning tables over and wrecking the pub. I think that it may have been at that gig that I also ended up being given a black eye by a bouncer".

Answer: Chumbawamba

Chumbawamba's ambient interpretation can be found on "Just Look At Me Now" (1996) as well as on the compilation "Better Read Than Dead" (1996). The Sex Patels, the alter ego band of Chumbawamba, also covered the song. Other covers are by The Bartlebees who skillfully tilted it back towards punk-rock and by The Wonder Stuff who took the middle road with a fine semi-acoustic rendition.

Of the wrong options, "The Backstreet Boys" is the name of Patrik Fitzgerald's second Small Wonder EP and its eponymous title track which deals with London street violence. I can guarantee you that it has nothing to do with the boy band of the same name.

Further information on Patrik Fitzgerald can be found on the following links:

http://www.myspace.com/patrikfitzgerald
http://www.hanshan.org/musikk/patrik.php
http://www.84tigers.com/?p=346
http://www.punk77.co.uk/groups/patrikfitzgerald.htm