Released as it was in the height of the popularity of punk rock, the song was misinterpreted (as it often is to this day) as a song about excess as its title and chorus would suggest. Although the single was banned by the BBC, a number of Radio 1 disc jockeys, including Annie Nightingale and John Peel, continued to promote the record by playing the mildly salacious B-side "Razzle in My Pocket". Dury himself, however, maintained that the song was not a punk anthem and said he was trying to suggest that there was more to life than a 9-to-5 existence (such as in his track-by-track comments in the sleeve-notes of Repertoire Records' "Reasons to Be Cheerful: The Best of Ian Dury & the Blockheads" compilation). The verses themselves are at times somewhat riddle-like, although always suggestive of an alternative lifestyle: