Dury's research and knowledge allowed a large percentage of the lyric, which tells the rough life-story of Vincent, to be made up of references and/or extracts from Vincent's songs. For instance the Song's opening line "Blue Gene Baby" is a faithful re-creation of the first line of "Blue Jean Bop" and the line "Who, who, who slapped John?" spoken as the song speeds up to its full tempo is directly lifted from "Who Slapped John". Another line 'and you lay that pistol down' is a bastardisation of a lyric from "Pistol Packin' Mama" used to reference Vincent's partiality for waving guns around in-studio (an act that once scared The Beatles). "Be-Bop-A-Lula" is also referenced at least once, as one character in the song "Uncanny Annie" is 'the one with the flying feet', 'she's the one with the flying feet' being a line in "Be-Bop-A-Lula".