quote:

extract from the lyrics of a Pogues "song"
You're a bum
You're a punk
You're an old slut on junk
Lying there almost dead on a drip in that bed
You scumbag, you maggot
You cheap lousy faggot
Happy Christmas your arse
I pray God it's our last

quote:

The observations of the character included references to a musician "banging on the bongos like a chimpanzee" and a description of a singer as "that little faggot with the earring and the makeup", and lamenting that the artists got "money for nothing and chicks for free". These lyrics were widely criticised as sexist, anti-gay, and racist statements, and in some later releases of the song the lyrics were edited for airplay; "faggot" for example is often replaced with "mother": "little mother, he's a millionaire". The entire second verse was edited out for content and length for radio and video airplay, and on the 7" single. This edited version is included in the compilation album Sultans of Swing: The Very Best of Dire Straits.
In a late 1985 interview in Rolling Stone magazine, Knopfler expressed mixed feelings on the controversy:




“
I got an objection from the editor of a gay newspaper in London - he actually said it was below the belt. Apart from the fact that there are stupid gay people as well as stupid other people, it suggests that maybe you can't let it have so many meanings - you have to be direct. In fact, I'm still in two minds as to whether it's a good idea to write songs that aren't in the first person, to take on other characters.[5]
”
Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx, in an interview with Blender Magazine, says that the song is actually about his band's excessive lifestyle, and that he heard the clerk in the store were commenting on Mötley Crüe videos shown on the in-store television sets.[6]