Lyrics to
Substitute

This version of Substitute was released by Sex Pistols in 1979.

Our About Sex Pistols page at Decade Lyrics includes the lyrics for Substitute from 1979 as well as all of the other lyrics from Sex Pistols that we have in our lyrics database.

Here's more interesting things in songs and lyrics tied to Sex Pistols or about the 1970s in general.

You think we look pretty good together
You think my shoes are made of leather

But I’m a substitute for another guy
I look pretty tall but my heels are high
The simple things you see are all complicated
I look pretty young, but I’m just back-dated, yeah

Substitute your lies for fact
I can see right through your plastic mac
I look all white, but my dad was black
My fine looking suit is really made out of sack

I was born with a plastic spoon in my mouth
The north side of my town faced east, and the east was facing south
And now you dare to look me in the eye
Those crocodile tears are what you cry
It’s a genuine problem, you won’t try
To work it out at all you just pass it by, pass it by

Substitute me for him
Substitute my coke for gin
Substitute you for my mum
At least I’ll get my washing done

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Sex Pistols has released many songs over the years besides Substitute. Sex Pistols released songs from 1977 to 1979 spanning across albums like Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols, and The Great Rock 'N' Roll Swindle. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by Sex Pistols.

If you're a fan of the music of the 1970s looking for more songs from 1979 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and Substitute by Sex Pistols

The lyrics for Substitute are made up of the words, verses and background chorus for the popular 1979 song by Sex Pistols. Like a lot of songs, the lyrics to Substitute have both direct meanings and metaphorical context hidden within the song's words. All of the meanings are only truly known by the creators of the lyrics for Substitute - Sex Pistols and any of the writers who worked with them on the song.

If you have an interest in the structure of words and phrases, you can dissect the lyrics to Substitute by Sex Pistols in multiple ways. The word "lyric" itself derives from the Latin word lyricus, with the actual English word lyrics applied to the definition "words set to music" listed in Stainer and Barrett's 1876 Dictionary of Musical Terms. Continuing the chain, the Latin word lyricus derives from the Greek word λυρικός or lyrikós. This somewhat means "poetry accompanied by the lyre" or "words set to music." You can easily see that by looking at the background of the word lyric, that the "lyrics to Substitute" means the words set to the music of Substitute, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by Sex Pistols. The singular form "lyric" is still used to mean the complete words to a song. However, the singular form lyric is also commonly used to refer to a specific line (or phrase) within a song's lyrics. Hence, by this analysis of word structure, you could say that the lyric to Substitute and the lyrics to Substitute are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of Sex Pistols who came here looking just for the lyrics to Substitute, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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