Rubber Bullets

Written by Creme, Godley and Gouldman for the band's self-titled debut album, it was their first UK number one, spending a week at the top in June 1973. It also topped the chart in Ireland for two weeks, reached number three in Australia, and peaked at 73 in the US. Gouldman said Godley and Creme had the chorus and part of the verse but got stuck. Everyone loved the chorus and wanted to persist with it, and Gouldman added the line about balls and brains and balls and chains. Creme sang the lead vocal, as the Guardian notes.

Stewart said the double-tracked guitar solo was recorded with the tape running at half speed through a Marshall stack, so that played back at normal speed it sounds an octave higher with a screaming fuzz. He said the BBC never banned it, though it limited airplay because it thought the song was about the conflict in Northern Ireland. In fact he said it was about a prison riot like Attica, in the style of old James Cagney films. It was banned for the duration of the Gulf War in 1990 and 1991. Godley played drums on it when it was played at the Royal Albert Hall in 2012.