12XU

The title is pronounced One Two X U. The music is by Newman and the lyrics by Lewis in the reissue credits, though the original credited all four members. It was the band's first released song, on the live compilation The Roxy London WC2 in 1977, and closes Pink Flag at 1:57. Lewis told DeRogatis that the X is a joke about self-censorship and that in a way it's a gay song, and in another it isn't, a gay perspective on punk and rock sexism, and he linked it to queerness again in 2017; a 2024 Substack essay reads it as being about cottaging, which is the author's argument, not the band's. Newman said it grew from asking what a song would sound like if it had no real music in it. Henry Rollins heard it first on an early single and said of Wire that he knew of no band that evolved so much in such a short time.

MusicBrainz lists many versions: a 1:52 studio take on the EMI punk collection Happening, Alive and Nasty, live versions from the Roxy on April 1 and 2, 1977, the Electric Ballroom on February 29, 1980 for Document and Eyewitness, and the Royal Festival Hall on February 26, 2000, and a 2001 single, Twelve Times You, with Newman's remixes. Setlist.fm counts it 43 times among 726 setlists, often a closer or first encore in the 2000s; it was dropped in the 1980s. Minor Threat and Bad Brains reportedly covered it, and setlist.fm lists it as the most-covered Wire song. We cannot tell which version our upload is.