Songfacts®:

• This punchy, percussive song is about a drug addict with a volatile personality. The title came from an advert for a brand of tobacco. Nick Lowe told The A.V. Club: "I used to share a flat with my manager, Jake Riviera, who actually is still my manager. Back then we had this really squalid apartment in London, and he had all this junk. This little flat was filled with junk. And one of the things in the flat was this old-fashioned advertisement for a brand of tobacco, which was called 'Big Kick.' The tobacco was called 'Big Kick,' and it was rolling tobacco, which they used to call 'plain scrap.' And so he had this little cardboard advert that you propped up on the counter, I suppose. I'd never seen it before or since. I think it's American, actually. But actually, he had this thing in the flat that said, 'Big Kick, plain scrap,' and it was the sort of nonsensical combination of words that appealed to me back then. So I came up with something."
• Labour of Lust was Lowe's second solo LP. The album was more successful in the US, where it peaked at #31, than in Lowe's native UK, where it peaked at #41.