Ted, Just Admit It...

Album: Nothing's Shocking (1988)
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  • Camera got them images
    Camera got them all
    Nothing's shocking
    Showed me everybody
    Naked and disfigured
    Nothing's shocking
    And then he came
    Now sister's
    Not a virgin anymore
    Her sex is violent

    The t.v.'s got them images
    T.v.'s got them all
    It's not shocking!
    Every half an hour
    Someone's captured and
    The cop moves them along
    It's just like the show before
    The news is
    Just another show
    With sex and violence

    Sex is violent [Repeats]

    I am the killer of people
    You look like a meatball
    I'll throw away your toothpick
    And ask for your giveness

    Because of this thing!
    Because of this thing!
    Because of this thing!

    That's in me
    Is it not in you?
    Is it not your problem?

    A baby to a mother
    You talk too much
    To your scapegoat

    That's what I say
    He tells you everyone is stupid
    That's what he thinks!

    Snapshots
    Make a girl look cheap
    Like a tongue extended
    A baby's to a mother

    Sex is violent! [Repeats] Writer/s: DAVID NAVARRO, ERIC ADAM AVERY, PERRY FARRELL, STEPHEN PERKINS
    Publisher: Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Universal Music Publishing Group
    Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 10

  • David Gearhart from TampaThis review is remarkably well-written. I’m an attorney and I more than had put my phone down to appreciate such great phrasing as “fought like a tigress” and “drip fed” to cite only a couple of many.
  • Karl from FinlandAlbum was recorded 87-88 and released in 8/88. Bundy was executed 1/89.
  • Snake Plissken from South Of HeavenCheck out the song Slightly All The Time by Soft Machine. Tell me if they didn't rip that bass line off.
  • Luke from Oshawa, OnThe song Ted Just Admit It is a genius piece of work. As stated above, the song brilliantly moves the listener with everything from the very provocative lyrics, the wandering guitar work that is both relaxed and tense, to the ending of the song that is pure rage. The lyric "Sex is Violent" has to do with the excuse Ted Bundy gave for his actions just before he was executed - that he associated sex with violence as a result of exposure to porn. Now we all know that millions of people connect with porn and associate porn with sex and pleasure. On one level the song is about Ted Bundy. On a greater level the song is about society's exposure to violence. That TV and other media are about violence. There is so much violence in the media that 'Nothing's Shocking'. " And the news is just another show with sex and violence". Perhaps an additional meaning of the song is that we, as a society are appaled by the actions of Ted Bundy; but, we aren't at all phased by the torrent of violence in the media. Finally, ' And sisters not a virgin anymore'. Think about how a victim of such violence may react. With anger. 'Her sex is violent.' The song is a masterpiece.
  • A Nonny Mouse from Long Beach, CaRape changes everything. I imagine it changes as much for the rapist as the raped.

    "Sex is violent"

    I can see it as a commentary on society and/or the media, but I can also see it as one of the raped.

    It took over a decade for me, 11 years and, roughly, 6 months to open myself to the concept of sex as something that isn't violent; sex as an act of love, beauty, and, even craziest of all, pleasure.

    I don't know that Jane's had any real idea of the impact of rape on the victim. I don't know whether this song was intended more as a comment on society and the media than an actual look into the heads of both the rapist and the victim. Nonetheless, from my frighteningly un-unique perspective, it captures the experience of rape perfectly; from the fear, vulnerability, inadequacy, and horror of the victim to the justification, sense of power and strength, and, yes, inadequacy of the rapist.

    When it first came out, when I first hear it, about two years before I was actually raped, I was stunned by the emotional complexity of the lyrics and music. It stirs emotions in the same way of the great masters: Bach, Beethoven, Mozart... It stands on it's own, expressing the same emotion even without lyrics to tell us what we should be feeling. The lyrics are disturbing versions of Whitman, Shelly, Plath, and Eliot. Just plain, simple, raw emotion. No logic. No story.

    I think this song works like a great symphony or poem. It has a profound emotional effect on the listener that is quite specific to the listener.

    It's easy to write a pretty tune and tell your own story. It's art when you write, tell, paint, sculpt, or whatever, to express emotions, when you can leave the facts behind and just expose the raw nerves of emotion for people to do with as they may.

    "Ted" can be interpreted in any number of ways. The meaning that matters most is the meaning we get from it. The artists' specific intent matters far less than their emotional intent.

    And, in this song, we're all either raped, literally or figuratively (by the media, society, religion, etc...), or doing the raping.

    Whatever perspective or interpretation I'm pretty sure the emotional context is captured quite well in this song.
  • Brian from Littleton, CoThe title of the song implies that Ted is lying. Sex is not violent. Porn is not the reason he did what he did. The "sister's not a virgin anymore" in addition to other lines, implies that the media saturation of sex with violence has removed all of our virginities. This confusion of sex and violence is Ted's big lie. Nothing's shocking is the title track of the album, talking about our oversaturated societal state. This leaves us in a condition where we are overstimulated and unable to distinguish the differences even between opposites like sex (creative) and violence (destructive). Great song. Deep lyrics.
  • Ali from Dublin, IrelandThe Ted Bundy quote is from an interview just before he was executed, during the interview he blamed his addiction to pornography for causing him to kill. I presume that is what the song is based on.
  • James from Amarillo, Txi was EXTREMELY in to these guys during my party phase and on one of my many trips with Janes Addiction I figured it out,and I can tell you what the Sex is Violent means.
    It is talking about it in the simplest of terms. It is referring to one partner slamming into the other during the penetrative act of a sexual episode.
    Think about it for a moment and you will get it.
  • Jason from State Of Fitz, Njthe line "sister's not a virgin anymore, her sex is violent" I always wonder if it's about a nun or suppose to be his siter. Is he saying the sister or the nun was raped?
  • Maria from Lake City, FlThe title, as it's written on Nothing's Shocking, is "Ted, Just Admit It...". I did not know that the clip was of Ted Bundy; I thought it was Charles Manson. It makes much more sense now. (not the song, really, but the title does.)
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