"People Like Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain and Nathaniel West Did–the Doors Did It–So It Was Time For an Update"

"The songs X recorded for Los Angeles were the most typically punky they had in their repertoire–the Ramones-y opener 'You're Phone's Off the Hook, but You're Not'; the ominous 'Johnny Hit and Run Paulene' with its 'Johnny B. Goode' intro; the pure sludge of 'Nausea,' offset by Manzarek's organ. Doe based the springy title track's sardonic lyrics on a friend who'd moved to London and subsequently had a nervous breakdown. 'She'd just gotten fed up with it,' he says. 'She had lived there for a couple of years and she became more and more racist and stereotyping people. And to be honest there was a lot of shock value in tended in the lyrics. I wanted to show the dark side or underbelly of Los Angeles.'"

Kory Grow at Rolling Stone talks to X upon the band's fortieth anniversary.