The next album we’re looking at is 1983’s Flick of the Switch.

We’ve got eleven categories of lyrical content to choose from (and if none of these fit we’ll create new ones). Our categories so far are; sex, gambling, rocking (the importance of), love, personal power/ego, crime, loneliness, parties, the human condition, rejection of social norms and alcohol.

The Songs

Rising Power – love, supporting lyrical evidence “You’ve got a love life up all night”.

This House Is on Fire – sex, supporting lyrical evidence “Hot personality, she bring on the flames.

Flick of the Switch – sex, of the complicated, messy, electric kind, supporting lyrical evidence “With a flick of the switch she’ll blow you sky high”.

Nervous Shakedown – crime, supporting lyrical evidence “Law is gonna get you this time, and throw away the key”

Landslide – personal power/ego, supporting lyrical evidence “He’s out to win, he got the lot to top the last shot”.

Guns for Hire – sex, supporting lyrical evidence “My gun’s for hire, shoot you with desire”. In this song gun = penis, as we’ve already seen in Shoot to Thrill.

Deep in the Hole – love, supporting lyrical evidence “That woman got me deep in the hole”.

Bedlam in Belgium – crime, specifically a gig that local law enforcers were not keen should take place “We wanted to play, play for the crowd, law said no way”.

Badlands – sex, supporting lyrical evidence “I got a .45 that’ll make you fry”. This is the second song on this album to use the gun = penis metaphor!

Brain Shake – sex, supporting lyrical evidence “Cause she’s a joy to ride”.

Conclusion – this album is 50% sex, 20% love, 20 crime and 10% personal power/ego. It’s quite heavy on the gun = penis metaphor, okay guys, we get it, you’re packing a considerable weapon in the trouser region. Of course I could be wrong about my interpretations and “I got a .45 that’ll make you fry” could be referring to a situation in which someone is coerced at gunpoint into cooking a full English breakfast.

The next album we’ll look at is Fly on the Wall.