“Suspect Device” by Stiff Little Fingers

"Suspect Device" was the debut single from Stiff Little Fingers, the Northern Irish punks who later included it on Inflammable Material. The words came first, and not from the band: journalist Gordon Ogilvie, who had met them at a gig at the Glenmachen Stables and would soon co-manage them, handed Jake Burns a finished lyric rooted in the place Burns had grown up. Burns has said the band was never the same after that.

He set it to a tune and snarled it out, with Henry Cluney on guitar, Ali McMordie on bass and Brian Faloon on drums behind him. It's punk with its eyes open, a roar aimed straight at the streets outside rather than at some cartoon of rebellion.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.