What is an Arab strap and why did it cause a rift between two Scottish bands?
In October 2020, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, Scottish indie ensemble Belle and Sebastian delighted their fans with an unexpected present. They released a live recording of the lolloping piano-led title track from their 1998 album The Boy with the Arab Strap, accompanied by joyous, affectionately amateur video footage of family and friends dancing along.
Leaving aside the song’s typically bleak lyrics piecing together poetic vignettes of urban loneliness and sexual frustration, it’s the happiest tune the band has ever written. And, like the majority of those who’ve made it to Belle and Sebastian’s best-selling album in the UK, the children dancing in the video must have been blissfully unaware of exactly what an Arab strap is.
The song’s writer, Stuart Murdoch, would later claim he didn’t know either when he came up with the lyric. “I’m always kind of naive,” he told NME, referring to the piece’s meaning. “It absolutely referred to the group.”
Belle and Sebastian happened to be touring London with another Scottish band actually called Arab Strap at the time the track was written. When the latter group heard about the title of their tourmates’ new song – and new album – they were miffed, to say the least.
Scotch beef
Arab Strap vocalist Aidan Moffat explained to Kinda Muzik back in 2001: “I was upset about the album title because ‘Arab Strap’ is in big letters on the front, much bigger than ‘Belle & Sebastian’.” He suggested that people would have confused the record for his own band’s work since even he himself first thought it was a poster for their tour.
It’s not clear the extent to which Belle and Sebastian’s choice of album cover and title affected Arab Strap’s ability to promote themselves. At the time, Moffat must have felt it had some effect because the release of The Boy with the Arab Strap did coincide with a reversal of Arab Strap’s fortunes.
In the months before the album’s release, Arab Strap’s own studio effort Philophobia reached number three in the UK indie albums chart. Yet Arab Strap’s next two records, released in 1999 and 2001, were commercial failures that barely registered in the charts.
The band has since made a triumphant return with 2021’s desolate masterpiece As Days Get Dark. They’re now widely acclaimed alongside the greats of Scottish alternative rock.
But Moffat’s problem with The Boy with the Arab Strap goes beyond just commercial exploitation. He claims that it “was based on a story that was in the tabloid press about an ex-girlfriend” of his. His friendship with Belle and Sebastian’s Murdoch never recovered. “I don’t really see Stuart at all. I don’t know what he does now. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him in Glasgow in years.”
Does the story in question relate to the real meaning of the term “Arab strap”? Or are we to believe Murdoch that he had no idea what it meant beyond the name of his friend’s band?
So, what is an “Arab strap”?
According to the dictionary definition, an Arab strap is a “device, usually made of leather with a metal ring, that is fastened around the penis and testicles to sustain erection.” In short, it’s a sex toy that can be used to treat erectile dysfunction.
“I didn’t realise it was a cock ring,” Stuart Murdoch has insisted. Well, the following line from his song’s lyrics might imply otherwise: “You were laid on your back with the boy with the Arab strap.”
We’ll give him the benefit of the doubt, though. In the long run, both Belle and Sebastian and Arab Strap have come out the other side of their spat with enhanced reputations.
And in any case, 25 years on, it’s impossible not to allow this bona fide nineties classic to pull you in with its infectious melody. Never mind its lurid and controversial backstory.
