[1] The track is grounded by a rockabilly-beat, described by journalist David Wilkinson as chosen due to its being a rhythm that would "likely have been to the taste of a middle-aged working class Mancunian in 1979".

[2] Simon Reynolds saw it as "a coruscating portrait of one of Manchester's finest sons, the hard-bitten product of five generations of industrial life...a forty-five-year-old pub stalwart who's spent three decades on the piss, ignoring the pain from his long-suffering kidneys", also speculating that Jack may be an amphetamine user.

[3] The single was recorded at Foel Studios in Llanfair Caereinion, Powys, Wales in October 1979, and produced with Geoff Travis and Mayo Thompson, who had accepted Smith's invitation to work on the sessions.

The sleeve's artwork was designed by Smith's sister Suzanne, with text by Mark E. Smith which mentioned Roman Totale XVII (one of several references to this character in the band's early releases), and claiming the contents of the single were found next to Totale's remains, "the results of experiments which took place in the remote Welsh hills one autumn" and urging the reader to "never unleash it on humanity".

According to Mick Middles the song saw the band "perfecting pomposity, the Fall jump into the rough and raw world of rockabilly with confidence in excess.