By Alesha Capone
A satirical song titled Werribee, which was launched by alternative rock band Funk Dancing For Self Defence last week, has drawn criticism for its depiction of the area.
The song’s lyrics include: “Take me back to Werribee, where the girls are easy and the drugs are cheap”, “Check out the dropkicks selling drugs to high school kids,” and, “Werribee, you catch every kind of STD”.
Western region MP Cesar Melhem said the song should be “taken out of circulation”.
“These people should take the song down and apologise to the people of Werribee,” he said.
Mr Melhem said the way the song referred to girls was “disgusting” and “abhorrent”.
Ratepayers of Werribee South president Dr Joe Garra said he was concerned by the song describing girls as “easy”, in light of sex crimes significantly increasing in Wyndham within the past two years.
Western region MP Bernie Finn said he was worried the song would make listeners think badly of Werribee, given it seemed to be trying to paint the suburb as “some sort of drug slum”.
“Werribee, just like any growing suburb, does have its problems, but to condemn an entire suburb on the basis of this sort of nonsense is totally ridiculous,” Mr Finn said.
A third western region MP, Dr Rachel Carling–Jenkins, said that after listening to the song, she was “thrilled to see young Werribeeans making their mark in the music world”.
“Like all artists and songwriters they have drawn from their lived experience to highlight aspects of the human condition,” she said.
“Of course there is more to Werribee than the somewhat dark aspects FDSD explore in this song.
“I wish them well with this new single and in their musical career.”
Funk Dancing For Self Defence consists of Jake Kougi, Liam Cameron-Smith and Jon ‘Stixx’ Solli two of whom grew up in Werribee and still call the suburb home.
In an email to Star Weekly, the band members said their single was “steeped in irony, sarcasm and humour”.
“We love Werribee, warts and all, and this is our way of celebrating it,” they said.
“The song is marked ‘mature’ so it’s aimed at adults, and if there is an adult that’s going to take lyrics as gospel, then they’re the ones dropping the collective IQ of the town and we don’t need them in Werribee anyway.”
The band said Cameron-Smith had worked in two Werribee nightclubs, where he had seen “the more filthy side” of the area.
“To pretend that side doesn’t exist would have been dis-service to our Werribee mates and to the town itself,” they said.
