"Damaged Goods" is the debut single by Gang of Four. It was released on 10 December 1978 through independent record label Fast Product. Produced by Fast Product owner Bob Last under the alias Fast Product, the single received critical acclaim, prompting the band to sign to EMI Records. The title track and "Love Like Anthrax" were re-recorded for Gang of Four's debut album Entertainment! in 1979 and the whole EP was included in the Fast Product compilation Mutant Pop in 1980.

The title track starts with syncopated bass and drums, which are later accompanied with a guitar. The song also features vocals by Jon King, which take the role of "a lonesome, longing lament" and a "nearly spoken-word" section sung by the band's guitarist Andy Gill.Allmusic critic Tom Maginnis argued that the track is "the closest thing approaching a traditional pop single from their influential first record," while noting the "uncharacteristic lightness and bounce from Dave Allen's superb, hooky bass line, countered with a constant hacking rhythm guitar from Andy Gill." He also described the end result as "almost danceable, skewed only by singer Jon King's indignant rant."NME also stated that the track "boasts a riff that could slice through a particularly strong girder, the coldest funk this side of Prince & The Refrigeration."

Lyrically, the song is about "sexual politics," with "a sexual/political double entendre providing the crux of the song's message." Kevin J.H. Dettmar, the author of Gang of Four's Entertainment!, argued that "the song's protagonist shows no self-awareness." In a 2009 interview with Clash magazine, singer and lyricist Jon King stated that he was inspired by an "in-store slogan" in a Morrisons supermarket in Leeds," using it as "a good starter for words about a doomed relationship where legover had become, maybe, too much of a good thing." Magginis also noted that the lyrics "could summarize the collective attitude of the post-punk era, bidding adieu to the more optimistic music of the '60s and self-absorbed '70s with a singalong chorus."

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