Best Political Punk

[Bernie Gunther]

Unemployments rising
In the Chigley end of town.
And it's speading like pneumonia;
Doesn't look like going down.
There's trouble at the fire station;
Someone's had the sack.
And the lads are going to launch a scheme
To get rid of Captain Black.

Tell PC McGarry
To get himself a mate.
And arm themselves with C. S. Gas
They're gonna be out late.
We've had calm conformers in since 1966.
And now subversions in the air
In the shape of flying bricks!

Chorus:
Someone get a message through
To Captain Snort
That they better start assembling
The boys from the fort.
Keep Mrs. Honeyman right out of sight,
'Cause there's gonna be riot
Down in Trumpton Tonight.

All this aristocracy
Has really got to stop.
We'll overthrow the surgery
And kidnap Doctor Mop
And Chicley Militant Socialists
Will storm the market square
And make plans to assasinate
Our autocratic mayor!

Windy Militant rages past
With Corn grinders to war
With windmill sails and bombs with nails
They smash the town hall door.
But Snorty and the boys arrive
With one big erstwhile (?) crew
Whereupon they bring about
A military coup.

 

[Blagsta]

Thanks.

I was hinting that their "politics" might not have been sincere; that they might have been in it for the money and the adulation just like everybody else (which is fair enough by me); that if they were claiming to be Marxists then signing to EMI makes them look somewhat hypocritical. Is that clear enough for you?

But I honestly can't remember if they said they were Marxists or not. You sound like a Gang of Four expert so I'll take your word for it that they did. Whatever - it's on the shelves in HMV innit, within spitting distance of Michael Bolton and Steps.

Ahhhhhhhh, I get where you're coming from. No one's politics are good enough unless they meet your standards of "purity".

 

[ozzie]

Thanks.

I was hinting that their "politics" might not have been sincere; that they might have been in it for the money and the adulation just like everybody else (which is fair enough by me); that if they were claiming to be Marxists then signing to EMI makes them look somewhat hypocritical. Is that clear enough for you?

But I honestly can't remember if they said they were Marxists or not. You sound like a Gang of Four expert so I'll take your word for it that they did. Whatever - it's on the shelves in HMV innit, within spitting distance of Michael Bolton and Steps.

Entryism.

 

[Brockway]

Entryism.

Yeah, that'll be it. Only, refresh my memory as to how they brought the whole capitalist EMI edifice down once they were in. I've forgotten. As far as I can recall they were dropped for not selling many records. Maybe that was their grand plan - take the money and not be successful.

 

[Mallard]

You claimed that political punk doesn't exist, I pointed out that Gang of Four were obviously Marxist (read their lyrics).

They were marxists but also more New wave than punk surely (sorry for pedantry!).

My fave political punk lyrics:-

Are you believing the morning papers?
War is coming back in style
There's generals here, advisors there
And Russians nibbling everywhere
The chessboard's filling up with red
We make more profits when we blow off their heads

Economy is looking bad
Let's start another war when ya get drafted
Fan the fires of racist hatred
We want total war when ya get drafted

Drooling fingers
Panic buttons
Playing with missiles like they're toys
There's easy money, easy jobs
Especially when you build the bombs
That blow big cities off the map
Just guess who profits when we build 'em back up
Yeah, what Big Business wants Big Business gets

It wants a war when ya get drafted
Trilateral Commission goonies laugh
and scheme for more when ya get drafted
Call the Army!
Call the Navy!
Stocked with kids from slums when ya get drafted
If you can't afford a slick attorney
We might make you a spy

Forget your demonstrations
Kids today sit on their ass when ya get drafted
Just a six-pack
And you're happy
We're prepared
For when ya get drafted

 

[Blagsta]

Yeah, that'll be it. Only, refresh my memory as to how they brought the whole capitalist EMI edifice down once they were in. I've forgotten. As far as I can recall they were dropped for not selling many records. Maybe that was their grand plan - take the money and not be successful.

I find your attitude curiously adolescent tbh.

 

[Blagsta]

They were marxists but also more New wave than punk surely (sorry for pedantry!).

Personally I'd call 'em post-punk.

 

[Mallard]

Personally I'd call 'em post-punk.

I'd go with that.

 

[Dubversion]

They were marxists but also more New wave than punk surely (sorry for pedantry!).

My fave political punk lyrics:-

Are you believing the morning papers?
War is coming back in style
There's generals here, advisors there
And Russians nibbling everywhere
The chessboard's filling up with red
We make more profits when we blow off their heads

SNIP

nope, can't be political punk
- Brockway's already stated Dead Kennedys weren't political, and he's the arbiter of these things

 

[Mallard]

nope, can't be political punk
- Brockway's already stated Dead Kennedys weren't political, and he's the arbiter of these things

I respectfully beg to disagree with him as his assertion is bizarre to say the least

 

[chico enrico]

they always put themselves in the frontline when it came to dealing with the BM (remember them?), NF and other unsavoury types.

errrr...objection m'lud. seem to remember the lines 'left wing/right wing/it's all the fucking same' (no. penny, it's NOT) and 'black man's got his problems and his way to deal with it...'

on the most memorable occassion the BM WERE 'dealt with' (at Conway hall) crass issued a statement in the leveller saying that the perpetrators were as bad - if not worse -than the BMers.

never liked the subhumans or the dead kennedys. and regarding the latter, i think their 'politics' were a tad invalidated by the resulting royalties case, n'est pas?

early Ex, Rondos (albeit they were marxist-leninists), Third world War (1970s band, albeit a bit 'Citizen Smith'sy), Apostles (up till first EP), Sinyx, Zounds 'can't cheat karma' EP's sentiments re 'subvert' ... blah blah.

 

[chico enrico]

oh, and here's a review of the Crass book i penned for a certain magazine... pretty much sums up what I consider their influence to be. great band, nice folk but some silly ideas which always diluted and detracted from their positive aspects.

I always thought Crass were the first punk band who’d ever sounded like punk should have sounded. Sure, the Sex Pistols ‘Bodies’ was nasty but that was about it. By the time Crass came along they’d run out of spunk and the corpse of ’77 was starting to stink. If you were into punk in the late ‘70s you felt like you’d turned up to the party once all the booze had been drunk and everyone had left. Then – WHAT THE FUCK?! - Crass turned up with “Feeding of The 5,000” like they’d kicked the front door down after looting the local off-licence!
“So what? So What? So what if Jesus died on the cross? So What about the fucker I don’t give a toss!”
Vicious, uncompromising and in terms of an unrelenting aural assault - un-fucking like anything before or after. This book is the first to address Crass’ cultural impact, which went far beyond the racket they made and forged a bloodline that can be traced through the DIY music scene, squatting, eco warrior and anti globalisation movements of today.
From their embryonic origins in the hippie free festival movement to their death rattle during the miners strike, Crass never compromised their DIY ethic, even when it seriously imploded in their lives. And perhaps the strongpoint of the book is that while Crass’ public image was of a black-clad cabal so austere they made the Taliban look like the Hellfire Club they were basically a bunch of mates who played in a band, whose lives were put on hold for a few years while they revolutionised the music industry. Leaving shockwaves that still reverberate today.
So, if you think you’re into the ‘alternative music scene’ you can’t get more essential reading that this, ‘cos Crass were the band who wrote the rule-book.

 

[Pigeon]

Someone mentioned The Clash. I see them as being romantics more than anything else. They were singing about the Spanish Civil War for heaven's sake. They were more interested in exotic causes than the iniquities of Thatcher. Joe Strummer's politics were really just a part of his love for rebel mythology. But again, great tunes.

Bollocks. Something like "White man in Hammersmith Palais" captures the mood of the times Strummer was singing about like nothing else.

 

[Pigeon]

My point is exactly that regarding issues and causes. The Clash, Dead Kennedy's etc were, in my view, just being a bit rebellious - their "politics" were vague.

Vague enough for Jello Biafra to have nearly been locked up on account of his anti-censorship stance.

 

[Pigeon]

Don't get me wrong I love the Gang of Four, their music anyway. Were they Marxists? I can't really remember but I do remember them signing up to capitalist giants EMI as soon as they waved a fat cheque at them. Maybe they were going to subvert the industry from the inside. Or something.

Oh, Jesus. If you'd paid any attention at all to the lyrics you'd realise their work's an engagement with the concept of hegemony; we're ALL co-opted into the capitalist system. In which case it would have made precisely no point for them to have run up and started a little cottage industry a la Crass (whose records, if memory serves,ended up getting printed up on EMI's presses anyway...)

 

[bus]

and once again someone goes for the easy target.
Not ALL of Crass were middle class hippies, you know. But that doesn't fit the stereotype, does it?

*nods*

nicely put. but lets not let the truth get in the way eh? It's all so ironic in a way...."they can't be punk - they're are students!"..."they can't be punk..they're middle class"..."they can't be punk....they liked cheese". Join the army..become a punk (as someone once said)

 

[tbaldwin]

I liked the songs "student power" and "youth leader" by the Upstarts.

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

Nobody say skrewdriver.

 

[tbaldwin]

Nobody say skrewdriver.

Government action was quite a good tune..

 

[rorymac]

Damaged Goods !!!!
I was Andy Gill's chargehand at a small but well managed machine tool company in Heckmondwike. He was a fucking diamond.
I fucking told Andrew that I had to let him go !! NOT!!! because he wasn't putting in
the graft or that he didn't care enough. He couldn't fucking do enough for you to be fair like.
'If anything Andrew' I told him 'I can't keep you on NOT
because you care TOO much
if you like .. you're trying TOO fucking hard son' .. well he fucking was ! He couldn't even switch on the hydraulic lathe .. press the fucking button and hold the cunt Andrew .. HOLD THE FUCKING THING TIL IT STARTS .. 4 seconds and then watch the numerical controlled beauty do all the work to be fair.. that's it.

'You have no fucking rhythm Andrew and you never fucking will have .. that's it
son'.
I was fucking gutted
We embraced in the warehouse that afternoon but I told him straight to get off the fucking plant.

Damaged Goods .. The Gang of Four. It was Andrew's fucking music group. It was a
bleak fucking rhythmic disaster of an effort and I fucking told him so.
Too right !

 

[tastebud]

Rory's back. Wooo hooo.
*claps hands in agreement*

 

[SaturdayService]

Surprised no one mentioned Blaggers ITA.

One of the best bands I've seen

 

[strummerville]

Crisis. Took on the NF - Walked like they talked it. And The Clash for being the first Punk band to stick their head above the parapet. Playing the Anti Nazi league rally at Victoria Park was a massive statement.

 

[bus]

Surprised no one mentioned Blaggers ITA.

saw them a couple of times and they were great - around the time when they released united colours of blaggers ita which was a fucking great album.

they seemed to do some very spectacular plot losing after that if i remember correctly though...

 

[milesy]

and a really crap guitarist at one point.

 

[tbaldwin]

Surprised no one mentioned Blaggers ITA.

One of the best bands I've seen

Crikey what were the other 2 like?

 

[Dubversion]

saw them a couple of times and they were great - around the time when they released united colours of blaggers ita which was a fucking great album.

they seemed to do some very spectacular plot losing after that if i remember correctly though...

yeh, in their time they were excellent, and United Colours has so much energy

 

[tbaldwin]

yeh, in their time they were excellent, and United Colours has so much energy

What about House of Fascist scum..Did you like that dub?

 

[Sunspots]

They've all been mentioned already I think, but for me, it's always been The Dead Kennedys, The Pop Group/Maffia, and (-although not explicitly political) Black Flag.

 

[mtbskalover]

of subject,
but citizen fish 2morrow night,
WOOP!!!!!!!!!!