If I hear another all male guitar band churning out material as if the only thing they've listened to is Franz Ferdinand's 'Take Me Out', I will reach for the sledgehammer (courtesy of Peter Gabriel). 'Bandit' on S4C was chock with them the other night: bands have even given up trying to imitate the Super Furries. Of course, there is some variety and the only way you're going to make it ( as in the world of literature) is to move to London.
Mumford & Sons are about as inspiring as watching Cameron jogging on tv and Laura Marling has yet to perfect her Joni Mitchell impersonation. So where are the bands for today,to rail against what's happening and to describe without being too polemical in the way that Elbow can, with subtle sensitivity and rootedness?
I had great hopes for Glasvegas, but they seem to be abandoning their native Glasgow for the world circuit after touring with U2 (more than coincidence). Remember what happened to the Stereophonics after their first and best album?
Apart from Captain Ska's 'Liar, Liar' (which conveniently left out the biggest liar, Blair), rock/folk/pop has completely failed to come to terms with today's crises. Cuts abound, factories are closed, youth unemployment is prevalent and Labour are left to pose as defenders, when they were previously friends of the rich and the banks.
Even the present intervention in Libya is opposed by 45% of the population and that could increase rapidly as UN guidelines are ignored and Britain's involvement in a Civil War becomes more inextricable. Apart from a few , isolated exceptions, the response of popular music has been minimal.
It's intriguing looking back at the 1980's and early 90's to draw stark contrasts. The 80's has become associated with the kind of bland synth-pop now aped by Le Roux and many others, yet it was a time for some of the best political songs ever. In 1980, Peter Gabriel released another eponymous album and it contained the song 'Biko', a scathing attack on the apartheid regime in S.Africa (while Thatcher dubbed Mandela a 'terrorist'), about the death in detention of activist Steve Biko. Four laters later, Special AKA got to no. 9 with their single 'Free Nelson Mandela', echoing Gabriel's condemnations and making a plea for the man's release.
In '86, there were two fascinating songs dealing with the 'Troubles' in N. Ireland. Firstly was 'Streets of Sorrow/Birmingham Six' from The Pogues, with the first part expressing their sadness about the war there and the second attacking the British authorities for incarcerating innocent Irishmen.
The Independent Broadcasting Authority banned the song and so boosted the fame of the band , much as the Sex Pistols had been a decade earlier!
That same year, the Irish folk singer Christy Moore released his 'Spirit of Freedom' album with the lark (symbol of hunger striker Bobby Sands) over a tricolour on its cover. On that album was the bold song 'The People's Own MP', penned by an English republican, which dealt with Sands election shortly before he died on hunger strike in Long Kesh prison.
In the early 90's, the music of Cymru began to address the situation both in N.Ireland and in Wales, where a campaign against second homes was waged by Meibion Glyndwr, which fire-bombed property. Both Sobin a'r Smaeliad and Steve Eaves brought out songs sympathetic to republicanism in N.Ireland and empathizing with the aims of Meibion Glyndwr. Sobin's singer Bryn Fon even appeared once on stage wearing a black beret and his home in north Wales was raided by police for any dubious equipment (none was found!).
At the time, I was writing rock reviews for 'Wales On Sunday', then a broadsheet edited by John Osmond. I recall that all of the political aspects of my Sobin review were edited out, while less controversial material appeared in full. The editor claimed it was because of a 'lack of space'!
Ironically, it's from veteran US singer-songwriter Loudon Wainwright (better known now as dad of Rufus and Martha) that we have the most sustained, witty and hard-hitting album yet. On 'Songs for the New Depression' he returns to Woody Guthrie influences and is both highly contemporary and also historical, with references to the Great Depression of the 30's and the post-war era of Roosevelt.
The range of lyrics is astonishing, from the black humour of 'House', the overtly Obama-supporting 'On to Victory, Mr Roosevelt' , through to the highly optimistic 'Middle of the Night'. It's so ironic that it takes an ol' folkie to show 'em how it's done. As he sings - 'Times is rough / Times is hard / Take a pair of scissors to your credit card'.
REVOLUTION NOT DEVOLUTION!
take the 'd'
take the 'd'
take the 'd'
away
put in 'r'
put in 'r'
put in 'r'
I say
Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Bahrain -
people on the streets
claiming them their own
know what you'll reply -
'we live in a democracy ,
no military oppressive
torturing autocracy,
no money-grabbing madman
promoting family'
but I say
in this our Cymru today -
who voted for ConDem leaders
who are worst of cutters?
Cymru never was a Tory country,
our Secretary of State
a woman from England
who thinks us paltry
take the 'd'
take the 'd'
put in 'r'
put in 'r'
revolution not devolution!
the 'r' word no more
the dirty word of the world
rise up like 1831!
rise up like Chartists marching!
rise up like miners of the Fed!
rise up like poll-tax protesting!
Councils and the Assembly
can't blunt the machetes
as they swing and we fall
like branches of the trees
take the 'd'
put in 'r'
revolution not devolution!
make every town centre
our Tahrir Square,
a transfusion of solidarity
before our blood is lost
and we're too weak to see
take the 'd' away
put in 'r' I say.
Mumford & Sons are about as inspiring as watching Cameron jogging on tv and Laura Marling has yet to perfect her Joni Mitchell impersonation. So where are the bands for today,to rail against what's happening and to describe without being too polemical in the way that Elbow can, with subtle sensitivity and rootedness?
I had great hopes for Glasvegas, but they seem to be abandoning their native Glasgow for the world circuit after touring with U2 (more than coincidence). Remember what happened to the Stereophonics after their first and best album?
Apart from Captain Ska's 'Liar, Liar' (which conveniently left out the biggest liar, Blair), rock/folk/pop has completely failed to come to terms with today's crises. Cuts abound, factories are closed, youth unemployment is prevalent and Labour are left to pose as defenders, when they were previously friends of the rich and the banks.
Even the present intervention in Libya is opposed by 45% of the population and that could increase rapidly as UN guidelines are ignored and Britain's involvement in a Civil War becomes more inextricable. Apart from a few , isolated exceptions, the response of popular music has been minimal.
It's intriguing looking back at the 1980's and early 90's to draw stark contrasts. The 80's has become associated with the kind of bland synth-pop now aped by Le Roux and many others, yet it was a time for some of the best political songs ever. In 1980, Peter Gabriel released another eponymous album and it contained the song 'Biko', a scathing attack on the apartheid regime in S.Africa (while Thatcher dubbed Mandela a 'terrorist'), about the death in detention of activist Steve Biko. Four laters later, Special AKA got to no. 9 with their single 'Free Nelson Mandela', echoing Gabriel's condemnations and making a plea for the man's release.
In '86, there were two fascinating songs dealing with the 'Troubles' in N. Ireland. Firstly was 'Streets of Sorrow/Birmingham Six' from The Pogues, with the first part expressing their sadness about the war there and the second attacking the British authorities for incarcerating innocent Irishmen.
The Independent Broadcasting Authority banned the song and so boosted the fame of the band , much as the Sex Pistols had been a decade earlier!
That same year, the Irish folk singer Christy Moore released his 'Spirit of Freedom' album with the lark (symbol of hunger striker Bobby Sands) over a tricolour on its cover. On that album was the bold song 'The People's Own MP', penned by an English republican, which dealt with Sands election shortly before he died on hunger strike in Long Kesh prison.
In the early 90's, the music of Cymru began to address the situation both in N.Ireland and in Wales, where a campaign against second homes was waged by Meibion Glyndwr, which fire-bombed property. Both Sobin a'r Smaeliad and Steve Eaves brought out songs sympathetic to republicanism in N.Ireland and empathizing with the aims of Meibion Glyndwr. Sobin's singer Bryn Fon even appeared once on stage wearing a black beret and his home in north Wales was raided by police for any dubious equipment (none was found!).
At the time, I was writing rock reviews for 'Wales On Sunday', then a broadsheet edited by John Osmond. I recall that all of the political aspects of my Sobin review were edited out, while less controversial material appeared in full. The editor claimed it was because of a 'lack of space'!
Ironically, it's from veteran US singer-songwriter Loudon Wainwright (better known now as dad of Rufus and Martha) that we have the most sustained, witty and hard-hitting album yet. On 'Songs for the New Depression' he returns to Woody Guthrie influences and is both highly contemporary and also historical, with references to the Great Depression of the 30's and the post-war era of Roosevelt.
The range of lyrics is astonishing, from the black humour of 'House', the overtly Obama-supporting 'On to Victory, Mr Roosevelt' , through to the highly optimistic 'Middle of the Night'. It's so ironic that it takes an ol' folkie to show 'em how it's done. As he sings - 'Times is rough / Times is hard / Take a pair of scissors to your credit card'.
REVOLUTION NOT DEVOLUTION!
take the 'd'
take the 'd'
take the 'd'
away
put in 'r'
put in 'r'
put in 'r'
I say
Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Bahrain -
people on the streets
claiming them their own
know what you'll reply -
'we live in a democracy ,
no military oppressive
torturing autocracy,
no money-grabbing madman
promoting family'
but I say
in this our Cymru today -
who voted for ConDem leaders
who are worst of cutters?
Cymru never was a Tory country,
our Secretary of State
a woman from England
who thinks us paltry
take the 'd'
take the 'd'
put in 'r'
put in 'r'
revolution not devolution!
the 'r' word no more
the dirty word of the world
rise up like 1831!
rise up like Chartists marching!
rise up like miners of the Fed!
rise up like poll-tax protesting!
Councils and the Assembly
can't blunt the machetes
as they swing and we fall
like branches of the trees
take the 'd'
put in 'r'
revolution not devolution!
make every town centre
our Tahrir Square,
a transfusion of solidarity
before our blood is lost
and we're too weak to see
take the 'd' away
put in 'r' I say.
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