Punk Lyrics and their Cultural and Ideological Background: A Literary Analysis
Diplomarbeit
zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades eines Magisters der Philosophie
an der Karl-Franzens Universität Graz
vorgelegt von
Gerfried AMBROSCH
am Institut für Anglistik
Begutachter: A.o. Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr. Hugo Keiper
Graz, 2010 TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE 3
INTRODUCTION – What Is Punk? 5
1. ANARCHY IN THE UK 14
2. AMERICAN HARDCORE 26 2.1. STRAIGHT EDGE 44 2.2. THE NINETEEN-NINETIES AND EARLY TWOTHOUSANDS 46
3. THE IDEOLOGY OF PUNK 52 3.1. ANARCHY 53 3.2. THE DIY ETHIC 56 3.3. ANIMAL RIGHTS AND ECOLOGICAL CONCERNS 59 3.4. GENDER AND SEXUALITY 62 3.5. PUNKS AND SKINHEADS 65
4. ANALYSIS OF LYRICS 68 4.1. “PUNK IS DEAD” 70 4.2. “NO GODS, NO MASTERS” 75 4.3. “ARE THESE OUR LIVES?” 77 4.4. “NAME AND ADDRESS WITHHELD”/“SUPERBOWL PATRIOT XXXVI (ENTER THE MENDICANT)” 82
EPILOGUE 89
APPENDIX – Alphabetical Collection of Song Lyrics Mentioned or Cited 90
BIBLIOGRAPHY 117
2 PREFACE
Being a punk musician and lyricist myself, I have been following the development of punk rock for a good 15 years now. You might say that punk has played a pivotal role in my life. Needless to say, I have also seen a great deal of media misrepresentation over the years. I completely agree with Craig O’Hara’s perception when he states in his fine introduction to American punk rock, self-explanatorily entitled The Philosophy of Punk: More than Noise, that “Punk has been characterized as a self-destructive, violence oriented fad [...] which had no real significance.” (1999: 43.) He quotes Larry Zbach of Maximum RockNRoll, one of the better known international punk fanzines1, who speaks of “repeated media distortion” which has lead to a situation wherein “more and more people adopt the appearance of Punk [but] have less and less of an idea of its content. The critical message of Punk has a number of targets including classism, sexism, racism and authoritarianism.” (1999: 46.) It is this message, its social and political background and the way it is conveyed which, in my opinion, makes punk stand out against other forms of rock music and therefore a fascinating subject matter—or, as the Washington, DC straight edge hardcore punk band (all of these terms will be explained and discussed at length below) Good Clean Fun sang on their 2005 studio album Between Christian Rock and a Hard Place, “[...] they can’t take it away, punk will scream what corporate rock can’t say.”2
I consider punk an art form. That is, it can be seen as such according to the American psychologist Elliot Aronson who quotes the “distinguished Soviet psychologist” Pavel Semenov. The latter once stated that “[man] reorganizes the known environment in order to create something new (this is art).” (Cf. Aronson 1972: 269.) Punk does exactly that. Quite a few parallels to previous art movements can be drawn. “Early Punks used many of the revolutionary tactics employed by members of early avant-garde art movements: unusual fashions, the blurring of boundaries between art and everyday life, juxtapositions of seemingly disparate objects and behaviors, intentional provocation of the audience [...]”, O’Hara observes and consequently compares punk to Dada and the so-called Futurist
1 A quite self-explanatory portmanteau, i.e. a blend of the words ‘fan’ and ‘magazine’, in this case a magazine or journal for and by punk fans. Fanzines can be of high quality, professionally printed on glossy paper, or simply xeroxed and stitched together by hand, or anything in between. 2 For the lyrics to all songs cited or mentioned throughout this text please check the appendix.
3 movement launched by Filippo Marinetti in Paris in 1909, as both tried to break down the accepted barriers between the performer and the viewer, or as Guy Debord would put it, the spectator and the spectacle. Wearing outrageous clothes, earrings and make-up as a paradoxically artistic anti-art statement was copied (most likely unknowingly so) especially by the early London punk scene of the late 1970s. It is important to realize, however, that punk has evolved past these ‘shock tactics’ and has developed “a fairly cohesive philosophy.” (O’Hara 1999: 34.) Therefore, I believe that punk deserves to be treated like any other form of artistic expression, both musically and lyrically, especially because this unique subculture is so heavily based on various interesting ideological and philosophical cornerstones.
4 INTRODUCTION – What Is Punk?
punk [pʌŋk] or [puhngk]
-noun 1. Slang. a. something or someone worthless or unimportant. b. a young ruffian; hoodlum. c. an inexperienced youth. d. a young male partner of a homosexual. e. an apprentice, esp. in the building trades. f. Prison Slang. a boy.
2. > punk rock 3. a style or movement characterized by the adoption of aggressively unconventional and often bizarre or shocking clothing, hairstyles, makeup, etc., and the defiance of social norms of behavior, usually associated with punk rock musicians and fans. 4. a punk-er. 5. Archaic. a prostitute.
[…]
punk rock
a type of rock-'n'-roll, reaching its peak in the late 1970s and characterized by loud, insistent music and abusive or violent protest lyrics, and whose performers and followers are distinguished by extremes of dress and socially defiant behavior [...]
(Cf.
In a time when unemployment and anxiety about the future plagued a crisis-ridden nation and contemporary rock music seemed to have drawn its last breath, disillusioned English youths and their shocked parents witnessed a cultural explosion, a revolution in popular music and culture that was unheard of—punk was born. For the first time since the 1950s, when the release of the Bill Haley and the Comets’ song “Rock Around the Clock” reportedly caused riots in US-American suburbs and teenagers electrified with the emotions it unleashed overturned cars (cf. Days of War, Nights of Love 2001: 148) rock ‘n’ roll really
5 meant something—that is, with the exception of some of the artists classed with the hippie culture of ’68, who by 1976, 1977 had already become anachronistic symbols of an obsolete era of rock music in the eyes of many young people. Some contemporary punk musicians such as Penny Rimbaud from the anarcho punk band Crass, even considered traditional rock ‘n’ roll “an outright theft of black culture. Elvis ripped off gospel, while some time later Mick Jagger crapped all over the noble heritage of blues [...] selling black sexuality as a white trash commodity.” (2008: XVIIf.) In the introduction to the 2008 reissue of his highly respected essay The Last of the Hippies3 (1982) Rimbaud states that “Sixties liberalism created a convenient illusion for the middle class who most subscribed to it while making no real change to those who suffered its essential complacency: blacks, women and the working classes.” (Ibid.) Punk would not settle for that.
Punk addressed the young people’s problems and shared their disgust for the system that had failed them. Not only did punk rock make many young people feel not quite so worthless and insignificant for being unemployed as society did, but it also encouraged them to actively participate in this new cultural revolution, a sub cultural anti-establishment movement, if you will, that seemed to have the power to do away with, as O’Hara puts it, “a current feeling in modern society of an alienation so powerful and widespread that it has become common place and accepted.” (O’Hara 1999: 21.) Regarding punk as a participatory cultural phenomenon, the North American anarchist journal Rolling Thunder claims the following:
[...] at its best punk emphasized creativity demonstrating a concrete alternative. It was youth-oriented, certainly, but as youth are arguably among the most potentially rebellious and open to new ideas, this could be seen as an advantage. In focusing on self-expression, it enabled participants to build their own confidence and experience [...] as a decentralized cultural phenomenon, it reproduced itself organically rather than through institutional efforts. (Rolling Thunder, Issue #7, Spring 2009: 71)
3 Originally published as a supplement to the Crass LP Christ – the Album in 1982.
6 In her history of the punk rock movement called Break All Rules: Punk Rock and the Making of a Style (Studies in the Fine Arts Avant-Garde) Tricia Henry analyzes the punk phenomenon in Great Britain as follows:
For the large number of people on welfare—or the dole as it is known in Great Britain—especially young people, their outlook for bettering their lot in life seemed bleak. In this atmosphere, when the English were exposed to the seminal Punk Rock influences of the New York scene, the irony, pessimism, and amateur style of the music took on overt social and political implications, and British Punk became as self-consciously proletarian as it was aesthetic. (Henry 1989: 8.)
Punk music was simple, primitive even. Anybody who knew three guitar chords could play it. Punk fashion was mostly homemade and, most importantly, outrageous. It was nothing like the pompous glamour represented by many rock stars of the time, such as David Bowie, Marc Bolan or Gary Glitter, to name but a few. Everyday items like razor blades, dog collars and ordinary safety pins served as jewelry and holes were cut and ripped in jeans and T-shirts. Handwritten slogans, very often with sexual or otherwise provocative connotations, completed the punk outfit. The anarcho-nihilistic attitude of early punk rock bands conveyed through their lyrics (cf. appendix: Sex Pistols) naturally appealed to the alienated youth of the late 1970s in Great Britain.
Needless to say, these lyrics reinforced all the doubts about the status quo and the capitalist system as a whole that many young people already had at the time and encouraged them to position themselves as far as possible outside society and its commonly accepted norms. Punk meant being a nonconformist and an outsider by choice. It is safe to say that the post-modern concept of questioning established structures of hierarchy and oppression was, and still is, at least for the most part, an intrinsic value of punk subculture as we know it.
Damning God and the state, work and leisure, home and family, sex and play, the audience and itself, the music briefly made it possible to experience all those things as if they were not natural facts but ideological constructs: things that had been made and therefore could be altered, or done away with altogether. (Marcus 1989: 6.)
O’Hara claims that, “rebellion is one of the few undeniable characteristics of Punk. It is implicit in the meaning of Punk and its music and lyrics.” (1999: 38.) However, like all other
7 rebellious youth cultures that preceded it, punk became a farce the moment it was bought and sold. Soon punk music and punk rebellion became commodities. Ironically, even the concept of subculture and nonconformism itself was absorbed by the mainstream. We hear O’Hara complain about how “corporate music executives once disgusted by Punk are now signing young bands left and right in an effort to make money off the ‘cutting edge’, nonconformist sounds.” (1999: 28.)
Similar things, of course, had happened before. In American popular culture during the 1950s, for instance, wearing blue jeans, which were usually worn by workers, especially in the factories during World War II, became symbolic of protest against conformity.4 Politically motivated, young people identified with the working class by wearing blue jeans in the 1960s. The industry soon realized that good money could be made out of this trend. Today blue jeans are nothing but casual trousers. There are even designer blue jeans serving as bourgeois status symbols. Something similar happened to punk.
[...] within six months the movement had been bought out. The capitalist counter- revolutionaries had killed with cash. Punk degenerated from being a force for change, to becoming just another element in the grand media circus. Sold out, sanitized and strangled, punk had become just another social commodity, a burnt- out memory of how it might have been. (Rimbaud 1998: 74.)
The Sex Pistols, possibly the most famous punk band worldwide, and their shrewd manager Malcolm McLaren, however, made no secret of the fact that they were in it for the money or, as Crass’ Penny Rimbaud puts it, “when in 1977 the Sex Pistols harped on about anarchy in the UK, it became pretty obvious to me that their interest was not in revolution but in their bank balance.” (2008: VII.) On the contrary, they admitted to it as a part of their anarcho-nihilistic act and as a provocative statement against the inherently anti-capitalist left wing hippie culture. They probably used Nazi symbols for the same reason.
It is commonly believed that McLaren more or less invented the band to promote his and Vivienne Westwood’s clothing store in London, mainly selling S&M influenced “anti-
4 Cf.
8 fashion.”5 In the 1980 ‘mockumentary’ (a fictional documentary) by Julian Temple, McLaren claims to create the Sex Pistols and manipulate them to the top of the rock and roll industry, using them as puppets to further his own agenda and to claim the financial rewards from the various record labels the band were signed to during their brief history.6 This might be an exaggeration but most likely not entirely fictional.
Nevertheless, the message the band conveyed via their lyrics influenced countless disillusioned young people in the UK as well as overseas and inspired them to question and criticize the restrictive norms of society that negatively affected their lives and, last but not least, form new punk bands. Once again they had the chance to do away with the old structures of a deadlocked movement and the standards set by their predecessors, thus to reinvent punk. It is this phenomenon of constantly reinventing itself that makes punk such a fascinating subject matter. Needless to say, it is impossible to cover punk in its entirety, especially because it is in flux all the time. It is not something that ended at some point in history, but rather a movement that is still very much alive and evolving into new forms and shapes. The ideas, bands and lyrics discussed in this paper are just as representative of punk as the ones left out. Suffice it to say, difficult choices had to be made.
As the critique of society and the capitalist system as promoted by early punk rockers was rather blunt, destructive, very nihilistic, often quite vague and hardly ever backed up by a solid, let alone coherent, ideology or philosophy, it did not represent a specific position in the political spectrum of left and right. To the contrary, some punks slid into fascism (e.g. the British neo-Nazi band Skrewdriver), whilst others—like the English anarcho punk archetype Crass, for instance, who will be discussed in depth below—devoted themselves to serious anarchism, social change, and emancipatory ideals. This paper focuses on the latter type as the lyrical output of the former is despicable across the board. To be perfectly clear about the term ‘punk’ as it is used throughout this text, it is important to point out that punk has absolutely nothing to do with any right wing agenda or any ideology based on inequality whatsoever. The Californian punk band Dead Kennedys were very clear about that. “Punk
5 Cf.
9 ain't no religious cult / Punk means thinking for yourself [...] Nazi punks - Fuck Off!” (From the song “Nazi Punks Fuck Off,” 1981.)
Obviously, the situation that led to the rise of punk in the United States of America differed from the situation in the United Kingdom. In England it began with working class youths decrying a declining economy and rising unemployment. In America early punk was a middle-class youth movement, a reaction against the boredom of mainstream culture. (Cf. Henry 1989: 69.) It comes as no surprise that punk fans and musicians of both nations claim that their country was the birthplace of punk. This debate is of course pointless. It may be true that the Sex Pistols from London were the first to use the word ‘punk’ to describe their music and it may be true that the Ramones from Forest Hills, Queens, New York were the first punk band as they formed as early as 1974,7 one year before the Pistols did, but from today’s perspective, it does not really matter. O’Hara is of the opinion that “the time and the birthplace of the Punk movement is debatable. Either the New York scene of the late sixties/early seventies or the British Punks of 1975/76 can be given the honor.” (1999: 24.) He adds that “neither one deserves a long investigation as the specific politics and genuine forming of a movement was not until the late seventies.” (Ibid.)8
Arguably, some radical bands of the 1960s, such as MC5, for example, may have played a more important role in the creation of punk as we know it than the aforementioned pioneer punk rockers did. They did so by recognizing, appreciating and establishing “the power of Rock music as the people’s music.” (O’Hara 1999: 24.) Prior to these predecessors of punk, rock and roll only vaguely addressed the “racial barriers and inequalities” (ibid) of the time. According to Rimbaud, “rock ‘n’ roll was just another act of cultural imperialism.” (2008: XVII.) Hardly any “distinct politics were carried in rock music” until the late 1960s. (Cf. O’Hara 1999: 24.) Generally speaking, punk rock paradoxically attempts to emphasize the potential power of rock music as a real threat to the status quo, even though the latter is very often condemned as a toothless tiger. “With egoists like Bono9 and Geldoff undermining any truly radical discourse and action, with the Left completely destroyed by its own identity
7 Cf.
10 crisis [...] it’s hard to know where to turn next. One thing’s for certain, it ain’t rock ‘n’ roll.” (Rimbaud 2008: XVII.) In an article on punk as a means to spread political contents in Rolling Thunder, this paradox is summed up quite well:
In capitalist society, activities are invested with meaning primarily through the marketplace and the media. Rock music is an unusual hybrid, a working class art form cultivated by capitalists as a cash crop; the meaning people find in it is real enough, but is generated through forces largely beyond their control. Rock stars are important precisely because not everyone can be one; paradoxically punks took up the rock format as a way of asserting their own importance, even in the process of rebelling against the corporations that introduced them to it. (Rolling Thunder, Issue #7, Spring 2009: 74)
According to some of the founding members of the Ramones—all of which are recently deceased—one of the main reasons they started making music together was the fact that they all liked the Stooges,10 an infamous rock band featuring Iggy Pop that existed from 1967 until 1974 and is widely regarded as “instrumental in the rise of punk rock.”11
In other words, the beginnings of punk can be traced back to bands and musicians that existed much earlier than the alleged pioneers of punk rock did. (I.e. the mid-1970s). For that matter, even the country and early rock ‘n’ roll legend Johnny Cash is considered a forefather of punk by many due to his anti-establishment attitude. Even though it is practically impossible to pin down when and where exactly punk really started, its influence on rock music in general has been invaluable.
In the preface to Craig O’Hara’s widely acclaimed book The Philosophy of Punk, Marc Bayard, who taught a semester-long college course at Tufts University in Massachusetts on punk as a social, political, and cultural movement, states that, “the major problem with trying to explain punk is that it is not something that fits neatly into a box or categories.” He adds that, “any project that tries to define punk or explain it must do so with very broad brush strokes.” (1999: 11.) It is one of the goals of this thesis to draw a map of punk rock, so to speak, looking beyond the colorful mohawks (a haircut very popular among punks, i.e. a partially shaved head with an often colorfully dyed strip of hair leading from the forehead to
10Interview in The End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones, a 2003 documentary by Jim Fields and Michael Gramaglia. 11 Cf.
11 the neck), the studded leather jackets, the over-simplified polemics and all the swearing. Punk is doubtlessly more than that. Especially lyrically will the heedful observer come across quite a few gems when it comes to punk rock musicians expressing their political and personal views in their songs. It is these gems that the core of this paper is concerned with and will focus on. However, the aforementioned “broad brush strokes” are a necessary tool to provide certain background information about what the musical, lyrical and ideological cornerstones of punk are.
Historically, the periods most relevant to this project are the 1980s and 1990s. In this era— or rather, in these eras—punk underwent many musical and ideological changes and was divided into numerous sub-genres. They are too many to mention and explain here. Some meticulous music historians may prefer the term ‘post-punk’ for the punk music created then but as punk describes a movement that is always in flux (see above), such labels appear redundant. The heart of the matter is that when Margaret Thatcher became prime minister of the United Kingdom in 1979 (-1990) and Ronald Reagan was elected president of the United States in 1981 (-1989) the bell for the beginning of a new era of conservatism was sounded in both countries. This sparked off a new wave of political punk bands that actively opposed the oppression of the liberal ideals they stood for. They did so in their lyrics and they did so on the streets. Luke Lehrer of the notorious Circle Jerks, an early 1980s punk band from California, sums up the situation:
When we first got started we were dealing with a bad economy, inflation, change of administration—Reagan was the kind of antithesis or reaction or a whole new...like a paradigm shift—and there was a lot of concern over what might that mean in terms of all kinds of issues: freedom of speech, oppression and civil liberties and...that was sort of that era. (Cf. American Hardcore documentary.)
Punk was, no doubt, part of a serious politically aware protest culture that opposed an extreme conservatism and the police as its henchmen—or, as Ian Glasper puts it in the introduction to his anarcho punk reference book The Day the Country Died: A History of Anarcho Punk 1980-1984: “no more inane lyrics about cider and glue; the kids were taking back control and making a difference.” (2006: 8.) Penny Rimbaud, “founder member, drummer, lyricist and big mouth”, as he puts it (2008: VIII), of Crass goes along with this
12 statement claiming that, “[...] as most anarchist punks were just as happy tearing down the barbed wire fences of military bases as they might be going to a gig, it became increasingly difficult for those in power to dismiss them.” (2008: IX.)
While in Great Britain anarcho punk was the most interesting phenotype of the punk species, with the band Crass being its spearhead12, a new movement called hardcore, with such seminal bands as Minor Threat or Black Flag, set out to reinvent punk rock in the United States of America in the early eighties. Both phenomena stood for a distinct radicalization of punk as far as both the musical and lyrical output were concerned and will be discussed in greater detail below.
12 Cf. Rimbaud 2008: VIII: “Crass [...] can reasonably claim to be the initiators of anarcho punk.”
13 1. ANARCHY IN THE UK
According to most sources available the band Crass represents the epicenter of the anarcho punk movement in Great Britain. This phenomenon, which includes such influential bands as Conflict or Poison Girl, is also referred to as the second wave of European punk (1980-84), “which was visibly politically originated [and] changed many Punks into rebellious thinkers rather than just Rock ‘n’ Rollers.” (O’Hara 1999: 71.) By those who experienced the rise of anarcho punk in the early eighties first-hand, it is often described as something that “truly empowered all it touched, encouraging every last one of us to take control of our own destinies before it was too late.” (Glasper 2006: 9.) Crass’ Penny Rimbaud puts it another way. “We saw Johnny Rotten’s [the Sex Pistol’s vocalist] ‘no future’ rantings as a challenge. We believed that there was a future if we were prepared to fight for it, and fight for it we did.” (Rimbaud 2008: VIII.) “Within the populist history of rock ‘n’ roll, the very real movement of protest which grew out of the initial punk hype and which came to be known [...] as ‘anarcho- punk’ is studiously ignored [even though it] grew to become a very real threat to the status quo,” says Rimbaud. (2008: IX.) However, anarcho punk “was not a beginning as much as a continuation. Before that there’d been the hippies, the beats, the bohemians [...]. There’s nothing new about social dissent.” (Rimbaud 2008: X.) As a matter of fact, most of the books written about and lectures held on punk fail to mention the powerful cultural movement that Crass had inspired, a movement Rimbaud considers “one of the most powerful cultural forces in late-twentieth century Britain.” (Rimbaud 2008: XIII.)
Not only can its emphasis on the political struggle against the evils of rampant capitalism be named as a distinctive feature of anarcho punk, but subsequently also the fact that “anarcho bands were bound together more by their ethics than any unwritten musical doctrine.“ (Cf. Glasper 2006: 9.) Rimbaud (real name Jerry Ratter) never thought that Crass were “leaders of any movement.” (Cf. Glasper 2006: 11.) He admits that they “were inspired by some of the earliest punk bands.”(Ibid.) According to Penny Rimbaud, the main difference between these bands and Crass was that “what [Crass] aspired to do was what they only pretended to do.” (Ibid.) “We picked up their pretentions,” he says, “and tried to make them real. We came in with their energy, but also a great deal of political sincerity, and it was the political sincerity
14 that created a movement. You could never have created a movement out of something as banal as punk rock,” the drummer believes. (Ibid.)
In other words, while the Sex Pistols used “Anarchy in the UK”13 merely as a catchy slogan to make their music popular among the alienated meaning-hungry youth of Great Britain, Crass set out to use punk music as a means to make the political concept of anarchy popular among the punks. They were “ex-hippies”, as Ian Glasper puts it (2006: 8), and ridiculed for that by many of the ‘true’ punks at the time since Johnny Rotten himself reportedly said disparaging things about hippies such as, “Never trust a Hippie” (Ibid.) and “I hate hippies; I hate long hair,” (cf. Berger 2006: 5) completely ignoring the fact that the punk movement had “as much in common with the ideals of the preceding hippie movement as it did apart from it.” (Ibid.) Content wise, quite a lot was borrowed from the hippies. John Lennon, whom he met when he was in art school and won a competition to actually meet the Beatles on Top Of The Pops, was a massive influence on Penny Rimbaud, for instance. So was Ernest Hemingway. “I read a lot of Hemingway when I was young and it gave me a great sense of the individual, a fairly anarchistic view of the individual and on self-will,” says the drummer. (Cf. Berger 2006: 16f.)
By the time Crass released their first record called The Feeding of the 5000 (1978) the truly rebellious essence of the punk movement had been watered down by the music industry and repackaged for public consumption “in a way that kept the accoutrements and readily identifiable ephemera whilst surgically removing the spirit.” (Berger 2006: 4) However, “[...] the punk spirit wasn’t so easy to brush under the carpet. To a legion of British youth, punk meant more than that. Because like the great post-war youth movements before it—beatniks, teds, mods, hippies etc.—[punk was] a place for outsiders, romantics, lovers of outrage, people who sought a life less ordinary.” (Berger 2006: 5.) Those who appreciated and embraced punk’s potential for social change and spreading emancipatory ideas had finally found a home in anarcho punk. An early Crass poster read, “Germany got Baader-Meinhoff, England got punk. But they can’t kill it.” (Berger 2006: 2.) This shows how seriously Crass
13The slogan ‘Anarchy in the UK’ at the time was publicly represented by the Angry Brigade, who were a loose group of anarchists whose bombing campaign targeted many fascist and capitalist targets. Nobody got killed. (Cf. Berger 2006: 3.)
15 and their, for the lack of a better word, ‘following’ took the aforementioned political potential of punk. The Feeding of the 5000 “was a record that dared to suggest punk was (or at least could be) part of something bigger and more important than a five-minute fart in the face of authority.” (Berger 2006: 6.)
Not only did Crass combine elements taken from both the hippie era and the punk subculture (and beyond) but they also had members with very different backgrounds. When Crass formed their lead singer Steve Ignorant was a young teenage Dagenham punk inspired by Johnny Rotten’s way of performing and a great fan of the Clash. Their drummer Penny Rimbaud, on the other hand, was already in his mid-thirties and a middle class ex-art teacher living a communal life at the so-called Dial House on the edge of Epping Forest. (Cf. Glasper 2006: 8, 12.) Rimbaud would write poetry and books (Last of the Hippies, Homage to Catatonia, Sibboleth, etc.) while Williams (Steve Ignorant’s real surname), coming from a more working class background, had no idea about art whatsoever. All he wanted was a punk band of his own.
Crass was not a rock band in the traditional sense. The line-up was permanently in flux and changing. Primarily, the band consisted of Gee Vaucher (artwork, radio, piano), Penny Rimbaud (drums, kettle), Eve Libertine (vocals), Pete Wright (bass guitar), Mick Duffield (films and filming), Phil Free (lead guitar), Joy De Vivre (vocals), Steve Ingnorant (vocals), Andy Palmer (rhythm guitar) and a supporting cast, if you like, of another five or so people. (Cf. Berger 2006: 9.) The reason why they had so many members was that anybody who thought that they could contribute to the project could do so. Penny Rimbaud describes the situation as follows:
I remember Andy [Palmer, guitarist] turning up. He was at a local art school, and he’d never played an instrument in his life, but he nicked one from the International Times offices, and came around and said he wanted to be in the band, so he was. [...] really it just happened, it [the formation of the band] wasn’t by design. Although there did come a point after the first year, when we realized that we were basically fucking ourselves up, drinking quite a lot and using other substances. We couldn’t have kept going like this so we had to say, “Are we going to take this seriously, or are we just going to carry on pointlessly like this?”
16 So we had this big conference for a whole day [...] all the different people who were going to be in the band were already in the band, and from then on we only incorporated extra people if they could actually add something to it. So we had filmmakers and poets turn up and get involved. (Rimbaud as quoted in Glasper 2006: 14.)
All this happened after their very first gig at a squat (an abandoned house occupied by non-tenants) in London and for the best. One of their first shows after Phil Free had joined the group at the legendary Neal Street venue called Roxy in London’s West End saw the band forbidden to ever return to the club because they were completely ‘pissed’ (drunk). On The Feeding of the 5000 Penny immortalized this moment in his song “Banned from the Roxy.” “Banned from the Roxy? / Okay! / I never liked playing there anyway... they said they only wanted well-behaved boys – do they think guitars and microphones are just fucking toys?” (Cf. Glasper 2006: 15f.)
According to Rimbaud and his fellow bandmates, Crass attempted to never sell-out to the music industry and always tried to stay in control when it came to releasing their music. They soon started their own record label because the person running their original independent label, Small Wonder, “kept getting hassled by the police because of what we were doing.” (Rimbaud as quoted in Glasper 2006: 16.) They also started releasing records of other bands. The Icelandic band KUKL, featuring the now world famous recording artist Björk, for example, was on their roster. Except for The Feeding of the 5000 every Crass release that followed was done so through their own label amounting to a total of nine 7”s, two 12”s and five LPs by Crass alone. (Cf. Glasper 2006: 31.)
This DIY (do it yourself) approach and Crass’ way of promoting an alternative anarchist lifestyle as well as their occasional situationist pranks quickly impressed and influenced more and more people who, in a sense, became loyal followers. Penny remembers:
It was terrifying to us that we suddenly seemed to create an army. We set off wanting to break through the banality of that first wave of punk rock [...]. We curbed the drinking, and we started to wear black because it made us anonymous. It was also a statement against that bloody stupid, very expensive clothing that was being flogged down the Kings Road as ‘punk gear’...what a load of shit [...]. We were like a torpedo going straight at all this stupid music business, media crap, and we were strong enough to blow straight through it. (Rimbaud as quoted in Glasper 2006: 17.)
17 However, Crass never considered themselves leaders of the movement—not to any vague degree. “If what you’re saying is that we created the anarcho punk movement, then we didn’t create it as leaders [...] I think we were very successful in never, ever accepting that role.” (Rimbaud as quoted in Glasper 2006: 12.) Nevertheless, every single band mentioned in Glasper’s history of anarcho punk, The Day the Country Died, names Crass as a major inspiration.
The first 17-track release by Crass, for some reason labeled a 12-Inch single and sold for only £1.99 (cf. Berger 2006: 6), was recorded completely live on October 29th, 1978 at London’s Southern Studios. It was called The Feeding of the 5000 because that was the minimum number of records Small Wonder was allowed to press. (Cf. Glasper 2006: 16.) As for the artwork, the way the lyrics were laid out was deliberately inaccessible.
[...] when I look at how we laid the lyrics out on ‘The Feeding Of The 5000’, with all the obliques and no punctuation, I find that annoying as well, but at the time, I agreed with the others that if we made it difficult for people to read, they’d have to concentrate a lot harder. (Steve Ignorant as quoted in Glasper 2006: 14.)
Once again it became clear that the content of anarcho punk as conveyed in its lyrics played a tremendously important role, indeed. Trying to be constructive and offering alternatives to the capitalist way of life and, most importantly, getting people to think instead of simply promoting nihilistic destructiveness, as many of the more traditionally chaos oriented punks did, was one of the greatest differences between the so-called ‘peace punks’ like Crass and bands like, say, the Exploited, who offered little more than mindless slogans like “Punk’s Not Dead” (a reaction to the Crass song Punk Is Dead), scene pride and empty threats. (Cf. Glasper 2006: 21.)
Their constant criticism of Thatcherism, especially when the war with Argentina in the Falklands broke out, allowed Crass to be taken seriously not only among their peers but even outside the punk scene. “Thatcher ordered that we ‘rejoice’,” remembers Penny, “and, whilst Union Jacks were raised and knickers dropped, young men were slaughtered in their hundreds.” (Rimbaud 2008: XII.) Being so outspoken also had its downsides. The band ran the risk of being instrumentalized by various groups for their political agendas. Their songs
18 “Sheep Farming in the Falklands” and “How Does It Feel (To Be the Mother of a Thousand Dead)?” were considered traitorous by the patriotic media and led to the band being discussed in Parliament and participating in a live radio debate with a conservative MP. “[...] it became a dodgy business visiting the local pub,” says Rimbaud. (2008: XII.) “The only time I really got a bit scared though was when we started getting letters from the Labor Party, and from the House of Commons, all about ‘How does It Feel?’,” remembers Ignorant (Ignorant as quoted in Glasper 2006: 25) and Penny adds the following.
That sort of stuff isn’t very funny, but that was us actually trying to be responsible, trying to do what we felt was our duty. And I don’t think anyone else was getting representatives from Baader-Meinhof turning up in their garden. So, there was this thing called punk rock, and everyone’s out there making their records [...] but none of them were getting the IRA claiming to be watching their backs! I mean, some of it was great...we were a rock 'n' roll band too...at least we thought we were! (Penny Rimbaud as quoted in Glasper 2006: 27.)
Crass split up in 1984. Their legacy is tremendous. “There was a time when we felt that we could really make a difference to things, and there’s no question that we helped shape this movement [...],” says Penny Rimbaud. (As quoted in Glasper 2006: 28.) Many years later he still believes in the importance of the values his old band held dear, the ideas they spread and the significance of the movement they were such an important part of:
I still question the whole concept of democracy. You hear the word thrown about so often, but I don’t think there is a government in the West that presents a true model of democracy. I think the only true democracy lies somewhere in the anarcho construct. Equally I do acknowledge that many, if not most, people aren’t capable – be it through slavery, through bad education, through bad social conditions...whatever – of determining their own lives. I’m not saying that in a condescending way either, but those opportunities don’t exist for most people, and we tried so hard to say that they can. We were saying to working class kids that they weren’t fucking idiots just ‘cos they hadn’t been to public school...we can all make our own decisions...they might not be world-shattering but they can be personally shattering. That’s the essence of anarchism: respect for yourself and respect for others [...] That was very central to what we were saying, and that’s still the path I continue on. (Rimbaud as quoted in Glasper 2006: 29.)
Another important band that needs to be mentioned in the context of British anarcho punk in the 1980s are Oi Polloi from Edinburgh, Scotland, even though, or rather, precisely because they still exist. Formed in 1981, Oi Polloi are quite unique as “they took the principles and
19 ideologies of anarchism but delivered them via the rousing sing-along style of classic Oi!14 [which] allowed them to take their potent lyrical observations to an audience possibly unused to such positive, intelligent message.” (Glasper 2006: 431.) They also released a number of records in their own indigenous Gaelic language, most likely to point out that indigenous cultures are oppressed worldwide.
In The Day the Country Died, Ian Glasper’s comprehensive history of early 1980s UK anarcho punk, Oi Polloi’s original and current vocalist Deek Allan explains how he got into punk rock and why he thinks that it is a potentially—and actually—potent movement:
In 1976, I was only ten years old so I missed getting excited about the [Sex] Pistols. [...] when I heard Peel [John, a radio DJ] playing the Cockney Rejects and heard the vocalist just yelling out the lyrics with no attempt at singing, it was such a contrast to most of the totally bland shite in the charts like the fucking Bee Gees or whatever, it just really struck a chord with me. [...] People are always knocking punk and saying it can’t change anything, but that is bullshit. You look at any political direct action group, like, say, an AFA [anti- fascist action], or a hunt sabs group, or a bunch of politically motivated squatters, or whatever, and there are always numerous punks and ex-punks involved. Punk music can open people’s eyes, make them think and inspire them to action [...] Alright, we haven’t bought the system crashing to its knees, but all over the world there are hundreds and thousands of people actively involved in working towards that end, and creating alternatives to it to put into practice in their daily lives, who have been inspired to do so by their involvement in punk. This music changed my life [...]. (Deek Allan as quoted in Glasper 2006: 440.)
The band’s debut release entitled Destroi the System was extremely simplistic lyrically but Deek, who was already the only remaining original band member by the time Destroi... came out (1983), soon grew tired of the “extremely limited nature of most Oi! bands’ lyrics, and discovered bands like Discharge, Crass and Icons of Filth.” (Deek Allan as quoted in Glasper 2006: 435.) He says that he “started to gravitate more and more quickly to[wards] the anarcho punk side of things [...]. We most definitely regarded ourselves as part of the anarcho punk scene, no question about it.” (Ibid.)
Regarding their hometown’s most famous punk export, the above-mentioned Exploited, Deek says, “Everyone has their own idea of what exactly ‘punk’ means, and I suppose, to
14 A very simple, melodic variety of punk rock. Due to its connection to football and hooliganism, Oi! music is sometimes reminiscent of football chants. (Cf. 3.5.)
20 some people, The Exploited are the epitome of punk [...] but it’s a completely different philosophy from what we’re about really.” (Deek Allan as quoted in Glasper 2006: 437.) In Defense of Our Earth (1990), by many regarded as Oi Polloi’s best album, featured songs dealing with a wide variety of issues such as “When Two Men Kiss,” an anti-homophobic song, “Free the Henge”, which is about the state oppression of the annual Stonehenge Free Festival, and the self-explanatory “Nazi Scum.“ (Cf. Glasper 2006: 435.)
Two other British bands that are considered have been tremendously influential on rock music today are Discharge from Stoke-on-Trent and Amebix from the Tavistock area. Founded in 1977, the former was among one of the very first bands to mix punk with heavy metal, even though their original sound “was initially influenced by 1977-era punk bands such as the Sex Pistols, The Damned and The Clash.”15 Their lyrics were about anarchist and pacifist themes.16 At some point, however, they became “blatantly heavy metal” (Glasper 2006: 205) and are therefore not as relevant to the present project as Amebix are, even though the latter too mixed punk with metal. “The band themselves”, says Glasper about Amebix, “openly admit that they feel uncomfortable being tagged as anarcho punks but [that they] had a fiercely revolutionary streak running through their pitch black core, and they certainly lived by their own rules outside the constraints of conventional society for several years.” (Glasper 2006: 198.) “Musically”, he adds, “they owed as much to heavy metal and hard rock as they did to punk and hardcore.” (Ibid.)
Amebix formed in 1978 and were originally called The Band with No Name. At the Crass gig in Plymouth around the same time Rob Miller aka “The Baron” (bass, vocals) gave a member of the band the first Amebix recording, a demo of poor sound quality. Surprisingly enough, the rough demo songs still made it onto the compilation album Bullshit Detector, which Crass put out soon after. This kind of unexpected publicity encouraged the band to take making music more seriously than they had done before. (Cf. Glasper 2006: 199.) Today Amebix claim they had “little musical ability” (cf. Glasper 2006: 200) when they started out but they were trying to use the very basic tools they had at their disposal and get as much
15 Cf.
21 power and energy out of it as they could. “We were all about bringing up something that was really primeval, „says Miller. (Ibid.)
In 1982 the band recorded their debut EP called Who’s the Enemy? The track “No Gods, No Masters”17 made it to number 33 in the UK indie charts. (Cf. Glasper 2006: 202.) This slogan became something of a motto for the band and something they are still known for. The entire lyrics were comprised of only three lines (“Your god is your chains / Reject your god reject your system / Do you really want your freedom”). Interviewed in 2006, Rob Miller explained this powerful statement as follows:
That was all about the concept of gods really. [...] We live among conceptual gods, if you will, all the time... the gods of science, of religion, of sex, politics, all the rest of it; [...] it’s a reflection of the punk thing too – if you like, punk was a form of Gnosticism, because it was saying that through true knowledge of yourself and your surroundings, you can attain a better perception of the world itself. (Rob “The Baron” Miller of Amebix as quoted in Glasper 2006: 202f.)
Interestingly enough, the No Sanctuary 12-Inch released in November 1983 brought Amebix to the attention of Jello Biafra18, lead singer of the popular political US-punk band Dead Kennedys, who also ran—and, to my knowledge, still does—a respected independent record label called Alternative Tentacles. He put out what is today considered as Amebix’ masterpiece, the widely acclaimed Arise album, which, during late 1985, made number three in the indie charts. (Cf. Glasper 2006: 204.) This success, however, was not planned at all, nor was the powerful sound Amebix are known and loved for, or as the band’s vocalist Rob puts it, “We just knew that certain sound we were striving for. We had no fucking idea how to make it though, whereas a lot of bands these days understand intellectually how to create the music they want to make.” (Glasper 2006: 205.) What doubtlessly contributed to the band’s extraordinary sound was the great variety of bands they would listen to—from the Sex Pistols to Crass and from Joy Division (see below) and Bauhaus to Black Sabbath, the latter,
17 For an in-depth analysis of this song see 4.2. 18 Another telling name. Penny Rimbaud, Steve Ignorant, Jello Biafra, etc.: all these pseudonyms are cultural references and usually say a lot about the individuals who have chosen them. Rimbaud, for example, is named after the 19th century French poet Arthur Rimbaud. ‘Penny’ is a pun on the phrase "arfer (half a) penny" which refers to the long discontinued British Ha'penny coin. (Cf.
22 surprisingly enough, being one of their greatest influences. “[...] we were just four guys playing music, but we did create quite an intense experience,” says Miller, “and we really put all of ourselves into it as well. [...] it was all about being good, and right, to one another, and how we deal with one another reflects upon the way we deal with our world. And that’s what makes a change...” (Cf. Glasper 2006: 207f.) After the band split up an album later (Monolith, 1987, released through Heavy Metal records) in 1987, “The Baron” moved to the Isle of Skye (Scotland) and started crafting collectible medieval swords (cf. Glasper 2006: 208), which he did professionally until Amebix reunited in 2008.19
When discussing British alternative music, a few words should be said about two lyrically exceptional Manchester bands, namely Joy Division (1976-1980) and the Smiths (1982- 1987), although neither one of them was a punk band by definition. On the contrary, musically they were far from being punk, the Smiths even more so than Joy Division. Even though they did not actually play punk rock per se but rather something which nowadays would probably be called ‘indie’ or ‘alternative pop,’ parallels can be drawn between their music and punk, especially in terms of content. The feeling of alienation, the constant struggle to live up to society’s expectations and, inevitably, failing to do so were central issues for both bands’ lyricists, Ian Curtis († 18 May 1980) and Steven Patrick Morrissey, to write and sing about.
An online source says, “Joy Division rapidly evolved from their initial punk rock influences, to develop a sound and style that pioneered the post-punk movement of the late 1970s. According to music critic Jon Savage, the band ‘were not punk but were directly inspired by its energy’.”20 Curtis’ lyrics were “deliberately open to interpretation,”21 which most punk lyrics were not really at the time. In hindsight, many of them can be interpreted as anticipations of his tragic suicide at the age of only 23. “His intentions and feelings were all there within the lyrics,” says his widow. (Curtis 1995: 139.)
19 Cf.
23 After the Smiths split up in 1987, Morrissey started his very successful solo career. On punk he comments:
Punk emerged as something quite frightening for the industry and people forget that now because we’re all very used to seeing footage of the Sex Pistols and so forth and we tend to think it was always easy...they just stepped in...but it was a revolution. [...] I think punk is everlasting and it’s looked back upon as a fantastic time by people who weren’t even alive or involved in it as people recognize it as being the change of everything. [...] The punk legacy is absolutely in place [...] and if it hadn’t happened we can only imagine how awful things would be.22
The Smiths 1985 album Meat Is Murder is quite an obvious example of how the band’s— or rather Morrissey’s—ethics correlated with those of political punk at the time. The pro- vegetarian attitude conveyed in the eponymous song was rather unique and unheard of in mainstream culture, but vegetarianism had already become a quite prominent issue in anarcho punk circles. Bands like Crass and Discharge had songs about the negative (side-)effects of eating meat and so did many bands that followed them in the years to come. (Cf. 3.3.) Even the slogan ‘meat is murder,’ which Morrissey debatably coined himself (or maybe borrowed from elsewhere) has been used by punk bands worldwide.
On Morrissey’s first solo album, Viva Hate (1988) the track “Margaret on the Guillotine,” an obvious reference to the former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, contains views and statements that are no less radical than those of various anarcho punk bands at the time. Not only were such lyrics (cf. appendix) considered outrageous but they also led to the British police searching Morrissey's home and carrying out an official investigation.23 Morrissey commented on this incident two years later in another song, namely “He Knows I’d Love to See Him,” singing, “And the police - they actually know me / They said: ‘You're just another person in the world / You're just another fool with radical views’ [...].”24 The singer has always been very critical of the music industry and its lack of business ethics, too. In a recent statement, for instance, he claims that “[...] the world of music is purely market-driven – not
22 Cf.
24 25 even youth-driven anymore.” Controversial and provocative statements have remained part of Morrissey’s now 28-year-long career.
25 Cf.
25 2. AMERICAN HARDCORE
As mentioned before, many representatives of what can be labeled ‘the second wave of punk rock’ were more politically aware and more radical than their predecessors. In the United States of America this radicalization of punk found its manifestation in hardcore. Hardcore punk was faster and even more aggressive than anything that preceded it. The online encyclopedia Wikipedia defines hardcore as follows:
Hardcore punk, often just called hardcore, is a subgenre of punk rock that originated primarily in North America (though, early examples could be found throughout the world) in the late 1970s. The new sound was generally faster, thicker, and heavier than earlier punk rock.26
Ian MacKaye of Washington, DC hardcore pioneers Minor Threat, who are best known for the invaluable role they played in creating the straight edge movement (cf. 2.1.), puts it a little differently but basically says the same on a more personal level:
For me punk was the portal...was the portal to the counter-culture. That’s where I belonged. That’s how I got there. But punk rock at the time was becoming more associated with the Sex Pistols and Sid Vicious and Sid Vicious was a junkie, a nihilistic junkie, and we were not. So we really were trying to carve out our own place and we said no, we’re hardcore punk.
(MacKaye interviewed in the documentary American Hardcore.)
Among others, such as, for instance, SSD from Boston, Massachusetts or 7 Seconds from Reno, Nevada, the most influential North American hardcore bands of that era were Bad Brains, Minor Threat and Black Flag. All three will be discussed chronologically below. But firstly, it is safe to say that the Dead Kennedys, a highly political punk band formed in San Francisco, California in June 1978,27 were transition figures, so to speak, or even the ‘missing link,’ if you will, between traditional punk rock and hardcore punk in North America. In a way, they were the American counterpart to the British anarcho punk bands of the late 1970s/early 1980s. As far as their lyrics were concerned, they used to “mix the deliberately shocking lyrics of punk with a humorous, acerbic, satirical, and sarcastic
26 Cf.
26 commentary on current social and political issues. “28 The name ‘Dead Kennedys’ was highly controversial in itself. Reportedly, the band was forced to play a number of shows under pseudonyms such as the Sharks, the Creamsicles and the Pink Twinkies29 because of their provocative name. However, the name of the band was more than plain provocation. According to the singer and lyricist Jello Biafra (real name Eric Reed Boucher) it was supposed “to bring attention to the end of the American Dream.”30
After numerous underground gigs, the band was asked to perform at the Bay Area Music Awards in 1980 and were pre-announced not as a punk band but as a trendy new wave band. They were supposed to play their underground hit, “California Über Alles,” off their debut single. The song addressed criticism of California’s governor Jerry Brown and the totalitarian tendencies he stood for during his term in office, including references to George Orwell’s novel 1984. (Cf. appendix.) Nevertheless the band, all wearing white T-shirts with a big black S drawn on them, stopped after 15 seconds into the song and played a brand new song called “Pull My Strings” instead. First, however, they put on black ties that made the black S on their shirts look like a dollar sign and Jello Biafra proclaimed, “Hold it! We’ve gotta prove that we’re adults now. We’re not a punk rock band, we’re a new wave band [...].”31 The lyrics to “Pull My Strings” (see appendix) were a satirical attack on the mainstream music industry many representatives of which were in the audience and—suffice it to say— they did not like it. The song, which, to my knowledge, was never recorded as a studio version, also contained a mocking reference to the Knack's biggest new wave hit, “My Sharona.” 32
Next came the band’s debut album called Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables (1980), which reached number 33 in the UK (!)33 album charts and contained the single “Holiday in Cambodia.” This song was yet another bleak satirical masterpiece, the content of which can be summarized as follows:
28 Cf.
27
The song attacks both Eastern totalitarianism, Western complacency and the direct relation between the two through American military intervention. The song's lyrics offer a satirical view of young, self-righteous Americans and contrast such a lifestyle with a brutal depiction of the Pol Pot regime of Cambodia.34
The album that came shortly after Fresh Fruit... was called In God We Trust, Inc. (1981), doubtlessly an attack on corporate America, followed by Plastic Surgery Disasters (1982). By then, the band had evolved both musically and in terms of popularity:
[...] moving away from hardcore formulas toward a more innovative jazz-informed style, featuring musicianship and dynamics far beyond other bands in the genre [...] the group had become a de-facto political force, pitting itself against rising elements of American social and political life such as the religious right, Ronald Reagan and the idle rich.35
What followed were two more widely acclaimed albums, namely Frankenchrist (1985) and Bedtime for Democracy (1986), before the band split up in 1986. They were disillusioned with the punk scene that, in their opinion, had started to become more and more skinhead- infested (cf. 3.5.), more violence-oriented and less politically interested. Since their break-up the Dead Kennedys have been in the media for legal disagreements concerning the band’s royalties, Jello Biafra’s participation in various other projects—musical and otherwise—and their quasi-reunion (without Biafra) in 2001.36
Another important aspect concerning the Dead Kennedys needs to be pointed out, namely their own independent record label, Alternative Tentacles. Originally it was run by the band’s guitarist East Bay Ray (real name Raymond John Pepperell) and Jello Biafra but has been entirely owned by Biafra since the mid-1980s.37 Obviously, parallels to Crass can be drawn in this respect. Releasing their own records seems to be a distinctive feature of early political punk bands in both Great Britain and the USA (and elsewhere, of course38). What made these
34 Cf.
28 bands so important was that they turned the first sod, so to speak, in order to establish the do- it-yourself ethic (cf. 3.2.) that soon became central to the hardcore punk scene worldwide. In other words, “Crass was one of the first bands to release their own records; this was exciting because they were using technology that had been largely off limits to the working class.” (Cf. Rolling Thunder 2009: 74.) The same can be said of the Dead Kennedys.
It is fair to say that Alternative Tentacles introduced American punk rock to the world. They have released records by such legendary bands as 7 Seconds or No Means No as well as spoken word albums by Jello Biafra, Noam Chomsky et al. Early in 2000, Alternative Tentacles—Jello Biafra, that is—lost all rights to the Dead Kennedys’ releases, which were the label’s economic mainstay, in a trial against the remaining ex-Dead Kennedys. Biafra’s former bandmates had sued him for supposedly withholding a portion of the band’s royalties.39
As mentioned above, one of the main reasons why punk became more radical politically and more aggressive musically (i.e. hardcore) especially in the USA during the early 1980s was the Reagan administration (January 20, 1981 – January 20, 198940) and the new hard- line conservatism it implemented, causing serious hardship for anybody who embraced a liberal mindset. Needless to say, it also affected the punks. “Punk rockers loved to hate Reagan worldwide. Songs were written, posters were made, signs were raised and oranges were hurled,” (cf. American Hardcore documentary) says Henry Rollins, formerly of the California hardcore punk band Black Flag. The most obvious manifestation of this phenomenon was the band Reagan Youth (1980-198941) from Queens, New York, who, incidentally, reformed in 2006.42 Their name, of course, is a word play on ‘Hitler Youth’ and the US-President. Talking about the USA in the early 1980s, Vince Bondi of the hardcore band Articles of Faith depicts the situation:
speaking countries seem to be an exception. Nevertheless, North America and Britain are primarily focused on due to lack of space.
39 Cf.
29 In the early eighties there was this sense of re-establishing “the order”. The white man...the Ronald Reagan white man order is coming back. You know, you’d had that wimp Jimmy Carter talking about peace and human rights and all this other shit and you had the feminists and the negroes and they’re all getting uppity on us, right? So we’re gonna re-institute order here, right? And so the whole country goes into this really puerile 50s fantasy where they dress in these cardigan sweaters and we were just like, “Fuck you! Not us. You can take that and shove it up your ass.” [...] Somebody has got to say this isn’t right. Everybody else is saying, “It’s morning in America.” Somebody’s gotta say, “It’s fucking midnight, man!” [...] There wasn’t any organized ‘Left’ in the United States in the 1980s. There was hardcore. And again, you know, as limited as it was, it was a manifestation of a communalist [sic!] aspect, of openness to humanity, of a disdain for authority that’s in the best tradition of radicalism. So, if you’re looking for radicalism in the 1980s, you should look at hardcore. (Cf. American Hardcore documentary.)
Many other contemporary witnesses think similarly. Keith Morris of the Circle Jerks, a notorious band from Hermosa Beach, California, for example, states:
Everybody was into this, like, “Well we’ve got a shiny brand new car. I just got my hair feathered. Oh, look at my clothes” and, “Oh, here, want some cocaine?” and, “We’re drinking wine coolers” and...just all that kind of crap. [...] [Most bands] were all like formulaic bands like Journey and The Eagles and Fleetwood Mac...they’re all great bands for what they do, it’s just, when you hear it constantly over and over and over again you’re gonna wanna just vomit or jump off the nearest cliff, throw yourself out in front of an oncoming bus. [...] The music that we were performing, the lyrics that we were writing had nothing to do with about holding hands and smiling and skipping off into the sunset. [...] We’ve been made all those promises. You go to school, you do your homework, you go to college, get a great job, you make lots of money, you get married, you have a couple of kids, dog, cat, goldfish, two-car garage...and that’s just not the way that it is. I’m working Monday through Friday. Here comes Friday night and I’m just gonna go off. I hate my boss, I hate the people that I work with, I hate my parents, I hate all these authorative [sic!] [!] figures, I hate politicians, I hate people in government, I hate the police. You know, everybody’s kinda pointing their finger at me, everybody is picking at me, everybody is poking at me and I have a chance to be with my own type of people and I have a chance to go off and that’s basically what it was. (Cf. American Hardcore documentary.)
It is quite clear that the young people of this era were looking for something new musically and something more radically antiauthoritarian lyrically, or, as a female hardcore fan puts it in the music documentary American Hardcore, “For me, it was just...So bored with what was going on. I mean in 1980 we’re still listening to the Doors and the Beatles and we’re supposed to be bowing down to that music, and it just wasn’t our music.” They were utterly dissatisfied with what mainstream music had to offer. “We were going through one of music’s worst
30 periods possible. Disco was at its peak. Rock bands were still big, like Foghead. Just crap,” claims Joey “Shithead” Keithley of D.O.A. (Ibid.) A lot of young people were simply sick and tired of traditional rock music. This aspect of hardcore punk, i.e. being something radically new in various respects, was obviously very important to many hardcore fans some 30 years ago. “Time was slow back then,” says Dave Markey of We Got Power fanzine & films. “Things were barely moving and this music just came along and just...it was like an electrical charge.” (Ibid.)
However, since what those young Americans were looking for did not yet exist, or at least not to any satisfying degree, they had to create it themselves. In other words, “[hardcore] was for kids, it was about kids, it was by kids.” (Chris Foley of SSD in American Hardcore.) For Ian MacKaye (from the band Minor Threat) hardcore punk was also a way to express himself lyrically and to let off steam. “I wanna say exactly what’s on my mind and do it in thirty seconds,” he says.
“We were frustrated. And we were trying to find a way out of the normal just weird basic suburban normality,” says Casey Royer, a former member of the hardcore band Adolescents from Orange County. (Cf. American Hardcore documentary.) Generally speaking, being hardcore had a lot to do with where you were from, or rather your frustration with where you were from. Tony Cadena, singer and lyricist of the Adolescents, states, “I was making a record to, um, really to nullify my Orange County existence. You know, to really say, you know, what was around me. You know, it was literally to lash out at that.” (Ibid.)
For people who were part of a minority group the young hardcore scene often served as some kind of retreat. However, they suddenly found themselves in a situation wherein they were marginalized in two respects. For instance, Ken Inouye of the band Marginal Man from Washington, DC, whose family is Hawaiian, became aware of this situation quite early in his life.
You grow up in America as a minority group, you know that there are preconceptions that people have of you just because you’re part of a minority group. Well, all of a sudden it dawned to me that I just had become part of another minority group. I was a punk rocker. (Ken Inouye interviewed in American Hardcore.)
31
It was genuine anger and frustration that made early hardcore punk artists play this aggressive kind of music and write these angry, yet partially quite elaborate, lyrics. “We’re feeling this,” says Dave Dictor of the band MDC, “and we don’t wanna go slow and we’re not trying to be melodic and we’re not trying to be cool or digestible. We’re giving you all our angst and all our feeling as hard as we can.” (Cf. American Hardcore documentary.)
Undoubtedly, the hardcore punk bands of the early 1980s had a different approach to making music than your average rock group had at the time and they were quite realistic about it. “It was totally living in the moment,” says Paul Mahern (Zero Boys; cf. American Hardcore documentary). “You didn’t think about, you know, trying to build a fan base or trying to have a career because that was absurd. You weren’t gonna have a career playing this music.” (Ibid.) Darryl Jenifer of the Bad Brains (see below) even goes a step further saying, “It wasn’t like a musical thing. It wasn’t like a fucking entertainment thing. It was like, we figured out these riffs, we had this message and we just dropped the shit.” (Cf. American Hardcore documentary.)
Hardcore punk was, to a certain degree, the only real opposition against mainstream culture and its profit-oriented music industry. It tried to be different and independent. Vic Bondi stresses this aspect saying, “Normal people did not listen to hardcore and we liked it that way [...]. The record industry is all about getting big, getting coke, getting girls, right? And fuck everybody else. Our position was: we’re against that; we’re the opposite of that.” (Cf. American Hardcore documentary.) “The industry trivializes music,” says Minor Threat’s vocalist Ian McKay. “They want people to consume. So it’s like, buy this, it doesn’t mean nothing [...] it just becomes really dismissible.” (Ibid.) This is where the aforementioned DIY aspect of hardcore punk comes in. “DIY...do it yourself. There’s some place you wanna be, go there yourself. If there’s something you wanna create that does not exist, do it yourself,” Brian Baker (Minor Threat, bass) explains. (Ibid.) Considering some of the above statements, this was a necessary survival strategy for most hardcore bands back then. “There was no record label behind the bands, there was no A&R interest in the bands. So anything that grew grew on a very grassroots level,” as Luke Lehrer from the Circle Jerks states. (Ibid.) In other words, “You were in charge of everything. You know, putting on gigs,
32 putting out [fan]zines. It was more than just a look on stage.” (Mike Watt of the band the Minutemen in American Hardcore.)
Not only in this respect did hardcore punk try to be different from traditional rock ‘n’ roll as we know it, but also musically, in the sense that, unlike most white rock music, hardcore was not as much based on Afro-American roots and black music as other forms of rock music were at the time.43 To put it a little differently, “It was the only rock kind of music that came out that didn’t feel like it was totally ripping off black culture and it wasn’t that it was white culture vs. black culture...there wasn’t that guilt of listening to a Led Zeppelin song going, ‘Wait, that’s like this really old blues song.’” (Hardcore artist Sean Taggert in American Hardcore.)
Being different was, of course, not exactly encouraged in Reagan’s America. Many hardcore shows were called off by the police for no good reason and the questions this raised were often answered with sheer violence. In those days, many hardcore punk gigs ended with a riot or a fight with the police. “If a cop car drove by a punk show it was no big deal,” says photographer Edward Colver (cf. American Hardcore documentary), “and if one or two drove by, it was nothing. But when six pull up and park, it would always turn into a riot.” Greg Ginn from the band Black Flag (see below) and the independent label SST Records explains why: “Our crime was that we seemed different. And I think the police mentality or, you know, ultra establishment mentality, is to stamp out something that’s different. You don’t analyze it and look at it why it’s different, you just stamp it out.” (Ibid.) Almost every hardcore kid has had at least one unpleasant encounter with the police. So did Henry Rollins, who defends the hardcore punks involved in the aforementioned riots.
The cops always started it. It’s not like a bunch of kids go up to armed uniformed men and go ‘Come on!’ – they know what happens. [...] They would try to pull me into it. I will never forget some LA storm trooper cop coming up to me saying, ‘Did you just call me a motherfucker?’ I was trembling because I just know that
43 “I now realize that rock ‘n’ roll was just another act of cultural imperialism, an outright theft of black culture. Elvis ripped off gospel, while some time later Mick Jagger crapped all over the noble heritage of blues. [...] Jagger was never anything more than a faux Tina Turner selling black sexuality as a white trash commodity.” (Rimbaud 2008: XVIIf.)
33 [...] the guy – cat and mouse – can take me to jail anytime he wants and I was like, [stammering] and he was like, you know, ‘What’s the matter? You’re a fucking faggot?’ and I was like ‘No...’ I’m like, this is a cop—I didn’t know what to do. (Rollins interviewed in American Hardcore.)
The epicenters of US-hardcore in the late 1970s, early 1980s were, no doubt, Washington, DC and Southern California, especially in the Los Angeles area. The New York scene was not especially significant until around 1985 when bands like Cro-Mags or Agnostic Front became popular. But of course, the Ramones, who were arguably (one of) the first punk rock band(s), hailed from the Big Apple. However, as mentioned above, this first wave of punk rock is not the primary focus here. Some of the biggest names in straight edge hardcore (cf. 2.1.) were from New York City. Gorilla Biscuits and Youth Of Today, just to name two extremely influential bands, were instrumental in shaping hardcore punk in the late 1980s.
Hardly any other band was nearly as important for the development of hardcore punk as a sound, or even a musical genre, as the Bad Brains were. Before discussing their musical importance, however, I consider it necessary to point out that certain members of the group made some extremely controversial statements about homosexuals44 on a number of occasions. These homophobic statements were probably a result of their new-found spiritualism as, at some point, the Bad Brains became fundamentalist followers of a religious cult, the Rastafari movement.45 Consequently, they embraced its more than dubious stance on homosexuality and women, reportedly drawing parallels between same-sex love and scriptural Babylon.46 Regarding the gay community in San Francisco, for instance, the band’s singer HR once said that the city had “too many faggots.” “[...] it disturbs me,” he announced in an interview with the popular punk fanzine Flipside and added, “[and it] makes me want to go shoot one of them.” (Cf. Andersen & Jenkins 2001: 107.) Not only are such opinions despicable and unacceptable but they were also “a remarkable digression from Bad Brains’ message of positivity and revolution.” (Ibid.)
It is safe to say that the majority of punks today find homophobia intolerable. The aforementioned statements uttered by members of the Bad Brains have not been let go
44 Cf.
34 unchallenged. To the contrary, they have been criticized vehemently.47 Dave Dictor of M(illions of) D(ead) C(ops), a proudly professing homosexual who actually liked the Bad Brains, had an argument with certain members of the band when they played together.48 He was of the opinion that it was obvious that gays and punks were fellow outcasts who should make common cause. (Cf. Andersen & Jenkins 2001: 107 and chapter 3.4.) According to the Bad Brains’ vocalist HR, Dictor called him a hypocrite because he spoke of unity but excluded certain minority groups such as the gays. (Ibid.) In a 2007 interview the band’s bassist Darryl Jenifer distanced himself from earlier statements saying, “I’m 25 years old! You’ve got to understand that I’m a young man growing, getting into something. Now I’m 46 years old and I’ve learned that [homophobia is] ignorant. I’ve learned through the years that we’re all God’s children, regardless of your race, creed, color, sexuality, any of that.”49
As this example shows, the otherwise progressively-thinking early hardcore and punk scene was not immune from being home to anti-liberal ideas such as homophobia but “[...] there probably was greater tolerance for homosexuality within the punk scene than in most arenas of American culture.” (Andersen & Jenkins 2001: 126.) Considering this particular issue, it is quite obvious that at this point in time many a basic ideological turf battle was still to be fought within the hardcore and punk scene. Some of the views and opinions prevalent in certain punk circles have continued to be quite controversial within the scene as a whole.
Bad Brains formed as early as 1977.50 What made them stick out against other punk bands at the time was, firstly, that they were African-American and, secondly, that they were good musicians who actually knew how to play their instruments. The latter had a lot to do with the fact that they played jazz, fusion and progressive rock before they turned punk and became the Bad Brains.51 Ian MacKaye, whose band shared a rehearsal room and their equipment with the Bad Brains for a while, recalls that he and his band members would complain about how “shitty” their equipment was and then the Bad Brains would come along
47 Cf. the song “When Two Men Kiss” by Oi Polloi: “Intolerance, bigotry and hate - I say it's time to stop. From Nazi boneheads to Bad Brains - Warped attitudes that we must change and it's not just homophobia - Rampant sexism, macho dancing, beating of woman - All this is rife within the ‘scene’ - often closer to home than we care to acknowledge.” 48 Dictor: “They were the greatest band I had ever seen. I fell in love.” (Cf. Andersen & Jenkins 2001: 107.) 49 Cf.
35 and “pick up our very same shit and play this amazing music. [...] It was like another world.” (Cf. Andersen & Jenkins 2001: 55.)
A contemporary witness of (pre-)Bad Brains’ transition period, i.e. when they discovered and embraced punk, describes the band’s appearance: “Several wild-looking black punks stood next to the doorway handing out fliers. Their imposing appearance was matched by the bold hyperbole on the handouts: ‘World’s fastest,’ ‘devastating,’ ‘Are you ready? We are!’ were among the phrases publicizing the basement show by their new band, Bad Brains.” (Cf. Andersen & Jenkins 2001: 33.) Also Ian MacKaye vividly remembers his first encounter with Bad Brains:
HR had short dreads, sticking straight up, with the side of his head shaved. He wore a Johnny Rotten jacket with shit hanging off it. Darryl had his hair peroxided on one side, Earl had a shaved head [...]. When they used to walk through Georgetown, they were the scariest motherfuckers you ever saw. (MacKaye as quoted in Andersen & Jenkins 2001: 35.)
Needless to say, the Bad Brains were not all about their appearance. To the contrary. “We dug the militancy happening in punk rock. It said, ‘If you have something to say, say it.’ A lot of the things we saw our people falling for,” says bassist Darryl Jenifer, “made us mad at the kind of illusions society was trying to create.” (Cf. Andersen & Jenkins 2001: 34.) The band’s vocalist HR comments on their early affinity for punk, too, saying, “What we were searching for was what all true musicians do, which is to create. This is the difference between a sellout and what’s real. It’s a thin line [...],” he observes and adds, “When we heard punk rock, we said, ‘That’s where the energy is!’” (Ibid.)
Musically, the Bad Brains tried to combine their earlier influences, such as jazz, reggae and progressive rock, with British punk rock, and their lyrics “[...] were filled with references to Positive Mental Attitude.52 A concept popularized by a rich old white entrepreneur was being molded to punk rock by young black men inspired by English kids they have never met. To the Bad Brains, however, it all made sense.” (Andersen & Jenkins 2001: 37.)
52 I.e. rejecting negativity, defeatism and hopelessness. (Cf.
36 Punk has always been predominantly white and, despite some reported stupid racist remarks on a handful of occasions, the Bad Brains successfully entered that world. Soon, they were accepted among white punk kids in Washington, DC and beyond and became very popular. However, as ‘punk’ was also an anti-gay slur the band were given a hard time by members of the Afro-American community, who would not understand, let alone endorse, their choice to play punk rock. (Cf. Andersen & Jenkins 2001: 37.) In other words, as black punks, they ran the risk of finding themselves marginalized in both the scene they chose to be part of and their own ethnic group, not to speak of mainstream society.
The band’s incredible live energy, their raw but very well-played music and their positive attitude made them special in the eyes of many young punks. A prominent eyewitness of an early Bad Brains show describes this mind-altering experience:
To us, Bad Brains meant everything. I have never seen anything like 1979-1980 Bad Brains, before or since. You thought they were going to detonate right before your eyes. [...]It was one of the biggest moments of my life. (Henry “Rollins” Garfield as quoted in Andersen & Jenkins 2001: 43)
There is no doubt that, despite all the controversy, Bad Brains’ legacy is enormous and invaluable for the development of punk music. Their “emphasis on extreme speed, especially in their early records and performances, are [sic!] often regarded as establishing hardcore punk.”53
At some point, the group temporarily relocated to New York City due to difficulties they faced in DC playing, or rather, not playing shows.54 The following lyrics of the song “Banned in D.C.” (1982, ROIR), which was written shortly after a gig in Washington, DC, that got shut down by the police for no good reason (cf. Andersen & Jenkins 2001: 45), deal with this unofficial ban:55
Banned in D.C. with a thousand more places to go. Gonna swim across the Atlantic, cause that's the only place I can go. You, you can't hurt me, me I'm banned in D.C.
53 Cf.
37 We, we got ourselves, gonna sing it, gonna love it, gonna work it out to any length. Don't worry, no worry, about what people say. We got ourselves, we gonna make it anyway. You, you can't hurt me, why I'm banned in D.C. And if you ban us from your clubs, it's the right time, with the right mind. And if you think we really care, then you won't find in my mind. Noooo! You can't afford, to close your doors, so soon no more. My oh my I lay you down upon the ground so soon no more. Nooo you can't afford to close your doors so soon no more. My oh my I let you down upon the ground
The line “Gonna swim across the Atlantic [...]” is often interpreted as a reference to the band’s attempt to make it in Great Britain, the alleged punk-Mecca. However, when they tried to actually go and tour there as a band, the British border police refused them entry at customs and had them deported because they had no work permits. (Cf. Andersen & Jenkins 2001: 45f.).
When their 3rd album I Against I came out in 1986, the Bad Brains’ sound started to change considerably. Even though the title track was fast and aggressive and conveyed an outspoken message in the best hardcore punk tradition, a new variety of slower grooves and more melodic tunes began to dominate their music.56 Also their lyrics changed as, influenced by the Rastafari movement, the group turned more and more reggae and started to move away from punk rock. (Cf. American Hardcore documentary.) It comes as no surprise that many punks turned their backs on them. Even their hometown scene did to some extent, as the following excerpt shows. Nevertheless, the Bad Brains are still considered living legends today.
As the DC hardcore scene expanded, it grew a bit more distant from a crucial inspiration, Bad Brains. The group was faulted for both its commercialism— embodied by the man Howard Wuelfing called “money bags manager Mo Sussman”—and its new Rasta spirituality, which caused HR to prefer reggae to punk. As HR attributed his band’s new musical direction to “the power of Jah” [the group was dismissed] as lost to religion. (Andersen & Jenkins 2001: 85.)
56Cf.
38 Punk as we know it today would not be what it is if it had not been for Black Flag. This notorious band formed in 1976/77 in Hermosa Beach, California57 but reached their peak in the years that followed Henry Rollins joining the band in 1981.58 According to Greg Hetson of the Circle Jerks and later Bad Religion, “Black Flag brought the suburban element into punk rock and helped define what punk rock was gonna turn into during those times.“ (Cf. American Hardcore documentary.) During ten years of existence (reunion shows in 2003 through 2006 not counted), no less than 17 people played in Black Flag59—that is to say, usually only four or five at a time, of course. Their music was heavy and aggressive and their message critical of society. The song “Rise Above” sums up the band’s attitude quite well: “Jealous cowards try to control / Rise above / We’re gonna rise above [...] Society's arms of control / Rise above / We’re gonna rise above [...]”
From a present-day perspective, Black Flag would be a storybook hardcore punk band. Back then, however, they were pioneers of American West Coast punk rock with a very distinct sound. Stylistically, their sound changed over the years. Generally speaking, late Black Flag did not play as fast as early Black Flag did, which alienated a big part of their following. It is fair to say that Black Flag were “among the earliest punk rock groups to incorporate elements and the influence of heavy metal melodies and rhythm (particularly in their later records) [and] there were often overt freestyles, free jazz, break beat and contemporary classical elements in their sound.”60
Henry Rollins, doubtlessly Black Flag’s best-noted member, who is still performing today (mostly spoken word performances) and campaigning for human rights in the United States, promoting gay rights in particular,61 had been a fan of the group long before he joined them at the age of 20. At one of their shows he asked the band to perform his favorite song, which they did. As the young man was obviously hoping not only to hear the band perform the song but also to sing it with them, the band asked him on stage to do so. Only a couple of days later he received a call from a member of the band asking him if he wanted to fly out to
57 Cf.
39 California—Rollins used to live in Washington, DC—in order to audition for the position of the group’s new singer. (Cf. American Hardcore documentary.) Encouraged by his friend Ian MacKaye he agreed. Needless to say, he got the job. After many tours and six studio albums62 founding member Greg Ginn quit the band. He called Rollins at his mother’s house during Christmas 1986 in order to break the news to him. Rollins reacted by saying, “But it’s your band.” (Cf. American Hardcore documentary.) In other words, Black Flag ended then and there.
Black Flag was strongly connected to SST Records, an independent record label founded by Black Flag guitarist Greg Ginn in 1978 in order to release their own records. (Cf. Crass, Dead Kennedys, etc.) Soon, however, SST, which stands for Solid State Transmitters, began to open up, so to speak, and also released records by bands that were not exactly hardcore punk bands but rather alternative rock bands (Hüsker Dü, Sonic Youth, Meat Puppets Dinosaur Jr.).63 SST even put out jazz releases. In this respect, it is fair to compare SST to Crass (the label), Alternative Tentacles (see above) or Dischord (see below), all of which developed from small punk labels through which the bands that started them could independently release their own records, to undeniably important platforms for and of alternative music. Due to violent riots after a number of Black Flag shows, the band was banned from most LA/Southern California clubs and so were hardcore punk shows in general. The label’s office was under police surveillance and their phone was being tapped. This and legal troubles concerning copyright issues and the like led to the label and its owners facing severe financial problems.64 Despite all these difficulties, SST Records still exists today.
Back to Washington, DC. DC’s alternative music scene and the band Minor Threat (1980- 1983)—especially their singer, Ian MacKaye, and his record label, Dischord—are inextricably linked with each other. Minor Threat are considered the initiators of the straight edge movement (see below) as they established the rules,65 as it were, of this drug free lifestyle in
62 Cf.
40 their songs “Straight Edge” (“I’m a person just like you / But I got better things to do / Than sit around and fuck my head / Hang out with the living dead [...] I’ve got the straight edge[...]...”) and “Out Of Step” (“[I] Don’t smoke / [I] Don’t drink / [I] Don’t fuck / At least I can fucking think[...]”). “Out Of Step” in particular was one of the band’s most controversial songs as some people understandably felt ordered around. However, what this song meant to express was MacKaye’s personal crusade against what had become of punk when drugs and alcohol and partying became more important that its revolutionary message. “I liked the rebellion,” MacKaye recalls, “but I always thought that our thing could be stronger without the drugs.” (Cf. Andersen & Jenkins 2001: 21.)
MacKaye retained an affinity with the 1960s counterculture, which was notoriously linked to all kinds of drugs. Paradoxically, this affinity was, to some extent, the foundation of the anti-drug stance he took—and to my knowledge still takes—as MacKaye was of the opinion that, at the end of the day, it was the drugs which were to blame for the movement’s demise. (Cf. Andersen & Jenkins 2001: 22.)
Minor Threat, however, was not the beginning but rather the continuation of MacKaye’s career in punk music. Before they decided to name themselves Minor Threat, the band was called Teen Idles, and before that MacKaye and drummer Jeff Nelson played in a ’77-style punk band called Slinkees. Influenced by the Bad Brains, the Teen Idles changed their sound from traditional punk rock to hardcore. “We went from sounding like the Sex Pistols to playing every song as fast and hard as we could,” remembers Nelson. They were very young, in their early teens, and often looked down upon as ‘teeny-punk’ and the like. Soon they proudly embraced the name ‘Georgetown punks’ after the neighborhood where they liked to spend their time. Their song “Teen Idles” was meant to explain where they were coming from, what punk meant to them and the difficulties they experienced due to their young age. (Cf. appendix.) Henry Garfield (aka Rollins) of S.O.A. and later Black Flag was the Teen Idles’ roadie. “We didn’t get into bands because we were bored,” he says summing up their
three things that are like, so important to our world I don't have to find much importance in because of these things, whether they are fucking or whether it's playing golf, because of that I feel [...]” (Minor Threat, “Out Of Step” spoken word part).
41 approach to playing music. “We did it because we had to. If we didn’t we would have exploded.” (Cf. Andersen & Jenkins 2001: 54, 55.)
After Teen Idles had split up, MacKaye and Nelson formed Minor Threat. With Minor Threat, being from Washington, DC became more of an issue, or as the band’s guitarist Lyle Preslar put it, “We are really proud that in Washington, DC, which is not an entertainment town, not a music or club town of any sort, we put together a band and got records out and financed it all.“ (Cf. Andersen & Jenkins 2001: 22.) Despite this rather positive outlook, MacKaye put all his anger into his lyrics. “The songs raged, but not blindly or inarticulately. Each one was simple yet well-spoken, taken straight from actual experience.” (Andersen & Jenkins 2001: 91.) So was one of the most misunderstood songs in the history of punk, “Guilty of Being White” by Minor Threat. The song was about race issues but, contrary to some interpretations, it was not racist. Defending the song and himself, MacKaye explains the lyrics:
I stand behind all my lyrics. But I know that when I wrote Guilty of Being White I grew up in Washington, DC, which is a black majority city. I went to the public schools here. And I know that when I wrote this song I was writing an anti-racist song. Because I was singing a song about being a minority. In my junior high school I was one of ten percent white kids and in my senior high school I was one of 25% white kids. And I know that when I wrote this song I know I was saying, “I’m only guilty of being white. Don’t judge me for the color of my skin.” It’s anti-racist. So clear. How could I know that some, like, nationalist Nazi guy in Poland would listen to that song 15 years later and then say to me, “It’s so good you speak for the white man.” How could I know? (Ian MacKaye interviewed in American Hardcore.)
Between September 1981 and April 1982 Minor Threat took a break, or rather, broke up and reunited in order to play not only in DC but across the whole country. (Cf. Andersen & Jenkins 2001: 101.) Soon the band was “on the edge of breaking out” and the greater part of them had “all the natural aspirations,” as drummer Jeff Nelson put it, “to become a big band.” (Cf. Andersen & Jenkins 2001: 149.) MacKaye was not one of them and, as no compromise could be achieved, the band broke up for good. (Ibid.) MacKaye was also frustrated with the direction hardcore was going at the time. He felt that the very things hardcore was meant to be the antithesis of (stubborn consumerism, hierarchy, etc.) had become a part of it. Songs like
42 “It Follows,” “Think Again” or “Betray” were “the expression of his anguish and disillusionment with the scene that had nurtured him [...].” (Andersen & Jenkins 2001: 133.) Explaining the lyrics of “It Follows,”66 MacKaye once said, “[...] we’re all so fucking happy to be different from this [mainstream] crap and now I turn around and the shit we ran from is right with us.” (Ibid.) Skeptical about the future of ‘DC punk’ as he may have been, as one of the owners of the independent label Dischord, who have put out countless landmark recordings over the years, and a founding member of one of the most influential progressive post-hardcore bands, namely Fugazi, Ian MacKaye remained an integral part of authentic American alternative rock music—not to mention the stir Minor Threat’s music and message created. It is safe to say that MacKaye’s later bands, and the music by such seminal Dischord artists as Rites of Spring, sparked off a new musical subgenre of punk, namely emo.67
Discussions similar to the ones that were going on within their band before they eventually split up also made feelings run high between bandmates Ian MacKaye and Jeff Nelson at Dischord. MacKaye and Nelson had different opinions concerning business ethics. (Cf. the songs “Betray” and “Look Back and Laugh.”) Nelson wanted the label they had founded together in 1980 in order to release the Minor Disturbance EP by the Teen Idles to be more businesslike and thought they sold their records too cheaply, whereas MacKaye thought it crucial to keep record prices as low as possible. According to MacKaye, some of his lyrics were inspired by the differences he and Jeff had at the time. (Cf. Andersen & Jenkins 2001: 133.) Nevertheless, Dischord continues to put out records maintaining its strict DIY ethic.
66 “I thought I left it behind [...]/ All the stupid thinking [...]/ The rules that we lived by [...]/ It followed me [...].” 67 ‘Emo’ or ‘emocore’ is short for emotional hardcore and not to be confused with the goth offshoot of the same name it is commonly associated with today. In the 1990s the term ‘emo’ used to refer to such bands as the Get Up Kids, Jawbreaker, As Friends Rust (cf. appendix: the lucidly sociocritical song “Coffee Black”), etc. and not black-wearing pseudo-suicidal teenagers with bizarre haircuts and too much make-up.
43 2.1. STRAIGHT EDGE
Even though the main aspects of straight edge have already been mentioned above, this peculiar-seeming movement, which originated in the punk scene, deserves a short chapter of its own. Firstly, because it has been important for the development of punk and hardcore, especially in the United States, and secondly, because it has taken some interesting turns68 since Minor Threat coined the term at the outset of the 1980s.
What early straight edge bands such as 7 Seconds or SSD offered was “a hardcore alternative to both straight society and the English ‘drunk punk’ we couldn’t identify with” (O’Hara 1999: 143) or, as 20-year-old Ian Mac Kaye put it 28 years ago, the idea was to control things “and not letting them control you.” (Ibid.) What this meant was that by avoiding drugs, alcohol and promiscuity of sexual relationships (cf. the Minor Threat song “Out of Step”), all of which were associated with a mindless party-oriented lifestyle and apathy, one is more capable of focusing on the things that are actually important in one’s life and therefore more likely to actually make a difference. “I want purpose,” MacKaye said in 1985, “I want my life to count for me, for something.” (Cf. O’Hara 1999: 146.) This idea “was echoed throughout the American Punk community, eventually growing in places as far as California in 1984-8 ([with such bands as] Uniform Choice, Insted...) and Europe in 1988- present.” (O’Hara 1999: 144.)
To show others that they are ‘straight,’ many straight edgers draw a black X on the back of their hands with a permanent marker when going out to shows, etc.69 “The largest of the second wave of straight edge bands,” O’Hara states, “was New York’s Youth Of Today.” (O’Hara 1999: 148.) However, it is safe to say that the Gorilla Biscuits, also from NYC, were
68 That is to say, not necessarily for the better: “A movement that went from being a minor threat to a conservative no threat.” (Cf. O’Hara 1999: 142.) 69 “[...] the Straight Edge ‘X’ can be traced to the Teen Idles' brief U.S. West Coast tour in 1980. The Teen Idles were scheduled to play at San Francisco's Mabuhay Gardens, but when the band arrived, club management discovered that the entire band was under the legal drinking age and therefore should be denied entry to the club. As a compromise, management marked each of the Idles' hands with a large black "X" as a warning to the club's staff not to serve alcohol to the band. Upon returning to Washington, D.C., the band suggested this same system to local clubs as a means to allow teenagers in to see musical performances without being served alcohol. The mark soon became associated with the Straight Edge lifestyle. In recent years, more music venues (and even dance clubs) have begun adopting this system.” (Cf.
44 equally important in the late 1980s. In the 1990s straight edge and vegetarianism/veganism (cf. 3.3.) became closely linked.
Straight edge was meant to improve punk rock70 but at some point it became a seperate self-righteous sect that had more to do with totalitarianism than progressive thinking and was in desperate need of improvement itself. What this radical straight edge ideology boils down to is that it does not take any drinking or smoking—or meat-eating, in some cases—punk’s politics seriously. By drinking beer and smoking cigarettes (and consuming animal products), they claim, one contributes to environmental pollution, animal testing, health and social problems on a large scale and the exploitation of workers and unknowing consumers by the big tobacco- and alcohol-producing companies. In other words, if you are not vegan straight edge you are less of a responsible human being. Bands like Earth Crisis71 and Vegan Reich were the 1990s’ best-known musical manifestations of this phenomenon known as ‘hardline.’ The latter band used to speak of “pre-set natural roles” (cf. O’Hara 1999: 150) in connection with gender issues and called homosexuality a “deviation from nature [that] like all other deviations from nature, which have brought our world to the dreadful state it is in today, [...] must be spoken out against and combated.” (Ibid.) They openly promoted a “dictatorship of vegans” (ibid) as the pathway to a better world. In the song “Firestorm,” Earth Crisis (see appendix) blatantly use Nazi jargon to suggest a final solution to society’s problems, namely the deportation and extermination of people who engage in what they consider immoral and unethical behavior. However, not everybody who calls themselves ‘straight edge’ today also identifies with this moronic and dangerous puritan trend. To the contrary, many straight edgers distance themselves from it. For the same reason, others do not want to be called ‘straight edge’ anymore even though they live according to the movement’s basic principles. As punks, however, they naturally refuse to be associated with this kind of ignorance and intolerance.
For other straight edgers, however, being ‘straight’ has become an end in itself. “The new [straight edge] bands”, O’Hara observes, “have become increasingly reactionary, conformist
70 Indeed, drug abuse has always been a problem of the punk subculture. 71 In the explanatory notes to the song “Brothers in Arms” by the anarchist band Ümlaut, Earth Crisis are referred to as “fascist straight edgers of subnormal intelligence.” The song itself ridicules Earth Crisis’ dramatic war rhetoric and puts it into a different context, namely that of gay rights. (See appendix.)
45 and macho in the last few years. [...] Straight Edge has become a sea of middle class young white men with little interest in rebellion or radical politics,” he adds, as many straight edgers “have rejected Punk [...] and now have their own subculture within the counterculture.” (O’Hara 1999: 146f.) To these people straight edge seems to mean little more than the satisfaction of the very human desire to belong to some sort of readily identifiable social group and has nothing to do with individuality. This ‘sheep mentality’ is highly contradictory to the original idea of straight edge—and punk, for that matter—as promoted by Minor Threat, which appears to have been a very promising concept and an interesting aspect of punk, indeed.
2.2. THE NINETEEN-NINETIES AND EARLY TWOTHOUSANDS
The 1990s saw the rise of hyper-melodic radio-friendly punk rock—or, as critical observers might put it, the rise of a musical genre that tried to pass itself off as punk, watering down its ethic beyond recognition.72 When bands like the Offspring and Green Day filled the void that the grunge73 band Nirvana had left behind and became big MTV acts, punk became little more than a sound, an empty shell. Everything labeled ‘punk’ sold enormously well. Around the same time two underground punk rock record labels from the US-American West Coast became bigger than they had ever dreamed they would, namely Epitaph Records and Fat Wreck Chords. The former was founded by Brett Gurewitz, original guitarist of the highly influential punk band Bad Religion, and the latter by Michael Burkett aka Fat Mike of NOFX and his wife, Erin.74 Most of the bands on these labels’ rosters were relatively fast, very
72 The developments within the underground punk scene of the 1990s and early 2000s are not nearly as well documented as previous eras. Most books on punk I know deal with the very first wave of punk rock in the late 1970s, fewer are about the eighties—but there are at least some—whereas virtually no books have been written about this more recent period—at least not that I know of. Therefore, this chapter will have to manage with fewer references and quotes. However, since the 1990s were my teenage years, i.e. the time when punk rock started to play an important role in my life, I like to believe that I know enough about this era to write about it as a contemporary witness, so to say. Suffice it to say, I was like a sponge when it came to punk at the time. 73 To a certain extent, the terms ‘grunge’ and ‘punk’ are practically interchangeable. In the late 1980s and at the beginning of the following decade the term ‘grunge’ and the associated look (long hair, flannel shirts, tattered blue jeans) became popular. The music industry started to use it too, so they could present angry, aggressive rock music with a message (i.e. punk rock) as something entirely new. 74 Cf.
46 melodic and apolitical. This kind of punk rock is often referred to as ‘skate punk’, as it was strongly linked to the surfing and skateboarding culture. It was almost like the soundtrack to these sports. Aside from NOFX and Bad Religion, the biggest names in this genre were Lag Wagon, No Use For A Name, Rancid and Pennywise, to name but a few. Good Riddance from Santa Cruz, CA and Propagandhi from Winnipeg, Canada were the exception to the rule, so to speak. Both bands used to be on Fat Wreck Chords but they were highly political, musically adept and lyrically brilliant. The latter is especially true for Propagandhi, who have been a band since 1986.75 “[...] the explicit class conscious lyrics of Propagandhi find a perfect home in sing-a-long pop Punk,” says O’Hara. (1999: 72.) Propagandhi’s first two, undeniably very pop-sounding records, namely How To Clean Everything (1993) and Less Talk, More Rock (1996), featured catchy songs with political content, countless cultural and literary references and a pinch of satire and self-mockery. Propagandhi’s basic political principles are summed up on the label of the Less Talk, More Rock CD in very condensed form. It shows a circle-A (the anarchy symbol) circularly surrounded by the words ‘pro- feminist,’ ‘gay-positive,’ ‘anti-fascist’ and ‘animal-friendly,’ which describe the main cornerstones of the ideology of punk as discussed below. The liner notes to their albums usually feature explanatory texts and a list of recommended radical books and websites dedicated to various important political causes.
Propagandhi are known for their activism and their thoroughgoingness when it comes to their political attitude. For instance, they refused to support Fat Wreck Chords’ campaign against the re-election of George W. Bush called “Punk Voter” in 2004.76 Michael “Fat Mike” Burkett supported the Democratic Party as the lesser of two evils, a game Propagandhi did not want to play. (Cf. Ox Fanzine, Issue #83, April/May 2009: 21.) Also, they were of the opinion that their label’s approach “[...] over-emphasized voting and under-emphasized belonging to grassroots organizations,” as the band’s drummer Jord Samoleski put it in an interview for Indymedia Ireland in 2006.77 Due to these and other differences, Propagandhi has parted with Fat Wreck Chords. Their most recent album, Supporting Caste (2009), came out on their own78 and a number of other small independent labels worldwide.
75 Cf.
47
At least on the level of content, Propagandhi can be regarded as the link between melodic punk rock and more heavy-sounding political DIY hardcore punk in America in the 1990s. Three of the many bands that come to mind in connection with the latter type are the anarchist metalcore79 band Catharsis from North Carolina, the Seattle straight edge hardcore band Trial and His Hero Is Gone, a political crust punk/sludge metal band from Memphis, Tennessee that later morphed into another, equally important, band called Tragedy.80 Tragedy, by the way, is the only one of the above-mentioned bands that is still recording and performing. What all of these bands have in common, though, was that the (anti-consumerist, anti- capitalist, etc.) message they conveyed was central to their existence as punk bands.
Catharsis (1994-200281) were known for long speeches between their intense and heavy songs. Aside from inspiring performances, the band was of international importance when it came to bringing political and social criticism back into the hardcore and punk scene, as they were instrumental in creating the “anarchist decentralized collective,”82 CrimethInc. CrimethInc. also functioned as an independent record label through which Catharsis and others released their records. Recently, the focus of this “international ‘workers’ collective’ of men and women who are not willing to be mere ‘workers’ anymore [...]” (cf. Days of War, Nights of Love 2001: back cover) has shifted from putting out punk records to publishing books and political activism that ranges from traditional Marxism to radical anarchism. Some of the ideas and slogans CrimethInc. spreads are reminiscent of the European Situationist International of the late 1960s, a movement which “[...] advocated experiences of life being alternative to those admitted by the capitalist order, for the fulfillment of human primitive desires and the pursuing of a superior passional quality.”83 CrimethInc.’s “international journal of hardcore punk and anarchist action,” as the front page of their periodical medium Inside Front used to read (cf. Inside Front, Issue # ∞, 2003: cover), later became the “[...]
79 This term, describing a subgenre of hardcore punk, is a self-explanatory portmanteau blending the words ‘metal,’ as in the musical genre ‘heavy metal,’ and ‘hardcore.’ However, the meaning of this term has changed over the years and has little to do with the punk subculture anymore. 80 Cf.
48 anarchist journal of dangerous living,” (cf. for instance Rolling Thunder, Issue #7, Spring 2009: cover) Rolling Thunder.
The musical style that the Seattle band Trial dedicated themselves to in 1995 is a cross between older American straight edge hardcore (like Youth Of Today, etc.) and heavy metal.84 According to Wikipedia, “Trial released three studio CD's [sic!]: ‘Through the Darkest Days’ (1996), ‘Foundation’ (1997), and ‘Are These Our Lives?’ (1999). There were a number of alternative versions, vinyl-only releases and compilations as well.”85 Trial owes a lot of their popularity within the hardcore scene to the outstanding lyrics and impressive stage presence of their vocalist Greg Bennick, who, after the band called it a day in 2000, reportedly toured as a juggler and later co-produced the award-winning philosophical documentary Flight From Death (2003), “[...]inspired by the works and writings of cultural anthropologist and social theorist Ernest Becker (1924-1974).”86 The film deals with death anxiety and the denial of death in modern society. In the liner notes to Trial’s final album Bennick’s sophisticated lyrics come with corresponding quotes by such iconic figures as Walt Whitman, William Shakespeare, Mikhail Bakunin, Emma Goldman and Howard Zinn. The following lines from the song “Reflections” sum up Trial’s attitude quite well:
“we are tortured and insane disillusioned and mundane unknown and unnamed desperate and enslaved and we want something more”87
Regarding their ‘mission’ and their live performances Bennick proclaims:
We were after that one moment, that one intimate and intense exchange, that one flash of passion and agony colliding and intertwining that left us all reeling and realizing that we'd just experienced something very real. We were desperate for that, and we found it, and kept finding it wherever we played, regardless of the specific song or the topic. There was an experience people were having when they were given the opportunity to suffer and share what that suffering really felt like. The more we connected with that feeling and that experience, the more people understood what it was we were aiming to do, and the more they wanted to be a part of it. And that's what made Trial so meaningful: it wasn't about us. It was about the
84 The heavy, double-kick-driven drumming on Trial’s final album Are These Our Lives? is an obvious manifestation of their metal influence. 85Cf.
49 people who came to the shows or listened to the songs and who connected in whatever way they could. They were the ones, who through their courage and willingness to share of themselves, who justified, invented, and kept recreating the band. Anyone can write songs and release records. But not anyone can come to a show or write a letter or email and desperately connect with the music they experience and then share their own suffering with such intensity that it alters the way the musicians see their art and themselves. Art, and life ultimately, are about transformation. Because of the people at the shows, being in Trial felt like transformation night after night, wherever in the world we went. We were being inspired and influenced by all the people who came to share or who shared after the fact through what they wrote to us or said in reaction to what they'd experienced. (Taken from the Reunion Retrospective DVD insert.)
This emphasis on passion, which admittedly seems almost naïve, was one of the things Trial and bands like Catharsis had in common and it inspired many young punks to think about their existence on a more philosophical level and lead a more radical life, a life less ordinary. Only by living dangerously and taking matters into our own hands, can we truly be free, was the powerful message these bands used to spread—put into a few simple words, that is. The background of His Hero Is Gone is similar but slightly different from that of bands like Catharsis and Trial, and so is their significance within the punk universe. In terms of sound and heavy-ness, HHIG were important because they were among the first and most prominent “d.i.y. bands to shift from single cabinets to full stacks88, and within a few years every band that wished to be taken seriously had done the same.”89 (Rolling Thunder, Issue #7, Spring 2009: 73.) Lyrically, they painted a bleak picture of a world ruled by war mongers, capitalism, technology and indifference. Despite being relatively popular with the members of various punk, hardcore and metal circles, they were wedded to DIY, a philosophy they still put into practice with their new band, Tragedy, by releasing their own records and booking their own tours worldwide. For the members of Tragedy, actions definitely speak louder than words.
The propaganda of what you do comes out through your individual lifestyle. What you say, the ideas you promote, can be more of a fictitious thing [...] If there are any slogans in the lyrics it’s because they sound good, they fit well, whatever, but it’s not to try to force things into people’s heads and make them think ‘oh, yeah, this is bad, and this is good... (Tragedy interviewed in Inside Front, # ∞: 81f.)
88 I.e. two guitar cabinets, with four speakers each, on top of each other for each guitarist. 89 A reaction to this very gear-based version of punk rock was folk punk. Acoustic guitars and almost country sounding music played by punks became popular in the scene a few years ago. The flagship band of this subgenre of punk was early Against Me! from Florida
50
In the 1990s, hardcore and punk bands who genuinely embraced the DIY ethic and their idealistic followers were—at least to some degree—entities of political relevance in the United States: “[...] the d.i.y. underground of the mid 1990s contributed to an increase in animal rights activism and helped pave the way for the anti-globalization movement.” (Cf. Rolling Thunder, Issue #7, Spring 2009: 72.)
51 3. THE IDEOLOGY OF PUNK
The neat slogan ‘punk minus politics equals pop’ and other such statements, which attentive observers of the punk scene will come across ever so often, nicely sum up the idea that punk is more than music quite well. It is, indeed, safe to say that one, if not the, defining element of punk is that it tends to embrace the concept of horizontally distributed political power and equal human rights rather than illiberal and hierarchical structures90—broadly speaking, that is. Punk is not just a style of music—even though certain stylistic elements are typical of almost all varieties of punk rock, distorted guitars for example—and it is certainly not just a look, either. Sure, the archetypical punker, a young man with spiked green hair wearing military boots, a Sex Pistols T-shirt and a studded leather jacket, exists, but in no way does his outfit define punk. All it actually does is visualizing his affiliation with the punk subculture. Therefore, the best way to describe punk in its entirety is to outline its ideological cornerstones.
According to the anarchist journal Rolling Thunder, “The first major wave of politicized punk can probably be traced to the British band Crass, which drew on Dadaism and other avant-garde traditions to fashion early punk rock into a form of cultural agitprop.” (Cf. Issue #7, Spring 2009: 72.) “The punk movement was originally formed in nations holding capitalist, pseudo-democratic policies,” O’Hara claims. “Because of this capitalism and its problems became the first target of political Punks. Homelessness, classism, and work place exploitation seem to be some of the results of a system built on greed.” (1999: 74) This may be true from the North American (or West European) point of view, but what about other places that are not as well off as the so-called West? In terms of promoting political consciousness, punk has played an important role in many such places, too, in Latin America, for example. “Though some in the US assume that punk is a product of First World privilege, it has been instrumental in revitalizing Mexican anarchism.” (Cf. Rolling Thunder, Issue #7, Spring 2009: 75.)
90 Of course, punk is not the only kind of music with an outspoken political message. There are rock, pop and hip hop artists with radical views and lyrics, too, but I think that it can be argued that only punk, at least to a certain degree, can claim to be intrinsically political.
52 3.1. ANARCHY
“When it comes to choosing a political ideology,” says O’Hara, “Punks are primarily anarchists.” (O’Hara, 1999: 71f.) He adds that they “[...] have turned to anarchism as an alternative to the world’s existing systems and the continual cycle of oppression each revolution brings.” (Ibid.) Therefore communism, a political ideology some of the earlier radical leftist movements, many of which were anchored in the hippie subculture of the late 1960s, used to sympathize with as a desirable alternative to Western capitalism, is condemned in most punk circles as well: “[...] any system which holds as part of its philosophy the domination of one human by another holds the possibility of oppression.” (Cf. O’Hara, 1999: 73.) On the whole, punk ideology may show quite a few parallels to socialist ideas (working class consciousness, striving for equality, etc.), but it cannot be labeled as just another facet of the political tradition of the left. Anarchist values are clearly prevalent within the punk scene.
Though the Sex Pistols were the first to boldly link punk rock with anarchism, and even if their role as initiators of this symbiosis is not be underestimated, the “[...] first Punk band to take a serious interest in anarchy and its implications was the English band Crass.” (O’Hara, 1999: 81.) By way of illustration, Craig O’Hara cites excerpts from the 1981 interview with Crass in the US punk fanzine Flipside. A member of the band (most likely Penny Rimbaud but O’Hara withholds this information from his readers) states that “Anarchy is the only form of political thought that does not seek to control the individual through force [and it is] the rejection of that State control and represents a demand by the individual to live a life of personal choice, not one of political manipulation.” (Cf. O’Hara, 1999: 83.) In this interview, Crass do away with the erroneous belief that (political) anarchy equals chaos, stating that “By refusing to be controlled you are taking your life into your own hands, and that is, rather than the popular idea of anarchy as chaos, the start of personal order...The state of anarchy is not a chaotic bedlam where everyone is out for themselves.” (Ibid.) In other words, anarchy here means—as it actually does etymologically—the absence of authority and government, not the absence of community and mutual support. In this sense, ‘anarchy’ does not mean disorder. This idea is central to the worldview of anarchist punks. In issue #4 of Rolling Thunder, disorder is even defined as the “disruption of the anarchy that otherwise characterizes our world.” (Cf. page 6.) Disorder is the opposite of anarchy. The author claims that a certain
53 “anarchic harmony” (Ibid.), i.e. the natural order we find in, say, the ecosystem of a forest, has been replaced by a “disorder imposed from above” (Ibid.) that can only survive when kept on life support, so to speak. Only by force can such a system of disorder be kept in place. It cannot naturally perpetuate itself. “One of the most developed forms of disorder is capitalism: the war each against all, rule or be ruled, sell or be sold. One might call capitalism a social disorder in the same way that bulimia is an eating disorder [...].”(Ibid.)
It is fair to say that “The faith that Punks and other activists place in anarchy stems from the belief in the equality and rights of all people.” (O’Hara, 1999: 100) However, when it comes to the actual realization of these noble ideas the debate whether or not violence can ever be justified has split the anarchist punk scene in half. Generally speaking, the hippies were pacifists but the punks are not—at least not to such a degree. Some are pacifists, no doubt, (e.g. Crass) but many are not.91 Violent threats in their lyrics to representatives of authority and power (especially the police) or fascists are considered a must-do by many punks and punk bands, but “Punks have not taken part in any violent revolutions or political assassination attempts and are certainly not violence oriented despite what the press may say.” (O’Hara, 1999: 92.) To sum up this issue, there are anarchist punks who believe in pacifism, there are those who do not and there are those who play it by ear. However, “While the violence against authority figures may meet mixed reviews, violence to property has been an active part of both the pacifist and non-pacifist Punk’s activities,” says O’Hara. (1999: 92.) Still, the question of violence vs. non-violence is a problem all radical insurrectional groups have to face and solve at some point, not just the anarcho punks.
Why punk and anarchism have formed such a fertile symbiosis is debatable. It is all the more surprising if one takes into account that “countless ideologies have competed in the punk milieu, from Neo-Nazism to Christianity and Krishna ‘consciousness’.” (Rolling Thunder, Issue #7, Spring 2009: 70) In the article “Music as a Weapon: The Contentious Symbiosis of Punk Rock & Anarchism” the anonymous author tries to approach this question as follows:
91 ‘Pacifism’ meaning being opposed to violence in general, not to war in particular.
54 From Victor Jara to the MC5 and Public Enemy, music has been important in countless cultures of resistance. It is no secret that a great proportion of those currently active in anarchist circles have at some point been part of the punk counterculture; indeed, many were first exposed to anarchist ideas via punk. There are two ways to look at this. Perhaps it’s merely circumstantial: the same traits that make people seek out anarchism also predispose them to enjoy aggressive, independently produced music. At the other extreme, one could argue that music that pushes aesthetic cultural boundaries can imply a wider spectrum of possibilities in other spheres of life as well—that is to say, that there has been something intrinsically subversive about punk. (Rolling Thunder, Issue #7, Spring 2009: 69.)
This is doubtlessly a highly interesting approach to the question whether people who like punk rock are more likely to be drawn to anarchist ideas or vice versa. Chicken or egg—either way, it is apparent that there is some kind of undeniable connection between the two. The appendix to the above-cited article takes a look “beyond the white punk ghetto” and features an interview with an anarchist punk rocker from Mexico who describes the connections between the punk scene and the anarchist movement in his or her native country:
So how strong are the connections? The arrival of punks to anarchist struggle signified the arrival of youth to the anarchist cause. If in the beginning there were only a handful of anarchist punks, in these days there are more or less 300 anarchist punks and more than a thousand with strong anarchist sympathies. Around 80 percent of the anarchists here are punks or have their roots in the punk movement; the remaining 20 percent are students, professors, some workers, and militants from an older time. (Rolling Thunder, Issue #7, Spring 2009: 75.)
According to the aforementioned article, however, many contemporary anarchists share somewhat negative sentiments towards the subculture that spawned them. “Perhaps this hostility towards punk,” the author suggests, “is itself a symptom of the punk involvement in anarchist circles—negativity, after all, is a classic feature of the punk attitude.” (Rolling Thunder, Issue #7, Spring 2009: 70.) Some of the criticisms, however, are indeed well- founded as people who come into anarchism (or any other ideological belief, for that matter) via punk seem to approach it like they approach subculture, i.e. guided by questionable motives such as sense of identification and ‘hipness’ etc. On the one hand then, it rings true that the fate of a revolutionary political movement cannot be tied to the fortunes of a trend- sensitive music scene. On the other hand, however, one cannot expect “the punk scene to produce anarchists free of subcultural baggage.” (Ibid.) If punk is a gateway to a certain political worldview, it does not mean that just because punkers are followers of a subculture
55 primarily based on loud music, they cannot acquire the knowledge so-called ‘serious’ anarchists have attained. The lyrics of such bands as Propagandhi or Trial (cf. below) supply proof. It is also evident that “In a decentralized, network-based milieu [like the punk scene] participants experience firsthand the effectiveness and benefits of anarchic structures. [...] it’s no great stretch to imagine that other aspects of society could also be organized on a more horizontal basis.” (Ibid.)
Another model to explain the strong band between punk and anarchism would be that “anarchist values took root in the punk scene precisely because they were so marginalized elsewhere: in an era when radical ideas are pushed to the periphery, peripheral subcultures are bound to be crowded with them.” (Rolling Thunder, Issue #7, Spring 2009: 71.) Furthermore, “The fact that the decentralization and iconoclasm of the punk scene occurred outside any rigid ideological framework contributed to it being a more fertile and unpredictable space than many more explicitly radical milieus have been.” (Rolling Thunder, Issue #7, Spring 2009: 72.) Even though anarchist ideas have always played a role in political and literary discourse—many literary works, e.g. Percy Shelley’s “The Mask of Anarchy” (1819) testify to this—and punk had not been established until some 35 years ago, it can surely be said that today’s active punk scene and anarchist groups share a big part of their following, and thus depend on each other to a high degree. “Punk’s long run as a breeding ground for anarchism shows how much we stand to gain from social activities that are pleasurable and creative,” the author of the above-quoted article concludes in an attempt to explain this phenomenon. (Rolling Thunder, Issue #7, Spring 2009: 74.)
3.2. THE DIY ETHIC
Anarchist values and the do-it-yourself (DIY) ethic, which is the fundament of independent punk rock, go hand in hand. The latter “is an extension of the anarchistic principles requiring responsibility and cooperation in order to build a more productive, creative, and enjoyable future,” Craig O’Hara states (1999: 166) and calls DIY “the driving
56 ethic behind most sincere Punk efforts.” (1999: 153.) John Active of Active Distribution, an independent distributor of radical literature and punk music from London, explains that “The basic point of the DIY punk ethic is the notion of taking control of your own life and having a direct impact on decisions that affect you and your community.” (Maximum RockNRoll, Issue # 292, September 2007: no page numbers.) In other words, DIY is the closest an artist can get to true independence and complete artistic freedom:
Far from MTV talent scouts, competing independent labels, and alternative consumerism you could occasionally find something truly beautiful and free at the heart of the d.i.y. underground. At best it was a space in which the roles of protagonist and audience became interchangeable and the dictates of the dominant culture were shaken off. (Rolling Thunder, Issue #7, Spring 2009: 71.)
Furthermore, DIY punk is described as “pleasure-oriented, offering activities that were fulfilling in and of themselves.” (Ibid.) However, DIY became central to the punk scene not only because of ethical aspects but also because it was a practical necessity. It was never easy for small punk bands with radical views to be published by established labels.92 If such bands wanted to put out a record, they had to do it themselves—hence the many tiny punk rock record labels run by members of such bands all around the world—and if they wanted to get a tour booked they had to learn how to manage that by themselves, too. From the point of view of an average punk kid, you had to rent a cheap venue and set up a small concert yourself if you wanted to see your favorite hardcore or punk band play in your hometown, simply because nobody else would. In the independent punk rock sector, not much has changed in this respect. O’Hara reports that “Punks [...] organize and set-up shows at rented halls and churches.” (O’Hara, 1999: 165.) Neither one of the two—the band or the promoter—expects to make a profit. The usually well-below-average entrance fees serve but one purpose: not to lose too much money. Very often not even this goal can be achieved. “This [philosophy] goes back to the beginning of Punk when there were few people in the movement and the idea of
92 That is to say, mainstream record labels today tend to sign young punk bands precisely because of their asserted radical attitude. “The music industry wants to make money using radical rhetoric [...].” (Dave Harker as quoted in O’Hara, 1999: 156.) The question is, how radical these bands de facto are if they are willing to blatantly play the game of corporate rock. In other words, “Can a band really keep a radical, uncompromising political stance whilst working for a major label whose job it is to sell records to a mass audience?” (O’Hara, 1999: 153.)
57 making a great deal of money from the music was a ridiculous pipe dream.” (O’Hara, 1999: 153.)
Crass were an early example of this ethic based on an imperative necessity in terms of releasing albums and booking tours (see above). DIY is never the easiest way to go about these things but most people who do, usually find it very rewarding. Due to the DIY ethic, punk stands out among other music scenes as punks worldwide have created their very own infrastructure. This unique network is independent in the best sense of the word and highly self-sufficient.93 It is also a statement against blind consumerism and the global exploitation of workers, animals and the Earth by the capitalist system and its generally unquestioned values. It can rightly be said that “The d.i.y. boom of the mid-1990s fed easily into the momentum of the anti-globalization movement.” (Rolling Thunder, Issue #7, Spring 2009: 72.)
Some punk rock lyrics deal with the DIY ethic, idealizing it, for example the following song by the Unseen, a band from Massachusetts, USA, simply entitled “D.I.Y.”
We are the punks of today, we are the punks of tomorrow We will fight for what is right, we will fight to live our lives We fight regardless of what you say Look around at what we've created, take a good look at the scene Build something from nothing, we gave it meaning D.I.Y. or die, look out for everyone, concentrate on having fun We can't fight each other, gotta try to stick together That's how we'll keep the scene strong The whole thing is still very young, it’s only been 20 years We are the third generation, save the world from annihilation With our silly punk rock anthems
This enthusiasm—as honest and justified as it might be—stands in glaring contrast to a more critical point of view coming from within the DIY (punk) scene, in this case the anarchist journal Rolling Thunder:
93 I myself have been a beneficiary of and a contributor to this infrastructure for more than a decade now. However, it is important to point out that the climax of DIY punk was in the late 1990s/early 2000s. Today things seem a little more difficult (fewer places to organize gigs at, higher costs in general, fewer people coming out to concerts, etc.), to put it mildly.
58 The average punk show is more dominated by patriarchy than a college class room; all the hierarchies, economics, and power dynamics of capitalist society are present in microcosm, along with the trendiness and transience of youth culture. (Rolling Thunder, Issue #7, Spring 2009: 70.)
This problem has been debated on in hardcore and punk circles for decades now and even a number of songs have been devoted to it. In reaction to such nuisances, many a punk has even dropped out of the scene completely. Other, more positive, punks have tried to improve the situation, believing that what is at the core of punk and hardcore is worth defending against such destructive influences.
3.3. ANIMAL RIGHTS AND ECOLOGICAL CONCERNS
One of the most prominent and most widely debated ethical aspects in punk has doubtlessly been veg(etari)anism. Or, as O’Hara puts it, “Vegetarianism and animal rights have become staples of the concerned Punk’s political philosophy.” (1999: 140.) Today, animal rights are still an important issue within the political discourse punks take part in, but not to the same degree as they used to be, say, 15 years ago. “In the mid-nineties, it seemed all my friends were vegan and self-righteous about it,” recalls Editor B., the author of an article entitled “Why We Should Bring Back Veganism,” published in the out-of-print hardcore punk fanzine Inside Front and adds that “[he] was hanging out with in a mixture of straight edge and political punk circles, at the high point of Earth Crisis’s fame.” (Issue # ∞, 2003: 46.) Propagandhi were, without doubt, one of the most outspoken vegan punk bands of the 1990s—that is, apart from certain, partially dubious (cf. 2.1.) straight edge bands. According to O’Hara, “the largest growing number of converts to vegetarianism have been the recent wave of Straight Edge Punks who swear off meat mainly due to the artificially created desire of it [...].” (1999: 140.) The Propagandhi song “Nailing Descartes to the Wall/(Liquid) Meat Is Still Murder” contains the lines “Meat is still murder. Dairy is still
59 rape.” It is one of the reasons why the band is rightly considered “an active veganarchist band supporting animal liberation and veganism.”94
However, “Vegetarianism and animal rights are two subjects which were first popularized by the European Punk community.” (O’Hara, 1999: 134.) As early as 1985, the Scottish punk band Oi Polloi stated in an interview with Maximum RockNRoll (Issue #25) that “Punk is about freedom for people and animals too. Punk is against discrimination in the forms of sexism, racism, and also speciesism.”95 (Cf. O’Hara, 1999: 134.) Why most political and ecoconscious punk circles have emphasized this issue is quite obvious. “A rational look at the wasted resources, and the acceptance of a deeper or more humane ecology,” O’Hara observes, “has caused a growing number of Punks to become vegetarians.” (O’Hara, 1999: 132.) What many North American punks did was to take this approach and take it a step further. They went vegan. Veganism (no animal products and by-products whatsoever, including milk and dairy, sometimes even honey etc.) and the concept of animal rights does not stop at eating animal products. Wearing fur or leather and vivisection are equally condemned. “Many Punks are members and supporters of [such environmentalist/animal rights groups as] Earth First!, Greenpeace, Animal Liberation Front, and other groups,” O’Hara states. (1999: 129.) In a nutshell, the main reason why many punks so actively take part in this discourse is that it appeals to their sense of justice. Apart from other forms of injustice, they consider cruelty against animals and the ruthless exploitation of the Earth the greatest evils of Western civilization and the capitalist system, which they oppose.
When it comes to achieving the goal of liberating society from these evils, two different concepts are promoted by different members of the punk community, namely voting with your money (by buying only organic “cruelty free” vegan products) and direct action. Craig O’Hara is of the opinion that “One of the best ways to refuse and resist a destructive capitalist system is to vote economically, spending dough [i.e. money] where you feel it has the least harmful effect.” (O’Hara, 1999: 131.) Many animal rights activists will agree. In his article
94 Cf.
60 “Why We Should Bring Back Veganism” (Inside Front), however, the author strongly disagrees and explains why:
I’ve since been proved essentially correct in my suspicions about the whole “voting with your dollars” approach to animal rights: the vegetarian/vegan trend has helped cement the iron grip of friendly-faced, evil-hearted corporations like union-busting Whole Foods over their own new niche, the bourgeois feel-good “organic” market, thus driving community co-ops and mom’n’pop shops into even worse straits, and closing down far fewer animal-exploiting corporations than more direct-action-oriented approaches have. (Inside Front, Issue # ∞, 2003: 46)
In reaction “to a veganism that had claimed to address animal rights without addressing capitalism” (ibid) the term ‘freeganism’ became popular in political punk circles. Refusing to pay for food altogether, freegans argue, is the best way not to contribute to the exploitation of human and non-human animals by the food industry of unfettered capitalism. A lot of perfectly good food is thrown away by supermarkets every night and can easily be picked up and collected from their dumpsters.96 This process is often referred to as ‘dumpster diving’ or ‘skipping’ in the UK.97 On a more philosophical level the author of the aforementioned article in Inside Front can clearly see the upside of “old fashioned” veganism, describing it as follows.
For me, the most important thing about veganism is that it provides a concrete example of how we can transform our own habits and desires, how we can revolutionize ourselves. [...] In a world in which our own desires are turned against us as agents of our own oppression and the oppression of those around us, real indulgence, true hedonism, must therefore be a contesting of our desires, as well as a fulfilling of them. [...] The fact that I can pass a McDonald’s now and see the corpses of tortured animals rather than a selection of tasty lunchtime delights is, for me, a little victory. (Inside Front, Issue # ∞, 2003: 46)
When it comes to direct action, activist punk rockers occasionally get involved with animal liberation initiatives, protests and even violent actions against the properties of those they hold responsible for the cruel exploitation of animals and nature. Violence as a justified means to end this exploitation is occasionally referred to in song lyrics of radical vegetarian
96 Legally, this is a grey area in most places. At least to my knowledge. 97 Cf.
61 or vegan bands. The song “Waste” by the Californian hardcore punk band Good Riddance, for instance, contains such lines as “Destroy their machines / Burn their slaughterhouses to the ground / Now it's time for us all to defend the oppressed / Meat is murder!” Whether or not such polemical lyrics are sensible in respect of the animal rights discourse is, of course, debatable. The fact of the matter is that a punk rock song is hardly a treatise based on scientific critique of society or the like. Thought-provoking lyrics can, however, serve as a gateway for young people to engage themselves in ideological debates.
3.4. GENDER AND SEXUALITY
In respect of issues such as gender, sexism and sexuality, punk does not really have a particular party line, so to speak. Most punks seem to take a stance against the discrimination of women or homosexuals but not all of them do. Homophobia is accepted in mainstream society to such an extent that it had to find its way into the punk subculture sooner or later— notabene, despite punk’s claim to be the antithesis of that society. Especially hardcore with its tough-acting followers seems to be particularly prone to it. Also, it needs to be pointed out that the vast majority of punk bands are, despite their egalitarian political views, exclusively made up of men. Sadly, women seem to play an inferior role in hardcore and punk—that is, at least when it comes to being at the forefront of the scene, i.e. the actual music-making. “[...] there weren’t a lot of women on stage but there were a good chunk of women in the audience,” says a female hardcore fan in the 2006 documentary, American Hardcore. In this respect, punk rock is quite similar to mainstream rock.
Having said that, it is time to stress the fact that there has always been a strong force within the punk scene opposing this malady, be it by breaking with gender roles and heterosexual norms in their performances (e.g. the New York Dolls in the 1970s), by forming women-only bands (e.g. Fabulous Disaster) or by writing anti-sexist and anti-homophobic lyrics. Craig O’Hara describes the situation as follows:
62 The rejection of sexism by the Punk movement is a continuing fight to educate those who enter the movement with their stereotypical images still intact. Many Punks have taken stands against speciesism, racism, nuclear proliferation, etc., only to contradict themselves by practicing or accepting sexism. [...] There is no denying that sexism exists within the punk community, but it is on a smaller level than in mainstream society, and more importantly, it is discouraged and condemned by many active participants. (O’Hara 1999: 102.)
The same holds true for homophobia. The Propagandhi songs “Less Talk, More Rock” and “Refusing to Be a Man,” for instance, each deal with one of these issues (homosexuality and sexism), and very explicitly so. In the former the author talks about his own personal gay experiences and ridicules homophobic punks in a clever way, singing, “[...] if you dance to this, then you drink to me and my sexuality.” The latter critically deals with sexism and normative masculinity. The chorus goes, “But don’t tell me this is natural. This is nurturing. And there’s a difference between sexism and sexuality.” There are numerous punk rock songs dealing with such issues.
The band Bikini Kill from Olympia, WA—more precisely, their singer Kathleen Hanna— spearheaded feminist punk in the 1990s and beyond. According to Wikipedia, “The group is widely considered to be the pioneer of the riot grrrl movement, and was well known and notorious for its radical feminist lyrics and fiery performances.”98 Musically, they were hardcore punk. Their debut EP was produced by Ian MacKaye of Minor Threat and came out on the indie label Kill Rock Stars. The name of the label matches Bikini Kill’s anti- mainstream rock attitude.99 ‘Riot grrrl’ is an umbrella term for radical feminist punk bands such as Bikini Kill. It is also the name of a fanzine/press/distribution “from the Washington, D.C. area [that is] put out by young women for primarily young women [providing] information on both past and present women’s movements (much as anarchist fanzines do) [...].” (O’Hara 1999: 106.)
Needless to say, the punk community was not without criticism of Hanna and her band(s). The most prominent example of this is probably the NOFX song “Kill Rock Stars” wherein Hanna is accused of hypocrisy, seperatism and myopia. (“‘Kill the rock stars’ how ironic,
98 Cf.
63 Kathleen / You've been crowned the newest queen [...]”). In all likelihood, Michael “Fat Mike” Burkett’s animosity towards Hanna has a personal background, too.
Despite such criticism, however, it is fair to say that Bikini Kill was a strong influence on the punk scene in terms of anti-sexist and feminist consciousness. “Punk women,” says O’Hara, “are not very fond of ignorant women who so willingly go along with the mainstream, striving to fit the stereotypes created by society.” (1999: 109.) Abortion is also a widely discussed issue, especially in feminist punk circles. “Punks respect the right of every woman to make her own choice on the matter,” O’Hara claims. (1999: 111.) This attitude is often referred to as ‘pro-choice’ (as opposed to ‘pro-life’). However, O’Hara’s statement does not necessarily hold true for certain vegan straight edge circles. To the contrary, some of them tend to lean towards the other extreme, meaning that they believe every form of life must be protected, even fetuses in the early embryonic stage. Therefore, they refuse to grant women the right to choose.
Generally speaking, punk “has always been largely composed by people who percieve themselves as misfits or outlaws in one way or another,” as O’Hara puts it. (1999: 115.) Unsurprisingly, many people with a sexual preference that deviates from the heterosexual norm (as fabricated by society) have found a new social home in the punk scene. Still, “it is much easier to find Punks who are homophobic than those who are openly racist or sexist,” Craig O’Hara claims. (1999: 119.) “Homosexual Punks,” he says, “find themselves acting as a double-edged sword, slashing stereotypes in two worlds. They are often loud, proud, and open about their sexuality.” (1999: 118.) Though the punk scene is far from perfect in terms of political correctness, marginalized groups are definitely less likely to be discriminated against by active participants 100 of the punk underground than they are in mainstream society. After all, equality remains one of the main ideological cornerstones of the punk scene.
100 As opposed to mere spectators, i.e. people who merely consume punk (music) like they consume other products but do not really participate in it.
64 3.5. PUNKS AND SKINHEADS
Punks and skinheads are often lumped together by social onlookers and their media. “Perhaps the greatest damage the media has done to the American Punk Rock scene has been the linkage between Punks and [violent and racist] Skinheads,” Craig O’Hara believes. (1999: 27.) However, the punk scene and the skinhead scene are, indeed, somewhat related. The music both groups listen to (punk rock, ska, hardcore, etc.) is similar and so is, at least to some degree, the way they dress and their outward appearance. Apolitical punks and skinheads blend into the so-called Oi! scene. Oi! music (or street punk) is usually very simple, Anacreontic101 as regards content, and rarely profound or progressive. Regarding contents, many Oi! songs deal with working class pride, unity, drinking, soccer or fighting. Old British bands such as the Business, Last Resort and Cock Sparrer (formed in 1972!102) are popular with both Oi! punks and skinheads. One of the most popular groups of this genre today are the Dropkick Murphys from Boston, MA, who, aside from the aforementioned contents, also stress their Irish descent. The following excerpts are all taken from their 1998 album Do Or Die and must suffice here as examples of street punk lyrics:
The once steel tough fabric of a Union man Was sold and Bartered away Fed to money wolves in the Reagan years, Caught in a drift in greedy nineties days So inside this song is our rally cry [...] It's not a rebel cry of some socialist Scheme to push for human rights Just the facts an obvious mentioned on the Behalf of the working man, for his family and his livelihood (From the song “Do Or Die.”)
Doesn’t take a big man to knock somebody down Just a little courage to lift him off the ground This world is not what it seems these beer balls are ruining my dreams (From the song “Fightstarter Karaoke.”)
Young skinhead they call you hooligan Just because you don't make any sense to them You're a hardworking man whose [sic!] paid his dues But they still call you racist on the evening news But the blood that runs right down your wrist
101 In this context, ‘Anacreontic’ (after the Greek poet Anacreon) means ‘dealing with love and wine’ (wine, women and song), the most prominent subject matter in Anacreon’s poetry. (Cf.
65 Don't come from a knife, but the cuts on your fist (From the song “Never Alone.”)
In the 1980s the US-American hardcore and punk scene and the skinhead scene there were practically inseparable, or at least closely related to each other (cf. American Hardcore documentary), to put it more cautiously. The aggressive music and the violent dancing at hardcore shows seemed to attract the violence-oriented skinheads, who then would often wreck the concerts “with their own brand of patriotic, drunken violence.” (O’Hara 1999: 49f.) What the punks and the skins (short for ‘skinheads’) had in common was their frustration with and their disgust for the American system as it could not keep the promises it made. Both groups felt betrayed and let down by society. What separated them was how they dealt with these feelings. Skinheads seemed to be significantly more likely to embrace racist and anti- liberal (i.e. homophobic, sexist) views, scape-goating minorities. Some even supported the utterly racist White Power movement. The term ‘white power’ was allegedly coined by American Nazi Party leader George Lincoln Rockwell103 in the 1960s and is also the title of a racially rabble-rousing song by the former punk rock band Skrewdriver (from Poulton-le- Fylde, England, 1976-1993104).
With the rise of anti-liberal skinhead hardcore bands such as Agnostic Front from New York City during the 1980s an “attitude encouraging homophobia and macho strength became part of the Skinhead ideology and spread to New York’s emerging Straight Edge scene who shared the same clubs and favorite bands as the Skinheads.” (O’Hara 1999: 55.) In an interview with Flipside (#45, 1985), for instance, a member of Agnostic Front said, “I don’t beat up gay guys but let them stay on the West Side. If I see a guy rubbing his crotch and licking his lips I’ll put him down.” (Cf. O’Hara 1999: 55.) Not exactly a moment of glory for the otherwise inherently and predominantly liberal international hardcore punk scene.
The skinhead movement originally started in England in the 1960s and was strongly influenced by black Jamaican music, namely ska, soul and reggae. “When the Punk explosion occurred in England [circa 1977] the Skinheads replaced their Jamaican ska music with Punk Rock and entered a new stage,” (1999: 50) says O’Hara. The aggressive music, the frustration
103 Cf.
66 and the ‘pissed-off’ attitude of punk seemed to appeal to the skinheads, but instead of the capitalist system itself many skins started to blame Pakistani immigrant workers for the bad state the British working class was in at the time. This was largely due to the propaganda of such neo-fascist organizations as the National Front who would later recruit the racist skinheads as their infantry. Shane Meadows’ drama film This Is England (2006) captures this unpleasant development within the English skinhead scene brilliantly. Needless to say, the skinheads who were with the National Front at the time had nothing to do with the punk scene anymore as, “Punks are most likely to reject patriotism as both unnecessary and dangerous.” (O’Hara 1999: 54.) To be fair, there have always been traditional anti-racist skinhead groups, stressing the multi-cultural origins of their movement. “There are Skinheads who are gay, communist, liberal, and non-violent [too],” O’Hara truthfully claims. (Ibid.)
67 4. ANALYSIS OF LYRICS
Aside from the music itself, song lyrics are at the center of punk rock. It is fair to say that hardly any other musical genre is so fundamentally defined by its contents, the main carrier of which are the lyrics. It is the lyrics that remain when the bands and individuals writing them are no more and it is the lyrics that people can still relate to decades after they were written, recorded or performed—provided that the lifestyle of these artists does not contrast with the message their song lyrics contain, that is. In other words, the credibility of punk rock musicians strongly depends on whether or not their lyrics are in accordance with their lifestyle. It would be highly contradictory to sing about lower working class issues or to criticize the so-called elite and to live like a rock star, indulging in a luxurious way of life. Punk fans will not accept such contradictions. Practice what you preach, is the critical motto of the punk scene.
Punk and hardcore fans usually take the message of punk songs quite seriously. To most of them, the lyrics to these songs are much more than just words that happen to go well with a certain sequence of powerful guitar chords, a barnstorming rhythm or a catchy melody. Not only are they the literary manifestation of the ideologies that already exist in punk (cf. 3.), but they have also brought forth these ideologies, as diverse as they might be, by instigating discussions. Punk has been defined, perpetuated and propelled by its lyrics. They promote and advance the discourse within the punk scene that ultimately keeps the whole subculture alive and substantially progressive. Thus, they bring about actual change, affecting the lives of their readers/listeners, the subculture they participate in and, ultimately, the world. Otherwise, political punk artists would, indeed, be preaching to the converted, as some critics claim. Crass’ Penny Rimbaud defending himself against such accusations reportedly said, “People talk about ‘preaching to the converted’—well who fucking converted them?” (Cf. Rolling Thunder # 7: 69.)
The lyrics analyzed below are each representative of a certain subgenre of punk rock at a certain time, in a certain place (in this case only North America and Great Britain). Collectively, the bands who recorded them are representative of progressive political punk
68 rock. What these bands have in common is that they are quite popular105 within the hardcore punk scene, precisely because their music conveys a certain political message and because they never took their own message lightly. In terms of style, their lyrics, on the other hand, vary a great deal—obviously. It goes without saying that the bands discussed here have been of great importance for the development and the improvement of punk rock in many ways.
In general, song lyrics can in many respects be compared to conventional poems and will therefore be treated as such here—but of course, the way they are incorporated into the music will be considered, too. Lyrics feature many of the defining attributes of a poem according to the criteria of literary criticism:
a tendency towards relative brevity, a tendency towards compression, condensation and reduction of the represented subject-matter, a tendency towards increased subjectivity, a tendency towards musicality and proximity to songs, a tendency towards structural and phonological complexity, a tendency towards morphological and syntactic complexity, a tendency towards deviation from everyday language and increased artificiality, a tendency towards increased aesthetic self-referentiality.
(Cf. Nünning 2001: 52.)
105 ‘Popular’ in this case does not mean that these bands play enormously big venues, let alone stadiums. They draw—or used to draw, as not all of them are still performing—at most a few hundred people when they headline a gig.
69 4.1. “PUNK IS DEAD”
Artist: Crass Song: “Punk Is Dead” Album: The Feeding of the 5000 Release date: 1978 (through Small Wonder Records, re-released on Crass Records in 1981) Genre: anarcho punk, peace punk Origin: England Length (min): 1:47
1 Yes that's right, punk is dead, [1]106 It's just another cheap product for the consumers head. Bubblegum rock on plastic transistors, [2] Schoolboy sedition backed by big time promoters. 5 CBS promote the Clash, [3] But it ain't for revolution, it's just for cash. Punk became a fashion just like hippy used to be [4] And it ain't got a thing to do with you or me.
Movements are systems and systems kill. 10 Movements are expressions of the public will. [5] Punk became a movement cos we all felt lost, But the leaders sold out and now we all pay the cost. Punk narcissism was social napalm, Steve Jones started doing real harm. 15 Preaching revolution, anarchy and change [6] As he sucked from the system that had given him his name.
Well I'm tired of staring through shit-stained glass, [7] Tired of staring up a superstar’s arse, I've got an arse and crap and a name, [8] 20 I'm just waiting for my fifteen minutes fame. Steve Jones you're napalm, [9] If you're so pretty (vacant) why do you swarm? [10] Patti Smith you're napalm, You write with your hand but it's Rimbaud’s arm. [11]
25 And me, yes I, do I want to burn? Is there something I can learn? Do I need a business man to promote my angle?
106 The numbers in square brackets on the right hand side of certain lines refer to the corresponding passages in the interpretive/analytical text below, dealing with these lines or stanzas, and vice versa.
70 Can I resist the carrots that fame and fortune dangle? [12] I see the velvet zippies in their bondage gear, 30 The social elite with safety-pins in their ear, [13] I watch and understand that it don't mean a thing, The scorpions might attack, but the systems stole the sting.
PUNK IS DEAD. PUNK IS DEAD. PUNK IS DEAD. PUNK IS DEAD. PUNK IS DEAD. PUNK IS DEAD. 35 PUNK IS DEAD. PUNK IS DEAD. PUNK IS DEAD.
The subject matter of this particular song is very clear. It is in the title: punk is dead. According to the lyrics, punk has no revolutionary value (anymore) as it has sold its ideals (in 1978!) to the music industry. Metaphorically speaking, it has become a scorpion without a sting (cf. last line before end chorus). Paradoxically, the song is most certainly a punk rock song musically. It is relatively fast, it consists of only a handful of hastily played guitar chords, a rough drum beat, and the vocals are full of disgust as the singer (Steve Ignorant) spits them into the microphone without a sense of melody-except for the final chorus (“PUNK IS DEAD,” repeated 9 times) there is none. Listening to the original recording of the song, the lyrics are very difficult to understand as each line is sung incredibly fast (35 lines in 1:47 minutes!). The singer clips many words, unmindful of acoustic understandability. This and the fact that there are virtually no instrumental parts, i.e. parts without vocals, in this song suggests the assumption that singability and musicality were not the author’s main focus when writing these words. The language used is relatively close to everyday speech, only the rhyme scheme and very few other poetic devices allow it to appear artificial, thus lyric.
The sometimes interrupted (end-)rhyme scheme (cf. 13-16; assonance or vowel rhyme instead of perfect rhyme) is aa bb cc (rhyming couplets) and so forth with the exception of the epistrophe “Steve Jones you’re napalm / [...]Patti Smith you're napalm...“ (Cf. line 21et seq.) The rhyme scheme here is ab ab, a being an identical rhyme. Line 5 also contains an imperfect internal rhyme. As the chorus (lines 33-35) consists only of the song title repeated 9 times it does not follow any rhyme scheme or any other clear pattern.
71 The napalm metaphor, which makes for an interesting rhyme with harm (see also “burn”107 - “learn” in line 25f.) is also used in the 2nd verse (cf. line 13; “Punk narcissism is social napalm”). It is relatively obvious that Steve Jones (guitarist for the Sex Pistols) and Patti Smith (a popular female punk/alternative pop musician still recording and performing today) are accused of narcissism. By selling out, thus becoming a part of the system punk claims to be opposed to and fight against, they annihilate the revolutionary potential of punk with the destructive efficiency of napalm, burning it down. The use of this particular metaphor seems to be no coincidence. It could, for instance, be a historical reference to the protest movement against the war in Vietnam, widely associated with the despised hippy culture which preceded punk. Napalm doubtlessly played an important role in that war. Also, napalm is known for its tremendous destructiveness. In the context of political punk, so-called ‘sell-outs’ like Smith and Jones do comparable damage. In other words, pot-boiler punk, as represented by the Clash (one of the most popular punk rock bands; cf. line 5), Steve Jones and Patti Smith, is depicted as the antithesis to the revolutionary struggle even though—or rather precisely because—it pretends to be a part of it. So much for the basic statement of the song.
[1] By saying “Yes, that’s right [...]” the author anticipates or reacts to the reader/listener’s presumable disbelief regarding the provocative title of the song. A punk band saying “punk is dead” is prima facie highly paradoxical. However, the explanation follows.
[2] Punk is “just another cheap product” which the author metaphorically puts on a level with such worthless things as bubble gum or plastic. The alliteration “Schoolboy sedition” denies punk’s political seriousness and stresses its childishness. By contrasting juvenile schoolboy punks with “big time promoters” the author points out that the punks have no say anymore. The overly powerful music industry makes all the decisions now.
[3] Ironically, the band whose debut album featured an anti-American song called “I’m So Bored with the U.S.A.” decided to allow themselves to be promoted by one of America’s major TV stations. Crass were obviously highly critical of this inconsistency. “CBS - Clash” is also kind of an internal rhyme.
107 The line “And me, yes I, do I want to burn?” refers back to the napalm metaphor.
72 [4] As is generally known, the first wave of punk rockers tended to despise hippies. Comparing punk with hippy is a deliberate provocation of the song’s target audience—the punks.
[5] Two different repetitions on the word level occur here. “Movements [...] / Movements ...]” is an anaphora, an initial repetition, whereas “systems [...] systems [...]” could be described as an epanalepsis (immediate repetition). Syntactically, these two lines are (almost) parallel. In the subsequent lines, the author further develops the image of punk as a movement/system that was betrayed by its narcissistic leaders.
[6] List of three. A popular rhetorical device, e.g. in political speeches.
[7] Here the speaker (or lyrical I) is introduced for the first time. Unfortunately, we do not know whether or not the author and the singer are one and the same person. Who is the poetic persona here? It is easily conceivable that the author refers to himself as an actual person when he says, “Well I’m tired [...]” and so forth. Line 20, however, points to a different situation. If the speaker were the author himself he would be contradicting himself when he says that he wishes for his own 15 minutes of fame. (Cf. line 20.) The words ‘tired’ and ‘arse’ are each repeated. So is the expletive ‘shit’ but its synonym ‘crap’ is used instead of simply repeating it.
[8] The alleged punk superstars are people just like the author, or the speaker, respectively. He does not understand why he should watch them as a mere spectator separated from the spectacle by “shit stained glass” when he could so easily do the same things himself artistically. The author’s claim for complete equality is stressed by the metaphorical use of something all human beings have in common, namely excretion and excretory organs. This is a fundamental concept which has been basal for the development of a relatively coherent punk philosophy.
[9] Steve Jones and Patti Smith are explicitly introduced as the poetic addressees, so to speak, of this text. The actual addressee is, of course, the punk audience. This is very
73 common in punk lyrics. Especially figures of authority are often attacked in this manner, even though, in fact, they are highly unlikely to ever hear the song or read the lyrics in question.
[10] “Pretty Vacant” is a Sex Pistols song.
[11] This is very interesting, indeed. On the one hand Penny Rimbaud could well be the author of the lyrics in question—if he is not, he is still a member of the band—and this could be an accusation (addressed to Patti Smith) of blatantly ripping him off. On the other hand— and this is the more plausible interpretation—Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891108) was a French poet who is said to have had a great influence on the artistic development of both Patti Smith and Penny Rimbaud.109 Hence the latter’s pen name. Smith being accused of imitating Arthur Rimbaud by someone whose pseudonym is a tribute to the poet seems quite ironic and presumptuous. Also, this literary reference appears all the more amusing in connection with the repeated use of vulgar terms such as shit, arse, etc.
[12] Here four rhetorical questions express the author’s rejection of what Smith and Jones stand for, i.e. punk being sold like a commodity, and subtextually suggest an alternative: DIY. The last question features a very common metaphor, namely dangling a carrot in front of somebody. It implies that only the greedy take the bait and get caught, giving up their independence as artists. Having to answer to businessmen and big corporations makes their art less valuable and less credible in the eyes of Crass, who, as we know, went their very own way in this respect.
[13] According to Wikipedia; a zippie is “a person who does something for nothing”110 and, apart from three other definitions, the Urban Dictionary defines the term as “a stoopid [sic!] retard.”111 Here the term ‘velvet zippie’ most likely describes a meek person, or at least somebody one would not necessarily attribute with a strong personality. Nobody would associate outrageous clothes and bondage gear, which were initially meant to express rebellion and individuality, with such people. However, they would wear it anyway because it
108 Cf.
74 was fashionable. The same used to hold true for the so-called ‘social elite’ who had adopted another trendy punk trademark, the safety-pin. The author stresses the fact that, ironically, these groups began to embrace punk (i.e. punk fashion) even though they sustained the very system punk supposedly rebelled against. For the author this was the ultimate proof that punk, as a revolutionary subcultural phenomenon (“the sting”), was dead.
4.2. “NO GODS, NO MASTERS”
Artist: Amebix Song: “No Gods, No Masters” Album: Who’s The Enemy (7”) Release date: 1982 (through Spiderleg Records) Genre: crust punk, anarcho punk, heavy metal Origin: England Length (min): 3:48
Your god is your chains Reject your god reject your system Do you really want your freedom
This song is quite different from Crass’ “Punk Is Dead.” The most obvious difference is that no more than three lines are sung in a little less than four minutes. The vocalist repeats the first two lines before he goes into singing the third one in a low-pitched voice with a lot of reverb on it. The vocals are tunelessly bawled out with varying intensity, adapting to the music. The entire lyrics are repeated five times throughout the song. The third time, however, the last line is left out. Before the final repetition only fragments of the lyrics are sung over a hysterical guitar riff that fades in and out and a rumbling drum beat and bass line. The atmosphere this song evokes musically is extremely bleak and gloomy—Amebix’s trademark.
75 Using a technical term of literary criticism, the second line is an epanalepsis, an immediate repetition. The last line is a rhetorical question as it is a commonly acceptable assumption that everybody wants their freedom. Interestingly enough, there is no question mark at the end of the sentence, which additionally points to the senselessness of the question as such. However, the word ‘really’ indicates that there is a difference between freedom (as construed by, say, capitalist propaganda) and real (absolute, personal) freedom in the anarchist sense. After all, Amebix were just as much an anarcho punk band as they were a heavy metal band. To gain this kind of freedom both God and the system need to be rejected once and for all. Arguably, the song’s ‘lyrical you’/addressee is almost identical with its readers/listeners who are addressed directly. However, the ones among the reader/listeners who, at least ostensibly, have already rejected their God and their system, which goes without saying in anarcho punk circles, are naturally excluded from the ‘lyrical you’ here. Or are they? Conceivably, the author was of the opinion that the anarcho punks had created their own system, i.e. their subcultural scene, and their own gods, namely the bands (Crass and others112) and the authors (Bakunin, Goldman, etc.) they blindly followed and worshipped. It is thinkable that he believed that they needed to reflect on their own life and value system, too.
The whole song manages with only one metaphor: Gods and systems are humanity’s chains or bonds. These chains and the freedom we ultimately want are per se a contradiction. Therefore, we need to burst our chains. However, the question remains whether or not the words ‘god’ and ‘system’ are metaphors as well. According to the author Rob “The Baron” Miller (vocals, bass) himself, the band “were talking about a god that was beyond religion.” (Cf. Glasper 2006: 202.) He meant the “conceptual gods” (ibid) people tend to embrace in everyday life, be it science, religion, sex, fame or political power, just to name a few. Pulling against one’s shackles in an attempt to rise from any given form of oppression was a recurring motif in the songs and the artwork of Amebix, which influenced the lyrical imagery of many later punk and metal bands, for example Catharsis. “I do like the fact that I invented this particular style of writing that a lot of people are using these days [...],” Miller admits today. (Cf. Glasper 2006: 203.)
112 “[…] there were a lot of people trying to do the right thing...it was all tied into the agenda, and the agenda was dictated by Crass. Everybody seemed to think that, because they had seniority, they should be the ones to tell everybody how they should be thinking.” (Rob Miller of Amebix as cited in Glasper 2006: 206.)
76 4.3. ARE THESE OUR LIVES?
Artist: Trial Song: “Are These Our Lives?” Album: Are These Our Lives? Release date: 1999 Genre: Hardcore Origin: United States of America Length (min): 3:50
"He had learned the way of things about him now. It was a war of each against all, and the devil take the hindmost. You did not give feasts to other people, you waited for them to give feasts to you. You went about with your soul full of suspicion and hatred; you understood that you were environed by hostile powers that were trying to get your money, and who used all the virtues to bait their traps with. The store keepers plastered up their windows with all sorts of lies to entice you; the very fences by the wayside, the lampposts and telegraph poles, were pasted over with lies. The great corporation which employed you lied to you, and lied to the whole country—from top to bottom it was nothing but one gigantic lie."
Upton Sinclair, The Jungle
1 under the ruins of a paradise never to be known crushed beneath the feet of gods who reap what we have sown [1] as the industrial neo-fascists slash and burn through flesh endorse the individual and sacrifice the rest [2]
5 I want the truth to be told that we are more than the sum of what we're sold [3] social darwinist manipulation [4] multilateral agreement for the devastation of all but the hegemon [5] while we as one are sacrificed on the altar...
10 in the age of the refugee [6] this era of death for profit ideas alone will minimize the fringe organization can enhance empowerment [7] against forced abortions sterilizations clitoridectomy aberrations 15 oil addiction inculcation while alternatives face negation [8] by those who anesthetize the mind and invest in broken lives disorganize overpower exploit and stratify
77 the distorted promise of a free exchange haunts us through the debts we pay to the alliances who turn me against all those around me and against myself [9] 20 generation after generation enduring apocalyptic visions in individual private hells with bodies weak and minds distorted with nothing left to sell [10] while the masters of the new feudal age drink to satisfy an unquenchable thirst gulping our blood and our sweat and spit back lies [11]
are these our lives?
The one peculiarity that may strike the reader/listener first when looking at these lyrics is the excerpt from Upton Sinclair’s 1906 political novel The Jungle, which precedes them in the liner notes to the album Are These Our Lives? This citation is not part of the lyrics, i.e. not set to music, but it is a means to explain the lyrics. Perhaps, ‘explain’ is be too strong a word—it puts them into a certain context, thus creating a sense of intertextuality. The Jungle deals with the conditions in the U.S. meat packing industry, portraying “[...] the poverty, absence of social programs, unpleasant living and working conditions, and hopelessness prevalent among the working class, which is contrasted with the deeply rooted corruption on the part of those in power.”113 As far as the overall analysis of this song regarding its subject matter is concerned, this citation seems more than sufficient. In parts, the lyrics are reminiscent of Marxist parlance. They clearly reflect some of the critical views associated with the anti-globalization movement of the late 1990s and the early ‘noughties’ of this century. (Cf. line 18: “the distorted promise of a free exchange.”) The author quite outspokenly criticizes the bigotry, the exploitation of the working class, the mistreatment of the Earth, especially in developing countries, and other morally questionable business practices synonymous with modern capitalism/neo-liberalism and the so-called ‘free marked’ and so forth.
Musically, “Are These Our Lives?” is a hardcore song par excellence. Heavy guitar riffs over fast drum beats, mosh parts114 and break-downs provide the musical basis for the
113 Cf.
78 singer’s rough vocals. Somewhere between screaming and shouting, he sounds as though he pushed his vocal chords to the absolute limit, desperately trying to be heard. Judging from the passion the vocalist puts into his performance, one may well get the impression that his very life depends on it, poetically speaking. During the second stanza the vocals change from loud to mezzo forte. They sound as though the singer was speaking through a bullhorn. Lines 18 through 22 are spoken in a calm tone and are, on the whole, quieter than the rest of the song. Instead of distorted guitars, a smooth bass line and a clean, undistorted guitar sound dominate this part. The drums are less intense, too. This serves only one purpose: to create tension. In other words, this part of the song is a build-up for the hard-hitting final chorus, i.e. “are these our lives?” (repeated three times). “gulping our blood and our sweat [...]” stands alone with all the other instruments decaying in the background. At “[...]and spit back lies” they come in again and the vocals are back at the intense level described above. Due to a number of rather difficult words and varying sentence length, the vocals sometimes sound a little bit jammed into the rhythmic framework of the music. On account of this, some syllables are clipped and some words sound oddly stressed (e.g. line 4: “individual”). Still, the lyrics have a clear poetic structure (cf. the introduction to this chapter) and are, all in all, musical and singable. They also show a high degree of artificiality. The rhyme scheme is not regular, however. It starts with a simple aa bb pattern but soon (line 7) this pattern is abandoned. Later in the song (cf. lines 14 and 15) occasional internal rhyme occurs. Interestingly, the lyrics dispense with punctuation—that is to say, except for the question mark in the title and at the end—and capitalization.
[1] This is doubtlessly a biblical metaphor describing a very mundane situation. (Cf. “No Gods, No Masters.”) It means that the promises made to the working class by the powers that be, i.e. the upholders and profiteers of the capitalist system,115 turned out to be empty. Once again only the owners of the means of production (cf. Marxism) emerge successful while the workers keep slaving. The new gods, metaphorically and literally, “reap what we have sown”
moshing occurs when the music suddenly becomes slow (break-down), yet heavy, and very simple rhythmically. Such parts of a song are often referred to as ‘mosh parts.’ 115 In this text the word ‘capitalism’ is used as defined in the 4th issue of Rolling Thunder (2007: 6): “Just as monarchy means rule by monarchs and communism means rule by communists, capitalism means rule by capital itself; the wealthy rotate in and out of power, but wealth remains the constant determining force[...] It is unclear who is really in charge, the capitalists or their capital; the economy grants less security and freedom of movement to its human participants than to the objects they consider themselves to possess and control.”
79 while they crush us. The ‘we’ in line two is quite inclusive. The author speaks of himself, for himself and on behalf of the song’s readers/listeners. He speaks on behalf of the exploited, the losers of the neo-liberal economic system. The words ‘slash’ and ‘flesh’ are consonant and to some extent assonant (the vowels are similar phonetically) but do not really rhyme.
[2] In literary terms, the words ‘endorse’ and ‘sacrifice’ in line four are an antithesis. The term ‘neo-fascists’ used in the industrial context of “Are These Our Lives?” stresses the author’s disgust for people who stop at nothing to make a profit. It may also be a pun on ‘neo- liberals’ meaning that the essence of their ideology is downright fascist (elite formation, disregard of human life for the benefit of a few, etc.), not liberal. Certain lucky individuals are “endorsed” at the expense of countless others. In line nine the author clarifies who he refers to as “the rest” in line 4—us, the common people. We are sacrificed at the altar—another religious metaphor—of wealth, supposedly desirable goods and consumerism as we deliver ourselves unto the capitalists. Furthermore, the author reminds us that the value of an individual or group cannot be measured by the goods and the money they possess [3].
[4] The concept of the survival of the fittest in the context of social inequality and injustice is criticized here. The author seems to think that we are led to believe that these things are natural and part of the human evolution in order to uphold the imbalance of property and power which is crucial to sustain the capitalist system.
[5] The words ‘manipulation’ and ‘devastation’ make an internal rhyme. A hegemon is “the political, economic, ideological or cultural power exerted by a dominant group over other groups, regardless of the explicit consent of the latter.”116 The whole world is being devastated in order to serve the needs of such hegemons, only the dominant class itself is spared.
[6] The author describes the era of modern capitalism as the “age of the refugee” addressing the problem of forced migration. Many people from developing countries are forced to give up their existence due to the ruthless exploitation of their home countries and the tyrannical governments supported and kept in place by powerful multinational
116Cf.
80 corporations. Speaking of an “era of death for profit” appears to be quite appropriate in this respect. The author even speaks of a “new feudal age” in line 22 to stress the lack of personal freedom people who are not exactly the beneficiaries of capitalism have to face.
[7] The “fringe” the author mentions most likely refers to marginalized individuals or fringe groups. To regain power over their own lives, thus becoming less likely to be shamelessly exploited, ideas play an important role, be it ideas in an ideological sense or ideas in a practical sense. The next step is for those who have such empowering and liberating ideas to organize and participate in the solidary struggle against all forms of oppression. Greg Bennick, Trial’s vocalist and the author of these lyrics, names some of the abusive means of human oppression, most of which rhyme internally. The words ‘minimize’ and ‘enhance’ form another antithesis.
[8] Just like the alternatives to “oil addiction,” the aforementioned ideas “face negation” and are met with such defensive tactics as indoctrination and stratification in order to split up the otherwise united opposition. This can also be seen as a critical allegory, addressing the proceeding subdivision of the hardcore punk subculture, especially in the late 1990s. The “broken lives” (cf. line 16) those interested in upholding a system based on wealth-related power imbalance invest in could be the people who have broken down under the strain of capitalism but are kept alive (barely so) by their desire for consumer goods which they allow themselves to be talked into buying by expensive advertising campaigns. They thus have no desire whatsoever to question their position within the capitalist system, let alone ask for more than the tiny share they are granted of what their manpower actually earns the capitalists—or capital itself. (Cf. Rolling Thunder 2007: 6.)
[9] Here the views expressed in the previous stanza become more concrete. Also, the interpretative assumptions made above are supported in this, the quiet part of the song. The “free exchange”—or free market—turns out to be not quite as free as promised. Many end up in debt, broke and broken, which, of course, encourages envy and resentment among the so- called ordinary people (cf. line 19). The oppressed class is once again split up and unable to act. Even their offspring are condemned to relive this “apocalyptic vision” in their “individual private hells” (i.e. their homes) with their mortgages and their befogged sense of desire—a
81 vicious circle, really. At this point, the author re-introduces the lyrical I (or overt speaker; cf. line 19: “myself”) from line 5, where it helps reveal his agenda in explicit terms, most likely to stress once more which side he is on and to show that he knows what he is talking about.
[10] First, the people’s minds are described as “anesthesize[d]”117 (line 16), here as “distorted.” Only a few lines earlier, the author speaks of “distorted promises” paraphrasing the “paradise never to be known” from the opening line of the text. On the whole, the reader finds many repetitions on the word level that go hand in hand with the omnipresent dramatic imagery of these lyrics. (Cf. “sacrifice [...] sacrifice” in lines 4 and 9.) The expression “with bodies weak and minds distorted” is a poetic inversion of the normal word order and, together with many other poetic devices, contributes to the text’s artificiality. Aside from these observations, the final stanza also features a small number of semi-perfect internal rhymes such as “hells - sell” in line 21.
The ‘blood-gulping’ metaphor [11] is quite a common poetic motif when despots are described. (Cf. vampire legends.) The lies spat back at the sponsors of respective blood (and sweat) are probably those of corrupt politicians. The final question ‘are these our lives?’ is, semantically viewed, a declarative sentence rather than an actual question (i.e. a rhetorical question). It is a call not to blindly accept injustice, indifference and misery but to strive for a better life without the strain of permanently having to compete with each other at the expense of the poorest of the poor, Mother Earth and, last but not least, each other. (Cf. line 19.)
4.4. “NAME AND ADDRESS WITHHELD”/“SUPERBOWL PATRIOT XXXVI (ENTER THE MENDICANT)”
Artist: Propagandhi Song: (a) “Name and Address Withheld” & (b) “Superbowl Patriot XXXVI (Enter the Mendicant)” Album: Potemkin City Limits
117 Cf. T. S. Eliot’s Prufrock.
82 Release date: 2005 Genre: melodic punk rock, hardcore punk, heavy metal Origin: Canada Length (min): (a) 3:28 (b) 0:42
(a) The following views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the prevailing order, who prostrate to their naked kings, tailor the seams of funeral shrouds on foreign shores, but shed no tears for the dead of the endless list of informal wars – the justification for will be spelled out coming soon to a screen near you. I’m feeling less hopeful and so much less human as my days are reduced to little more than settling for revenge and wondering whatever happened to the kid that pledged “first do no harm”? Chalk it up to an overdeveloped sense of unbridled vengeance. Somebody fed me too much New Hope for breakfast, cuz as the empire preemptively strikes back (again) and the voice of Luke’s father baritones this is CNN [sic!] I recall Arab kids slaughtered reduced to “sand-niggers” and “rag- heads.” And now I’m expected to mourn dead Americans? The executioner’s willing citizens? I’m so sorry and I’m trying to think it through, but when the chickens came home to roost and hand-delivered matching funeral urns to the bully that never learns I could’ve swore [sic!] I heard a chorus rise and fall wishing them so many more unhappy returns. But in every war waged, only kings emerged unscathed.
(b) Superbowl patriots cheer half-time propaganda, fake titties, tooting trumpets. “FREEDOM” is in lights and is shitting itself out of Post-Hippy “Call me Sir” Paul McCartney’s multi-millionaire fucking mouth. Machine guns raised. Kegs secure. Beers held high! The (Presidential) Liar is in the house. Bono’s in the house! We’re DOOMED! FUCKING DOOMED! FUCKING DOOMED! FUCKING DOOMED! FUCKING DOOMED! FUCKING DOOMED! FUCKING DOOMED!
These two songs are on the same album, one immediately after the other. However, this is not the only reason why they are both discussed here. First of all, the second song is very short and secondly, they both deal with a similar subject matter—at least to some degree. Generally speaking, they pass criticism on America’s unique sense of freedom and patriotism, to put it mildly. This issue is viewed from two different angles and in two different linguistic manners. It is quite obvious that (a) is more sophisticated and less blunt than (b) on various levels. They also differ musically. Compared with “Superbowl Patriot XXXVI,” “Name and Address Withheld” is altogether more melodic (especially the vocals), catchier and has a more elaborate and diversified song structure. Furthermore, each of the two songs is—acoustically distinguishably—sung, and most likely also written—there are no song writing credits in the liner notes—by each one of the two main songwriters in Propagandhi, Chris Hannah (guitar)
83 and Todd Kowalski (bass guitar). Superficially, the way the lyrics are laid out in the CD/LP booklet and on their website www.propagandhi.com is that of prose texts, not that of traditional song lyrics, let alone poems. To a certain degree, they are, in fact, prose poems. So-called run-on lines dominate the poetic structure of most Propagandhi lyrics (especially Hannah’s) and the frequently occurring instances of internal rhyme seem almost accidental and quite natural. Yet, they are very powerful poetic devices where they appear. Usually, there is no such thing as a refrain. It appears as though the lyrics were written regardless of the music and later matched with the rhythm and so forth. Nevertheless, they work surprisingly well in the musical context.
The name of the band in itself deserves an analysis. Obviously, it is a play on the words ‘propaganda’ and ‘Gandhi’ as in Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948118), the leader of the Indian independence movement. Quite obviously, the former implies that the band’s self-conception in terms of their mission, as it were, is not to become rock stars and be popular. They have a strong political message they want to spread and they self-mockingly call that propaganda. Gandhi is known to have advocated a peaceful form of resistance against imperialism. Generally speaking, Propagandhi also embrace this concept, at least to a certain extent. However, the line “[...] my days are reduced to little more than settling for revenge and wondering whatever happened to the kid that pledged ‘first do no harm’?” from “Name and Address Withheld” seem to question the pacifist aspect of their political views.
As these lyrics cannot really be divided into verse, chorus, stanzas or lines, they need to be discussed differently, i.e. one sentence at a time. “Name and Address Withheld” begins with an introduction (“The following views expressed...”) on the meta level, anticipating that the ensuing statements made by the author/speaker—they are his personal opinion—stand in contrast with what is generally accepted by the majority of people. The latter are accused of genuflecting before their “naked kings,” who can convince them to believe virtually anything (a fairy tale allegory; cf. “The Emperor’s New Clothes” by Hans Christian Andersen) while they metaphorically—by supporting the war—and literally craft the shrouds for the American soldiers who die in Iraq or Afghanistan. Stylistically, calling foreign countries “foreign shores” is referred to as synecdoche (or pars pro toto), a common semantic figure of
118 < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahatma_gandhi>.
84 contiguity which achieves a certain poetic effect.119 The same can be said about “a screen near you” which obviously stands for either movie theatres or television sets, meaning that patriotic pro-war propaganda is brought to the people via these media. Due to this inflammatory propaganda, the Americans as a people tend to become insensible to war. (Cf. “informal wars.”)
The way the first sentence is matched with the music allows the singer to stress certain words and thus create a vague rhyme scheme. For instance, “expressed - reflect”, “be - screen” or “soon - you” are at least assonant, “shores – wars - for” rhyme almost perfectly. The border between the two main literary categories of sound relation featured here, namely rhyme and assonance, however, becomes blurred by the singer’s overemphasis of the rhyming vowels. In other words, by stressing the words that appear to rhyme with each other almost accidentally, by foregrounding other common phonetic qualities a prose text is given a kind of phonetically determined poetic structure. The text remains essentially the same but is made to sound more artificial in a literary-critical sense due to increased phonetic complexity.
The author continues with this strategy in the next sentence. This sentence expresses resignation, hopelessness, frustration and a thirst for revenge. If it were versified it would look like this:
I’m feeling less hopeful And so much less human As my days are reduced to Little more than [...]120
What follows is a quasi-justification of the author’s aforementioned irrepressible vengefulness which continues into the subsequent sentence. “New Hope” is most likely a reference to the first original Star Wars film, entitled Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. This interpretation seems particularly plausible considering the fact that at least two more Star Wars references follow, namely “as the empire preemptively strikes back (again)” (cf. Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back) and “the voice of Luke’s father baritones”. Even people
119 It increases the level of morphological complexity, thus creating a more artificial (i.e. poetic) tone. 120 Please note: an ab ab rhyme scheme emerges from the prose text, so to speak.
85 who are not fans of Star Wars may know that Luke Skywalker is one of the main characters in this iconic sci-fi saga.
This allegory can be interpreted as follows. The author seems to think that science fiction movies and actual war reporting have, in a sense, become more or less the same and indistinguishable in terms of parlance, truth content, etc. The latter tends to be just as unrealistic as the former is by nature (cf. “as the voice of Luke’s father baritones[, ‘]this is CNN[’]”), dividing the world into good and evil, American heroes and their foreign enemies, who are a threat to freedom itself. All the civilians dying in the respective wars are kept under wraps (hence the title “Name and Address Withheld”), thus do not even exist in the eyes of the American public—that is to say, at least not during the early years of the Bush administration.
In “Name and Address Withheld,” the USA is described as an “empire” that “preemptively strikes back” (an oxymoron, i.e. a combination of two contradictory terms), referring to the US government’s ludicrously vague justification (weapons of mass destruction, etc.) for invading Iraq. Derogatory terms such as ‘sand-niggers’ and ‘rag-heads’ have frequently been used by the US Army and the right-wing populist media in order to dehumanize foreign war victims. This strategy has served as a means to back up the hostility towards America’s alleged enemies prevalent among the common people. Once the enemies of a state are not considered equal or even human anymore, such legal concepts as war crimes cease to exist and it is easy for the government of any given state to gain unconditional support from its subjects when it comes to plunging their country into a war, no matter how ruthlessly it may act. However, let us not lose ourselves in conspiracy theories here.
Considering all of the above-mentioned aspects and views, the author has obviously had a hard time understanding why he should be saddened by the arguably self-inflicted deaths of “the executioner’s willing citizens” resulting from American aggressions in the past and today (cf. the 9/11 attacks). To the contrary, he even seems to feel some kind of schadenfreude—at least, he hopes that all these “unhappy returns” (i.e. dead American soldiers returning home in caskets and urns) might finally teach the “bully” America, who has not exactly been willing to learn from his mistakes, a lesson. However, the author is not very confident in that regard, to
86 say the least, since the war-mongering leaders are not the ones dying on the battlefield and will always find ways to talk the public into supporting their decisions. (Cf. Trial’s “Are These Our Lives?”) This thought is expressed in the last sentence. It closes a circle by repeating the word ‘kings’ from the very first sentence. By bringing this allegorically used fairy tale lingo back into the match, so to speak, Hannah once again stresses how unbelievably gullible people are—and sometimes even choose to be (cf. “willing citizens”) as they can arguably be blamed for choosing not to question the propaganda they are exposed to day in, day out.
If American sitcoms are to be believed, watching American football, especially the so- called Superbowl, is America’s favorite pastime. The song “Superbowl Patriot XXXVI (Enter the Mendicant)” critically describes the usual Superbowl scenario (first sentence) and claims that this popular sports event has been instrumentalized as a means to spread patriotic propaganda, offering a wide range of distractions from the harsh truth, as it were. Bosomy cheer leaders, reassurances of America’s status as the legitimate defender of freedom worldwide (“‘FREEDOM’ is in lights”) and “tooting trumpets” as well as a lot of beer keep people from thinking about little children dying in a country far away, because their village got “preemptively” bombed by the US air force. Paul McCartney, formerly of the Beatles, and Bono Vox from the popular mega rock band U2 are pointedly attacked as being hypocritical mendicants (“Post-Hippy ‘Call me Sir’ [...] multi-millionaire”), or beggars, whose appeal for funds and whose alleged concern about social injustices abroad are condemned as little more than a large-scale show and part of the great spectacle of the Superbowl,121 in the context of which they apparently made speeches or the like, and the concomitant patriotic US-super- propaganda. In other words, “The (Presidential) Liar is in the house.” Again, not exactly the views of the “prevailing order”, one is tempted to say.
The pessimistic views, which the preceding track on the album Potemkin City Limits hints to, are spelt out here in explicit words: “We’re DOOMED! FUCKING DOOMED!” Generally, the language is decidedly vulgar as compared with “Name and Address Withheld.” This stresses the frustration that underlies this aggressively played and sung song. However,
121 See also Rimbaud 2008: XVII: “With egoists like Bono and Geldoff undermining any truly radical discourse and action [...].”
87 this is not the only difference. While there is an explicit speaker (lyrical I) in the first song (a) it is completely missing in (b). Also, “Superbowl Patriot..” has at least some kind of chorus (cf. “Punk Is Dead”) while song (a) completely lacks one.
The three short sentences ‘Machine guns raised,’ ‘Kegs secure’ and ‘Beers held high’ all feature a syntactic rhetorical figure called ellipsis—the verbum finitum is left out. These short sentences are reminiscent of military orders, mocking the brusqueness of such commands. Especially the first of the three sentences alludes to the undeniable similarities and the relation between sports events such as the Superbowl and war fever in America. On their 2009 album, Supporting Caste, Propagandhi have a very similar song in respect of its subject matter called “Dear Coach’s Corner”—only that it deals with big ice hockey events in Canada, not American football. (See appendix.)
88 EPILOGUE
Looking beyond the proverbial three chords, the colorfully dyed spiked hair and the distorted representation of punk in the mainstream media, it is doubtlessly a fascinating and complex cultural phenomenon. Yet many of punk’s lesser-known facets have gone unheeded even in academic works connected with this subject. To my knowledge, this is one of the very few, if not the only, paper that focuses on the lyrics of punk rock songs, providing a literary analysis of selected works.
Even though I myself have been fascinated by punk ever since I was a teenager, I have learnt quite a few new things doing my research for this thesis. The lyrics to my favorite songs have always been important to me but it had never even crossed my mind that they were such a literary treasure chest when analyzed thoroughly in their social, political and cultural context until I began to drill through them, so to speak. I hope that whoever reads this, especially those who have nothing to do with this particular subculture whatsoever—or subculture in general, for that matter—appreciate the vast cultural, i.e. lyrical and musical, output punk has produced and spawned. I, for one, like to believe that the multi-faceted subculture that punk evidentially is, arguably passes as unique in this respect.
The song lyrics collected below are, firstly, supposed to give a review of how punk has developed lyrically over the past three decades and, secondly, how diverse and rich it is as a subculture that has contributed appreciably much to modern (in this case English and American) literature—that is, at least in the broader sense of the word. Needless to say, some literary scholars might disagree. However, it has been one of my goals to convince the reader that punk lyrics, let alone punk in its entirety, cannot simply be dismissed as literarily and culturally irrelevant or as the negligible legacy of a mindless havoc-wreaking group of drug- using individuals with mohawks which existed in the late 1970s. Whether punk is dead or not, everybody has to decide for themselves. However, it is safe to say that, considering some of the findings of my research, it seems very much alive.
89 APPENDIX: Alphabetical Collection of Song Lyrics Mentioned or Cited
As Friends Rust, “Coffee Black” (1999, Doghouse)
You like your coffee black, your neighborhood white, your lights are out at nine o'clock at night. Are you afraid of everything, or just the truth? You've got pre-packaged food, Family Feud, faith in the church, and a good clean attitude. Are you afraid of everything, or just the truth? The only problem that you've got, is the night that Wheel of Fortune's not. And the only thing you haven't bought, are the people that are buying you. You are the Moral Majority, devoid of moral priority. You are Barbie Doll sorority. You are the Boys' Club government. How we lust familiarity, speedy compact portability. Every step that you take forward, is a generation back for us. We are the ugly. We are the gay, Impoverished, effeminate, and overweight. Take your consumer culture back from us. It's a fucking economic attack on us all. And the Football Season is the only reason you stay alive in your Prime Time beehive.
Black Flag, “Rise Above” (1981, SST Records)
Jealous cowards try to control Rise above We're gonna rise above They distort what we say Rise above We're gonna rise above Try and stop what we do Rise above When they can't do it themselves
We are tired of your abuse Try to stop us it's no use
Society's arms of control Rise above We're gonna rise above Think they're smart
90 Can't think for themselves Rise above We're gonna rise above Laugh at us Behind our backs I find satisfaction In what they lack
We are tired of your abuse Try to stop us it's no use
We are born with a chance Rise above We're gonna rise above I am gonna have my chance Rise above We're gonna rise above
We are tired of your abuse Try to stop us it's no use
Rise above Rise above Rise above We're gonna rise above We're gonna rise above We're gonna rise above
Crass, “Banned from the Roxy” (1979, Crass)
Banned from the Roxy... O.K. I never much liked playing there anyway. They said they only wanted well behaved boys, Do they think guitars and microphones are just fucking toys? Fuck 'em, I chosen to make my stand, Against what I feel is wrong with this land. They just sit there on their overfed arses, Feeding off the sweat of less fortunate classes. They keep their fucking power cause their finger's on the button, They've got control and won't let it be forgotten. The truth of their reality is at the wrong end of a gun, The proof of that is Belfast and that's no fucking fun. Seeing the squaddy lying in the front yard, Seeing the machine guns resting on the fence. Finding the entrance to your own front door is barred And they've got the fucking nerve to call it defense. Seems their defense is just the threat of strength, Protection for the privileged at any length. The government protecting their profits from the poor, The rich and the fortunate chaining up the door. Afraid that the people may ask for a little more Than the shit they get. The shit they get. The shit they get. The shit they get. The shit they get. The shit they get.
91 The shit they get. The shit they get. DEFENCE? SHIT, IT'S NOTHING LESS THEN WAR AND NO ONE BUT THE GOVERNMENT KNOWS WHAT THE FUCK IT'S FOR.
Oh yes they say it's defense, they say it's decency, Mai Lai, Hiroshima, know what I mean? The same fucking lies with depressing frequency, They say "We had to do it to keep our lives clean" Well whose like? Whose fucking life? Who the fuck are they talking to? Whose life? Whose fucking life? I tell you one thing, it ain't me and you. And their system, Christ, they're everywhere, School, army, church, corporation deal. A fucked up reality based on fear, A fucking conspiracy to stop you feeling real. Well ain't got me, I'd say their fucking wrong, I ain't quite ready with my gun, but I've got my song... Banned from the Roxy, well O.K. I never much liked playing there anyway. GUNS.
Crass, “How Does It Feel?” (1983, Crass)
When you woke this morning you looked so rocky-eyed, Blue and white normally, but strange ringed like that in black. It doesn't get much better, your voice can get just ripped up shooting in vain, Maybe someone hears what you say, but you're still on your own at night. You've got to make such a noise to understand the silence. Screaming like a jackass, ringing ears so you can't hear the silence Even when it's there - like the wind seen from the window, Seeing it, but not being touched by it.
(We never asked for war, nor in the innocence of our birth were we aware of it. We never asked for war, nor in the struggle to realisation did we feel there was a need for it. We never asked for war, nor in the joyful colours of our childhood were we conscious of its darkness.)
HOW DOES IT FEEL? How does it feel to be the mother of a thousand death? Young boys rest now, cold graves in cold earth. How does it feel to be the mother of a thousand death? Sunken eyes, lost now; empty sockets in futile death.
Your arrogance has gutted these bodies of life, Your deceit fooled them that it was worth the sacrifice. Your lies persuaded people to accept the wasted blood, Your filthy pride cleansed you of the doubt you should have had. You smile in the face of the death cause you are so proud and vain, Your inhumanity stops you from realising the pain That you inflicted, you determines, you created, you ordered - It was your decision to have those young boys slaughtered.
You never wanted peace or solution, From the start you lusted after war and destruction.
92 Your blood-soaked reason ruled out other choices, Your mockery gagged more moderate voices. So keen to play your bloody part, so impatient that your war be fought. Iron Lady with your stone heart so eager that the lesson be taught That you inflicted, you determines, you created, you ordered - It was your decision to have those young boys slaughtered.
How does it feel to be the mother of a thousand death? Young boys rest now, cold graves in cold earth. How does it feel to be the mother of a thousand death? Sunken eyes, lost now; empty sockets in futile death.
Throughout our history you and your kind Have stolen the young bodies of the living To be twisted and torn in filthy war. What right have you to defile those birth? What right have you to devour that flesh? What right to spit on hope with the gory madness That you inflicted, you determines, you created, you ordered - It was your decision to have those young boys slaughtered.
How does it feel to be the mother of a thousand death? Young boys rest now, cold graves in cold earth. How does it feel to be the mother of a thousand death? Sunken eyes, lost now; empty sockets in futile death.
You accuse us of disrespect for the dead, But it was you who slaughtered out of national pride. Just how much did you care? What respect did you have As you sent those bodies to their communal grave? You buried them rough-handed, they'd given you their all, That once living flesh defiled in the hell That you inflicted, you determines, you created, you ordered - It was your decision to have those young boys slaughtered.
You use those deaths to achieve your ends still, Using the corpses as a moral blackmail. You say "Think of what those young men gave" As you try to bind us in your living death, Yet we do think of them, ice cold and silence In the snow covered moorlands, stopped by the violence That you inflicted, you determines, you created, you ordered - It was your decision to have those young boys slaughtered.
How does it feel to be the mother of a thousand death? Young boys rest now, cold graves in cold earth. How does it feel to be the mother of a thousand death?
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - We don't want your fucking war! 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - We don't want your fucking war! 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - We don't want your fucking war! 1 - 2 - 3 – 4 - You can stop your fucking war!
93 Crass, “Sheep Farming in the Falklands” (1983, Crass)
Sheep farming in the Falklands, re-arming in the fucklands Fucking sheep in the homelands, her majesty's forces are coming Sheep farming in the Falklands, re-arming in the fucklands Fucking sheep in the homelands, her majesty's forces are coming Sheep farming in the Falklands, re-arming in the fucklands Fucking sheep in the homelands, her majesty's forces are coming
Fuck off to the Falklands for your sea-faring fun Big man's jerk off dreamland, looking down the barrel of a gun Friggin' in the riggin' another imperialist farce Another page of British history to wipe the national arse The royals donated Prince Andrew as a show of their support Was it just luck the only ship that wasn't struck was the one on which he fought? Three cheers for good old Andy, let's take a pic for his mum And stick it up the royal, stick it up the royal, stick it up the royal album
Sheep farming in the Falklands, re-arming in the fucklands Fucking sheep in the homelands, her majesty's forces are coming
Onward Thatcher's soldiers, it's your job to fight... "And, you know, I don't really give a toss if the cause is wrong or right, My political neck means more to me than the lives of a thousand men, If I felt it might be of use to me I'd do it all over again. The Falklands was really a coverup job to obscured the mistakes I've made, And you know I think gamble I took could certainly be said to have paid. With unemployment at an all-time high and the country falling apart I, Winston Thatcher, reign supreme in this great nations' heart."
Sheep farming in the Falklands, re-arming in the fucklands Fucking sheep in the homelands, her majesty's forces are coming
While the men who fought her battles are still expected to suffer Thatcher proves in parliament that she's just a fucking nutter The iron lady's proved her metal, has struck with her fist of steel Has proved that a heart that is made out of lead is a heart that doesn't feel
Sheep farming in the Falklands, re-arming in the fucklands Fucking sheep in the homelands, her majesty's forces are coming
Now Thatcher says... "Oh raunchy Ron, we've fought our war Now it's your turn to prove yourself in El Salvador I've employed Micheal Heseltine to deal with P.R. He's an absolute prick, but a media star He'll advocate the wisdom of our cruise missile plan Then at last I'll have a penis just like every other man They can call it penis envy, but they'll pay the price for it... But the peasants are hungry Mags, "Let them eat shit"
Sheep farming in the Falklands, re-arming in the fucklands Fucking sheep in the homelands, her majesty's forces are coming
Who the fuck cares, we're all having fun? Mums and dads happy as their kids play with guns The media loved it, when all's said and done... "Britain's bulldog's off the leash" said the Sun
94 As the Argies and Brits got crippled or died The bulldog turned around and crapped in our eyes. Brit wit, hypocrite, don't you yet realise You're not playing with toys, you're playing with lives... You piss straight up in your self-righteous rage Wilfs, goms and gimps in the nuclear age Four minute warning, what a shock, Well balls to you rocket cock You're old and you're ill and you're soon going to die You've got nothing to lose if you fill up the skies You'd take us all with you, yeah, it's tough at the top You slop bucket, shit filled, puss ridden, death pimp snot..YAH FUCK
Dead Kennedys, “California Über Alles” (1979,Optional Music)
I am Governor Jerry Brown My aura smiles And never frowns Soon I will be president...
Carter Power will soon go away I will be Fuhrer one day I will command all of you Your kids will meditate in school Your kids will meditate in school!
California Uber Alles California Uber Alles Uber Alles California Uber Alles California
Zen fascists will control you 100% natural You will jog for the master race And always wear the happy face
Close your eyes, can't happen here Big Bro' on white horse is near The hippies won't come back you say Mellow out or you will pay Mellow out or you will pay!
Now it is 1984 Knock-knock at your front door It's the suede/denim secret police They have come for your uncool niece
Come quietly to the camp You'd look nice as a drawstring lamp Don't you worry, it's only a shower For your clothes here's a pretty flower.
DIE on organic poison gas Serpent's egg's already hatched
95 You will croak, you little clown When you mess with President Brown When you mess with President Brown
Dead Kennedys, “Holiday in Cambodia” (1980, Cherry Red [UK], Faulty Products [US]) So you been to school For a year or two And you know you've seen it all In daddy's car Thinkin' you'll go far Back east your type don't crawl
Play ethnicky jazz To parade your snazz On your five grand stereo Braggin' that you know How the niggers feel cold And the slums got so much soul
It's time to taste what you most fear Right Guard will not help you here Brace yourself, my dear:
It's a holiday in Cambodia It's tough, kid, but it's life It's a holiday in Cambodia Don't forget to pack a wife
You're a star-belly sneech You suck like a leach You want everyone to act like you Kiss ass while you bitch So you can get rich But your boss gets richer off you
Well you'll work harder With a gun in your back For a bowl of rice a day Slave for soldiers Till you starve Then your head is skewered on a stake
Now you can go where people are one Now you can go where they get things done What you need, my son:.
Is a holiday in Cambodia Where people dress in black A holiday in Cambodia Where you'll kiss ass or crack
Pol Pot, Pol Pot, Pol Pot, Pol Pot...
And it's a holiday in Cambodia Where you'll do what you're told
96 A holiday in Cambodia Where the slums got so much soul
Dead Kennedys, “Nazi Punks Fuck Off” (1981, Alternative Tentacles)
Punk ain't no religious cult Punk means thinking for yourself You ain't hardcore cos you spike your hair When a jock still lives inside your head
Nazi punks Nazi punks Nazi punks-Fuck Off!
Nazi punks Nazi punks Nazi punks-Fuck Off!
If you've come to fight, get outa here You ain't no better than the bouncers We ain't trying to be police When you ape the cops it ain't anarchy
Ten guys jump one, what a man You fight each other, the police state wins Stab your backs when you trash our halls Trash a bank if you've got real balls
You still think swastikas look cool The real nazis run your schools They're coaches, businessmen and cops In a real fourth reich you'll be the first to go
You'll be the first to go You'll be the first to go You'll be the first to go Unless you think
Dead Kennedys, “Pull My Strings” (1987, Alternative Tentacles)
I'm tired of self respect I can't afford a car I wanna be a prefab superstar
I wanna be a tool Don't need no soul Wanna make big money Playing rock and roll
I'll make my music boring I'll play my music slow I ain't no artist, I'm a business man No ideas of my own
97
I won't offend Or rock the boat Just sex and drugs And rock and roll
Drool, drool, drool, drool, drool, drool My Payola! Drool, drool, drool, drool, drool, drool My Payola!
You'll pay ten bucks to see me On a fifteen foot high stage Fatass bouncers kick the shit Out of kids who try to dance
If my friends say I've lost my guts I'll laugh and say That's rock and roll
But there's just one problem
Is my cock big enough Is my brain small enough For you to make me a star Give me a toot, I'll sell you my soul Pull my strings and I'll go far
And when I'm rich And meet Bob Hope We'll shoot some golf And shoot some dope
Is my cock big enough? Is my brain small enough?
Dropkick Murphys, “Do or Die” (Hellcat Records, 1998)
The once steel tough fabric of a Union man Was sold and Bartered away Fed to money wolves in the Reagan years, Caught in a drift in greedy nineties days So inside this song is our rally cry.
Your dreams are in danger, and "We Must Rise" Our time has come we are under the gun "It's Do or Die".
It's not a rebel cry of some socialist Scheme to push for human rights Just the facts an obvious mentioned on the Behalf of the working man, for his family and his livelihood.
Your dreams are in danger, and "We Must Rise" Our time has come we are under the gun "It's Do or Die".
98
The once steel tough fabric of the union man Was sold and bartered away Fed to money wolves in the Reagan years, Caught adrift in greedy nineties days.
Your dreams are in danger, and "We Must Rise" Our time has come we are under the gun "It's Do or Die".
Dropkick Murphys, “Fightstarter Karaoke” (Hellcat Records, 1998)
Riot tonight EVERYBODY LET'S GO gonna start a fight but with who I don't fuckin' know
It doesn't take a big man to knock somebody down just a little courage to lift him off the ground! This world is not what it seems These beer balls are ruining my dreams
Riot tonight EVERYBODY LET'S GO gonna start a fight but with who I don't fuckin' know
It doesn't take a big man to knock somebody down just a little courage to lift him off the ground!
This world is not what it seems These beer balls are ruining my dreams
Stabbed in the back one too many times to count master of the sucker punch burned his bridges from the past beaten and attacked but no one seems to give a shit cause he had it coming you made your bed now sleep in it!!
It doesn't take a big man to knock somebody down just a little courage to lift him off the ground!
This world is not what it seems These beer balls are ruining my dreams.
Dropkick Murphys, “Never Alone” (Hellcat Records, 1998)
You say it’s because we're boisterous You hate us 'cause we got our dignity There's a difference between the two of us It's a sense of morality and what corrupts We stand together so proud and strong This is a place where we belong
We got loyal friends We keep our heads held high, We'll stick together you and I Don't need no guns or no drugs on our streets
99 just a place to go and the boots on our feet.
Young skinhead they call you hooligan Just because you don't make any sense to them You're a hardworking man whose paid his dues But they still call you racist on the evening news But the blood that runs right down your wrist Don't come from a knife, but the cuts on your fist
Your torn up knuckles and faded blue jeans Are the colors you wear and the life that you've seen You tell the truth look people in the eye Don't live your life in no baggy disguise.
Never alone... The city streets are where we roam. Never alone... This is Boston it's our home. Never alone... The city streets are where we roam. Never alone... This is Boston it's our home.
Don't need no gang to watch my ass Just loyal friendship and a pint of Bass In the midst of the chaos and insanity I'm a member of the working class society We'll sweat in the ring and bleed in the streets But our will and spirit can never be beat
You can shoot and you can kick but together we'll stick Through thick and thin not stick or stone Can break the bond that has here grown Arm and Arm We Fight As One.
Never alone... The city streets are where we roam. Never alone... This is Boston it's our home. Never alone... The city streets are where we roam. Never alone... This is Boston it's our home.
Earth Crisis, “Firestorm” (1993, Victory Records)
Street by street. Block by block. Taking it all back. The youth immersed in poison - turn the tide counterattack. Violence against violence, let the roundups begin. A firestorm to purify the bane that society drowns in. No mercy, no exceptions, a declaration of total war. The innocent's defense is the reason it's waged for. Born addicted, beaten and neglected. Families torn apart, destroyed and abandoned.
100 Children sell their bodies, from their high they fall to drown. Demons crazed by greed cut bystanders down. A chemically tainted welfare generation. Absolute complete moral degeneration. Born addicted, beaten and neglected. Families torn apart, destroyed and abandoned. Children sell their bodies, from their high they fall to drown. Demons crazed by greed. Cut bystanders down. Corrupt politicians, corrupt enforcement, drug lords and dealers, all must fall. The helpless are crying out. We have risen to their call. A firestorm to purify.
Good Clean Fun, “What Corporate Rock Can’t Say” (2006, Equal Vision)
You end up spending all your fight to keep your place under the light In front of new kids who don't seem concerned So we must teach them what we've learned When you're DIY you don't have to apologize, you can cut the ties When you're DIY there's no need for compromise, you can be yourself
They can't take it away: Punk will scream what corporate rock can't say
It never works to play their game, things always turn out the same Times have changed but it's still not funny They turn rebellion into money
When money's involved, morals are pliable You can't be punk and commercially viable No message survives, once it becomes buyable If you want to make a difference keep it DIY-able
It's time to give a second thought to what's been gained And now what's been lost, once punk was young and dangerous But now that's all been taken from us By an industry a billion dollars strong That still has nothing on an old school sing along We can fight, and we can win, it's time we start this over again
Good Clean Fun, “You’re Only Punk Once” (2000, Phyte /Reflections)
You ate and you smoked and you drank all your words We all know it's true because of the rumors we've heard You've grown up and moved on, you're ready to leave But not a thing that you do can touch what I believe
So someone has gone and sold out punk rock You know it's happened before so why all the shock? It's so clear to see that it was never meant to be And that's O.K., what they do now will not change me
It now seems so clear who could have guessed at the time It was just like a miracle they turned from water to wine Raising their glasses they say they feel fine They've all turned their backs, but I will never turn mine
101 You're only punk once so you'd better do it right Before you become the system that we all choose to fight You say “Nothing lasts forever, we are wasting our time We should not even try” But I say I'll stay positive until the day I die
Good Riddance, “Waste” (1998, Fat Wreck Chords)
Who will be their voice? Who will hear their cries? The ones who cannot speak As we dehumanize Incarcerated innocents Their sentience ignored Slaughtered by the millions For the pseudo-carnivores What a waste of our time Of our land of our humanity Blood-spattered carcass it wets your appetite Don't you fucking get it? Eating flesh it isn't right for you For me, our children, the world Destroy their machines Burn their slaughterhouses to the ground Now it's time for us all to defend The oppressed Meat is murder! Still we consume the dead and rotting Products of violence We've got to make that change For you, for me, our children, the world
MDC, “Dead Cops/America’s So Straight” (1982, Rhythm Vicar)
Dead cops
Down on the street Giving poor the heat With their clubs and guns Doin' it all for fun
Dead Cops
Big bad and blue They're in the Klan too Brutality is their sport We'll put 'em to the torch
Dead Cops
Rebel, rebel on the street Makeup on my face Stockings on my feet All the straights asking me why
102 I'm not a normal American guy
What makes America so straight and me so bent?
Call this the land of the free Say it’s the home of the brave You know they call me a queen Just another human being
What makes America so straight and me so bent?
Your authority and power Has turned us sick and sour And your justice is a lie We're gonna fight until you die
What makes America so straight and me so bent?
Dead Cops
Watcha gonna do The Mafia in blue Huntin' for queers Niggers and you
Dead cops
Time for a switch Army of the rich Macho fuckin' slaves We'll piss on your graves
Minor Threat, “Straight Edge” (1984, Dischord)
I'm a person just like you But I've got better things to do Than sit around and fuck my head Hang out with the living dead Snort white shit up my nose Pass out at the shows I don't even think about speed That's something I just don't need I've got the straight edge I'm a person just like you But I've got better things to do Than sit around and smoke dope 'Cause I know I can cope Laugh at the thought of eating ludes Laugh at the thought of sniffing glue Always gonna keep in touch Never want to use a crutch I've got the straight edge
103 Minor Threat, “Out of Step (With the World)” (1981, Dischord)
(I) Don't smoke I don't drink I don't fuck At least I can fucking think
I can't keep up, Can't keep up Can't keep up Out of step with the world
(I) Don't smoke I Don't drink I Don't fuck At least I can fucking think
I can't keep up, Can't keep up Can't keep up Out of step with the world
(Listen, there's no set of rules. I'm not tellin' you what to do, all I'm saying is I'm thinkin' of three things that are like, so important to our world I don't have to find much importance in because of these things, whether they are fucking or whether it's playing golf, because of that I feel...)
I can't keep up, Can't keep up Can't keep up Out of step with the world
Cashing in.
Minor Threat, “Guilty of Being White” (1981, Dischord)
I'm sorry For something I didn't do Lynched somebody But I don't know who You blame me for slavery A hundred years before I was born
GUILTY OF BEING WHITE
I'm sorry For something I didn't do Lynched somebody But I don't know who You blame me for slavery A hundred years before I was born
GUILTY OF BEING WHITE
I'm a convict GUILTY
104 Of a racist crime GUILTY I've only served GUILTY 19 years of my time
I'm sorry For something I didn't do Lynched somebody But I don't know who You blame me for slavery A hundred years before I was born
GUILTY OF BEING WHITE
Minor Threat, “It Follows” (1983, Dischord)
I thought I had left it behind In another fucking time When boys were boys, girls were girls And faces were hard to find
IT FOLLOWED ME
All the stupid thinking Stupid people thought The rules that we lived by The friends that we bought The asshole with a strong arm In the shape of floating friends The young ladies and their secrets In the soap that never ends
IT FOLLOWED ME
I thought I had outrun it When I crossed the tracks I thought I had gotten away When it tapped me on the back
IT FOLLOWED ME
Minor Threat, “Betray” (1983, Dischord)
Maybe it was no one's fault I know it wasn't mine But now that you've moved along I guess I'm next in line I thought we had the same ideas But you, you proved me wrong I've been played the fool before But never for quite so long
BETRAY
105
So what now? Do we shake hands, And go our separate ways? Or do I open my mind, And follow you into the haze? No, I'll see you tomorrow Same channel, same time, same place I'm not going anywhere Cause I quit your fucking race
BETRAY
Goddammit, we were supposed to stay young And now it's over, it's finished, it's done Normal expectations, they were on the run But now it's over, it's finished, it's done
Minor Threat, “Look Back and Laugh” (1983, Dischord)
I want to tell you a little story Cause it makes me warm inside It's about some friends growing up And all the things they tried I'm not talking about staple shit They went for something more I guess it was too much dreaming Too much to hope for One day something funny happened But it scared the shit out of me Their heads went in different directions And their friendship ceased to be
I'm telling you I want it to work I don't like being hurt Something's not right inside And I can't always put it aside What can we do, what can we do?
Try
I guess I make too much shit Someday we'll look back and laugh
Mr. Present, go away Come back and fuck with us some other day Mr. Feelings, run and hide You have no right to what you feel inside Motherfuckers, quick to kiss Talk you shit, but don't fuck with this All I want to know is Am I holding on? Am I moving on? What can we do, what can we do?
Morrissey, “Margaret on the Guillotine” (1988, HMV, Sire)
106 The kind people Have a wonderful dream Margaret on the guillotine Cause people like you Make me feel so tired When will you die? When will you die? When will you die? When will you die? When will you die?
And people like you Make me feel so old inside Please die
And kind people Do not shelter this dream Make it real Make the dream real Make the dream real Make it real Make the dream real Make it real
Morrissey, “He Knows I’d Love to See Him” (1990, HMV)
He Knows (he knows) Or, I think he does 'Cause when I lived In the Arse of the world
He knows, he knows He knows I'd love To see him happy (Or as close as is allowed) Oh, 'cause when I lived In the Arse of the world ...
He knows, he knows He knows I'd love To see him happy (Or as close as possible) As close as possible As close as possible As close as is allowed
Oh, my name still conjures up deadly deeds And a bad taste in the mouth And the police - they actually know me They said :
"You're just another person in the world You're just another fool with radical views You're just another who has maddening views You want to turn it on its head
107 By staying in bed !"
I said : "I know I do"
NOFX, “Kill Rock Stars” (1997, Epitaph)
“Kill the rock stars” How ironic, Kathleen You've been crowned the newest queen Kinda like the punk rock Gloria Steinham You can't change the world by blaming men Can't change the world by hating man
Just ‘cause I don't know the reason you're so pissed Don't dare tag me misogynist I thought the goal here was mutual respect Not constructing a separate sect I wish I could have seen Courtney Demonstrate some real misogyny Can't change the world by hating men
Oi Polloi, “Free the Henge” (1990, Words Of Warning)
Sticks and standing stones Arrests and broken bones Peoples' homes destroyed Vicious thugs employed By rulers alienated From an earth they've devastated Surround our temple with barbed wire But in our hearts there burns a fire (to) Free the Henge Free the Henge Our culture is attacked Our right are violated I say it’s time to end The restrictions they've created Free the Henge Free the Henge
For thousands of years Stonehenge has been a sacred meeting place for people - Furthermore in 1918 it was gifted to the nation the then “owner” on the condition that there should be free access for all who wished to gather there so what gives you the right, the power to decide that the people's access to the stones will be denied? We won't be stopped by cops, four miles “exclusion zones” 'cos we're coming through to liberate the stones Free the Henge Free the Henge The time will come again When we'll be at Henge To feel the Earthpower At the solstice hour Free the Henge Free the Henge Free the Henge Free the Henge
Winter solstice 1988 - Stonehenge - Bands playing, jugglers juggling, people breathing fire, gathering wood in the trees as the music echoed through the night air, laughing, sitting round the campfire talking and sharing food and drink - An amazingly friendly atmosphere - In the morning, gathering before dawn at the stones, dancing
108 round the stone circle hand in hand - A little magic in the midst of our grey, drab world of concrete and exhaust fumes...
Summer solstice 1989 - Riot police, road-blocks, coming up against the full force of the state, chased through woods by the cops, hiding in the ditches while helicopter searchlights sliced through darkness to find us, fear, anger, determination - That they will not beat us, that they will not destroy our culture... A response: If they think they can stop us gathering together for free festivals they are wrong. Our response to our experiences was just to come and organise a free festival on Cramond Island near Edinburgh. With the help of many others we made our own festival - And you can too!
Oi Polloi, “Nazi Scum” (1990, Words Of Warning)
Standing outsides the primary school gates With their leaflets stirring up race hate Creeping round in the dead of night Setting innocent people's houses alight They stab and kill in radical attacks Just how much more before you fight back? Find them - Grind them - Grind them!!
Nazi scum - your time will come
A nazi rally planned for our town But anti-fascists came from all around Cleared the scum completely off the streets Showed the fascists can and will be beat And when they tried to gather in Hyde Park Anti-fascists again made their mark On the braindead boneheads - Who they wasted
We must clear the streets of nazi scum Make them safe again for everyone No longer will we have to walk in fear Of scum who have no place here If we unite the battle can be won Stop the problem before it's really begun Find them - Grind them - Grind them!! Nazi scum - your time will come
Oi Polloi, “When Two Men Kiss” (1990, Words Of Warning)
When two men kiss Walk hand in hand The fear of what You don't understand Explodes into violence Screams break the silence ”The guy was a poof” “The guy was queer” Dehumanised And living in fear No, you're not thick And you say they're sick
109 But the only sickness I can see Is the cancer of Your bigotry What kind of society do we live in where the simple act of showing love and affection towards another human being results in this kind of sickening murderous violence? Intolerance, bigotry and hate - I say it's time to stop. From nazi boneheads to Bad Brains - Warped attitudes that we must change and it's not just homophobia - Rampant sexism, macho dancing, beating of woman - All this is rife within the “scene” - often closer to home than we care to acknowledge. It's time to stop sweeping things under the carped - Confront the problems - And act.
Propagandhi, “Dear Coach’s Corner” (2009, G7 et al.)
Dear Ron MacLean. Dear Coach’s Corner. I’m writing in order for someone to explain to my niece the distinction between these mandatory pre-game group rites of submission and the rallies at Nuremburg. Specifically the function the ritual serves in conjunction with what everybody knows is in the end a kid’s game. I’m just appealing to your sense of fair play when I say she’s puzzled by the incessant pressure for her to not defy the collective will, and yellow ribboned lapels, as the soldiers inexplicably rappel down from the arena rafters (which, if not so insane, would be grounds for screaming laughter). Dear Ron MacLean, I wouldn’t bother with these questions if I didn’t sense some spiritual connection. We may not be the same but it’s not like we’re from different planets: we both love this game so much we can hardly fucking stand it. Alberta-born and prairie- raised. Seems like there ain’t a sheet of ice north of Fargo I ain’t played. From Penhold to the Gatineau, every fond memory of childhood that I know is somehow connected to the culture of this game. I can’t just let it go. But I guess it comes down to what kind of world you want to live in, and if diversity is disagreement, and disagreement is treason, well don’t be surprised if we find ourselves reaping a strange and bitter fruit that sad old man beside you keeps feeding to young minds as virtue. It takes a village to raise a child but just a flag to raze the children until they’re nothing more than ballast for fulfilling a madman’s dream of a paradise where complexity is reduced to black and white. How do I protect her from this cult of death?
Propagandhi, “Less Talk, More Rock” (1996, Fat Wreck Chords)
I’d like to actively encourage the toughest man to dance as hard as he can to this, my song. And bring your stupidest friends along. We wrote this song because it’s fucking boring to keep spelling out the words that you keep ignoring. And your macho shit won’t phase me now. It just makes us laugh, we got your cash, court-jester take a bow. Because did you know that when I was nine, I tried to fuck a friend of mine? HE was 8, then I turned 10. 14 years later it happened again (with another friend). This time me on the receiving end. And all the fists in the world can’t save you now. Cuz if you dance to this, then you drink to me and my sexuality. With your hands down my pants by transitive property.
Propagandhi, “Nailing Descartes to the Wall/(Liquid) Meat Is Still Murder” (1996, Fat Wreck Chords)
I speak outside what is recognized as the border between “reason” and “insanity”. But I consider it a measure of my humanity to be written off by the living graves of a billion murdered lives. And I’m not ashamed of my recurring dreams about me and a gun and a different species (hint: starts with “h” and rhymes with “Neuman’s”) of carnage strewn about the stockyards, the factories and farms. Still I know as well as anyone that it does less good than harm to be this honest with a conscience eased by lies. But you cannot deny that meat is still murder. Dairy is still rape. And I’m still as stupid as anyone, but I know my mistakes. I have recognized one form of oppression, now I recognize the rest. And life’s too short to make another’s shorter-(animal liberation now!).
110 Propagandhi, “Refusing to Be a Man” (1996, Fat Wreck Chords)
I’m not going to try to tell you that I’m different from all the rest. I’ve been subject to the same de-structure of desire and I’ve felt the same effects; I’m a hetero-sexist tragedy. And potential rapists all are we. But don’t tell me this is natural. This is nurturing. And there’s a difference between sexism and sexuality. I had different desires prior to my role-remodeling. And at six years of age you don’t challenge their claims. You become the same. (Or withdraw from the game and hang your head in shame). I think that’s exactly what I did. I tried to sever the connections between me and them. I fought against their further attempts to convince a kid that birthright can bestow the power to yield the subordination of women and do you know what patricentricity means? I found out just a couple of days/months/years/minutes ago. It means male values uber alles and hey! Whaddaya know… sex has been distorted and vilified. I’m scared of my attraction to body types. If everything desired is objectified then maybe eroticism needs to be redefined. And I refuse to be a “man”.
Ramones, “Blitzkrieg Bop” (1976, Sire)
Hey ho, let’s go hey ho, let’s go hey ho, let’s go hey ho, let’s go They’re forming in straight line they’re going through a tight wind The kids are losing their minds the blitzkrieg bop
They’re piling in the back seat they’re generating steam heat Pulsating to the back beat the blitzkrieg bop
Hey ho, let’s go shoot ‘em in the back now what they want, I don’t know They’re all revved up and ready to go
They’re forming in straight line they’re going through a tight wind The kids are losing their minds the blitzkrieg bop
They’re piling in the back seat they’re generating steam heat Pulsating to the back beat the blitzkrieg bop
Hey ho, let’s go shoot ‘em in the back now What they want, I don’t know they’re all revved up and ready to go
They’re forming in straight line they’re going through a tight wind The kids are losing their minds the blitzkrieg bop
They’re piling in the back seat they’re generating steam heat Pulsating to the back beat the blitzkrieg bop
Hey ho, let’s go hey ho, let’s go Hey ho, let’s go hey ho, let’s go
Sex Pistols, “Anarchy In The UK” (1976, EMI) Right ! now ! ha ha ha ha ha
I am an antichrist I am an anarchist Don’t know what I want but I know how to get it I wanna destroy the passer by cos I
111 I wanna be anarchy ! No dogs body
Anarchy for the U.K. its coming sometime and maybe I give a wrong time stop a traffic line Your future dream is a shopping scheme cos I
I wanna be anarchy ! In the city
How many ways to get what you want I use the best I use the rest I use the enemy I use anarchy cos I
I wanna be anarchy! The only way to be !
Is this the M..L.A: Or is this the U.D.A Or is this the I.R.A. I thought it was the U.K. or just Another country Another council tenancy
I wanna be an anarchist Oh what a name Get pissed destroy !
Sex Pistols, “God Save the Queen” (1977, Virgin) God save the queen The fascist regime They made you a moron Potential H-bomb
God save the queen She ain't no human being There is no future In England's dreaming
Don't be told what you want Don't be told what you need There's no future, no future, No future for you
God save the queen We mean it man We love our queen God saves
God save the queen 'Cause tourists are money And our figurehead Is not what she seems
112 Oh God save history God save your mad parade Oh Lord God have mercy All crimes are paid
When there's no future How can there be sin We're the flowers in the dustbin We're the poison in your human machine We're the future, your future
God save the queen We mean it man We love our queen God saves
God save the queen We mean it man And there is no future In England's dreaming
No future, no future, No future for you No future, no future, No future for me
No future, no future, No future for you No future, no future For you
------
Skrewdriver, “White Power” (1983, White Noise)
I stand watch my country, going down the drain We are all at fault now, we are all to blame We're letting them takeover, we just let 'em come Once we had an Empire, and now we've got a slum
White Power! For England! White Power! Today White Power! For Britain Before it gets too late
Well we've seen a lot of riots, we just sit and scoff We've seen a lot of muggings, and the judges let 'em off
Well we've gotta do something, to try and stop the rot And the traitors that abuse us, they should all be shot middle eight: Are we gonna sit and let them come? Have they got the White man on the run? Multi-racial society is a mess
113 We ain't gonna take much more of this What do we need?
Well if we don't win our battle, and all does not go well It's apocalypse for Britain, and we'll see you all in hell
------
The Smiths, “Meat Is Murder” (1985, Rough Trade)
Heifer whines could be human cries Closer comes the screaming knife This beautiful creature must die This beautiful creature must die A death for no reason And death for no reason is murder
And the flesh you so fancifully fry Is not succulent, tasty or kind Its death for no reason And death for no reason is murder
And the calf that you carve with a smile Is murder And the turkey you festively slice Is murder Do you know how animals die ?
Kitchen aromas aren’t very homely Its not comforting, cheery or kind Its sizzling blood and the unholy stench Of murder
Its not natural, normal or kind The flesh you so fancifully fry The meat in your mouth As you savour the flavour Of murder
No, no, no, it’s murder No, no, no, it’s murder Oh ... and who hears when animals cry?
Teen Idles, “Teen Idles” (1980, demo)
Life has been the same for a long time Go to school and witness the crimes Go home and see it on the evening news Then we got nothing to do If there were a concert we would go Usually end up watching the prime time shows Hours in front of a TV. set We're as idle as teens can get
114
Teen Idles, Teen Idles Fuckin' bored to tears Teen Idles, Teen Idles Waste of 20 Years
Teen Idles, Teen Idles Doin' nothing all day Teen Idles, Teen Idles Nothing to do anyway
Hanging out at the record shops Go to a concert the boredom stops Went to the Bavou they said "no" You're not 18 you can't see the show Went to a movie it was o.k. Don't want to do it every day Hours in front of a TV. set We're as idle as teens can get
Trial, “Reflections” (1999, Equal Vision)
“Hierarchy, dominance and submission, repression and power - these are facts of everyday life. Revolution is a process, and even the eradication of coercive institutions will not automatically create a liberatory society. We create that society by building new institutions, by changing the character of our social relationships, by changing ourselves - and throughout that process by changing the distribution of power in society. It is by the constant building of new forms of organization, by the continual critical evaluation of our successes and failures, that we prevent old ideas and old forms of organization from re-emerging.”
- Carol and Howard J. Ehrlich, Reinventing Anarchy: What the Anarchists Are Thinking These Days the wreckage of humanity has been strewn across the land and now the hour of desperation is at hand we the maggots feed off the dead seeking solace in a bed of broken glass we bleed infected water beneath bright skins of polished steel through empty, yearning, starved and frustrated hearts which long for risk and reason this is a standard and sterile half-life to lead empty facades conceal slow decay within these new dark ages which breed discontent to give up all hope to see the dawn reveals a victims face beneath the veneer struggling to show that it's been wronged led astray by the myths of the Father with ancient wounds often ignored fighting for scraps from the table while we slowly rot on the floor struggling for balance amid these unholy lies reflecting terror and chaos we are born into suffering with constructs icons, idols, and eyes which manifest and forecast our fear of our own demise but on the eve of the apocalypse
115 you can burn these words into my flesh:
“we are tortured and insane disillusioned and mundane unknown and unnamed desperate and enslaved and we want something more”
Ümlaut, “Brothers In Arms” (circa 2001, Combat Rock Industry)
“Limp-wristed” fists to the homophobes’ faces Now it’s time to trade fucking places Bind and gag them with barbed wire Remove their teeth with fucking pliers Wood for the fires Who’s “unnatural,” you fucking liars? Wouldn’t coexist with us, Now you face the wrath of justice Wood for the fires Always forward, never straight As we march forth against your nation of hate Pouring out of the closets and into the night Our bullets bear your names and we’re spoiling to fight Your wood for the fires Who’s the “faggot” now, you fucking liars? Wouldn’t coexist with us, Now you’re struck down by street justice Wood for the fucking fires
116 BIBLIOGRAPHY
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117
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Fields, Jim, and Gramaglia, Michael (2003). End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones. USA/UK: Magnolia Pictures/Tartan Films.
Rachman, Paul, and Blush, Steven (2006). American Hardcore: The History of American Punk Rock 1980-1986. USA: Sony Pictures.
118 Temple, Julian, and Boyd, Don and Thomas, Jeremy (1980). The Great Rock ‘N’ Roll Swindle. London: Sex Pistols Residuals/ PolyGram Video ltd.
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