Protest Song

Queen's Speech today!!

John Lydon,1977...

God save the queen her fascist regime
It made you a moron a potential h bomb !

God save the queen she aint no human being
There is no future in englands dreaming

Dont be told what you want dont be told what you need
Theres no future no future no future for you

God save the queen we mean it man (God save window leen)
We love our queen God saves (God save... human beings)

God save the queen cos tourists are money
And our figurehead is not what she seems
Oh God save history God save your mad parade
Oh lord God have mercy all crimes are paid

When theres no future how can there be sin
Were the flowers in the dustbin
Were the poison in your human machine
Were the future your future

God save the queen we mean it man
There is no future in englands dreaming

No future for you no future for me*
No future no future for you

John Lydon, 2008...

* = unless it's flogging butter

.

Piggies

It's 1979 all over again

A correspondent, in response to my previous post, writes...

"Che(e)r up,old fruit, it might never happen!(but probably will)"

As it happens, I'm actually quite keen on 'it' happening

The recent consumerist binge proved once again, if ever it were needed, that selling and buying useless shit doesn't make people happy and fucks up their environment and other people in its production

So, if this system does break down I don't think we'll be losing very much in the long run

And, more importantly, we really could do with some decent music (and cinema - I saw Ironman last night - how shit was that!?)

Vapid, superficial, self-indulgent times make for vapid, superficial, self-indulgent tunes


So, I was delighted to discover, via a Youtube link someone sent me, that ska warriors The Specials have apparently reformed in anticipation of the impending Global Economic Apocalypse...





though their line up appears to have changed a little since their glory days back in 1979...




.

The more things change the more they stay the same pt239

I'm currently working through the Gill Scott Heron back-catalogue on my wireless personal gramophone

Highlights so far include...


The Revolution will not be televised

"There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down
brothers in the instant replay.
There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down
brothers in the instant replay"

Hmmm...


Whitey in Iraq on the Moon





B-Movie




.

Bin Laden didn't blow up the projects

A repost of a link to a video of Immortal Technique's 'Bin Laden' because I found myself humming it a couple of times yesterday...





Mr Technique is clearly one of those self-hating racist right-wing conspiraloons who speaks out against everything he secretly stands for and only talks about in hidden online forums

It's 'high levels of paranoia and mistrust' like this which get in the way of Real™ Democracy, Real™ Inactivism and Real™ Empowerment

.

A spankingly good track

- link inspired by a couple of comments underneath this post, including a link to this article


NB probably not a work friendly link - unless you happen to work in Mistress Mavis' House of Pain, or the House of Commons

and if any politicians, senior civil servants or captains of industry bump into this post whilst seaching for this sort of service please feel free to drop me a line - I, and quite a few people I know, would be more than willing to give you a slapping free of charge

but no kissing afterwards

-

edit: and thanks to Lord Patel for, in the process of comparing Gordon Queeg with Lt Cmdr Queeg, reminding me of how just good a film The Caine Mutiny is - with two or three absolutely stand-out scenes; including Humphrey Bogart doing this very credible Gordon Queeg impression...





the scene featuring the 'josé ferrer figure, realising too late the real villains of the piece and his unwitting complicity' is absolutely knockout as well but, sadly, absent from Gootube

.

Happy Birthday War

A belated link to this cheerful ditty celebrating the fifth anniversary of the invasion and occupation of Iraq....

Notable, for me anyway, for fact that the original footage used in the video features a chunky bearded bloke prancing about and doing a Cher impression around and on that old tank off the Old Kent Road which has become something of a South London landmark

Filmed in South London

NOT filmed in South London

My favourite urban camouflage scheme of the several that have been tried out on that tank so far is this one...




If the someone would only have added a can of bastard-strength lager dangling from the turret somewhere it would have passed off as a local and blended in with the area perfectly

.

Earl Hooker - Off the Hook

Stef's SuperHappyFeelGood Music Videos of the week

Ends by Everlast...



Lyrics Here (thx Tony)



Hide U by Kosheen...



-

and a couple more, non music, videos which are only likely to appeal to a very select number of British people. The kind of people who'd be amused by the cast of Star Trek advertising debt consolidation services or Gordon Ramsay pleasuring himself on the toilet - the Gordon Ramsay clip is definitely not work friendly...

.

The Wizard of Ounces

Quite a few blogs and alternative news outlets are starting to identify the recent slides in the US stockmarket and exchange rates as being harbingers of the global financial meltdown so many of us have been expecting

For some, it’s just like its 1929 all over again

And we all know what happened economically and politically in the ten years after 1929 don’t we?

Actually, to tell the truth, most people don’t, which is why it’s been so relatively easy to stage the rerun.

-

A frequent response ordinarily financially astute people who I have discussed this with have given to me when discussing impending recessions/ depressions goes something like this...

'Yeah, the bubble will burst eventually but the people who will get hit hard will be those who were stupid enough to over-extend themselves borrowing money to buy over valued houses or consumerist shit. It will serve them right'

Hmm, the problem with that line of thought is, of course, is that it's bollocks. Only the ultra-rich will benefit and will be able to hoover up assets at fire-sale prices. Everyone below that level will have to shoulder the costs of having several million of their fellow citizens wiped-out financially. They will pay through increased taxation, job insecurity, and exciting but not so new forms of government. Everyone will get it up the rear end

-

Still, it would be good news for people who like to dabble in documentary photography. Some photographers, like Martin Parr (more of him another time), have adapted to the times and have set about recording the horrors of faux prosperity and over-consumption but for most socially-aware photographers there’s nothing like a really good fucking depression and lots of people looking fucked up and wretched.

You can really display your humanity photographing people who are in the shit

Enter stage left, Dorothea Lang and the most iconic photograph of the 1930s Depression – Migrant Mother

'Migrant Mother' aka 'Oh look! Poor People! How quaint' - Someone made an entire career and a comfortable living off the back of this photograph - and it wasn't any of the people in it

I love that picture. I used to love it when I was younger because I thought, as I was told to, that it documented the despair of the excluded and was a powerful call for people to do the right thing. I now love the picture because I know that it was taken by a ‘champagne socialist’ under false pretences and totally misrepresents its subjects. In the words of the ‘Migrant Mother's grandson…

“…a shiny new car (it was only two years old) pulled into the entrance, stopped some twenty yards in front of Florence and a well-dressed woman got out with a large camera. She started taking Florence's picture. With each picture the woman would step closer. Florence thought to herself, "Pay her no mind. The woman thinks I'm quaint, and wants to take my picture." The woman took the last picture not four feet away then spoke to Florence: "Hello, I'm Dorthea Lange, I work for the Farm Security Administration documenting the plight of the migrant worker. The photos will never be published, I promise." Florence said, "Okay, if you think it will help." The woman turned, walked away, got in her car, and was gone. The next day the promise was broken: Florence's picture taken by the well-dressed lady was on the front page of all the newspapers…”

'Be Vewy, Vewy Quiet... I'm Hunting Poor People'

The moral of the story being, I think, that that the ruling class, be they industrialists or chattering liberals, always exploit the poor – they just go about it in slightly different ways.

-

And whilst on the subject of Depressions, the 1930s and people called Dorothy, somebody made a comment under one of those ‘It’s 1929 all over again’ articles that reminded me of a theory that has always amused me…

The comment claimed that The Wizard of Oz was a political and economic allegory of America in the late 1890s and the not entirely dissimilar economic and political situation of the 1930s

"We're off to get fucked by the Bankers, the wonderful Bankers of Oz!!"

A few examples to illustrate the thesis...

• Oz is the abbreviation for Ounces, the traditional measure of Gold. The price of which was manipulated by financial ‘wizards’ such as JP Morgan
  
  
• The Yellow Brick Road leading to the Emerald City are allegories for the Gold Standard and Washington
  
  
• The Wicked Witch of the East (Coast) represents the money men from New York
  
  
• Dorothy herself represents the honest ‘everyman’ farmer from agricultural Kansas who eventually realises that she had the power to change the world for the better all along in the form of her silver slippers (a free currency/ the vote)
  
  
• The Tin Man represents the industrial proletariat held back by monopolies such as JD Rockefeller’s Standard Oil

…and so on and so on. There’s even a nod to the international drugs trade in the form of a field of sleep-inducing poppies that almost do our heroes in

There’s an entire article on the subject up on Wikipedia (so it must be true). Normally, I’m a tad sceptical about people reading things in books or lyrics without explicit acknowledgment from the author but the Oz thing seems solid to me … and very, very funny

It makes you kind of wonder what’s really going on in Teletubbies. It’s pretty clear that kids understand every word they’re saying but they won’t tell us grown ups

-

And finally, on the subject of people reading too much into books or lyrics, my favourite example is the undoubtedly excellent Wind Cries Mary by Jimi Hendrix. The opening line goes...

After all the jacks are in their boxes and the clowns have all gone to bed
You can hear happiness staggering on down the street
Footprints dressed in red and the wind whispers mary…




Now you could, as some Hendrix fans have done, try to decipher the complicated psychedelic allegories woven into these words…

Or, you can just believe, as I do, the story that Hendrix was piss drunk, late one night in front of a television and only had this to watch…



.

Is it possible to love Jarvis Cocker any more than I already do?

Speaking as someone who grew up living in a flat above a shop and who spontaneously combusted on going to college and meeting rich kids for the first time I have always had a soft spot for the lyrics of Common People and Jarvis Cocker generally.

Any native Londoner who has had to listen to some pampered twot who moved into the city two minutes ago tell you how great everything is and how you shouldn't be so negative about things cannot help but warm to the lines...

'cos everybody hates a tourist
especially one who thinks
it's all such a laugh

A few years ago William Shatner released a cover of Common People complete with backing vocals by Joe Jackson.

For a moment in space-time, it was as if my own deranged personal fantasy world had interfaced with reality and been given tangible form -




It took days for me to clean myself up after first hearing it. I was spontaneously giggling in public places for months afterwards.

As for that abusing Michael Jackson thing - well, Jarvis should have been given a knighthood on the spot, even before he sobered up.

And if my own deranged personal fantasy world does ever break through into reality ever again we'll have Jarvis' face on our money.

Anyway, as proof that the old magic is still there, Jarvis has just slapped up a new DIY music video on Myspace...

Cunts are still running the World

... lyrically perfect, and if it doesn't win this year's Ivor Novello award there is no justice in this Life

Tim Ireland of bloggerheads has posted a slightly different presentation of the song...

Cunts are still running the World - the Video Game

... which gives you something to do with your hands whilst singing along to the chorus for the xhundreth time

Jarvis you're a fucking hero - don't ever change, please

The smooth sound of Cheese

Whilst grazing through some Russia-related stories on the wires earlier on today one piece in particular caught my eye…

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Russia should shut down a pirate music Web site that is robbing U.S. recording companies of sales if it wants to become a member of the World Trade Organisation, the top U.S. trade official said on Wednesday.

"I have a hard time imagining Russia becoming a member of the WTO and having a Web site like that up and running that is so clearly a violation of everyone's intellectual property rights," U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab told reporters after a speech to a services industry organisation.

Schwab's office earlier this year identified allofmp3.com as one the world's most notorious marketplaces for pirated goods. Last week, she singled out the Web site as the "poster child" for illegal music sales over the Internet.

Anyone who has spent any length of time dealing with an overseas based call centre, or had their job outsourced to some 3rd World dictatorship, or paid Developed World prices for something manufactured by five year olds in Jakarta might like to mull over how this globalization thing works out in practice…

Apparently, it is OK to pay two hundred quid for an ipod assembled by people earning Chinese wage rates

But it is most definitely not OK to pay Russian prices for music to put on that ipod

Seems perfectly logical and fair enough to me.

Strictly in the interest of market research, I’ve just spent a happy half hour browsing through allofmp3.com.

It’s really quite well put together

And cheap as chips

But, best of all, the site allows you to share full length previews of all your favourite songs, including my latest discovery Richard Cheese and Lounge Against the Machine.

In the words of Wikipedia…

The band specializes in playing lounge-style covers of recent popular rock and rap tunes, including those with offensive lyrical content

Sadly, Dick’s outstanding covers of Holiday in Cambodia and Personal Jesus are not yet available on allofmp3.com, but these are…

Sunday Bloody Sunday (U2)

Gin n Juice (Snoop Dogg)

Rape Me (Nirvana)

If anyone is interested, the full album is available for $1.91 from allofmp3, or five times as much from itunes, or probably ten times as much if you use the UK itunes site.