Copycat Crime - A UKIP Calypso response by Alexander D Great

Musical interlude

Not remotely political, but to some - including me - possibly the greatest
piece of music to be found on You Tube.

David Rovics on Pirates

See also his defence of the Pirates of Somalia

Love Music Hate Racism Carnival 2010

With the danger of the Nazi BNP succeeding in replicating the recent successes of other fascist parties in Europe in two weeks time, the Love Music Hate Racism Carnival in Barnsley on Saturday May 1st could not be more timely or important - see also the days of action being organised in areas such as Barking and Stoke that are being targeted.

All we hear is...

The early elements of a Marxist appraisal of Lady Gaga emerge...

Alistair Hulett RIP

No no no - this is not so. What a tragic loss, way way way before his time - one feels for those closest to him. I only heard Alistair Hulett perform twice I think - once doing the songs of Ewan MacColl at 'Marxism' one year, and since then about a couple of years ago at a local gig 'Which Side Are You On? – The Life And Times Of Pete Seeger'. Both were really moving, powerful gigs. Once again, I'll add tributes/obits when I get time.

Jimmy Ross, 'Alistair Hulett, 1951–2010: musician, activist, socialist'
Diane Fieldes 'Alastair Hulett - comrade and friend'

The Bluetones, Blur and the legacy of Britpop

I went to see the Bluetones play live earlier this week. I was never really a massive fan and indeed had rather forgotten about them until a few months ago and then googled them and saw they were still going and well, when the opportunity to see them again after about a decade came up, it sounded too good to miss. In the event, they were okay - (lets face it though - they were always okay) - and played a lot of new material which sounded reasonable enough - you definitely have to respect them at least for still going.

The Bluetones were a band that kind of rose and fell with the wave of 'Britpop' in the mid-1990s, and I only really mention them now because of an article reminiscing about the legacy of Britpop written by Jude Rogers - a blur fan - I read yesterday. I was also a teenage blur fan - indeed the very first 'proper album' I ever bought was Parklife on cassette - and was going to write about Blur at some point anyway - this moment has now been rather brought forward.

Rogers gives a rather cynical take on the whole phenomenon from the perspective of someone who bought into the whole New Labour project (for it seems a mixture of idealism, careerism and naivety) and is now a little disillusioned about Blair and Brown (again for a mixture of principled reasons like tuition fees - I was actually on the march she describes in Oxford in support of the 'Oxford non-payers', the first and only time I have ever set foot in the place - and the war on Iraq but also one senses for careerist reasons - there is no chance of any political career with New Labour when they are currently so hated). Rather than blame New Labour though she takes her sense of political betrayal out on blur and in particular Damon Albarn.

Of blur she writes:
'Now I see that these records were, on the whole, far less exciting and much less revolutionary than their predecessors. The Great Escape brimmed with musical nods to Britain's past - woozy cinema Wurlitzers on tales of suburban life ("Fade Away"); oompah brass on songs about wealth ("Country House") and the National Lottery ("It Could Be You") - but many of its lyrics oozed with humourless kitsch.'

As for Damon Albarn,
'Albarn, it seems now, was always a reactionary at heart. When Blair finally did what Labour had been trying to do for 18 years, making this first-year undergraduate and her friends scream with joy in a junior common room, Albarn turned down his invite to the victory reception'.

Her account on Britpop, blur and Blairism is I think rather flawed. Yes, Blair tried to surf the popularity of 'Britpop' but my sense is that blur were never at all happy to be in league with New Labour - and this is not because they were secretly 'reactionary' or Tory but because - like me - New Labour left me completely cold even before they ever got into power in 1997. My sense is that in as far as they were political at all blur and in particular Albarn were always to the left of New Labour (as were Oasis - witness their support for the Liverpool Dockers Strike in 1997) and even implicitly anti-capitalist. I would have felt completely betrayed if blur had turned up to Blair's 'victory reception'.

In fact, while I am not going to say that blur played any role in my turn to Marxism, my reading of their lyrics did nothing to discourage me in such a turn at all. The very choice of album title 'Modern Life is Rubbish' might signal some sort of reactionary nostalgia or conservatism but given the main song on the album was the still glorious 'For Tomorrow' I read it as an implicit hatred of bourgeois society - a materialist society Blair championed. Think of the Left-Hegelian condemnation of commodification 'The Universal' or celebrate the cynicism of 'End of a Century' with respect to the millenium hype epitomised by New Labour's failed homage to corporate power, 'The Dome'. Indeed, I partly blame Damon Albarn for my never having gotten around to passing my driving test - I suffered a crisis of conscience after reading an interview in NME with Albarn which attacked what damage cars were doing to the environment.

Moreover, describing Albarn as a 'reactionary' seems not only insulting but frankly ridiculous - by the article's own evidence at their recent gig in Hyde Park he reminded 'the audience that this is also where two million people ended their march against the Iraq war' back in 2003 - a march Albarn attended. More recently, with The Good, the Bad and the Queen he headlined a Love Music Hate Racism festival. It is not surprising that their recent 'Beginners Guide to blur' collection has a picture of Bush and Blair on the cover - they were always anti-war and to the left of Blairism.

As for blur's music, yes I suppose parts of it have dated badly. Indeed, I had stopped listening to blur really until I saw their recent Glastonbury gig on TV and then was inspired to dig out their back catalogue, buy (the excellent) 'Think Tank' which I hadn't got round to doing and listen to it all again. But Parklife remains a classic, and the genius of blur was their creativity and ability to evolve musically unlike Oasis. Okay, so Alex James sans blur is hard to take seriously and Dave Rowntree's sad efforts to get elected as a Labour councillor are well, sad frankly - but Graham Coxen's solo work and Albarn's talents more than make up for such matters. Lets 'look back in anger' at the waste of 12 years of New Labour government but lets not blame blur, the Bluetones or Britpop in general for Blairism.

Edited to add: An alternative take on blur from paddington

Without Michael Jackson There Would Be No Tap

After a weekend spent lounging around in the sun reading an introduction to Martin Heidegger (don't ask) and watching Glastonbury highlights on TV (do ask - and incidently, what was it with all the Loyalist flags flying about all over the place?), I am not really in the best position to comment on what is going on politically in Britain and internationally (though I did gather a much loved icon from the world of music died last week - as did this chap - and that Wimbledon is underway). Hopefully I will have a better idea and understanding after this weekend's Marxism festival (while there is always good old Lenin's Tomb).

But briefly surmising the headlines, I see New Labour are still defiantly insistent on making the working class pay for the crisis of capitalism by removing unemployment benefit from under-25 year olds deemed not to be working hard enough at finding a job - while silmulaneously freezing student grants and loans (though not tuition fees). There was a time when a threat to cut unemployment benefit would bring down a Labour Government through internal rebellion - but the Party has long stopped worrying about such things and learnt to love not simply Peter Mandleson, but also fraud and corruption around expenses going to the highest level of government as well as bailouts for bankers that have to be paid for somehow.

Still, if New Labour can't provide bread, at least it is providing circuses. Lets not worry about the billions to be spent renewing Trident nuclear submarine or the killing fields of Afghanistan - lets get all nostalgic for the old imperial spirit and kick back and enjoy the spectacle of 'Armed Forces Day'! Let's party like its 1945!

Tony Blair is doing his bit to raise people's spirits too. At a time when most people are worried about whether they will have one job at the end of the week, Blair is bravely leading the fight for the right to work. Though Blair already has so many jobs it is difficult to keep count (there was bringing peace to the Middle East, saving the planet from climate change, ending world poverty, as well as advising the bankers JP Morgan, Zurich Insurance, and running the Blair Faith Foundation thing, but I am sure I have forgotten something) he is now bravely battling to also be the next European president regardless. As the Guardian notes 'the Briton's main assets are name and brand recognition, international contacts, and the absence, so far, of any serious rival for the post.' There is just one minor problem which might stop Blair adding yet one more job to his CV - most people in Europe, for some odd reason, associate the 'Blair brand' with lying and committing war crimes. Oh yeah, and also being a complete and utter wanker.

Meanwhile, Ed Balls, currently New Labour's schools secretary but also the man who dreams of being a future Labour leader, is doing his bit to get people to smile through the recession with his own distinct brand of political comedy. Not only was Balls-by-name recently caught out putting through Mark Steel's classic Reasons to be Cheerful on his expenses, Balls-by-nature has now also come up with the cheery idea of introducing a five year MOT 'license' for weeding out incompetent professionals. Which profession in British society is it that has most failed in its duty, that is full to the brim of the most shady and sinister characters? Which profession is the weakest link that most needs the introduction of a five year license to practice? Greedy bankers? City traders and speculators? No, underpaid and overworked teachers of course! Brilliant stuff Balls!

The only possible 'reason to be cheerful' will be if New Labour's anti-working class policies and measures such as these fail to get onto the statute book because this utterly useless Brown government fails to renew its own 'license to govern' when it comes up for renewal next year (and long before reaching the five years in office mark). Those wishing to help build something new from the ashes of New Labour, a socialist phoenix that can rise from the flames, should join those protesting at the Labour Party conference, Sunday 27 Sept, in Brighton at the demonstration called by the UCU and NUJ, supported by the Fight for the Right to Work campaign.

Love Music Hate Racism Festival

Pete Doherty is co-headlining the Love Music Hate Racism festival in Stoke on Saturday - the place the fascist BNP describe as their 'jewel in the crown'. Hopefully this Carnival will help begin the process of kicking the Nazis out of Stoke...

Intermission, or, doing a meme

Dear comrades and friends, I have been invited by a friend to 'do a meme', which apparently is not something illegal but simply means following the instructions below:

'List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they're not any good, but they must be songs you're really enjoying now, shaping your spring. Post these instructions in your blog along with your 7 songs. Then tag 7 other people to see what they’re listening to.'

I don't really want to do the 'tagging 7 other people' bit in such an open fashion, but I thought I would inflict readers of Histomat with 7 songs that 'shaped my spring' as it were. My musical taste is notoriously appalling in its primitivism, but don't worry, I won't do this very often. This is an intermission - not a regular thing. Anyway, my seven songs are as follows.

1. First We Take Manhatten - Leonard Cohen
2. Dance of Death - Iron Maiden
3. Paper Planes - MIA
4. Guns of Navarone - Skatalites
5. Sinnerman - Nina Simone
6. Spring Rain - The Go-Betweens
7. Ring the Summer Home - Ewan MacColl

Sadly Ewan MacColl's song is not on YouTube - but take it from me it is a brilliant folk song about the English Peasants Revolt of 1381 that lasts about 10 minutes. The others I have posted as videos below. I suppose I should really apologise in a way for the Iron Maiden song - but I like the way it is reminiscent of Spinal Tap's classic 'Stonehenge'. And in any case, I am not alone in thinking Maiden rock. The clue to Maiden's genius lies I think in the following snippet from an article about the band recently in the Guardian:

The bassist [Steve Harris] is quiet and focused, talking in detail about the surprise influence of Jethro Tull and how he incorporated the structures of English hymnal music and medieval tunes into Maiden songs.

Anyway, these 7 songs are my meme - readers of Histomat can feel free to do their own memes if they feel suitably inspired by my example...I'm off to check out Jethro Tull...

Paddington on Portishead

Intriguing...they sounded good on Jools Holland anyway...

Ben Harker on Ewan MacColl

Ben Harker, author of an excellent new biography of the Communist folk singer Ewan MacColl, Class Act, is interviewed here.

Control

Control, about Ian Curtis - the leadsinger of the band Joy Division - is a superb and engrossing film, even if you are like me someone who comes to the film knowing little of Joy Division already. Though hardly an enjoyable movie to watch(themes of depression, illness, etc kind of run throughout), there are moments of lightness and outstanding acting throughout - check it out anyway.

The reason I went to see it I suppose is because one of my minor claims to fame is that I have met Sam Riley, who played Curtis himself, and indeed saw his own band, the now defunct '10,000 things' play a few times live. Listening now back to the single of theirs I bought a while ago, they sounded a bit like the Rolling Stones - and they certainly were quite a lively decent band live. So what, you might well ask.

Well, to cut to the chase, a few years ago one evening I was working part-time behind the Deli counter in Somerfields and Riley wandered up to the counter where I was working and wanted to buy something or other. Our conversation went something like this:

Me: [kind of knowing the answer already] Hi, are you Sam from 10,000 things?
SR: [a bit surprised to be recognised] Yeah...have we met?
Me: Not really [I once had a really brief conversation with him in a crowded bar before one of his gigs about doing something for Love Music Hate Racism but I didn't think he'd have been likely to remember that] but I've seen the band a few times...How's it all going? SR: Well not too good...we have just been dropped from our record label actually.
Me: Shit, sorry to hear that...
SR: Cheers...
Me: What are you going to do now?
SR: Not sure.
Me: [Jokingly] So I'll see you working here next week then...
SR: [Grinning] Yep...probably.

That was it really - he then ordered some olives/cheese/ham or something and left. Sometime later I bought NME one day and saw his face and a little notice saying he had won the part of playing Curtis in a film about the singers life. The rest as they say is history...

Dead King Watch: Elvis Presley

Elvis Presley died thirty years ago and there is a great article in this week's Socialist Worker by Ian Birchall about how socialists might remember 'The King of Rock 'n' Roll'. Birchall notes that the contradictions of rock and of Elvis in particular were missed at the time by most of the Left:

Unfortunately the left was looking the other way. The New Left that had emerged after the Suez crisis defeat for British imperialism and the revolt against Stalinism in Hungary in 1956 preferred jazz and folk music. Communist intellectual Eric Hobsbawm declared that "the habitual rock-and-roll fan, unless mentally rather retarded, tended to be between ten and 15 years of age."

One might take issue here with Birchall a bit - surely Hobsbawm's hostility to rock came out of the rather crude anti-Americanism which affected members of the Communist Party of Great Britain at this time (Americans were routinely labelled 'Yanks' in the context of the Cold War) - and so perhaps Hobsbawm (who stayed in the CPGB after 1956) is here far more representative of the 'Old Left' rather than the 'New'? However, Birchall was around at the time - I wasn't. Yet Birchall is right to take issue with the Left's general dismissal of rock music - I am personally well up for watching the Smashing Pumpkins later this month - yet we wouldn't have got to the heights of the Pumpkins (whose excellent new Kafka-referencing album 'Zeitgeist' surely marks a political turn of sorts) without Elvis - and so it is surely right to salute 'the King' (even if this post was really an excuse for me to discuss the Pumpkins).

Song of the young Leninists

'The five-pointed star is rising over the earth. We proletarian children will build a new world. Forward boldly, you Leninists! The commune is our watchword; let each of you fulfil the commands of Lenin.
We shall relieve the communist youth. We are the friends of every worker. The children of the world shall form one family. We will show life a new way, for the old have need of rest. We are the children of communist heroes; the spirit of the warriors is strong in us. We will build the commune sooner with the aid of science. Labour and science shall unite to make us stronger. Books will be useful to us and make our work easier. With united strength we are resolved to master science and press on further.
Come, you children, follow our fighting cry! We are free minds and not slaves. We are resolved to be tenacious and steadfast - like Il'ich Lenin'.
'Song of the young Leninists', association of Pioneers, early Soviet Russia.

From the superbly illustrated The Mind and Face of Bolshevism; An Examination of Cultural Life in Soviet Russia by Rene Fulop-Miller (1927). Hat-tip: Children's Laureate/Commissar for Children's Literature Michael Rosen.

Ernest Jones, Chartist and songwriter

Ernest Jones (1819-1869) was an outstanding socialist and leader of the Chartist movement, the first national working class movement in history. Frederick Engels felt that 'he was at bottom the only educated Englishman who was entirely on our side' - see here and here. He inspired the title of John Newsinger's recent 'People's history of the British Empire' The Blood Never Dried, which I reviewed here. Yet he was also a composer of songs and I want to put online a song of his he wrote in 1851, after the Chartist movement had suffered serious defeat, something which is reflected in the song's sombre lyrics. Yet Jones kept on fighting, and overall the piece is optimistic about the future of the class struggle.

We are silent.

WE are dead, and we are buried!
Revolution's soul is tame!
They are merry o'er our ashes,
And our tyrants rule the same!
But the Resurrection's coming
As the Resurrection came.

All in silence glides the larva
Thro' its veins of red-hot ore;
All in silence lightnings gather
Round the mountain's glacier hoar;
Weight on weight, and all in silence
Swells the avalanche's snow,
Till a scarce-heard whisper hurls it
Crushing on the world below;

Drop by drop, and all in silence,
At their mound the waters grow,
Till the last wave proves too heavy,
And away the barriers go!

In the depth of toiling masses
Feeds the fire and spreads the flame,
And the foot of freedom passes
O'er the doubtlings of the tame.
God-like Freedom! Glorious Freedom!
Kindling spirits into flame.

Times will set the coldest burning,
Times that come with great events,
Like the deluge-tides returning
On decaying continents,
Sweeping worn-out wrongs before them,
Wrecks, and wrongs, and discontents.

Silent as the snowflake sinking,
Truth on truth keeps gathering strong,
Till the nations turn to thinking,
Thinking of their right and wrong:
Then some sudden thaw of feeling,
Then some unomened whisper stealing,
Hurls the mighty mass along.

"We are dead and we are buried!"
Not so! life is in us yet.
There's too much of good to hope for -
Too much evil to forget!
Rich man! mark! the tide is turning!
See! the ripples backward roll!
Brains are thinking, hearts are burning
Nations tending to their goal.

Yes! there is a few among you!
Fear of freedom's coming day;
Like ghosts amid your palaces
Thoughts of poor men force their way.
Light your glittering chandeliers:
They must die when dawn appears,
Dawn of freedom's glorious day.

Ernest Jones.
Notes to the People, 1851, vol. 1, p. 92.
From An Anthology of Chartist Literature.

A Chartist Song for the Millions

Song for the Millions (iii)

Friends of Freedom, swell the strain
That peals across th' Atlantic main,
And echoes wide o'er hill and plain,
Arousing men to Liberty.
Your every moral power awake,
Bestir yourselves for Freedom's sake;
Base Slavery's chains shall snap and break
Before your Godlike energy.

Lift up your faces from the dust,
Your cause is holy, pure, and just;
In Freedom's God put all your trust,
Be he your hope and anchor.
Give to the world your firm decree,
That Britons will - they will be free -
Shout, shout for glorious Liberty!
It will succeed and conquer.

Vain tyrants, that would make us slaves,
Go look upon the patriots' graves,
And study there, ye dastard knaves,
The folly of your knavery.
What! think ye to subdue the mind,
Which God hath given to mankind?
Ye surely will for ever find
Men will not suffer slavery.

Though ye have prisons to immure
The poor, and friends unto the poor,
Yet think not basely to allure
The flock from they who lead them.
Vain are your dungeons, idly vain.
The rack, the torture and the chain;
Ye neither can nor shall restrain
Our strong desire for freedom.

We ask for rights by Nature given,
Sanctioned and ratified by Heaven,
For which our forefathers have striven
On the battlefield and wave;
We wish to make no man our foe,
For all are equal born we know,
And all must surely, surely go
To the republic of the grave.

Benjamin Stott.
The Northern Star, September 24, 1842.
Quoted in An Anthology of Chartist Literature.

Another Chartist Song for the Millions

Song for the Millions (ii)

Beware! ye white slaves of old England, beware!
Your dastard oppressors are fiendish and base;
Their spies are abroad, to betray and ensnare -
To bring you to ruin, to death and disgrace.
They are thirsting for blood, and impatient to spoil
The prospects of freedom which all now enjoy;
They have soldiers to crush you who live by your toil,
Then beware of the infamous traitor and spy!

Be firm and unite, but be cautious in words,
On your prudence depends the success of your cause:
Remember policemen have bludgeons and swords,
And unjust protection from despotic laws.
The press is corrupt, and knaves they can find
Who will perjure their souls, and swear truth is a lie,
Then, producers of wealth, be not wilfully blind,
But beware of the infamous traitor and spy!

'Tis true that your sufferings are grievous and great,
And death, from starvation, you constantly fear;
While a proud, pampered priesthood would teach you to wait
For that comfort in heaven they rob you of here.
'Tis true ye are goaded by insult and wrong,
But justice will come; be united and wise;
The weak shall not ever be slaves to the strong;
Then beware of the tyrants, their traitors, and spies!

Celestial freedom! the birthright of all,
Inert in our bosoms, inhaled by our breath;
Thy spirit abhors both oppression and thrall,
We still live in hope for thee even to death.
Oh! let thy bright presence enliven our land;
The free-born will despots and dungeons despise;
They will purge the fair earth from slavery's brand,
And exterminate tyrants, and traitors, and spies!

Benjamin Stott, Manchester.
The Northern Star, July 2, 1842.
Quoted in An Anthology of Chartist Literature.

Chartist Songs for the Millions

The Charter

Today I had a stroke of luck while browsing in my local secondhand bookshop, which I thought I would share - I found myself a copy of Iu. V. Kovalev's edited collection, An Anthology of Chartist Literature published in Moscow in 1956 (so the Soviet Union did do one thing right that year) going for a mere £2.49. This has been described as 'An anthology of Chartist songs, poems, speeches and essays. The introduction and the notes are in Russian, but the text of the chosen pieces is in English. Ernest Jones is well-represented; Kovalev has collected many hard to find pieces, including stories and a novel. An important resource long out of print.' I intend to share some little gems from it as and when, but the page fell open on Benjamin Stott - a Manchester bookbinder by trade - and his three versions of 'Song for the Millions', the first of which was published in The Northern Star on March 12, 1842 and which I shall reprint for you below. 1842 saw the world's first General Strike - the 'Plug Riots' and Stott was part of this class movement. Chartist songs are what music should be about (imagine some sort of Iron Maiden style riffs underneath as you read the lyrics if you can) - music is for the people - not about rich idiots like Colin Greenwood betraying the anti-war ethic of Radiohead by praising Oliver Kamm's review of Nick Cohen's latest book, or Dave Rowntree from Blur betraying the anti-war activism of Damon Albarn and the musicial genius of Graham Coxon (and possibly the environmental living of Alex James) by standing as a candidate for New Labour. Anyway, check out the Chartists, y'all. Respect.

Song for the Millions

How long will the millions sweat and toil,
To pamper the lordlings' bastard brats;
How long will they till the fruitful soil,
To be starved by the base aristocrats?
How long will they bear the galling yoke,
Ere their bones shall burst, their chains be broke,
And vengeance come down like a thunderstroke?

The spirit of freedom yearns and bleeds,
And liberty lies in patriots graves;
Whilst the monster tyrant's ear unheeds
The suffering wail of weeping slaves;
But shall mankind for ever bear
The stings of woe, and grief, and care,
And live and die in dark despair?

Forbid it heaven, and all the powers
That rule the universal world;
'Twere better that this globe of ours,
'Mid lightning's flashes, swift were hurl'd,
And with it all the human race,
Into the gulf of endless space,
Further than mortal ken can trace.

Bondsmen and slaves in every clime,
Your voices raise in freedom's cause;
Despots, be wise; be wise in time,
Remember it is Nature's laws
That make men equal; and dare ye,
In hellish conclave met, agree
To alter Nature's wise decree?

Vain is your wish, your strong desire
Can never! never! be obtained;
Ye cannot quench fair freedom's fire,
Though ye of blood a deluge rain'd.
Seek in the rolls of lasting fame;
There shall ye find each honour'd name,
Whose memory feeds the sacred flame.

Oh! may that flame burn fierce and bright,
Within the breasts of all mankind;
May knowledge pour a flood of light
From out the intellectual mind;
A light, that shall illume the earth,
Whose genial rays shall soon give birth
To glorious liberty, that boon of worth.

Amandla!

I watched Amandla! ('Power!') (2002) last night for the first time, and I just thought I would quickly recommend it to readers of Histomat as a brilliant introduction to the history of the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. Subtitled 'A Revolution in Four Part Harmony' it is about how music was the lifeblood of the African liberation movement - but it also shows how the music evolved in step with the struggle as it developed. Basically, forget going and seeing racist films like 300 - watch this instead!