December 17, 2010
Buy This
Not much time for blogging as I’m busy building a PhD-related website, organising a PhD-related conference, and simultaneously trying to actually do a PhD.
So for now, spend 30 seconds and 79p on Captain Ska’s tune Liar, Liar.
Imagine if this was Christmas number 1 on Sunday. What a poke in the eye that would be for Dave, Little Dave and that square-faced idiot who owns Cheryl Cole.
Get it on iTunes, or from any of these places:
http://www.tescoentertainment.com/store/mp3/captain-ska–…
http://www.shockhound.com/
http://mog.com/hp/b…
http://www.emusic.com/promo/browse.html
http://www.napster.co.uk/
http://www.thumbplay.com/
Proceeds to: Crisis, Disability Alliance, FalseEconomy and Women’s Health Matters.
May 31, 2010
Away (and blog theme)
I’m away in France for two weeks, except zero blogging. Compulsive life-, work- and relationship-destroying blogging and iPhone addiction to resume thereafter.
In the meantime, I’m aware that I’m still supposed to have picked a blog theme tune. Now seems as good a time as any, though I don’t pretend to attain such heights of musical horror as this.
In case you’re interested:
Donald wept through the proceedings.
His tears soaked through the canvas that cloaked his twisted face
And they stained his orange jumpsuit
Where with such rare distinction he once displayed
The evidence of his outstanding contributions to the maintenance of a kingdom come.
But those days are gone.
He’s nothing more than a number on a docket thick
With shareholders, engineers, PR firms, politicians: war-profiteers.
“How the fuck did I end up here?
This just isn’t fair.
Ain’t no place for a millionaire”.
He searches for the words to stop this table in mid-turn,
Like “we are but old men”
And “we only did what we were told”.
But the laughter from the gallery drowns out these vestiges
Of a profession’s oldest defense.
“The court will direct the record to reflect
Compliments from the bench;
You sir, are central casting’s crowning achievement.
And for your outstanding performance in a comedic role,
I’d like to dedicate the findings of the jury to the dead”.
But how can one man ever repay a debt so appalling?
Can’t gouge 10,000 eyes from a single head so I
Think we should observe a sentence that will serve
To satisfy both a sense of function and poetry:
So you will spend the rest
Of your days drenched in sweat,
With your face drawn in a rictus of terror as you remove
Another buried land mine fuse.
Meanwhile, 100 yards back
Behind the sandbags,
A legless foreman pulls the trigger on a red megaphone.
Squelching feedback.
Drunken laughter.
Broken English.
His dead daughter’s picture.
Time and tide,
No one can anticipate the inevitable waves of change.
March 5, 2010
On Springsteen
When I tell people that Bruce Springsteen is one of my favourite artists, the usual reaction is confusion. “How can you listen to that godawful I Love The American Dream redneck crap?” is a common British reaction. For Americans, it’s more often of the form “Sorry, I only listen to good music”.
This can leave me feeling exasperated. Springsteen, after all, is an artist with far more depth and nuance than stereotypes about glorifying American Greatness allow for. One only need think of the bizarre memoirs of a serial killer in Nebraska to get that far. But more than that, Springsteen songs often give voice to the downtrodden, hard-working but never-gonna-make it ordinary people. The working guy who puts in his hours and drinks at the bar with his buddies on Fridays – drinking to forget that it’s the system that screws him over.
Songs like The Ghost of Tom Joad, Downbound Train, The Wrestler or Youngstown capture the desperation of those left behind by capitalist progress. Johnny 99 and Jungleland follow the fates of those pushed into illegality by social and economic systems over which one has no control. Even up-beat songs like Glory Days are laced with overtones of regret and lost opportunity, whilst the inspirational Thunder Road or Born to Run are day-dream fantasies about escaping the monotony of dead-end small town life.
Even Springsteen’s signature song – usually taken as a balls-out statement of unthinking patriotism – holds more than first meets the ear. Born in the USA is, after all, about being born in a “dead man’s town”, sent to Vietnam to avoid prison, and returning to unemployment, marginalisation and “the shadow of the penitentiary”.
I had a brother at Khe Sahn/
Fighting off the Vietcong/
They’re still there, he’s all gone/
He had a woman he loved in Saigon/
I got a picture of him in her arms now/
But then, Springsteen doesn’t exactly have his bad reputation by complete chance. After all, Born in the USA was used by Ronald Reagan as his campaign theme tune – and Springsteen raised no apparent objection. The album cover for Born is hardly an indictment of American failings, and has much more of a rally-round-the-flag feel.
And many Springsteen songs are not political at all. Darlington County, The E Street Shuffle, Radio Nowhere or the divise Outlaw Pete are simple songs to get you tapping your foot and forgetting about the day job.* Because ultimately, Springsteen is a business man.
He’s not afraid to make political points when it suits him – but he’s an entertainer and his main aim is to shift units. Springsteen knows that whilst his songs can hit a political note with those union guys who vote Democratic, the Republican-voting truck drivers can punch the air to Badlands too. After all, you don’t end up doing the Superbowl half-time show if you isolate half of America.
But then, all credit to the man. I imagine there’s not many things that can unite me and an Alabama redneck, but Springsteen is one of them. Maybe that’s why they call him The Boss.
All together now:
The highways jammed with broken heroes on a last chance power drive/
Everybody’s out on the run tonight but there’s no place left to hide/
Together Wendy well live with the sadness/
I’ll love you with all the madness in my soul
(Oh!)/
Someday girl I don’t know when were gonna get to that place/
Where we really want to go and well walk in the sun/
But till then tramps like us baby we were born to run/
Fade out with the Sax…
–
* Not that I have one. But you get my point.
–
Pointless trivia: Acording to Chris Brooke, the Oxford University Politics, Philosophy and Economics admissions exam once asked:
‘ “Is a dream a lie, if it don’t come true, or is it something else?” [SPRINGSTEEN]. Discuss.’
Priceless.
