Over the sunniest of sunny Easter weekends I mused on the Nova/iTunes Hottest (selling) 200 of all time (Australian only version) and the Plan B single “Ill Manors” (which isn’t selling as much as it should). I had to ask whether Jesus had really come down and died in order to provide us with an extra day off to be taunted with more Chris Brown (or most of the rest of Nova’s content really).

Suddenly there seemed a great and important distance between the largely inoffensive (well that’s a matter of opinion) froth produced by the likes of Mr. Brown (Chris not James), Reece Mastin, Rihanna, and Guy Sebastian and the angry politicised shout of CHAV (Council House And Violent) that Ben Drew is putting in our apathetic faces. “Oi, I said Oi”

And as I thought about it I thought about a time when pop music mattered and was allowed to be an angry scream of protest. To make me feel old it was a time when I grew up. Of Pistols, Clash and Subs with a touch of Exploited, discharge and Crass. But those were just the stormtroopers of shock (Gary Gilmore’s Eyes anyone?) And of course it wasn’t just Punk rock.

Music was literate, politicised and important. Even “pop” groups were thinkers. Scritti Politti went from squat based anarchists to dialectical theoreticians within one album. Their “Word Girl” teased us with elliptical reference to hitherto (frankly) boring philosophers like Wittgenstein and Foucault, and their wonderful first album “Songs To Remember” included a catchy tribute to French incomprehensible word theoretician and deconstructionist Jacques Derrida.

See the dull original HERE, having nothing to say about love. And the catchy tribute HERE.

Whilst at the same time Tom Tom Club played with meanings on the bizarrely wonderful “Wordy Rappinghood”

There was no way this (or Talking Heads) was stupid or dumbed down pop. This was intellectual intercourse at a high level. Even the obvious chart groups were erudite, wordy and wise and groups like Heaven 17, Human League, Soft cell and Pet Shop Boys turned an acerbic eye on Thatchers new Britain. Smash Hits was a political statement of its own bizarre kind (the politics of dancing! Screamed from the cover as if going out was a manning of the barricades) And as for the Face … Positively situationist darling!! (let’s hope someone asks Justin Bieber about that in his next interview – cant wait for his insights on Selena Gomez and cultural imperialism).

To put this into a Nova world is to put fresh meaning to the immortal line from A Fish Called Wanda - “No Otto, you are wrong. It’s not just that apes don’t read philosophy, they just don’t understand it”

And then there was Two Tone (yes, the Specials were here last week and all the crowd did have Ben Shermans and Harringtons, tartan lined of course. Scarily my first Harrington was a dearly loved blood red M and now I sport a green XXL. Looking at the audience this would have been a common theme), with its knowing integration of blue beat riddims and lefty politics. God at the time how I loved my Beat “Stand Down Margaret” t-shirt -

and yet they (along with UB40, named after the unemployment form) were regulars in the top 10. Both drew freely from the “sufferah protests” of Reggae which was far cooler than just a reason to smoke the ‘erb, and party with Sean Paul and the Trini possee. Every decent bedsit had a bit of Marley and some Johnny Osbourne “Truth and Rights” or Steel Pulse “Ku Klux Klan”.

Every bedsit also had a fair selection oft acoustic folksingers (Dylan and the sons of …). We had yet to reach the stage where the tuneful but blandish platitudes of Nick Drake had outstripped the angry words of Dylan and Harper, and whilst punk largely abolished all this whining Billy Bragg was there to uphold the one man band tradition and sing about “The New England” whilst cleverly cross referencing our revolutionary tradition with a cover of Leon Rosselon’s “The World Turned Upside Down”. Its a reference to eccentric post civil war agrarian protesters the Diggers - not much matched in the Nova iTunes Pitbull parade.

And as for the funkateers and black music …. If at first sight the mainstream sounds of Maze and “Treat Her Like A Lady” seemed like Cortina culture, as the rare groove party raged the sound systems of Soul II Soul quickly taught us all about a radical black past and that the Temptations had some other thoughts on their mind.

 

Even if they did wear pink suits with wide lapels. Psychedelic funk and the wah wah guitar was just a step away from the acid house party which grew ever closer (“Standing on the Verge of getting It on” in a way) and the rediscovery of Curtis Mayfield, The Last Poets and Funkadelic made damn sure we had to look this in the eye and couldn’t ignore the world outside:

There were songs of protest from other countries (sure every student had a reggae album, but lots had Fela Kuti too), about other countries (who didn’t have Biko by Peter Gabriel),  and of course songs for every type of “rights”. From Gay Rights to feminism Rock Music provided a voice. Rock music soundtracked our solidarity for our brothers the Miners, and we all joined Paul Weller’s marriage of Motown and Politics the “Red Wedge” in the hope it could stop this:

Needless to say it stopped neither this, or the closure of the pits. The UK hasn’t looked back since but at least we are (largely) spared The Style Council. They (oddly)never made it to recurrent on either Nova or 2day FM.

And even when it all seemed over and punk was gone there was a time when hip hop was suddenly the “Black CNN” and asked important questions like “Say kids do you know what time It Is?”. A far cry from the rigorous questions of today like “say kids do you know how much I paid for my stripper pole”. A time when “the Message” was more important than “Don’t push me ‘cos I’m close to the end of my bottle of Cristal”. Yes,there was a time when revolution was the new Bling! And a very threatening Public Enemy (and their minister of information the anti semitic Professor Griff) screamed the message of the Panthers back across our radio airwaves as they scored the fist in the air soundtrack to various militant Spike Lee “joints”. “Do the Right Thing” indeed.

Anyway, enough nostalgia. if you decide ever that too much Flo is just too much going with the flow, or that the One Direction need not be completely banal, you might enjoy a little dip into this:

It’s a history of protest music by Dorian Lynskey, a UK music journalist. From Billie Holiday through Dylan, Nina Simone through Fela Kuti, The Clash through Max Romeo, Crosby Stills and Nash to Billy Bragg. Its about a time when Rock Music meant something and was a voice against “the man”. When people thought beats could change the world, and when this turned back tanks:

A time when music mattered. Ben Drew comes from a tradition you know. And you can ask for more.


Here’s 11 songs to eat yourself angrier on even the sunniest day:

(We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thing - Heaven 17

Vietnam - Jimmy Cliff

Sam Stone - Johnny Cash

Wake Up - Brand Nubian

Nuclear War - Sun Ra

The Eton Rifles - The Jam

Wake Up Everybody - Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes

No Sell Out - Malcolm X & Keith LeBlanc

Beds Are Burning - Midnight Oil (even Aussies get angry!)

Armalite Rifle - Gang Of Four

Rock The Casbah - Rachid Taha, Mick Jones & Brian Eno