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The Divine Cheese Guide To Rock: Part Three - RevolutionMar 26 '07 Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line Not listed: Ocean Colour Scene's Profit In Peace. I hope for obvious reasons. Another selection of recommended listening for you all.
The primary aim of rock ‘n’ roll, if it had a manifesto, was rebellion. Initially it was just a tool to upset your mother and father with lewd suggestions of firey balls or wanting to hold someone’s hand, but as it took off groups like MC5 (Who don’t feature in this instalment, before someone points out that Kick Out The Jams isn’t on here) started to use it to provoke a riot and music became a means of sticking it to the man. Louie Louie, gained a certain notoriety as being subversive and the CIA were convinced it was a communist code, despite the fact that the words make no sense and no-one can agree who wrote it in the first place (I hear it was the Wailers, but do correct me). As rock pioneers it’s unsurprising the Beatles eventually became politicised and the buzz-saw Revolution is a solid precursor to punk, as were the Stooges who released Raw Power in 1973, influenced by the American presence in Vietnam. Search And Destroy, the opener to that album, is a typically feral example of the Stooges in action with vivid lyrical references to napalm and nukes with a predatory riff to boot. 31} Helter Skelter - The Beatles From the album, The Beatles (The White Album) Probably rock ‘n’ roll’s most subversive influence is its ability to simply create an utter racket, and this is the scuffed pearl on the Beatles’ rambling, superlative self-titled White Album. Paul MacCartney was usually the less pioneering member of the Beatles, so it comes as quite a shock to hear him belt out this proto-Thrash metal track that gained the notorious admiration of Charles Manson, who claimed they were instructing him to kill people. Many bands have attempted to cover it, but none match the sheer goofy joy of this original attempt to make the biggest racket imaginable. “I’ve got blisters on my fingers!” squawks an unidentified voice as the song dissolves into a screed of detuned instruments. The art of noise has greatly increased and diversified since Helter Skelter and the countless 60s garage rock bands that thrashed away at Louie Louie. Noise went Scottish and free-associating in the form of Idlewild, whose Little Discourage is a perfect example of how to make an intellectual racket. It’s gone spacey and weird like on Planet Of Sound, the Pixies’ hit about a mysterious and distant world over a throbbing bass lick and pounding riff which owes a lot to their acolytes such as Nirvana. Even Radiohead have been known to truly rock out, and they don’t come much rockier than Just a grungy, pithy attack on self-loathing (Ironic) complete with the ferociously played virtuoso guitar of Johnny Greenwood. He had to wear a wrist guard because he played so furiously. And more recently a whole raft of garage rock throwback acts have appeared, foremost amongst which are artsy New Yorkers Yeah Yeah Yeah’s whose love of PJ Harvey-style blues and a bloody racket has spawned such sweaty, screaming hits as Date With The Night. 32} Sabotage - Beastie Boys From the album, Ill Communication More known for witty Jewish hip-hop, the Beastie Boys take their cues from a diverse range of New York artists including the inhabitants of the CBGBs club. Fusing this love of punchy garage rock to their verbose hip-hop produced one of their defining moments, a three minute thrashing rap-rock hybrid of colossal ire. I have no idea if Sabotage is actually about anything, but the rage that goes into Adam Yauch’s voice as he spits out the half rhymed, half screamed lyrics is tangible: “I feel disgraced because you’re all in my face.” Whatever the message of the song it’s original and addictive and one of the angriest moments ever put down on record. 33} Black Math - White Stripes From the album, Elephant Black Math, if it had been written by a British band, could be considered to be a critique of our education system: “Listen teacher let me ask you a question / Is it the fingers or the brain you’re teaching the lesson?” This being the White Stripes, it’s probably just about Jack White not being able to do Maths, and that seems more than likely seeing as Americans are notoriously bad at the subject. It’s a full on blues-rawk thrash which manages to be about the heaviest thing the White Stripes put out: Meg White beats the drums within an inch of their lives while Jack screams out his tirade over some growling guitar lines. It just goes to prove that you don’t need a bass to rock like an animal. Of course the 90s, and especially grunge, was the hey-day of anger, but there were many more people out there peddling anger that wasn’t just aimed at one’s parents. Manic Street Preachers were Wales’ finest purveyors of quality anger, but sadly Judge Y’rself, written for the Judge Dredd soundtrack, wasn’t released until after the millennium. It’s a thrashing, militaristic punk track which would certainly have been the best thing about the film. And then we move on to the fury of a woman scorned… 34} Violet - Hole From the album, Live Through This Courtney Love had a lot to be upset about in 1995. Her husband had taken his own life and many people suggested that her band, Hole, were only successful because she was Mrs Cobain, but they stood up in their own right as one of the best rock bands of their era. Violet, from 1995’s Live Through This, was their angriest moment: a tirade against the male one-track mind, with her banshee wail at full power, this cathartic piece of almost oriental sounding noise succeeds in being the feminist anthem. In some ways it could be therapy for the anger she inevitably felt at the death of Kurt Cobain, but it’s something everyone can relate to: “They get what they want, then they never want it again.” The guitars are scorching and there’s something about this track that makes it feel like being hit in the face with a jackhammer just listening to it. 35} 50ft Queenie - PJ Harvey From the album, Rid of Me One might argue that the punky blues rock of early PJ Harvey has more artistic merit than Courtney Love’s wailing, and nowhere was Polly Jean more p*ssed off than on this country-blues-punk monster produced by legendary noisenik Steve Albini. It has everything fans of either Harvey or Albini could possibly ask for: there’s layer on layer of noise, pounding drums and raunchy blues licks, not to mention Harvey’s spirited snarlings about the titular huge woman. What a 50 foot Queenie is I’m not sure, but I think it might be something to do with clitorises. Sometimes anger becomes a bit more focussed and you end up with issues songs. Moldy Peaches didn’t really time NYC’s Like A Graveyard too well; a fuzzy and foul-mouthed onslaught against corporate types in their New York home turf. REM generally take a slightly more laid-back approach to their bile - Exhuming MacCarthy is their stomping ode to the witch-hunting senator in a flurry of trumpets, jazz sensibilities and, of course, jangling guitars. And finally, that most famous of issues bands, The Clash, proved that sometimes it can be the strangest things that get your goat. Joe Strummer penned I’m So Bored of with USA not as a protest against US foreign policy but because he got fed up with American cop shows constantly being on TV while he was unemployed. I hate Diagnosis Murder too. 36} You Just Have To Be Who You Are - Idlewild From the album, Captain Paranoia and neuroses make good subjects for rock music and this little known Idlewild track from their debut mini-album is the perfect example of their earlier, angrier, more aggressive incarnation. The influences on this song are many and varied - there’s a hint of Michael Stipe or Patti Smith over Roddy Woomble’s free-associated lyrics while the music is pure grunge throwback with a low-key morose verse followed by a rush of a chorus. The juxtaposition of the verse and chorus means that this song, again, hits you like a tonne of bricks when it kicks in and as it progresses to its conclusion the noise and madness build into a screed of sound before melting away again into a simmering coda. 37} Faster - Manic Street Preachers From the album, The Holy Bible This song could have coined the phrase, “Does exactly what it says on the tin,” because it is quite literally the fastest thing on The Holy Bible; a tirade of neurotic over-confidence that moves along at such a pace it leaves you breathless. The Manics are the masters of writing exceptionally angry music and Faster is the prime example of early Manics rage: underpinning the whole thing are Sean Moore’s militarily precise snare drums and James Dean Bradfield’s spiky staccato guitar chords that are slashed on off-kilter giving the whole thing a slightly wonky Russian feel. This was also Richey Edwards at his poetic and most vulnerable best: “Life is for the cold made warm and they are just lizards.” James spits the words out like venom. 38} Aneurysm - Nirvana From the album, Incesticide Of all the medical conditions and catastrophes that hypochondriacs most fear, the Berry Aneurysm would have to be king - an explosion of blood vessels in the arteries that feed the brain. They’re sudden, very fast and often totally unexpected and usually lethal. Bill Berry famously survived an aneurysm onstage with REM, and he subsequently quit to retire as a farmer. Aneurysm the song is anything but sudden - a taut record with muscular drumming, screeching guitars and Kurt Cobain’s guttural half-chant of, “Bleed bleed out of me.” It’s the bridging gap between their wilfully unlistenable Bleach record and Nirvana’s pop frills and provides a slap in the face that could probably induce aneurysm if played at a high enough volume. 39} Spin The Black Circle - Pearl Jam From the album, Vitalogy Often regarded as the slightly less exciting face of grunge, Pearl Jam still knew how to make thrashing punk music as on this explosive track from their Vitalogy album, even if it is a rip-off of an earlier Husker Du track (Which I was made aware of after this list was finalised sadly). I’ve a feeling it’s about heroin: it certainly mentions needles, but musically its more like raw amphetamine: breakneck velocity and drums that pound like a headache after too many nights E’d off your head round Shaun Ryder’s house. Just a shame those circular buzz-saw riffs are snitched from somewhere else. 40} Tame - The Pixies From the album, Doolittle Of course grunge wouldn’t have existed if it hadn’t been for the Pixies and their skill at the spiky, tight two minute thrash - Doolittle’s Tame is a prime example of how the Pixies pioneered the sound that was to become grunge. The verses are almost whispered lasciviously as Kim Deal plays a typically driving bassline and the guitars are noticeable only by their absence. But when the chorus hits it comes like a hurricane as Black Francis howls “Tame!” over a wall of guitar noise. This dynamic of soft verses and pile-driving choruses inspired Kurt Cobain but has never really been matched by any other band for its raw animal aggression and visceral thrill as Francis’ howl becomes like some kind of wild predatory beast over the end of the song. Of course as an actual tool for rebellion you have to write a song that’s actually rebellious, and save for a few 60s bands, it wasn’t until the advent of punk that rock music became a political force. The Sex Pistols Anarchy In The UK stirred up revolt amongst the down and out working classes across the whole of Britain in the Queen’s Jubilee year. It’s a simple, snotty barn-storming terrace chant and proved that anyone could make music, but sadly the Pistols were merely Malcolm MacClaren’s tool and so it was up to the Clash to be the band that really mattered. Safe European Home from the Give ‘Em Enough Rope album is a particular favourite of mine, with similar fist waving chant-ability to the Sex Pistols, although Strummer himself was actually a fairly privileged middle-class boy. However it was on Guns of Brixton that they really started to be vital - the Clash were one of the first rock bands to fuse dub and reggae with punk and pioneered the sort of ska rock that would one day make Reel Big Fish so daft. Guns of Brixton charts the race riots that were happening in the notorious London borough at the time, but its edginess and the ska-influenced guitars mean that it hasn’t really dated and still sounds rabble-rousing and dangerous even now. Once punk had politicised rock the floodgates were opened in the eighties and many groups set out to put the world to right. U2 were particularly out-spoken, putting out Sunday Bloody Sunday, the regimented calling card of their War album, a song about the massacre of peace protestors in Northen Ireland by British troops. REM always denied that Orange Crush was in any way a critique of US foreign policy but seeing as it’s about the defoliant Agent Orange, dropped in huge quantities by the Americans in the Vietnam war and still directly responsible for health problems in the region, I doubt they’d be in favour of it. Again, military drums give the song its backbone with Stipe delivering the reminiscences of a US Grunt over sparse guitars and helicopter sounds. Bobby Gillespie of Primal Scream made no bones about the fact that he was attacking the US and specifically Madeliene Albright on Swastika Eyes a thundering, menacing fusion of punk aggression and dance sensibilities that pounds its way into your head in a flurry of doom-laden images. Of course early in their lifetime the Manics mainly wrote about issues: the b-side Democracy Coma is their assault on the US, set to a scorching punk beat which owes a heavy debt to Guns ‘n’ Roses. And if you Americans are worried this is all a little Ameriphobic then Repeat took its lead from the Public Enemy sample at the start and went into a scorching attack on the British monarchy, comparing our Queen (God bless ‘er) to Pol Pot. Never knowingly outspoken. 41} Kill All Hippies - Primal Scream From the album, Xtrmntr No-one would have believed that past-it Dance/Indie types Primal Scream actually still had it in them, but in 2000 they returned in a way that was almost unimaginable with the ferocious polemic of their Xtrmntr album. It kicks off with this slinky, groovy track that makes you not only want to dance but also to stick it to the man in one wonderful sinuous piece of dance-rock. Bobby Gillespie’s falsetto is the most surprising thing about this simple anti-capitalist message: “You’ve got the money, I’ve got the soul,” as the drums pound away like something the Chemical Brothers rejected for being too hip-shakingly funky. If the revolution is going to be this easy to dance to then count me in. In it’s infancy hip-hop was far more about fighting injustice than fighting rival rappers, and most of the classic 80’s East Coast rap was fired up with righteous indignation. Sound Of Da Police by KRS One was especially enraged with his whooping aping police cars and the lyrics listing all the ways that black people still feel like slaves. If metal’s more your bucket then Rage Against The Machine famously melded rap and metal together to make one of the most incendiary sounds to come out of 90’s America. Killing In The Name Of was their most celebrated hit, but for me it was the opener Bombtrack from their classic self-titled debut that really sets the bar, successfully welding De La Rocha’s snarling raps to metal beats and roaring guitars. And the chorus of, “Burn, burn / Yes you’re going to burn,” was a fired-up statement of intent. The special hip-hop place in my heart would have to go to Public Enemy though, the literate, intelligent, highly p*ssed off icons of rap. Black Steel In The Hour of Chaos is one of their angriest moments: the samples are edgy and nerve-jangling while Chuck D’s tale of going to prison for refusing draft may be fictional but are fired by pure rage. On their follow-up, among the many and various targets perhaps the most deserved was Hollywood on Burn Hollywood Burn, an attack on the exploitation and depiction of black people in film and the representation of black film makers. I always find it slightly amusing as it features Chuck and Flav going to the movies with Ice Cube and walk out of Driving Miss Daisy. At least Morgan Freeman gets to be the president these days, and narrate the antics of penguins to boot! 42} Rebel Without A Pause - Public Enemy From the album, It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back In my opinion their defining moment was at the end of It Takes A Nation of Millions… this poison pen letter to the radio stations that refused to play Public Enemy. There’s something incredibly jarring about this track - it’s been designed to be as grating as possible with a screeching James Brown sample over which Chuck D outlines his right to freedom of speech and Flavor Flav sticks his jester oar in. Add in the scratching of Terminator X over the break and you get a revolution with some serious groove: bring the beat back? Hell yeah! 43} Free Satpal Ram - Asian Dub Foundation From the album, Rafi’s Revenge Songs have been used to soundtrack many things: films, advertisements, sports fixtures, but this song has to take the biscuit as the first song to have soundtracked a political campaign. Some of you may now be thinking of things like Live Aid, but the Bob Geldoff Ego Fund doesn’t count. Satpal Ram was an Asian man who’d recently arrived in the UK when he accidentally killed a man in self defence - his cause was taken up by a stellar range of politically minded stars including Bobby Gillespie of Primal Scream and Asian Dub Foundation. The latter penned this acerbic collision between Bhangra, punk and hip-hop to create a song that was dynamite. Note that I’m listing the album version rather than the single with the speech about the Satpal Ram case. Oh, and I just remembered the Special’s Free Nelson Mandela. Ho hum. ADF spent most of their musical career ranting about politics; Naxalite was their call to arms and sounded like The Clash jamming on a Bollywood Movie - the tale of the Naxalite communist guerilla movement in Bengal, it’s a great cultural fusion. Of course revolution doesn’t necessarily have to be noisy, it can be quite restrained. Suede were more famed for ambiguous sexuality, but on The Power they flirted with ambiguous politics as well - it’s a protest song about something, but quite what I don’t really know. It’s all acoustic guitars, yearning strings and altogether quite a stirring little song. If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next was the Manics protesting post-Richey, this time penning an atmospheric and melancholy ode to the Spanish Civil War. U2 meanwhile, spent most The Unforgettable Fire singing about Martin Luther King, and on MLK they bought an atmospheric and fierce beauty to their gospel ode to the activist. And more recently Gorillaz put a skewed take on the issues of gun culture on Kids With Guns one of their superlative second album’s high points. Damon Albarn’s ethereal and permanently stoned vocals are the perfect accompaniment to the edgy bass and hazy beats. 44} Cocaine Socialism - Pulp From the single, A Little Soul Pulp can safely lay claim to being one of the first groups to slam the British New Labour Government on this b-side from 1998 which borrows heavily from their Britpop hey-day: it’s like the natural progression from Common People. This is exactly what you’d expect a political Pulp song to sound like - a*se-shaking trumpets, a great melody and a lot of sordidness. Jarvis Cocker declined to visit Downing Street when the Labour Party were elected to power and on this track they detail the reasons why, referencing their earlier material which was seen as part of the new order that Labour represented (Common People and Mis-shapes are both mentioned). Cocker took a stand and refused to put his endorsement on the party and this protest track was swiftly followed by others from equally incensed bands who felt that Labour had sold out. Chumbawumba (Actually pre-Cocaine Socialism admittedly) did a viperous version of Tubthumping at the Brits before tipping water over John Prescott (Poor old Two Jags / Shags, he always gets it in the neck) and The Manics released Socialist Serenade as a b-side following much the same theme as Cocaine Socialism. Of course what we really want from our artists is naked agression and I’d like to list five more of my favourites, starting with PJ Harvey’s Snake, possibly one of the loudest expressions of rage ever put to record. It deals with the events in the Garden of Eden which led to Eve eating the forbidden fruit and women thereafter being oppressed - Harvey taking the role of Eve rebuking Adam. Kasabian might be quite a poppy group and hark back to the lolloping beats of the early 90s, but they also owe a debt to Primal Scream’s heavy beats and the Cooper Temple Clause’s love of the perverse and obsessive. Club Foot is a brilliant rush of a song with a beat that feels like a blow to the stomach every time it kicks in and its dance sensibilities are firmly attached to its sleeve as is its unbridled anger. No rebellion could be complete without great hair-do’s and At The Drive-In had some of the best ever sculpted by man, and were so noisy and angry that they managed to get Iggy Pop to come round and scream over Rolodex Propaganda. Goodness only knows what it’s about though. And Eminem, the white trash face of raging hip-hop, made anger into a positive force on Lose Yourself as he advised the Kids to seize the day. Shame 8 Mile was a load of old cr*p. 45} Bullet With Butterfly Wings - Smashing Pumpkins From the album, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness But if it’s a definitive slice of raging rock music that you’re looking for you really would have to go with this dour Smashing Pumpkins classic. “Despite all my rage I’m still just a rat in a cage,” is its famous refrain, but that’s not to forget the visceral, feral energy of this song which is like every bit of pent up teenage frustration being released in one long cathartic burst (Now I look at it, that sounds like something else…). At the end of the day this is basically a song about your parents not understanding you, but it hits every single button possible: quiet, simmering anger on the verses, buzz saw guitars, explosive chorus, thermonuclear bridge section, it’s all here. And ironically Billy Corgan sounds like a rat when he sings.  |
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