![]() But there is no mistaking the animosity in Bill Ward’s apocalyptic hoofbeats, or Tony Iommi’s acidulated guitar. Ripe with rot and rich with musical detail, this seminal outpouring of pacifism noir brought Birmingham’s infamous hippie-haters intriguingly close to their flower-powered, anti-Vietnam war peers. Long before Ozzy became a clown and heavy metal a joke, Black Sabbath’s War Pigs was like a Hieronymous Bosch painting come to life. The screeching, unsettling production was Lennon’s riposte to his fellow Beatles’ refusal to release Revolution 1 as a single. Lennon’s honest confusion drew much flak from those who wanted him to be a political figurehead. On the slower, quieter version (Revolution 1) on the White Album, the line is “count me in”. On this wild, distorted B-side to Hey Jude, John Lennon insisted that, if 1968’s revolutionaries wanted destruction, they could “count me out”. (Just don’t believe that the walrus really was Paul.) CLS But this masterpiece saw him vent his spleen on establishment culture writ large, and few bands ever sounded quite so menacingly psychedelic. With its “semolina pilchard climbing up the Eiffel Tower”, this anguished howl is easily dismissed as a piece of nonsense – and was written by John Lennon as a riposte to the news that a teacher at his old school was now analysing the Beatles’ lyrics in class. Released just 12 months after Thatcher came to power, the Brummie ska outfit had already seen straight through the new regime: “I see no chance of your bright new tomorrow/ Our lives seem petty in your cold grey hands.” GT ![]() CLSĪ highlight of the Beat’s debut album, I Just Can’t Stop It, this unambivalent demand feels like a brash cousin of Ghost Town, the Specials’ more complex, downbeat song of social protest. It’s not the most widely feted Motown single, but it remains one of the most inspirational. “I feeeeeeeel good! I feeeeeeeel good!” sang Bean, his gospel roots never more in evidence. ![]() “Say it loud,” the lyrics might have read, “I’m out and I’m proud.” This disco stormer, the genre’s first gay anthem, was given its definitive treatment in this cover of Valentino’s 1975 original. And now that we’re all hip to global warming, how nuts do the lines “But now my branches suffer/ And my leaves don’t offer/ Poetry to men of song” sound exactly? CLS But this number, from the album Surf’s Up, co-written and sung by Jack Rieley, made up in anguished sentiment what it risked in eccentricity. CIīy this point in his career, it was said of Brian Wilson that he was crazy. Part inspired by Hyam Maccoby’s book Revolution in Judaea, Rosselson’s detailed contention that Judas was a heroic political revolutionary subverting the Roman occupation while Jesus was effectively a passive collaborator comes with a blinding chorus fully utilised by Bailey’s impassioned delivery. Leon Rosselson has been Britain’s most consistently savage and articulate political songwriter for four decades, but none of his songs have put as many noses out of joint as this epic, rip-roaring deconstruction of popular Christian perception of the Gospels. Listen to this 1929 performance of a Fats Waller number, on which he sings “I’m white inside but that don’t help my case,” and “My only sin is in my skin.” Little wonder that the protagonist of Ralph Ellison’s classic novel Invisible Man dreamt of listening to five versions of the song simultaneously. KEįriend to the world he might have been, but Pops didn’t hide behind that smile. Conclusion? With enough instruments, we might just make it. But even with Armageddon nigh, Windowsill feels like a victory, as voices and brass mass to a climax. On Windowsill, Win Butler turns refusenik, driving salesmen from his door, repudiating consumerism and watching the flood waters rise. That unique, soulful voice sounds utterly bereft, as it waves us a resigned goodbye: “I’ll miss the things that grow/ I’m gonna miss you all.” GMĪrcade Fire’s second album, Neon Bible, was full of bad vibrations. This lead track from last year’s EP and highlight of new album The Crying Light is a plea for escape from a world “nearly gone” through war and ecological disaster. There’s perhaps no other current artist who could pull off an apocalyptic lament that sounds like a gentle hymn. When the bar Nic Offer was working at fell victim to Giuliani’s clampdown, the !!! frontman was driven to write this nine-minute punk-funk epic, which attempts to start a dancefloor insurrection. Rudolph Giuliani’s tenure as mayor saw New York nightlife all but stamped out his taskforce would close down venues without a dance licence if people so much as tapped their foot. Me and Giuliani Down By the Schoolyard (A True Story) The Blue Mink song mentioned above is Melting Pot, not Melting Point. This table was amended on Monday March 23 2009.
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