Songs about Bordiga

Bordiga's better in writing:

Bordiga wrote: Either we read history as Marxists, or we relapse into scholastic masturbations. . . .

Bordiga wrote: Not a particularly clever trick: One is the material interest that the exploited, who have to overthrow the privatist society, have in common[. T]he other is the personal interest, whose motivation is the incentive to fuck over the class brothers.

Bordiga wrote: He would be joined by the famous anarchist scholar Elisée Reclus, and by the even more famous (total idiot) Gustave Hervé. . . .

Bordiga wrote: These superstitions about “human nature” were ridiculed by Marx a long time ago when he wrote in a short, pithy sentence: Monsieur Proudhon ignores that all history is nothing but a continuous transformation of human nature. Under this massive tombstone can be laid to rest countless throngs of past, present and future anti-Marxist idiots.

I'm curious if the Italian versions are just as vulgar (not that it bothers me) or if the translators took some liberties.

More importantly on the topic of music, did you know that the Beach Boys were doing shoegaze in 1969?!

"All I Wanna Do"

Much better than Brian Wilson's short-lived surf-rap career in the '90s (this is an actual song by Brian—the guy who did Pet Sounds!), which I blame on his manipulative therapist Eugene Landy. A real low point...

We also won't discuss "Student Demonstration Time," which was mostly Mike Love's doing and his answer to the Beatles' bourgeois "Revolution" (i.e. before John Lennon came to his senses, at least temporarily, and started releasing actually good working-class anthems, "Power to the People,"[1] "Working Class Hero," etc.). Love and Bruce Johnston are the more right-wing members of the group, having even endorsed Trump in recent times, whereas Brian, Carl, Dennis, and Al are/were more apolitical or left-leaning. As far as I've read, the rest of the group were actually quite embarrassed by the song. Brian also doesn't even particularly like Love for that matter (e.g. Love sued him in the '90s over song credits) and has repeatedly stated how he can't stand the guy. In any case, the Beach Boys would be nothing without Brian, and the current Love-Johnston group touring around is an imposter.

1. "You say you want a revolution, well we better get it on right away."

I'm also aware that the Beach Boys, including Brian, performed for Reagan in '83. I am thoroughly disgusted by this and will concede that the Beach Boys have always been politically shite.

Bordiga, Beach Boys—same thing! In fact Bordiga sort of looks like Brian's authoritarian father Murry Wilson (whom you can hear Brian telling to piss off in this ultra rare recording during the "Help Me Rhonda" sessions in '65, around the 35:00-39:00 mark):

The Beach Boys original version of "Kokomo" was very different:

Bakunin, Bordiga ooo I wanna read ya
Vaneigem, Polanyi, He wasn't a commie
E.P. Thompson, and Hegel, Good ol' Marx and Engels

I'm Reading
At the library
and free texts on the internet
That's where we'll find our books and get into it all

Looking through the stacks
Some Gurley Flynn or the Frankfurt School?
There's a bio here of Karl Marx written by Otto Ruhle

Left-Commie Anarcho

Goldman, Kropotkin, Baby now we're rockin'
Leys and Pannekoek, Mama don't you know it!
Mike Davis, We'll try ya, and Dunayevskaya

Ooo you can't decide between some Meiksins Wood
or Luxemburg because they're both so good
So much we wanna know

Left-Commie Anarcho

What's that you say? You found some Gilles Dauve
Grab that Grace Lee Boggs
Some Ngo Van and some Frantz Fanon
We'll read this CLR James you almost can't go wrong

Take a walk outside
Talk about all the books we read
We see a flag and recall what Mary Marcy said

Left Commie Anarcho
Guerin and Bookchin, Baby I'm still lookin'
Rosemont and Perlman, now your thoughts are swirlin'
Brinton and Mattick, got you so emphatic

Left-Commie Anarcho

That’s true, Motopu. Many people don’t know this, but “Surfin’ U.S.A” was originally about Bordiga as well. There was actually a brief Bordiga craze in California in the early 1960s, during which time people would dye their hair red (excluding redheads, who are natural communists) before getting together to read Bordiga. However, due to the Cold War the Beach Boys were forced to censor themselves and alter the lyrics to be about something more innocuous like surfing. If you find it peculiar that none of the Beach Boys, with the exception of Dennis, actually knew how to surf, now you know why! While they might not have surfed, they were all quite familiar with the "Fundamentals of Revolutionary Communism" and the "Doctrine of the Body Possessed by the Devil." Here are the original lyrics to “Bordiga U.S.A”:

If everybody was a Bordigist
Across the U.S.A
Then everybody'd be readin'
Like Californ-i-a
You'd see them holdin’ their jourrrRnals
Pen and paper too
A commie commie red hairdo
Bordiga U.S.A

You'd catch 'em readin' at Del Mar
(Inside, outside, U.S.A.)
Ventura County line
(Inside, outside, U.S.A.)
Santa Cruz and Trestles
(Inside, outside, U.S.A.)
Australia's Narrabeen
(Inside, outside, U.S.A.)
All over Manhattan
(Inside, outside, U.S.A.)
And down Doheny Way
(Inside, outside)
Everybody's gone readin'
Bordiga U.S.A

We'll all be planning that reading list
We're gonna read real soon
We're brushin' up on our Italian
We can't wait for June
We'll all be gone for the summer
We're on Bordiga-fari to stay
Tell that teacher we're readin'
Bordiga U.S.A

[note that the following were all popular places where rebellious youths would go to read Bordiga with their red hair]
Haggerties and Swamis
(Inside, outside, U.S.A.)
Pacific Palisades
(Inside, outside, U.S.A.)
San Onofre and Sunset
(Inside, outside, U.S.A.)
Redondo Beach LA
(Inside, outside, U.S.A.)
All over La Jolla
(Inside, outside, U.S.A.)
At Wa'imea Bay
(Inside, outside)
Everybody's gone readin'
Bordiga U.S.A

Everybody's gone readin'
Bordiga U.S.A
Everybody's gone readin'
Bordiga U.S.A
Everybody's gone readin'
Bordiga U.S.A
Everybody's gone readin'
Bordiga U.S.A

Apparently someone just found a rare photo of Young Bordiga:

That was shortly before he became assimilated by the Borg

"We are Borg-diga. You will be assimilated. The original content of the communist program is the obliteration of the individual as an economic subject, rights-holder, and agent of human history. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Resistance is futile."