Any suggestions? Im thinking not just in english but music from around the world. From what I have seen most anarchist music/bands seems to be punk but im sure there is loadsa others which I am not aware of.
If your on about music which identifies as anarchist, then I am semi inclinned to agree with Refused - way too much bent towards a sub culture, which reinforces the issue of identity politics. But if were on about music which challenges society aesthetically or gives out a meaningful message then I think theres plenty of meaningful stuff to consider. Im a little perplexed why 'anarchist music' is obessed with message, when probably theres more to gleam from a Smith song than say a Crass one.
I actually thought one or two from Django's 2008 list were worth listening to despite my nazi like inclinnation towards hardcore music.
Ignore all previous and future posts, they are wrong. I actually like some Spanish anarchist punk bands, but I dislike almost all english language punk. If you can find the Recopilatorio CNT-AIT album on soulseek, it is pretty good.
Anyway old anarchist songs like Le Triomphe de l'Anarchie, A Las Barricadas and Canto dei Malfattori are all good.
El Cabrero
Chico Sanchez Ferlosio
Leo Ferre
JOSE DE MOLINA
Not anarchist with a capital 'A', but I think Rembetika music from Greece was pretty anti-establishment/subcultural - celebrating the dissolute lifestyle of the 'Mangas' (or am I getting mixed up with comics?) of the Piraeus area of Athens in the '30s, '40s and '50s. Rembetika was the music of the Hellenic speakers of Asia Minor, expelled from Turkey in 1922, with oriental influences and bringing with them the bouzouki - it became known as 'the Greek blues', and was rediscovered by young anarchists in the late 1960s. Worth checking out is stuff by someone surnamed Janitsaris or Gennitsaris (both are googleable, I'm sure), who had his bouzouki smashed by police and was imprisoned on an island by a right-wing regime in the '30s for smoking dope and being a rembete - he featured on a BBC 2 documentary about 15 or so years ago (on You Tube, I think - just enter 'Rembetika').
Any suggestions? Im thinking not just in english but music from around the world. From what I have seen most anarchist music/bands seems to be punk but im sure there is loadsa others which I am not aware of.
I suppose the most obvious non-english langauge anarchist band would be Sin Dios
http://www.sindios.net
their best song being http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyGizgIUNJk
Political music can be a bit hit and miss, can;t think of that many bands outside punk and its sub-genres who self identify as anarchist. Chumbawamba and The Levellers count i guess but thats not exaclty a heartneing example. I guess its like other posters have said, poitical music can be good but banging on about ''the message'' doesn;t neceasrily mean you really relate to people or life. .
Mind you its nice to see really overtly political bands do well sometimes, like early manics or ratm. It'd be worth it just so we can get more videos like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyjmCg_VMU0
Any suggestions? Im thinking not just in english but music from around the world. From what I have seen most anarchist music/bands seems to be punk but im sure there is loadsa others which I am not aware of.
I suppose the most obvious non-english langauge anarchist band would be Sin Dios
http://www.sindios.net
their best song being http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyGizgIUNJk
Political music can be a bit hit and miss, can;t think of that many bands outside punk and its sub-genres who self identify as anarchist. Chumbawamba and The Levellers count i guess but thats not exaclty a heartneing example. I guess its like other posters have said, poitical music can be good but banging on about ''the message'' doesn;t neceasrily mean you really relate to people or life. .
Mind you its nice to see really overtly political bands do well sometimes, like early manics or ratm. It'd be worth it just so we can get more videos like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyjmCg_VMU0
Early manics stuff is great. Cheers for the sin dios link, heard that song b4 so trying to download a torrent.
~Punk/Hardcore~
King Prawn, Brigada Flores Magon, Sin Dios, Limp Wrist, Los Crudos, Discharge, Randy, Mano Negra, Morning Again, Strike Anywhere, R.A.M.B.O.,
~Hip-Hop/Reggae/Dub~
Asian Dub Foundation, Sabac, Immortal Technique, Dead Prez, Blue Scholars, Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip, Public Enemy, Ozomatli, Linton Kwesi Johnson,
~Rock/Metal~
Rage Against the Machine, Warsawpack, Kinesis, Desaparecidos, Manic Street Preachers, S.O.A.D., Napalm Death, One Minute Silence
Check out Norman Nawrocki at http://www.nothingness.org/music/rhythm/en/html/news.html for a most versatile performer. Also it's well worth a scroll down the page and watch a clip of his play Cazzarola.
This is the direction in which this thread should be going imo (not that I have anything against punk/Crass/etc). I would add Georges Brassens. (esp. songs like "Mauvaise Reputation" and "Pauvre Martin").
An equivalent in English would be Utah Phillips.
(shouldn't this be in the Culture section where more people can see it?)
Check out Norman Nawrocki
Yes, do check him out.
Also, he has a one-man play about the life of Gino Lucetti, an anarchist who tried to assassinate Mussolini (and I think it's available on youtube).
As far as anarchist hip-hop goes, I'd have to mention Comrade Malone (www.myspace.com/comrademalone - there's also an interview with him on libcom).. I also recently found this guy Mentenguerra (http://www.myspace.com/mentenguerra), he's alright, some really good beats and apparently an anarchist (though I haven't got a clue what he's saying)...
Surely the English equivalent of Brassens would be Jake Thackery, not really an anarchist more an erudite francophile rebel with a total disdain for athority.
A very good set of anarchist songs IMO is the 1926 Committee's "More of the Same". THey used to have these tapesat 56A, but you can tell how old it is by its format.
Surely the English equivalent of Brassens would be Jake Thackery, not really an anarchist more an erudite francophile rebel with a total disdain for athority.
I've not heard of this Thackery guy. Anything to recommend in particular?
I've not heard of this Thackery guy. Anything to recommend in particular?
I think the name's Thackray. He used to have a spot on the forerunner of That's Life, and his best known song is Sister Josephine, about an escaped convict hiding out in a nunnery. There was a very good documentary about him recently on BBC2 or BBC4. He was bracketed as 'folk', but actually based his style and content on socially-conscious French chanson. Very interesting character, his extreme shyness led him to withdraw from the public musical career, and he died a few years ago in relative obscurity. A genius.
Yes, do check him out.
Also, he has a one-man play about the life of Gino Lucetti, an anarchist who tried to assassinate Mussolini (and I think it's available on youtube).
Yes that's the same play I was referring to, there's a good clip on his site
there is a record lable from Poland releasing anarchist songs on CDs- http://www.czsz.bzzz.net/czarny/contact (online contact form) they have CD called Freedom or Death with lots of Russian and Ukrainian anarchist songs about Machno, Anti-fascism , anarchism etc.. (they were working on English translation of lyrics but not sure if its finished), they also have CDs of anarcho-feminist choir from Sweden, Spanish Anarchist Songs and Italian Anarchist Songs.
I also have great compilation of anarchist songs in Spanish called Notas De Libertad released by Liberario paper from Venezuela but short of writing to them directly fuck knows where can you get it thse days.
Punk band called Rene Biname from Belgium made cd called 1887- 1936 if i rememebr properly, where they had punk-like versions of many traditional anarchist songs. Thats what I can think of on the top op my head..
there is a record lable from Poland releasing anarchist songs on CDs- http://www.czsz.bzzz.net/czarny/contact (online contact form) they have CD called Freedom or Death with lots of Russian and Ukrainian anarchist songs about Machno, Anti-fascism , anarchism etc.. (they were working on English translation of lyrics but not sure if its finished), they also have CDs of anarcho-feminist choir from Sweden, Spanish Anarchist Songs and Italian Anarchist Songs.
I also have great compilation of anarchist songs in Spanish called Notas De Libertad released by Liberario paper from Venezuela but short of writing to them directly fuck knows where can you get it thse days.
Punk band called Rene Biname from Belgium made cd called 1887- 1936 if i rememebr properly, where they had punk-like versions of many traditional anarchist songs. Thats what I can think of on the top op my head..
np sickdog24, i am not that bad after all :)
One of the members of Czarny Sztandar Records collective often works in UK so you might be able to get things delivered here by him and save outrageous prices of international postage..
oh, for some reason iassumed you are based in uk... well in that case best idea is just to write to them and find out.. perhaps they will be able to come up with some reasonable offer of postage because CDs are definitely worth having..
Wellclose Square, I am sure I saw one of those and was surprised to hear about his real work rather than the stuff he did for That's Life etc. A friend of mine saw him perform live and said he was excellent.
Thackray also did an album of covers of Jaque Brel songs I think, which would be great to hear.
As for Anarchist music didn't some of the Free Jazzers see themselves as anarchists? Cecil Talyor wrote some articles for surrealist review The Arsenal though I do not know if he considers himself an anarchist.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_anarchist_musicians ... among composers, John Cage has to be mentioned, he said:
"I'm an anarchist. I don't know whether the adjective is pure and simple, or philosophical, or what, but I don't like government! And I don't like institutions! And I don't have any confidence in even good institutions."
and there is the German punk band Slime: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1fff7zrlmY
p.s.: Theodor W. Adorno wasn't an anarchist but also a composer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OOgKrmB8QY & http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaO2ZZK9ljA
neither "anarchist" or "working class" but truly revolutionary: http://entdinglichung.wordpress.com/2009/05/17/musik-und-ballett-zum-sonntag-igor-strawinski-le-sacre-du-printemps/
He qualified: "working class" music in general I think. I was always a big fan of old-school brit punk bands like The Clash and the Jam, and last year I discovered a band from that era that I had never heard. (Amazingly) The Redskins share some elements of the sound of groups like the Clash and the Jam, and though they are far from anarchist they are certainly "working class", in terms of their content AND as far as the tremendous amount of strike-support activism they were involved in during the reign of Thatcher. I am a sucker for this stuff. I think the two main dudes were actually members of the UK SWP, (boo!) but I don't hold that against them. I love Brit-rock-punk-pop of that era. Fuck, I am old.
October-dude: The proper term is "glean from" not "gleam from". Just an observation for your edification.
I can't wait to check out some of the stuff mentioned in this thread. Nice to see that someone mentioned Linton Kwesi Johnson.
Has no one mentioned the IWW big red songbook? If they did, I missed it, so I am mentioning it. There are some fabulously "anarchist" lyrics to be found therein. Of special interest to those of us who enjoy "old-timey" American music, and well, the IWW should be of special interest to anyone interested in anarchism as well.
There's always The French singer Leo Ferre:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1PcOsbJbLI
The Youtube user VALESTAP has all sorts of old Italian anarchist songs, this is the best: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2luE8pdSM4&feature=channel_page
Pretty decent (I usually don't like white rappers) anarchist rapper Ko49 out of Ft Worth: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HEAQ-l09ds
Pretty bad anarchist rap out of Portland, Uncle Scams:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDmrd1Jly-Y
Emcee Lynx out of Oakland:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z81XbIgNRQo&feature=channel_page
Check out Folie A Trois from Spain, anarchist rap, example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rC-ebJ6cSaI&feature=channel_page
(more rap) Keny Arkana from France:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbJ6Vl5EchM&feature=channel_page
Finish up with some Dead Prez, of course:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MheKZ5lNEcY&feature=channel_page
7 Generations from America. They do have a song about meat being murder I'm afraid. Chimera is a great intro though.
Proletariat from Boston. There's great interviews on the net about them talking briefly about their politics. British post punk angular sound. Beautiful.
Time in Malta from America. Definite libertarian undertones. Did mention Rosseau in a interview unfortunately :( One of the best hardcore bands of all time.
Brother Inferior. Remember I found these, reading about the singer's membership to IWW. Lo-fi singalongs.
Verse from America. If they're not anarchists, I'll eat my hat. There wasn't any better around when these lads were playing.
Proletariat from Boston. There's great interviews on the net about them talking briefly about their politics. British post punk angular sound. Beautiful.
I only have one song by them on a comp, but it's pretty amazing. Don't suppose there's anywhere good to find the rest of their stuff?
Proletariat from Boston. There's great interviews on the net about them talking briefly about their politics. British post punk angular sound. Beautiful.
I only have one song by them on a comp, but it's pretty amazing. Don't suppose there's anywhere good to find the rest of their stuff?
Their best shit is on This is Boston Not LA. The LP (Soma Holiday) isn't as good.
Proletariat from Boston. There's great interviews on the net about them talking briefly about their politics. British post punk angular sound. Beautiful.
I only have one song by them on a comp, but it's pretty amazing. Don't suppose there's anywhere good to find the rest of their stuff?
Their best shit is on This is Boston Not LA. The LP (Soma Holiday) isn't as good.
Heathen. Their best stuff is naturally their disco, Voodoo Economics and Other American Tragedies. Get on Soulseek, and do a search. A few folk will have it.
Soulseek is your best bet for music in general, but especially indie label or obscure stuff.
Alicia Keys
Boyd Rice
Death In June
Burzum
Filippo Tommaso Marinetti
Girls Aloud
Fela Kuti
GG Allin
The Dicks
Buju Banton
Big Punisher
G.I.S.M
Wagner
Vile
Vegan Reich
Earth Crisis
Cro-Mags
Agnostic Front
.Edvard :
Alicia Keys
Boyd Rice
Death In June
Burzum
Filippo Tommaso Marinetti
Girls Aloud
Fela Kuti
GG Allin
The Dicks
Buju Banton
Big Punisher
G.I.S.M
Wagner
Vile
Vegan Reich
Earth Crisis
Cro-Mags
Agnostic Front
cro mags? 'world peace cant be done, it just cant exist, world peace cant be done, anarchy's a mess'
Wagner participated in the 1848/49 revolution in Saxony together with Bakunin, he also met Proudhon somewhere in the 1840ies ... after the failed revolution, he moved to the right and wrote pamphlets about "the jewry in music"
Try 'Squeezing Sponges over Policemen's Heads' by Gong, from their Camembert Electrique album. Or, better still, 'Mexican Whistler' by Roger Whittaker, his reworking of an old Zapatista tune ;)
Dr Eugene Chadbourne- jazz country punk thrash with native American influences- not sure he would define himself as an anarchist but I get a lot from the ideas he works with- lots of brilliant songs and he can play guitar banjo and hay rake like no one else, he is fucking nutty to see live- a force of nature.
http://www.eugenechadbourne.com/eugenechadbourne/default.htm
going on Dr Chad's site I just seen Jimmy Carl Black is dead... howl!
Check out Jimmy Carl as well.
Does any one remember Blodwyn Pygg? some one told me they were anarchists.
Of course Amsrterdam's The Ex well meaning dull and as close to anarchist as they dare get.
If anyone's interested, I came across some pretty great recordings of Italian anarchist folk music on the ole intertubes (songs written by Pietro Gori and other 1st wave anarchists back in the early 20th c.; recordings are much more recent obviously). It's really catchy stuff so it's worth checking out even if you don't speak Italian.
I hope it's ok if I post the mediafire links directly:
It's not enough to call yourself “socialist”
The Nazis and Trots did but they meant
Wages system under state management
It's not enough to support those reforms
Can't change laws by which the market performs
If anyone's interested, I came across some pretty great recordings of Italian anarchist folk music on the ole intertubes (songs written by Pietro Gori and other 1st wave anarchists back in the early 20th c.; recordings are much more recent obviously). It's really catchy stuff so it's worth checking out even if you don't speak Italian.
I hope it's ok if I post the mediafire links directly:
Ignoring the whole "omfg i has anarchyst lirycs i are so revolt" punk rock thing I recommend to check noise music acts which are truly revolutionary in their own field, like, for example, Masonna. Apart from that, there's never enough of Psychic TV.
Every anarchist on here would be doing themselves a favor by listening to Panopticon: uncompromising, epic ambient black metal with a unique anarchist/pagan bent.
Yeah, but somehow having absolutely shit taste in music is less offensive to my sensibilities than having absolutely shit politics. Mainly because the former is a crime of which I too am guilty.
Every anarchist on here would be doing themselves a favor by nailing their cock to a bit of wood like Bob Flannagan. Black Metal is for Nazis and is FULL bent.
Someone obviously doesn't know what they're talking about. If you haven't listened to it or read the lyrics, you have no room to judge the music or the message behind it (which is actually quite erudite and changed my mind about the role of religion in anarchism).
Come on now, let's be accepting of other peoples' ideals..
www.anarcho-punk.net has a lot of crusty stuff and punk which cover a lot of topics concerning "anarchist issues" or whatever. Amebix is good. Additionally, Anti-Flag are anarchy.
...is the Opiate of the Masses - Proletariat. Good song.
I listened to "Options" on my mp3 player today while I was standing around killing time at the bus stop near the place I had a job interview cos I'd accidentally turned up really early for it. I definitely felt like I was sticking it to the man.
I think that's who he's referring to, I've heard of it, I'm not crazy about black metal, but they wrote songs about Sacco and Vanzetti... I don't think they are Nazis
My son, who's into 'death metal', told me there's a band called Wolves in the Throne Room who are supposed to be anarchist or libertarian... There's also some kind of Anarchist Black Metal thing set up in opposition to the Nazi currents in that genre, so I've been told. (Red and Anarchist Black Metal, in fact).
One of my favourites is LES ANARCHISTES. They are –despite the bands name– from Carrara, Italy. They perform since 2001 with texts from Leo Ferré, Pietro Gori and others. Their music is difficult to qualify, but there is much of (free) jazz and folk rock in it. It is not only their studio sound that is sometimes amazing, they are an excellent live band as well. Unfortunately they are quite unknown outside Italy, so you have to go there to see them. The are some tracks at http://www.lesanarchistes.org and http://www.myspace.com/lesanarchistes and some stuff at youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/v/ny-fq4ZxbT4
http://www.youtube.com/v/WVfQ2p5wEcw
(my favourite among the dozens of interpretations of «A las barricadas»)
http://www.youtube.com/v/VIUIuYodjFM
http://www.youtube.com/v/xFu2FD2SC2w
As for LEO FERRÉ and GEORG BRASSENS mentioned earlier in the thread: They were among the most famous French chancon singers in the the second half of the 20th century. Both were well known anarchists, Brassens was the editor of the anarchist weekly «Le monde libertaire» in the 1950th. They are among the few anarchists with dozens of streets, places and cultural centers named after ;-) There is lots of stuff from both Brassens and Ferre at youtube.com and dailymotion.com
Some examples:
Leo Ferré
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2a5jr_leo-ferre-avec-le-temps-olympia-197_music
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xfsyv_leo-ferre-les-anarchistes_music
(there is a translation of that famous lyrics into English at http://www.struggle.ws/hist_texts/song_les_anarchistes.html)
If we stay with French anarchist music, I would add FRED ALPI to the list. He was a band member of Brigada Flores Magon (mentioned in an earlier posting) and now performs with the Angry Cats, an anarchist Rockabilly band from Paris. But I guess he is best with Gilles Fegeant (http://www.fredalpi.com). Some examples:
Still in France, but 40 years in the past, there was the legendary album POUR EN FINIR AVEC LE TRAVAIL (For the abolition of work) from Lemonier and others. There are still some tracks around, mostly at youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tw9NjBdrkKo
(ever wondered how a song with a text from Raoul Vaneigem might look like? Here you have the whole situationist program in one song ;-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h07ilkw7N7g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bB4MFiHH1qw
There are other interpretations from many of the songs from that album. RENE BINAME did another good one of «La vie s'ecoule» (First link live from a gig at the CNT-F office in Paris), the second from CD).
Another one for the list is Leon Rosselson. OK, he's a Stalinist as far as I'm aware, but he's responsible for The World Turned Upside Down, about the Diggers, the most well-known version being Billy Bragg's. Another song Rosselson did - with Roy Bailey - is Abiezer Coppe, about the 17th-century Ranter, the lyrics also being totally agreeable - very difficult to track down, though.
Ooh, I was considering possibly doing an article on Coppe for the next Organise! A bit off-topic, but don't suppose you could recommend many good sources on the subject?
Ooh, I was considering possibly doing an article on Coppe for the next Organise! A bit off-topic, but don't suppose you could recommend many good sources on the subject?
The most obvious source (that should be easily available, at least) is Christopher Hill's The World Turned Upside Down (1972, 1975, Penguin 1991). I've not seen this, but A L Morton's The World of the Ranters (1970) is probably a must. There was also an Aporia Press reprint of some of Coppe's writings Selected Writings: A Fiery Flying Roll, Divine Fireworks, & c., I don't know when it was published, and it's probably out of print - try googling Aporia Press or the distributor Counter Productions, PO Box 556, London SE5 0RL (address correct as of 1989!). E P Thompson's Witness Against the Beast: William Blake and the Moral Law has a nice little chapter on 'The "ranting" impulse', tracing something of the afterlife of these ideas.
Ivan della Mea is another good one. He was a veteran of the Italian political folk scene, but not explicitly anarchist iirc. In any case, here he is singing Dai Monti di Serzana, the anthem of the Lucetti battalion of anarchist partisans: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSi6O_dIhsw&feature=related
[b]IHe was a veteran of the Italian political folk scene, but not explicitly anarchist iirc. In any case, here he is singing Dai Monti di Serzana, the anthem of the Lucetti battalion of anarchist partisans
I'd rather say he was at best a leninist ;-) Bolches capturing anarchist songs are quite common in Italy. There is a really nice re-interpretaion of "Figli dell'officina" by MODENA CITY RAMBLERS (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJ926WTtb64), even the hard-core stalinists from BANDA BASOTTI are singing this song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KC5zZP1hZBg).
The song is dedicated to the anarchist partisans that liberated Carrara from the German occupation, the Lyrics credited to Giuseppe Raffaelli and Giuseppe De Feo. It is quite famous and it serves as something similar to an Italian correspondent of «A las barricadas» in Spain. Both Modena City Ramblers and Banda Basotti changend the lyrics in order to avoid the “red and black flags” and the “per l'anarchia pugniamo” the lyrics are talking off.
Unfortunately there are only quite traditional interpretations of that song on the web. This one (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DF42fhtEhTM) is from a compilation that was done by Italian comrades for the international anarchist congress 1984 at Venice.
When Italian comrades are performing the song, they often use an “updated” version of the last verse. Whereas the original lyrics is talking of the fight for a world of peace and work, many are singing “liberi dal lavor” which is “free of work”.
It probably shouldn't be too surprising that there are Stalinist (and/or Leninist) versions of such songs, since there were Stalinist and Trotskyist partisans in Italy (and France) as well as anarchist partisans. And undoubtedly the Stalinists would want to claim everything good produced by (all) the partisans as 'theirs'.
[b]IHe was a veteran of the Italian political folk scene, but not explicitly anarchist iirc. In any case, here he is singing Dai Monti di Serzana, the anthem of the Lucetti battalion of anarchist partisans
I'd rather say he was at best a leninist ;-) Bolches capturing anarchist songs are quite common in Italy. There is a really nice re-interpretaion of "Figli dell'officina" by MODENA CITY RAMBLERS (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJ926WTtb64), even the hard-core stalinists from BANDA BASOTTI are singing this song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KC5zZP1hZBg).
The song is dedicated to the anarchist partisans that liberated Carrara from the German occupation, the Lyrics credited to Giuseppe Raffaelli and Giuseppe De Feo. It is quite famous and it serves as something similar to an Italian correspondent of «A las barricadas» in Spain. Both Modena City Ramblers and Banda Basotti changend the lyrics in order to avoid the “red and black flags” and the “per l'anarchia pugniamo” the lyrics are talking off.
I actually suspected that della Mea was a PCI member (as are/were many of these old "combat folk" singers apparently), but I had no idea about Modena City Ramblers. I still like their music, but appropriating an anarchist anthem is obviously a pretty shitty thing to do.
Unfortunately there are only quite traditional interpretations of that song on the web. This one (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DF42fhtEhTM) is from a compilation that was done by Italian comrades for the international anarchist congress 1984 at Venice.
That is a good one; I didn't know it, so thanks.
The best version of Monti di Serzana imo is the one off this album:
I really like that song btw (and Gori's songs). I wish anarchists still wrote songs as catchy and uplifting.
When Italian comrades are performing the song, they often use an “updated” version of the last verse. Whereas the original lyrics is talking of the fight for a world of peace and work, many are singing “liberi dal lavor” which is “free of work”.
not sure if this was mentioned before, but check out the Corale Durruti perform some old, old school CNT and FAI songs (including the famous "A las barricadas" of course).
Chicho Sanchez Ferlosio (1940-2003) - Spanish anarchist and folk singer.
Gallo rojo - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7r24w3nAhA&feature=related
La Paloma - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpvLwi710EM&feature=related
Los tres amigos (Durruti, Ascaso e Garcia Oliver) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUajIzjb5Og&feature=related
The kid can spit,
but as a self-publicist,
he's really shit
'Back from Israel' has a kind of gospel influence and it's about breaking from religion while affirming the human aspirations contained in it. I bear responsibility for the chorus lyrics and the piano playing. The chorus lyrics from Seeds You Sow are nicked from Shelly's 'To the working men of England' and it's about day to day exploitation. The phrase 'Tear that building down' is borrowed from Blind Willie Smith and the song has a kind of ecological theme.
This is the sort of thing jaycee should have said but he's just too lazy. The youth of today!
There's Vida Seca in Brazil. Not really AAAnarchist, but I like it! Really cool sound research stuff, originally made to make music in student demonstrations against the privatization of university. Snazzy percussion stuff.
Baderneiro - thanks for the Vida Seca link - I'm playing it now. Is there any older anarchist music from Brazil? - along the lines of anarchist tangos from Argentina or anarchist fado from Portugal. I've come across one reference to an article on anarchist samba but nothing else.
Ah, the very wonderful Fugs. Tuli Kupferberg (memorably dressed as a soldier and masturbating his toy rifle on Wall Street on the opening credits to the film 'WR Mysteries of the Orgasm) is now 86! Their 'Wide, Wide River' echoes down through the years - "Roll on, roll on, river of shit. Big brown river .....we've got some guy that says 'For god's sake, we've got to stop having violence in this country', while he's spending $60,000 a second, snuffin' gooks."
There's a scene in the final act of Purcell's semi-opera, The Fairy Queen (1691-92), set in a 'Chinese Garden'. The song 'Thus happy and free' (Track 19, CD2 on the Harry Christophers 1991 recording) has a chorus that goes like this:
Thus wildly we live,
Thus freely we give
What Heaven as freely bestows.
We were not made
For labour and trade,
Which fools on each other impose.
Baderneiro - thanks for the Vida Seca link - I'm playing it now. Is there any older anarchist music from Brazil? - along the lines of anarchist tangos from Argentina or anarchist fado from Portugal. I've come across one reference to an article on anarchist samba but nothing else.
If you remember the article, I'd like to see it. The only "anarchist" samba I ever heard is "Samba da Mais-Valia", or samba of surplus value, which sucked hard.
However, the musical style was born in the hills of Rio de Janeiro and there's a lot of really nice social critique on it and many times the taking of a proletarian point of view. Like in this samba of Cartola:
original
Se o operário soubesse
Reconhecer o valor que tem seu dia
Por certo que valeria
Duas vezes mais o seu salário
Mas como não quer reconhecer
É ele escravo sem ser
De qualquer usurário
Abafa-se a voz do oprimido
Com a dor e o gemido
Não se pode desabafar
Trabalho feito por minha mão
Só encontrei exploração
Em todo lugar
Translation
If the worker knew
How much his day was worth
It'd certainly cost
Twice his wage
(...)
Work done by my hand
I only found exploitation
Everywhere
This is RAF punkwho were a hardcore band from Bologna, a little bit after the peak period of Autonomia.
They are a glorious shambolic mess!
It's a terrible band name, but the one song by them I have on a comp is awesome. Most 80s Italian hardcore I've heard seems to have a nicely mental edge to it.
Is there any older anarchist music from Brazil? - along the lines of anarchist tangos from Argentina or anarchist fado from Portugal. I've come across one reference to an article on anarchist samba but nothing else.
If you remember the article, I'd like to see it. The only "anarchist" samba I ever heard is "Samba da Mais-Valia", or samba of surplus value, which sucked hard.
I only saw the name of the article in a list of references at the end of something else. I don't think the article itself is on-line anywhere - and now I can't find the reference.
It's always possible that there wasn't actually much that was explicitly political rather than giving a more general social commentary.
However, the musical style was born in the hills of Rio de Janeiro and there's a lot of really nice social critique on it and many times the taking of a proletarian point of view. Like in this samba of Cartola:
original
Se o operário soubesse
Reconhecer o valor que tem seu dia
Por certo que valeria
Duas vezes mais o seu salário
Mas como não quer reconhecer
É ele escravo sem ser
De qualquer usurário
Abafa-se a voz do oprimido
Com a dor e o gemido
Não se pode desabafar
Trabalho feito por minha mão
Só encontrei exploração
Em todo lugar
Translation
If the worker knew
How much his day was worth
It'd certainly cost
Twice his wage
(...)
Work done by my hand
I only found exploitation
Everywhere
I've come a bit late to this thread - really interesting and informative - I think theres a distinction to be made between music that has an anarchist propagandist purpose and music that is made according to anarchist principles - in the latter category (though also including a propagandist/didactic dimension, particularly the composers) I'd include American composers John Cage and Christian Wolff (composer/improviser, libertarian socialist - check out 'Exercises', 'Wobbly Music', 'Changing The System') and Dutch composer Louis Andriessen (libertarian socialist - 'De Volharding', 'Workers Union'), free improvisation groups like MEV (musica electronica viva - a group of improvisers/composers originally based in Italy though mainly American) and AMM (see drummer Eddie Prevost's books 'No Sound is Innocent' and 'Minute Particulars'). Not always the easiest listening but an attempt by classically trained composers/players and improvisers to deal with anarchist/libertarian ideas and ways of working together...
why can't music 'made to anarchist principles' sound enjoyable? nothing against experimentation but I don't see why 'anarchist principles', if they can be applied to music at all, should produce experimental noise rather than something 'pop'.
no reason at all....but 'enjoyable' is a pretty subjective concept that raises all sorts of questions - some people enjoy industrial techno or hardcore thrash-punk but thats not easy listening either....I think what I was trying to suggest is that there are other ways of making music that don't conform to the music industry's modus operandi and such music-making can be a site for exploration of libertarian attitudes and activity. Music is big enough to embrace both 'pop' and 'experimental' and there's an audience for both. The reason why 'experimental' music has developed the way it has (and it exists in the 'pop' sphere too - I'd include non-dance electronica like Autechre for instance) is a pretty big subject too big to go into here probably.... all I can say is I enjoy Gang of 4, Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music, John Cage and crazy free improvisation equally and (as a musician and anarchist) find inspiration and stimulus for my own (musical and social) activity in all of them.
why can't music 'made to anarchist principles' sound enjoyable? nothing against experimentation but I don't see why 'anarchist principles', if they can be applied to music at all, should produce experimental noise rather than something 'pop'.
Comet Gain have a song called "Say Yes! to International Socialism"
here is a not so great live version on the ole youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySZwLaW97po
I wasn't trying to argue against music not being 'enjoyable'/being experimental, just the implication that music made along anarchist lines will be avant garde, as though modern pop music is inextricably linked in form and structure to capitalism.
I see no reason why something that sounded like stock, aitken and waterman couldn't be produced in a 'anarchist way', (perhaps part of the problem is that I'm not entirely sure what you meant by anarchist principles when it comes to art)
Vlad: Sadly their wiki page said
They have been cited heavily by current UK punk band The Cribs as being a big influence.
which tainted them and made it very hard for me to like them afterwards :(
I was referring to the way that in the classical world there's a very clear hierarchy with the composer at the top (being the creative one) and the players as (uncreative) wage slaves whose job is to reproduce the composer's ideas as accurately as possible via the medium of the written score. Composers like Cage, Andriessen, Wolff etc. try to create situations where the players have ownership of the composed music as much as them, and groups like MEV and AMM make their own music (much as pop/rock/jazz/folk etc musicians do, only through free improvisation or 'instant composition' as some people call it) rather than reproducing other peoples' music. I dont think 'anarchist' music has to be experimental/avant-garde either, just in the classical world it tends to be (though Andriessen's written some pretty funky stuff - kind of classical punk...). Someone like Adorno would argue that popular music is inextricably linked in content and structure to capitalism but he was a musical snob.....
why can't music 'made to anarchist principles' sound enjoyable? nothing against experimentation but I don't see why 'anarchist principles', if they can be applied to music at all, should produce experimental noise rather than something 'pop'.
Yeah, I second that, though I don't believe that experimentation necessarily leads to non-enjoyable music.
We can do a lot of crazy stuff and still have music that is nice to listen. It's all a matter of equilibrating experimentation and niceness. We must fight pop music without ceasing to make popular music, fight commercial musical alienation without alienating the people with unlistenable stuff. It's hard, but it's not impossible!
Some time ago I started a blog in this theme. It's still in the beginning, though. Check it out: www.anarchofolk.wordpress.com (It's mostly in portuguese, but you get the idea!)
found in the Wikipedia article on Andrew Eldritch: "Politically, he has claimed to be "traditionally a Labour supporter" despite his "anarcho-syndicalist tendencies"" ;)
Interesting discussion between igor and dano about experiemental music and the need not to alienate people.Not all free jazz is screaming sax (though a good feak out is great to listen to at the right time) it can be a whole mixture of styles etc. The Art Emsamble of Chicargo is a very good example. One of the problems is that music has become almost wallpaper, and there is no encouragement to either site and listen, or to learn how to appreciate music. This was one of the points that Adorno was getting at. I am speaking as someone how has no musical training and deeply regrets it.
I am not sure if anyone has raised this point, what about 'industrial' folk music. This was clearly hijacked by the Stalinists from the 30's onwards but there are some very moving and stirring songs by the likes of Vin Garbutt (City of Angles, reduces me to tears every time I hear it)
Talking about music appreciation, does anyone know of any good websites that deal with this?
was referring to the way that in the classical world there's a very clear hierarchy with the composer at the top (being the creative one) and the players as (uncreative) wage slaves whose job is to reproduce the composer's ideas as accurately as possible via the medium of the written score. Composers like Cage, Andriessen, Wolff etc. try to create situations where the players have ownership of the composed music as much as them
Fair enough, my knowledge of classical music is pretty much limited to the first half of theThe Rest Is Noise. I still don't see anything inherently anarchistic in free form composition however (nothing particularly unanarchistic about it either mind), its just another form of creating sound. I don't really get how one ceases to be a wage-slave just by having input to a creative process. Likewise in a anarchist society I don't see anything wrong with people taking the lead from composers if they are willing to, in present society people seem quite content and happy in amateur groups/cover bands to basically emulate and perform someone else's ideas even if they have no 'ownership' of the intellectual property.
as far as i can see no one has mentioned The Ex from the Netherlands. they've been around for ages (30 years), began as punk, crossed over to a more experimental sound.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H844aTFx2z4
unlike most anarchist punky bands they are listened to by musos and even non-anarchists (unbelievable!). unfortunately, most anarchos just seem to listen to that spanish revolution CD/photo book thing they did, but their music got much more interesting later on, esp in collaboration with Tom Cora, Han Buhrs etc
The first thing that came my to mind was Skryabin's unfinished Mysterium.
I mean, this was the most mental idea whose outcome was supposed to be nothing else than the end of the world...
"Scriabin intended that the performance of this work, to be given in the foothills of the Himalayas in India, would last seven days and would be followed by the end of the world, with the human race replaced by 'nobler beings'.”
VT (hip hop collective who use folk samples from around the world) often have an anarchist message and are very working class - http://verbalterrorists.bandcamp.com/
I also saw Drowning Dog perform once (female anarchist mc) and she works with DJ Malatesta.
What's really funny about this one is that is made by a capitalist that has found a nice little niche in the alternative/life stylist scene, and is doing very nicely from it.
Stonking baseline though.
Witold Lutoslawski's Symphony No.3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NK8gvqWEFpk about the Polish uprising against the Russian-backed police state - full of tension, hope, horror, repression, exultation and hectic random motion redolent of the news scenes at the time
Luciano Berio's Sinfonia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZpU7ZR3PXA written in 1968 about the French uprisings and using a multitude of sources for its text from Beckett and Levi-Strauss to the situationist-style wall slogans each broken up into its sounds and interacting on multiple levels, the running street battles and confrontations at the barricades, the sit-ins, the repression make up a lot of the musical subject matter contained within a vast theatre of collective memory
I am very confused. I couldn't listen to the latest as I don't do Facebook but listened to this one and I can't figure out what cheesy cod reggae with Rolf Harris playing lead on the Stylophone has got to do with anarchism???
I am very confused. I couldn't listen to the latest as I don't do Facebook but listened to this one and I can't figure out what cheesy cod reggae with Rolf Harris playing lead on the Stylophone has got to do with anarchism???
haha! Everyone should start soundtracking their riotporn with this stuff it would do wonders for the image of anarchism.
Anyway Webby I reccon you should come out of your closet now and do a three page thread with your own true music selection. I've been sensing some self censoring for a while now!
I am very confused. I couldn't listen to the latest as I don't do Facebook but listened to this one and I can't figure out what cheesy cod reggae with Rolf Harris playing lead on the Stylophone has got to do with anarchism???
Sorry about that, I posted the wrong link, try this:
I am very confused. I couldn't listen to the latest as I don't do Facebook but listened to this one and I can't figure out what cheesy cod reggae with Rolf Harris playing lead on the Stylophone has got to do with anarchism???
haha! Everyone should start soundtracking their riotporn with this stuff it would do wonders for the image of anarchism.
Anyway Webby I reccon you should come out of your closet now and do a three page thread with your own true music selection. I've been sensing some self censoring for a while now!
Coo! The throwing down of a gauntlet, eh?
Alrighty then! Anarchist music? Well, I only know about the dreaded 'Anarcho Punk'. Yeah, I know it's pretty unpopular around here but to me it was extremely important and very exciting. There I was, 16 years old, interested only in music, clothes, drugs and girls and then I read the fold out sleeve of a Flux of Pink Indians single - it covered war, animal abuse and all the isms you can imagine. My head just fucking exploded! Life became so much more interesting and purposeful. Every aspect of life needed reevaluating. Nihilistic punk bullshit became the last thing that I wanted to aspire to. Punk was now a positive force that could do something worth doing instead of lining the pockets of revolting Westbourne Grove trendies like The Clash and their ilk.
The gigs were phenomenal! Crass and 15 other bands plus free soup at the squatted Zig Zag Club for 50p. The Ambulance Station squat in the Old Kent Road where I saw, amongst others, a 15 year old Bjork. In no time me and my mates formed a band and played at the Ambulance Station as well. We also toured with 2 of my favourite bands at the time - DIRT and Antisect. We were shit but they gave us a go and we had a blast!
The much maligned Crass started it and pretty much saw it through. I FUCKING LOVED CRASS!!! There energy, their dedication, their incredible artwork and most of all their brilliant sense of humour which all of the po faced haters never fail to miss. Ok, so they didn't offer a viable anarchist revolutionary theory - like I gave a fuck at that time. Through them I got my first glimpse into the stinking world of government, corporations and religion. I also got my first taste of feminism(check out the album Penis Envy), anti racism etc.
Certainly they could be labeled life stylists and I find lifestyleism to a pretty empty concept these days but I'm not going to throw the baby out with the bath water.
On the musical front, at the later stages some truly original and interesting music was made. Crass, Flux and Antisect smashed it, especially Flux - their Uncarved Block album still cuts the mustard to this day.
Say what you like, but at the very least anarcho punk woke up millions of young people to the shit that was happening in the world. Ok, so most of them did fuck all about it but many changed their attitude to a more honest and caring one.
It's easy, if it didn't affect you, to sneer at its impotence and many faults. Question it if you like but in the words of Crass, I would reply with my own question - 'and what if I told you to fuck off?!'.
As for my own music selection, maybe later. For now though, getting back to the OP, here is an anarchist playing some music:
http://youtu.be/Veely6MOyGo
Available for weddings, bar mitzvahs and funerals.
I'm very disappointed with you lot - after months of holding back I finally put my pro anarcho punk position out there and no response. Where are the expected withering comments and the poker up the arse deconstructions? Not even a single down vote or a 'is that really you in the video Webby, you fat bastard'?
Pah! What a bunch of lamearse slackers.
I'm very disappointed with you lot - after months of holding back I finally put my pro anarcho punk position out there and no response. Where are the expected withering comments and the poker up the arse deconstructions? Not even a single down vote or a 'is that really you in the video Webby, you fat bastard'?
Pah! What a bunch of lamearse slackers.
there is a record lable from Poland releasing anarchist songs on CDs- http://www.czsz.bzzz.net/czarny/contact (online contact form) they have CD called Freedom or Death with lots of Russian and Ukrainian anarchist songs about Machno, Anti-fascism , anarchism etc.. (they were working on English translation of lyrics but not sure if its finished),.
It seems that the web page is down from quite long.
Can anybody help me to find that songs? I offer myself to exchange revolutionary anarchist music. Contact me in my Twitter account: @Pez_Robot. Thanks in advance
Fuck is women's money.
We pay with our bodies.
There is no purity in our love.
No beauty. Just bribery.
It's all the fucking same.
We make soldiers with our submission.
Wars with our isolation.
Fuck is womens money.
We pay with our bodies.
There no purity in motherhood.
No beauty. Just bribery.
It's all the fucking same.
We are all slaves to sexual histories.
Our awareness of whoredom can be release.
War is mens money.
They pay with their bodies.
There is no purity in that game,
Only blood, death and bribery.
It's all the fucking same.
But we've got the power.
Don't just stand there and take submission on the strength of fear.
FIGHT WAR, NOT WARS.
I stumbled across this through a google search, and finally created a Libcom account just to reply. The anarchist/conscious/revolution music scene is absolutely HUGE and getting bigger every year :-) Not all of these folks would self-identify, and not all of them are quite there with their philosophy, but they are all on the path at least. Here are some of my favorites (I will most likely end up editing as I remember more):
Since I'm typing this on a phone, and the ratio is very distinct, I'm only going to label the artists who are not hip-hop. After spending well over an hour making this list nice links to every one of these artists, the website told me that it was considered spam, so here's just the names I guess.
Alais Clay
Brother Ali
DISL Automatic
Dustin Thomas (Beat-Boxing, Acoustic Guitar, etc)
Fetti Profoun/The Profoun Poet
Freedom Movement (Jazz-Hop)
Jordan Page (Acoustic Rock)
Keith Wallace
Kite 9d3
Kurt David Robinson
MC Xander (Vocal Looping, Reggae-Hop)
Medicine for the People (World)
Metanoia (Big Band)
Michael Franti & Spearhead (Reggae-Rock-Hop)
Mike Love (Reggae)
Payday Monsanto
Peace Officer
Potent Whisper
Ralph Smart (Hard to Genre)
Rebelution (Reggae)
Rob Hustle
Shea Freedom (Hard to Genre)
Steve Grant
Soul Pros
The Polish Ambassador (Electronic)
Tommy Truther (Pop Rock)
Trillion (Hard to Genre)
Triumph (Rock)
Truniversal
Wandering Monks (Big Band Hip-Hop)
Wookiefoot (Reggae-Rock-Hip-Hop-Funk)
Your Friendly Neighborhood Anarchists (Punk/Metal)
Why isn't there an up-up-like for this? I just got so much of their music recently (to mention as a feat!) since their albums can be difficult to come by.
Why isn't there an up-up-like for this? I just got so much of their music recently (to mention as a feat!) since their albums can be difficult to come by.
In response to Wellclose Square, first page.
Wellclose Square: "Not anarchist with a capital 'A', but I think Rembetika music from Greece was pretty anti-establishment/subcultural - celebrating the dissolute lifestyle of the 'Mangas' (or am I getting mixed up with comics?) of the Piraeus area of Athens in the '30s, '40s and '50s. Rembetika was the music of the Hellenic speakers of Asia Minor, expelled from Turkey in 1922, with oriental influences and bringing with them the bouzouki - it became known as 'the Greek blues', and was rediscovered by young anarchists in the late 1960s. Worth checking out is stuff by someone surnamed Janitsaris or Gennitsaris (both are googleable, I'm sure), who had his bouzouki smashed by police and was imprisoned on an island by a right-wing regime in the '30s for smoking dope and being a rembete - he featured on a BBC 2 documentary about 15 or so years ago (on You Tube, I think - just enter 'Rembetika')."
There’s a song on YouTube under the title 1936-Spanish Revolution with English subtitles.Accompanied by a great video and performed by a Spanish punk band.
Also The Ex-1936-The Spanish Revolution
La Barricadas is beautiful
So Nutter is a fucking door knocker for Corbyn, eh? It’s times like this that I wish I could figure out how to post emojis on here - the facepalm one would fit the bill nicely.
So Nutter is a fucking door knocker for Corbyn, eh? It’s times like this that I wish I could figure out how to post emojis on here - the facepalm one would fit the bill nicely.
I'd recommend Pop Group if they haven't already been mentioned, maybe slightly less crass and abrasive than Crass but still have some pretty political songs ("We're All Prostitutes" etc.).
I like some elements of 90s hip hop but still find other aspects appalling (misogyny, working-class violence and so on). There are groups like the Coup who've done more overtly political hip hop and are against all those tendencies (Riley actually collaborated with 2Pac in the 90s). I like this by Nas (I'm not sure if the "represented by dead fucking presidents" bit refers to money or the guillotine, or both).
Pretty sure I saw the Pop Group around 1980.
For political hip hop B Dolan is brilliant. On stage he’s even better.
I'm guessing they didn't leave much of an impression on you? I saw also the Stewart guy worked with Tricky (that's more trip hop though I guess). I think I've heard of Dolan. I'd also suggest Ceschi for political hip hop/folk punk, and Run the Jewels are another political hip hop group, but I'm not that fond of them.
Tell you the truth, I had a bit of a prejudice against them at the time - the We are all Prostitutes t-shirt was really popular and it was around that time I developed a hatred of band t-shirts and other merch, so probably rather stupidly I gave them a swerve. My girlfriend has just informed me that she saw them several times and that they were pretty splendid. If you’ve got any sense you’ll take notice of her and ignore me!
I was introduced the the concept of anarchism in(I think) 1981 by reading the fold out cover of a record by Flux of Pink Indians. This is one of their later songs, I particularly like this lyric...
Same workers sweating down the pit, same exploiters reeping in the profit,
Same laws defining the crimes we commit,
Same people fighting, refusing to submit
I was introduced the the concept of anarchism in(I think) 1981 by reading the fold out cover of a record by Flux of Pink Indians. This is one of their later songs, I particularly like this lyric...
Same workers sweating down the pit, same exploiters reeping in the profit,
Same laws defining the crimes we commit,
Same people fighting, refusing to submit
https://youtu.be/iaNeB5MZIQg
Nice stuff, think I've come across them. Don't think there's a 70s, 80s punk/post-punk band whose name doesn't at least ring a bell from all the band-googling I've done over the years (strangely though I couldn't picture myself ever attending any type of concert). What did you think of the Smiths? I believe one of their songs has a Crass reference in it, "Still Ill"; Smiths have a lot of lyrics actually that could be interpreted as anarchist if you ask me.
Smiths have a lot of lyrics actually that could be interpreted as anarchist if you ask me.
You’re darn tootin’
Morrisey sang
I was looking for a job and then I found a job, and heaven knows I’m miserable now
I believe one of their songs has a Crass reference in it,
An accidental one I should imagine. Crass had a song called Do They Owe Us A Living?
That Smiths song has the lyric(I think) ‘England is mine(or ours?), and it owes us a living.
Doubt it’s an intended reference. Still, I’d love it if it was!
For political hip-hop, have people heard Dalek? I think the overall philosophy is more black nationalist/pan-African, but they've got some good lines, and some fantastic cold industrial beats. Think they sample Chomsky on one of the last two albums. Try A Beast Caged for starters.
Fucking hell! That Cock Sparrer song has to be a contender go the worst music I’ve ever heard, and speaking as someone that’s heard Jimi Hendrix, that’s saying something!
I mean, I wasn't actually around for the 80s, but definitely a fan of a lot of the music. As it happens, a lot of my IRL activity over the few months was supporting the RMT strikes on Northern Rail, and after going down there a few times it turned out that a healthy proportion of the regular pickets at my local train station shared my love of Conflict and Discharge, in the middle of a reminiscing session one of them came out with "remember that compilation Crass put out? Got to give them credit, they certainly managed to detect a lot of bullshit for that one."
Smiths have a lot of lyrics actually that could be interpreted as anarchist if you ask me.
You’re darn tootin’
Not the scolding I was expecting, was half joking there, but yeah I like the Smiths too. Reel Around is probably my favorite track of theirs (think I prefer the non-sexual interpretation of it; most of the Smiths' songs are actually about sex, not that there's anything wrong with that) though they have a lot of nice stuff and some of Morrissey's solo stuff isn't bad either. Morrissey tries really hard to be hated it seems though, and I didn't really care for his comments on Manchester bombing or some of the other stuff he's said/done.
Compare the Beatles' anti-direct action Revolution:
https://genius.com/The-beatles-revolution-lyrics
With Nina Simone's emancipatory version released within a year later:
https://genius.com/Nina-simone-revolution-lyrics
There's also Swiss metal band Sybreed's "Re-evolution" song
https://genius.com/Sybreed-reevolution-lyrics
The machine has failed to victimize, to break us on our knees
And no longer we hear their poisoned words of fear
Corporate rape is ending now, we leave our chains and rise
We fuck the system
Compare the Beatles' anti-direct action Revolution:
https://genius.com/The-beatles-revolution-lyrics
With Nina Simone's emancipatory version released within a year later:
https://genius.com/Nina-simone-revolution-lyrics
There's also Swiss metal band Sybreed's "Re-evolution" song
https://genius.com/Sybreed-reevolution-lyrics
The machine has failed to victimize, to break us on our knees
And no longer we hear their poisoned words of fear
Corporate rape is ending now, we leave our chains and rise
We fuck the system
Simone is amazing btw. Some nice covers she has too:"Ooh Child" and another Beatles song "Here Comes the Sun". Also this: Wiki
... in 1985 Simone fired a gun at a record company executive, whom she accused of stealing royalties. Simone said she "tried to kill him" but "missed".
I might also mention Lennon's "Working Class Hero"... will that get me a scolding?
Comparing The Beatles and Nina Simone’s take on ‘Revolution’ reminded me of a discussion some time ago regarding Bob Dylan’s ‘Only a pawn in their game’ (1963) and Donovan’s ‘Universal Soldier’ (1965).
Both songs deal with violence and its causes. Dylan locates the murder of Medgar Evers in the social and political structure of society, particularly the racist manipulation of poor whites by the ruling class and their lackeys. Donavan conversely suggests an unchanging human cycle of fighting for peace based on individual choice. Whimsical bollocks IMO.
in the middle of a reminiscing session one of them came out with "remember that compilation Crass put out? Got to give them credit, they certainly managed to detect a lot of bullshit for that one."
Haha, I missed that. Funny and true. I believe it was worth it’s release though just for the name of one of the tracks, ‘High on a hill with Pink Floyd tattooed on my arm man’ by Rudimentary Peni
No. Just no.
No.
Just no.
Refused wrote: No. Just
Refused
Fair enough...
If your on about music which
If your on about music which identifies as anarchist, then I am semi inclinned to agree with Refused - way too much bent towards a sub culture, which reinforces the issue of identity politics. But if were on about music which challenges society aesthetically or gives out a meaningful message then I think theres plenty of meaningful stuff to consider. Im a little perplexed why 'anarchist music' is obessed with message, when probably theres more to gleam from a Smith song than say a Crass one.
I actually thought one or two from Django's 2008 list were worth listening to despite my nazi like inclinnation towards hardcore music.
cheers. I will have a look
cheers. I will have a look at that.
Ignore all previous and
Ignore all previous and future posts, they are wrong. I actually like some Spanish anarchist punk bands, but I dislike almost all english language punk. If you can find the Recopilatorio CNT-AIT album on soulseek, it is pretty good.
Anyway old anarchist songs like Le Triomphe de l'Anarchie, A Las Barricadas and Canto dei Malfattori are all good.
El Cabrero
Chico Sanchez Ferlosio
Leo Ferre
JOSE DE MOLINA
Thats not 'anarchist music'
Thats not 'anarchist music' though!
Edit - cross post with 888
Not anarchist with a capital
Not anarchist with a capital 'A', but I think Rembetika music from Greece was pretty anti-establishment/subcultural - celebrating the dissolute lifestyle of the 'Mangas' (or am I getting mixed up with comics?) of the Piraeus area of Athens in the '30s, '40s and '50s. Rembetika was the music of the Hellenic speakers of Asia Minor, expelled from Turkey in 1922, with oriental influences and bringing with them the bouzouki - it became known as 'the Greek blues', and was rediscovered by young anarchists in the late 1960s. Worth checking out is stuff by someone surnamed Janitsaris or Gennitsaris (both are googleable, I'm sure), who had his bouzouki smashed by police and was imprisoned on an island by a right-wing regime in the '30s for smoking dope and being a rembete - he featured on a BBC 2 documentary about 15 or so years ago (on You Tube, I think - just enter 'Rembetika').
interesting thanks.
interesting thanks.
sickdog24 wrote: Any
sickdog24
I suppose the most obvious non-english langauge anarchist band would be Sin Dios
http://www.sindios.net
their best song being http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyGizgIUNJk
Political music can be a bit hit and miss, can;t think of that many bands outside punk and its sub-genres who self identify as anarchist. Chumbawamba and The Levellers count i guess but thats not exaclty a heartneing example. I guess its like other posters have said, poitical music can be good but banging on about ''the message'' doesn;t neceasrily mean you really relate to people or life. .
Mind you its nice to see really overtly political bands do well sometimes, like early manics or ratm. It'd be worth it just so we can get more videos like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyjmCg_VMU0
cantdocartwheels
cantdocartwheels
Early manics stuff is great. Cheers for the sin dios link, heard that song b4 so trying to download a torrent.
Refused wrote: No. Just
Refused
Kind of ironic, considering where I'm guessing your name comes from... :P
To the OP, if you've not heard Refused yet, they are genuinely awesome. Also, old IWW folk songs are the shit.
Las Barricadas-An
Las Barricadas-An Anarcho-Syndicalist classic from the CNT(Never mind the punk nonsense)
freemind wrote: Las
freemind
I love this song. I want to make a happy hardcore remix of it.
Political-esque music, since
Political-esque music, since you wanted a list
~Punk/Hardcore~
King Prawn, Brigada Flores Magon, Sin Dios, Limp Wrist, Los Crudos, Discharge, Randy, Mano Negra, Morning Again, Strike Anywhere, R.A.M.B.O.,
~Hip-Hop/Reggae/Dub~
Asian Dub Foundation, Sabac, Immortal Technique, Dead Prez, Blue Scholars, Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip, Public Enemy, Ozomatli, Linton Kwesi Johnson,
~Rock/Metal~
Rage Against the Machine, Warsawpack, Kinesis, Desaparecidos, Manic Street Preachers, S.O.A.D., Napalm Death, One Minute Silence
Otherwise try
Grime, Afro Beat, Tropicalismo, Northern Soul
Did he not ask for anarchist
Did he not ask for anarchist music?
jolly roger wrote: Did he not
jolly roger
Yeah and like working class solidarity music =)
Check out Norman Nawrocki at
Check out Norman Nawrocki at http://www.nothingness.org/music/rhythm/en/html/news.html for a most versatile performer. Also it's well worth a scroll down the page and watch a clip of his play Cazzarola.
888' wrote: Leo Ferre This
[quote="888']Leo Ferre[/quote]
This is the direction in which this thread should be going imo (not that I have anything against punk/Crass/etc). I would add Georges Brassens. (esp. songs like "Mauvaise Reputation" and "Pauvre Martin").
An equivalent in English would be Utah Phillips.
(shouldn't this be in the Culture section where more people can see it?)
Yes, do check him out.
Also, he has a one-man play about the life of Gino Lucetti, an anarchist who tried to assassinate Mussolini (and I think it's available on youtube).
jolly roger wrote: Did he not
jolly roger
Read my post #3.
As far as anarchist hip-hop
As far as anarchist hip-hop goes, I'd have to mention Comrade Malone (www.myspace.com/comrademalone - there's also an interview with him on libcom).. I also recently found this guy Mentenguerra (http://www.myspace.com/mentenguerra), he's alright, some really good beats and apparently an anarchist (though I haven't got a clue what he's saying)...
Oh yeah, this guy is a
Oh yeah, this guy is a friend of Malone's. He's also pretty good, this one's called Riot.. :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moD0hDSh4_o
Surely the English
Surely the English equivalent of Brassens would be Jake Thackery, not really an anarchist more an erudite francophile rebel with a total disdain for athority.
A very good set of anarchist songs IMO is the 1926 Committee's "More of the Same". THey used to have these tapesat 56A, but you can tell how old it is by its format.
Regards,
Martin
Martin wrote: Surely the
Martin
I've not heard of this Thackery guy. Anything to recommend in particular?
Quote: I've not heard of this
I think the name's Thackray. He used to have a spot on the forerunner of That's Life, and his best known song is Sister Josephine, about an escaped convict hiding out in a nunnery. There was a very good documentary about him recently on BBC2 or BBC4. He was bracketed as 'folk', but actually based his style and content on socially-conscious French chanson. Very interesting character, his extreme shyness led him to withdraw from the public musical career, and he died a few years ago in relative obscurity. A genius.
sickdog24 wrote: jolly roger
sickdog24
That rules out a homophobic knobhead like Immortal Technique then.
Vlad336 wrote: Quote: Check
Vlad336
Yes that's the same play I was referring to, there's a good clip on his site
(Sin Dios, obv, by the way)
(Sin Dios, obv, by the way)
there is a record lable from
there is a record lable from Poland releasing anarchist songs on CDs- http://www.czsz.bzzz.net/czarny/contact (online contact form) they have CD called Freedom or Death with lots of Russian and Ukrainian anarchist songs about Machno, Anti-fascism , anarchism etc.. (they were working on English translation of lyrics but not sure if its finished), they also have CDs of anarcho-feminist choir from Sweden, Spanish Anarchist Songs and Italian Anarchist Songs.
I also have great compilation of anarchist songs in Spanish called Notas De Libertad released by Liberario paper from Venezuela but short of writing to them directly fuck knows where can you get it thse days.
Punk band called Rene Biname from Belgium made cd called 1887- 1936 if i rememebr properly, where they had punk-like versions of many traditional anarchist songs. Thats what I can think of on the top op my head..
Eastern Barbarian
Eastern Barbarian
thanks for link comrade
weeler wrote: jolly roger
weeler
I dont want my head smashed in.
np sickdog24, i am not that
np sickdog24, i am not that bad after all :)
One of the members of Czarny Sztandar Records collective often works in UK so you might be able to get things delivered here by him and save outrageous prices of international postage..
ok man. next time im in the
ok man. next time im in the uk will have a look. dziekuje
oh, for some reason iassumed
oh, for some reason iassumed you are based in uk... well in that case best idea is just to write to them and find out.. perhaps they will be able to come up with some reasonable offer of postage because CDs are definitely worth having..
Wellclose Square, I am sure I
Wellclose Square, I am sure I saw one of those and was surprised to hear about his real work rather than the stuff he did for That's Life etc. A friend of mine saw him perform live and said he was excellent.
Thackray also did an album of covers of Jaque Brel songs I think, which would be great to hear.
As for Anarchist music didn't some of the Free Jazzers see themselves as anarchists? Cecil Talyor wrote some articles for surrealist review The Arsenal though I do not know if he considers himself an anarchist.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_anarchist_musicians ... among composers, John Cage has to be mentioned, he said:
"I'm an anarchist. I don't know whether the adjective is pure and simple, or philosophical, or what, but I don't like government! And I don't like institutions! And I don't have any confidence in even good institutions."
and there is the German punk band Slime: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1fff7zrlmY
p.s.: Theodor W. Adorno wasn't an anarchist but also a composer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OOgKrmB8QY & http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaO2ZZK9ljA
weeler wrote: jolly roger
weeler
Oh jesus, you've already been outed as being completely ignorant about Immortal Technique...drop it already, seriously.
neither "anarchist" or
neither "anarchist" or "working class" but truly revolutionary: http://entdinglichung.wordpress.com/2009/05/17/musik-und-ballett-zum-sonntag-igor-strawinski-le-sacre-du-printemps/
You want some acoustic tunes?
You want some acoustic tunes? Jessie Williams is fantastic - http://jessiewilliams.webs.com/downloads.htm
Alan wrote: weeler
Caiman del Barrio
You talking to me, weeler or Jolly Roger?
He qualified: "working class"
He qualified: "working class" music in general I think. I was always a big fan of old-school brit punk bands like The Clash and the Jam, and last year I discovered a band from that era that I had never heard. (Amazingly) The Redskins share some elements of the sound of groups like the Clash and the Jam, and though they are far from anarchist they are certainly "working class", in terms of their content AND as far as the tremendous amount of strike-support activism they were involved in during the reign of Thatcher. I am a sucker for this stuff. I think the two main dudes were actually members of the UK SWP, (boo!) but I don't hold that against them. I love Brit-rock-punk-pop of that era. Fuck, I am old.
October-dude: The proper term is "glean from" not "gleam from". Just an observation for your edification.
I can't wait to check out some of the stuff mentioned in this thread. Nice to see that someone mentioned Linton Kwesi Johnson.
Has no one mentioned the IWW
Has no one mentioned the IWW big red songbook? If they did, I missed it, so I am mentioning it. There are some fabulously "anarchist" lyrics to be found therein. Of special interest to those of us who enjoy "old-timey" American music, and well, the IWW should be of special interest to anyone interested in anarchism as well.
Try Komintern - really nice
Try Komintern - really nice prog
There's always The French
There's always The French singer Leo Ferre:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1PcOsbJbLI
The Youtube user VALESTAP has all sorts of old Italian anarchist songs, this is the best: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2luE8pdSM4&feature=channel_page
Pretty decent (I usually don't like white rappers) anarchist rapper Ko49 out of Ft Worth: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HEAQ-l09ds
Pretty bad anarchist rap out of Portland, Uncle Scams:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDmrd1Jly-Y
Emcee Lynx out of Oakland:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z81XbIgNRQo&feature=channel_page
Check out Folie A Trois from Spain, anarchist rap, example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rC-ebJ6cSaI&feature=channel_page
(more rap) Keny Arkana from France:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbJ6Vl5EchM&feature=channel_page
Finish up with some Dead Prez, of course:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MheKZ5lNEcY&feature=channel_page
All the anarcho-hardcore I
All the anarcho-hardcore I know that is any kop.
Anchor from Sweden.
7 Generations from America. They do have a song about meat being murder I'm afraid. Chimera is a great intro though.
Proletariat from Boston. There's great interviews on the net about them talking briefly about their politics. British post punk angular sound. Beautiful.
RIFU from Norway. Really cool sound.
Time in Malta from America. Definite libertarian undertones. Did mention Rosseau in a interview unfortunately :( One of the best hardcore bands of all time.
Brother Inferior. Remember I found these, reading about the singer's membership to IWW. Lo-fi singalongs.
Verse from America. If they're not anarchists, I'll eat my hat. There wasn't any better around when these lads were playing.
molly0000000s
molly0000000s
I only have one song by them on a comp, but it's pretty amazing. Don't suppose there's anywhere good to find the rest of their stuff?
dont know too many
:a:
dont know too many :rb:
Farce wrote: molly0000000s
Farce
Their best shit is on This is Boston Not LA. The LP (Soma Holiday) isn't as good.
Fucked Up also have a track
Fucked Up also have a track about the CNT called No Pasarán.
Alan wrote: Farce
Caiman del Barrio
Heathen. Their best stuff is naturally their disco, Voodoo Economics and Other American Tragedies. Get on Soulseek, and do a search. A few folk will have it.
Soulseek is your best bet for music in general, but especially indie label or obscure stuff.
Alicia Keys Boyd Rice Death
Alicia Keys
Boyd Rice
Death In June
Burzum
Filippo Tommaso Marinetti
Girls Aloud
Fela Kuti
GG Allin
The Dicks
Buju Banton
Big Punisher
G.I.S.M
Wagner
Vile
Vegan Reich
Earth Crisis
Cro-Mags
Agnostic Front
Girls Aloud seems plausible,
Girls Aloud seems plausible, but Death in June anarchist? that's a bit of a stretch.
Edvard wrote: Girls
Edvard
I'm glad someone mentioned the defenders of anarchy
Berurier Noir are an
Berurier Noir are an anarchist punk band but they're more squatter types.
Noir Desir are sometimes claimed as anarchists but there isn't too much evidence in the lyrics, although they have played benefit gigs for the CNT-F.
.Edvard : Alicia Keys Boyd
.Edvard :
Alicia Keys
Boyd Rice
Death In June
Burzum
Filippo Tommaso Marinetti
Girls Aloud
Fela Kuti
GG Allin
The Dicks
Buju Banton
Big Punisher
G.I.S.M
Wagner
Vile
Vegan Reich
Earth Crisis
Cro-Mags
Agnostic Front
cro mags? 'world peace cant be done, it just cant exist, world peace cant be done, anarchy's a mess'
alicia keys... hahahahaha niceee
burzum? this is a fucking
burzum? this is a fucking NAZI band , same with death in june.. i will not even mention putting clowns like gg allin on that list..
im surprised skrewdriver isnt
im surprised skrewdriver isnt on there
Everyone loves that tosspot
Everyone loves that tosspot Buju Banton aswell, what with his "kill the gays", and "they're a load of bloodclots, ain't they 'guv".
Edvard wrote: Alicia Keys GG
Edvard
this I can dig
Earth Crisis shows in Sept, me and JDMF are going
'let the round-ups begin'
You can't fault Wagner's
You can't fault Wagner's anarcho credentials, tho. Did you know that the first pressing of Tristran and Iseult actually came out on Mortarhate?
Farce wrote: You can't fault
Farce
Indeed. Here he is fighting against the zionazis:
jef
they do have a pretty decent song about Makhno.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJvjUmZ8TUQ
Wagner participated in the
Wagner participated in the 1848/49 revolution in Saxony together with Bakunin, he also met Proudhon somewhere in the 1840ies ... after the failed revolution, he moved to the right and wrote pamphlets about "the jewry in music"
Zounds: http://www.youtube.co
Zounds:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3B0vgs1KUc&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8w14IaS8Us
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TfCfaDJM0k&feature=related
Try 'Squeezing Sponges over
Try 'Squeezing Sponges over Policemen's Heads' by Gong, from their Camembert Electrique album. Or, better still, 'Mexican Whistler' by Roger Whittaker, his reworking of an old Zapatista tune ;)
Dr Eugene Chadbourne- jazz
Dr Eugene Chadbourne- jazz country punk thrash with native American influences- not sure he would define himself as an anarchist but I get a lot from the ideas he works with- lots of brilliant songs and he can play guitar banjo and hay rake like no one else, he is fucking nutty to see live- a force of nature.
http://www.eugenechadbourne.com/eugenechadbourne/default.htm
going on Dr Chad's site I just seen Jimmy Carl Black is dead... howl!
Check out Jimmy Carl as well.
Does any one remember Blodwyn Pygg? some one told me they were anarchists.
Of course Amsrterdam's The Ex well meaning dull and as close to anarchist as they dare get.
Has anyone mentioned The
Has anyone mentioned The Subhumans? (The Canadian band, not the English one)
The bass player Gerry Useless was one of the 'Vancouver Five'.
If anyone's interested, I
If anyone's interested, I came across some pretty great recordings of Italian anarchist folk music on the ole intertubes (songs written by Pietro Gori and other 1st wave anarchists back in the early 20th c.; recordings are much more recent obviously). It's really catchy stuff so it's worth checking out even if you don't speak Italian.
I hope it's ok if I post the mediafire links directly:
http://www.mediafire.com/?ernzjz0iyzn (Artist: Canzoniere Internazionale. Title: "Gli Anarchici")
http://www.mediafire.com/?f3ymagjewtm (Artist: Various. Title: "Canti anarchici di Pietro Gori")
http://rapidshare.com/files/276731843/anespigo.rar.html (Artist: Various. Title: "Pietro Gori")
the blog I found this stuff on: http://italianfolkmusic.blogspot.com/
What about SPGB punk (
What about SPGB punk ( complete with quotes from Steve Coleman )
Christ the Band
http://www.christtheband.com/Album.htm
Fuck, that is an impressive
Fuck, that is an impressive level of SPGBery:
Vlad336 wrote: If anyone's
Vlad336
password
jef wrote: password sorry,
jef
sorry, it must've slipped my mind; the password is highqualitymp3, if I remember correctly. It should say on the blog though (1st or 2nd page).
Ignoring the whole "omfg i
Ignoring the whole "omfg i has anarchyst lirycs i are so revolt" punk rock thing I recommend to check noise music acts which are truly revolutionary in their own field, like, for example, Masonna. Apart from that, there's never enough of Psychic TV.
Every anarchist on here would
Every anarchist on here would be doing themselves a favor by listening to Panopticon: uncompromising, epic ambient black metal with a unique anarchist/pagan bent.
Quote: anarchist/pagan No. ~
No.
~J.
BigLittleJ
BigLittleJ
What, "ambient black metal" ddint put you off first?
Yeah, but somehow having
Yeah, but somehow having absolutely shit taste in music is less offensive to my sensibilities than having absolutely shit politics. Mainly because the former is a crime of which I too am guilty.
~J.
Anghrist wrote: Every
Anghrist
Someone obviously doesn't
Someone obviously doesn't know what they're talking about. If you haven't listened to it or read the lyrics, you have no room to judge the music or the message behind it (which is actually quite erudite and changed my mind about the role of religion in anarchism).
Come on now, let's be accepting of other peoples' ideals..
BigLittleJ
BigLittleJ
You'd be surprised
RELIGION
RELIGION
...is the Opiate of the
...is the Opiate of the Masses - Proletariat. Good song.
"political music" lol
"political music" lol
Jenni wrote: "political
Jenni
I second that emotion
...
But the Pietro Gori songs are actually good (see above links)
What about David Rovics? I'm
What about David Rovics? I'm not crazy about his voice, but some of his songs aren't bad.
www.anarcho-punk.net has a
www.anarcho-punk.net has a lot of crusty stuff and punk which cover a lot of topics concerning "anarchist issues" or whatever. Amebix is good. Additionally, Anti-Flag are anarchy.
riotfolk.org These are sites
riotfolk.org
These are sites you can Down Load that ish for freeeeeee - which is very anarchist.
Quote: Every anarchist on
Whoa, Panopticon from Louisville, KY?
molly0000000s wrote: ...is
molly0000000s
I listened to "Options" on my mp3 player today while I was standing around killing time at the bus stop near the place I had a job interview cos I'd accidentally turned up really early for it. I definitely felt like I was sticking it to the man.
What job was it Farce?
What job was it Farce? Military service? Factory employment? Or back on welfare assistance?
You tell me the options.
I think that's who he's
I think that's who he's referring to, I've heard of it, I'm not crazy about black metal, but they wrote songs about Sacco and Vanzetti... I don't think they are Nazis
My son, who's into 'death
My son, who's into 'death metal', told me there's a band called Wolves in the Throne Room who are supposed to be anarchist or libertarian... There's also some kind of Anarchist Black Metal thing set up in opposition to the Nazi currents in that genre, so I've been told. (Red and Anarchist Black Metal, in fact).
Nice article about Gil Scott
Nice article about Gil Scott Heron in yesterday's Independent - 'The Revolution Will Not Be Televised'.
To add a few more from France
To add a few more from France and Italy
One of my favourites is LES ANARCHISTES. They are –despite the bands name– from Carrara, Italy. They perform since 2001 with texts from Leo Ferré, Pietro Gori and others. Their music is difficult to qualify, but there is much of (free) jazz and folk rock in it. It is not only their studio sound that is sometimes amazing, they are an excellent live band as well. Unfortunately they are quite unknown outside Italy, so you have to go there to see them. The are some tracks at http://www.lesanarchistes.org and http://www.myspace.com/lesanarchistes and some stuff at youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/v/ny-fq4ZxbT4
http://www.youtube.com/v/WVfQ2p5wEcw
(my favourite among the dozens of interpretations of «A las barricadas»)
http://www.youtube.com/v/VIUIuYodjFM
http://www.youtube.com/v/xFu2FD2SC2w
As for LEO FERRÉ and GEORG BRASSENS mentioned earlier in the thread: They were among the most famous French chancon singers in the the second half of the 20th century. Both were well known anarchists, Brassens was the editor of the anarchist weekly «Le monde libertaire» in the 1950th. They are among the few anarchists with dozens of streets, places and cultural centers named after ;-) There is lots of stuff from both Brassens and Ferre at youtube.com and dailymotion.com
Some examples:
Leo Ferré
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2a5jr_leo-ferre-avec-le-temps-olympia-197_music
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xfsyv_leo-ferre-les-anarchistes_music
(there is a translation of that famous lyrics into English at http://www.struggle.ws/hist_texts/song_les_anarchistes.html)
Georges Brassens
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2kfvo_georges-brassens-la-mauvaise-reputa_music
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xjs4r_brassens-chanson-pour-lauvergnat
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xmwza_georges-brassens-les-copains-dabord_music
If we stay with French anarchist music, I would add FRED ALPI to the list. He was a band member of Brigada Flores Magon (mentioned in an earlier posting) and now performs with the Angry Cats, an anarchist Rockabilly band from Paris. But I guess he is best with Gilles Fegeant (http://www.fredalpi.com). Some examples:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1e8fw_ma-part-de-violence-sur-zalea-tv_music
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1e8jx_se-reposer-ou-etre-libre-sur-zalea_music
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pCj3wqwBog
Still in France, but 40 years in the past, there was the legendary album POUR EN FINIR AVEC LE TRAVAIL (For the abolition of work) from Lemonier and others. There are still some tracks around, mostly at youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tw9NjBdrkKo
(ever wondered how a song with a text from Raoul Vaneigem might look like? Here you have the whole situationist program in one song ;-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h07ilkw7N7g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bB4MFiHH1qw
There are other interpretations from many of the songs from that album. RENE BINAME did another good one of «La vie s'ecoule» (First link live from a gig at the CNT-F office in Paris), the second from CD).
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2g2wb_rene-biname-la-vie_music
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7pvf6_grece-emeute-solidarite_news
Biname as well did new interpretations of a couple of classical french anarchist songs:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x41j8l_rene-binamela-revolte_music
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QxNPeW9jFk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PmLVfPvwZ0
That's all for tonight. Enjoy ;-)
Great stuff robot, I'll have
Great stuff robot, I'll have a look at those thanks.
Another one for the list is
Another one for the list is Leon Rosselson. OK, he's a Stalinist as far as I'm aware, but he's responsible for The World Turned Upside Down, about the Diggers, the most well-known version being Billy Bragg's. Another song Rosselson did - with Roy Bailey - is Abiezer Coppe, about the 17th-century Ranter, the lyrics also being totally agreeable - very difficult to track down, though.
Les Anarchistes are quite
Les Anarchistes are quite good yes.
Ooh, I was considering
Ooh, I was considering possibly doing an article on Coppe for the next Organise! A bit off-topic, but don't suppose you could recommend many good sources on the subject?
Quote: Ooh, I was considering
The most obvious source (that should be easily available, at least) is Christopher Hill's The World Turned Upside Down (1972, 1975, Penguin 1991). I've not seen this, but A L Morton's The World of the Ranters (1970) is probably a must. There was also an Aporia Press reprint of some of Coppe's writings Selected Writings: A Fiery Flying Roll, Divine Fireworks, & c., I don't know when it was published, and it's probably out of print - try googling Aporia Press or the distributor Counter Productions, PO Box 556, London SE5 0RL (address correct as of 1989!). E P Thompson's Witness Against the Beast: William Blake and the Moral Law has a nice little chapter on 'The "ranting" impulse', tracing something of the afterlife of these ideas.
Ivan della Mea is another
Ivan della Mea is another good one. He was a veteran of the Italian political folk scene, but not explicitly anarchist iirc. In any case, here he is singing Dai Monti di Serzana, the anthem of the Lucetti battalion of anarchist partisans: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSi6O_dIhsw&feature=related
Vlad336 wrote: [b]IHe was a
Vlad336
I'd rather say he was at best a leninist ;-) Bolches capturing anarchist songs are quite common in Italy. There is a really nice re-interpretaion of "Figli dell'officina" by MODENA CITY RAMBLERS (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJ926WTtb64), even the hard-core stalinists from BANDA BASOTTI are singing this song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KC5zZP1hZBg).
The song is dedicated to the anarchist partisans that liberated Carrara from the German occupation, the Lyrics credited to Giuseppe Raffaelli and Giuseppe De Feo. It is quite famous and it serves as something similar to an Italian correspondent of «A las barricadas» in Spain. Both Modena City Ramblers and Banda Basotti changend the lyrics in order to avoid the “red and black flags” and the “per l'anarchia pugniamo” the lyrics are talking off.
Unfortunately there are only quite traditional interpretations of that song on the web. This one (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DF42fhtEhTM) is from a compilation that was done by Italian comrades for the international anarchist congress 1984 at Venice.
When Italian comrades are performing the song, they often use an “updated” version of the last verse. Whereas the original lyrics is talking of the fight for a world of peace and work, many are singing “liberi dal lavor” which is “free of work”.
It probably shouldn't be too
It probably shouldn't be too surprising that there are Stalinist (and/or Leninist) versions of such songs, since there were Stalinist and Trotskyist partisans in Italy (and France) as well as anarchist partisans. And undoubtedly the Stalinists would want to claim everything good produced by (all) the partisans as 'theirs'.
robot wrote: Vlad336
robot
I actually suspected that della Mea was a PCI member (as are/were many of these old "combat folk" singers apparently), but I had no idea about Modena City Ramblers. I still like their music, but appropriating an anarchist anthem is obviously a pretty shitty thing to do.
That is a good one; I didn't know it, so thanks.
The best version of Monti di Serzana imo is the one off this album:
I really like that song btw (and Gori's songs). I wish anarchists still wrote songs as catchy and uplifting.
Not a bad update.
not sure if this was
not sure if this was mentioned before, but check out the Corale Durruti perform some old, old school CNT and FAI songs (including the famous "A las barricadas" of course).
Iskra is another "anarchist"
Iskra is another "anarchist" black metal band from Vancouver, Canada.
Chicho Sanchez Ferlosio
Chicho Sanchez Ferlosio (1940-2003) - Spanish anarchist and folk singer.
Gallo rojo - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7r24w3nAhA&feature=related
La Paloma - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpvLwi710EM&feature=related
Los tres amigos (Durruti, Ascaso e Garcia Oliver) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUajIzjb5Og&feature=related
El Cabrero - anarchist
El Cabrero - anarchist flamenco singer
vivir la utopia
Canti Anarchici di Pietro
Corrido a Flores Magón
Corrido a Flores Magón
here are some new songs of
here are some new songs of mine, some of which will be going on my next album (whenever that will be made).
most of them are political but not all.
anyway let me know what you think,
http://www.myspace.com/jayceemcee
i will be updating my site soon as well but i am a very lazy man so i wouldn't hold your breath
The kid can spit, but as a
The kid can spit,
but as a self-publicist,
he's really shit
'Back from Israel' has a kind of gospel influence and it's about breaking from religion while affirming the human aspirations contained in it. I bear responsibility for the chorus lyrics and the piano playing. The chorus lyrics from Seeds You Sow are nicked from Shelly's 'To the working men of England' and it's about day to day exploitation. The phrase 'Tear that building down' is borrowed from Blind Willie Smith and the song has a kind of ecological theme.
This is the sort of thing jaycee should have said but he's just too lazy. The youth of today!
There's Vida Seca in Brazil.
There's Vida Seca in Brazil. Not really AAAnarchist, but I like it! Really cool sound research stuff, originally made to make music in student demonstrations against the privatization of university. Snazzy percussion stuff.
http://www.myspace.com/vidaseca
Baderneiro - thanks for the
Baderneiro - thanks for the Vida Seca link - I'm playing it now. Is there any older anarchist music from Brazil? - along the lines of anarchist tangos from Argentina or anarchist fado from Portugal. I've come across one reference to an article on anarchist samba but nothing else.
A lot of good recommendations
A lot of good recommendations in this thread... Thanks! Lots of new stuff to check out now.
The phrase 'Tear that
The phrase 'Tear that building down' is borrowed from Blind Willie Smith and the song has a kind of ecological theme.
Obviously I meant Blind Willie Johnson.
No one mentioned The Fugs
No one mentioned The Fugs thus far. Proto-punk band inspired by the beat generation. Check out 'Nothing' and 'CIA Man'.
Jaycee Good to hear you have
Jaycee
Good to hear you have some new songs.
October_lost
I had forgotten about the Fugs.
There is Third World War.
Ah, the very wonderful Fugs.
Ah, the very wonderful Fugs. Tuli Kupferberg (memorably dressed as a soldier and masturbating his toy rifle on Wall Street on the opening credits to the film 'WR Mysteries of the Orgasm) is now 86! Their 'Wide, Wide River' echoes down through the years - "Roll on, roll on, river of shit. Big brown river .....we've got some guy that says 'For god's sake, we've got to stop having violence in this country', while he's spending $60,000 a second, snuffin' gooks."
David Rovics Oi Polloi No Fit
David Rovics
Oi Polloi
No Fit State
Left Over Crack
The Casual Terrorist
There's a scene in the final
There's a scene in the final act of Purcell's semi-opera, The Fairy Queen (1691-92), set in a 'Chinese Garden'. The song 'Thus happy and free' (Track 19, CD2 on the Harry Christophers 1991 recording) has a chorus that goes like this:
Thus wildly we live,
Thus freely we give
What Heaven as freely bestows.
We were not made
For labour and trade,
Which fools on each other impose.
The Rolling Stones? Quote: I
The Rolling Stones?
Wellclose Square One of my
Wellclose Square
One of my favourite operas: it is beautiful.
Crass-white punks on
Crass-white punks on hope....
Cliche i agree....but gets to the point fair and square :)
This:
This: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbgC3qw_OlM
Ernie wrote: Quote: One of my
Ernie wrote:
I've given it a lot of listens lately.
This is RAF punkwho were a
This is RAF punkwho were a hardcore band from Bologna, a little bit after the peak period of Autonomia.
They are a glorious shambolic mess!
JH wrote: Baderneiro - thanks
JH
If you remember the article, I'd like to see it. The only "anarchist" samba I ever heard is "Samba da Mais-Valia", or samba of surplus value, which sucked hard.
However, the musical style was born in the hills of Rio de Janeiro and there's a lot of really nice social critique on it and many times the taking of a proletarian point of view. Like in this samba of Cartola:
original
Translation
And there are many other examples out there.
Pemulwry wrote: This is RAF
Pemulwry
It's a terrible band name, but the one song by them I have on a comp is awesome. Most 80s Italian hardcore I've heard seems to have a nicely mental edge to it.
Baderneiro Miseravel
Baderneiro Miseravel
I only saw the name of the article in a list of references at the end of something else. I don't think the article itself is on-line anywhere - and now I can't find the reference.
It's always possible that there wasn't actually much that was explicitly political rather than giving a more general social commentary.
General Strike - Federation
General Strike - Federation
Baderneiro Miseravel
Baderneiro Miseravel
For the record: Samba da Mais-Valia
Baderneiro Miseravel
Samba do Operário
From Argentina Hijo del
From Argentina
Hijo del Pueblo
Hijo del pueblo
te oprimen cadenas
y esa injusticia
no puede seguir.
Si tu existencia
es un mundo de penas
antes que esclavo
prefiere morir.
Esos burgueses
asaz egoístas
que así desprecian
a la humanidad.
Serán barridos
por los anarquistas
al fuerte grito
de la libertad.
Ah, rojo pendón
no más sufrir
la explotación
ha de sucumbir.
Levántate
pueblo leal
al grito de
revolución social.
Viva la Anarquia
Oíd mortales el grito sagrado
de Anarquía y Solidaridad
oíd el ruido de bombas que estallan
en defensa de la Libertad.
El obrero que sufre proclama
la Anarquía del mundo a través
coronada su sien de laureles
y a sus plantas rendido el burgués.
De los nuevos mártires la gloria
sus verdugos osan envidiar
la grandeza anidó en sus pechos
sus palabras hicieron temblar.
Viva, viva la Anarquía!
No más el yugo sufrir
coronados de gloria vivamos
o juremos con gloria morir.
Al lamento del niño que grita:
dame pan, dame pan, dame pan,
le contesta la tierra temblando,
arrojando su lava el volcán.
Guerra a muerte, gritan los obreros
guerra a muerte al infame burgués,
guerra a muerte, repiten los héroes
de Chicago, París y Jerez.
Desde un polo hasta el otro resuena
ese grito que al burgués aterra,
y los niños repiten en coro:
nuestra patria, burgués, es la tierra.
Pablo Moses - Revolutionary
Pablo Moses - Revolutionary Step
They Might Be Giants - Never
They Might Be Giants - Never Go to Work
Johnny Cash - One Piece At A
Johnny Cash - One Piece At A Time
... and it never cost me a
... and it never cost me a dime
I've come a bit late to this
I've come a bit late to this thread - really interesting and informative - I think theres a distinction to be made between music that has an anarchist propagandist purpose and music that is made according to anarchist principles - in the latter category (though also including a propagandist/didactic dimension, particularly the composers) I'd include American composers John Cage and Christian Wolff (composer/improviser, libertarian socialist - check out 'Exercises', 'Wobbly Music', 'Changing The System') and Dutch composer Louis Andriessen (libertarian socialist - 'De Volharding', 'Workers Union'), free improvisation groups like MEV (musica electronica viva - a group of improvisers/composers originally based in Italy though mainly American) and AMM (see drummer Eddie Prevost's books 'No Sound is Innocent' and 'Minute Particulars'). Not always the easiest listening but an attempt by classically trained composers/players and improvisers to deal with anarchist/libertarian ideas and ways of working together...
why can't music 'made to
why can't music 'made to anarchist principles' sound enjoyable? nothing against experimentation but I don't see why 'anarchist principles', if they can be applied to music at all, should produce experimental noise rather than something 'pop'.
on that note...
no reason at all....but
no reason at all....but 'enjoyable' is a pretty subjective concept that raises all sorts of questions - some people enjoy industrial techno or hardcore thrash-punk but thats not easy listening either....I think what I was trying to suggest is that there are other ways of making music that don't conform to the music industry's modus operandi and such music-making can be a site for exploration of libertarian attitudes and activity. Music is big enough to embrace both 'pop' and 'experimental' and there's an audience for both. The reason why 'experimental' music has developed the way it has (and it exists in the 'pop' sphere too - I'd include non-dance electronica like Autechre for instance) is a pretty big subject too big to go into here probably.... all I can say is I enjoy Gang of 4, Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music, John Cage and crazy free improvisation equally and (as a musician and anarchist) find inspiration and stimulus for my own (musical and social) activity in all of them.
raize wrote: why can't music
raize
Comet Gain have a song called "Say Yes! to International Socialism"
here is a not so great live version on the ole youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySZwLaW97po
Live version was better than
Live version was better than the studio one, I thought, but still good. I downloaded a couple of ep's...
I wasn't trying to argue
I wasn't trying to argue against music not being 'enjoyable'/being experimental, just the implication that music made along anarchist lines will be avant garde, as though modern pop music is inextricably linked in form and structure to capitalism.
I see no reason why something that sounded like stock, aitken and waterman couldn't be produced in a 'anarchist way', (perhaps part of the problem is that I'm not entirely sure what you meant by anarchist principles when it comes to art)
Vlad: Sadly their wiki page said
which tainted them and made it very hard for me to like them afterwards :(
I was referring to the way
I was referring to the way that in the classical world there's a very clear hierarchy with the composer at the top (being the creative one) and the players as (uncreative) wage slaves whose job is to reproduce the composer's ideas as accurately as possible via the medium of the written score. Composers like Cage, Andriessen, Wolff etc. try to create situations where the players have ownership of the composed music as much as them, and groups like MEV and AMM make their own music (much as pop/rock/jazz/folk etc musicians do, only through free improvisation or 'instant composition' as some people call it) rather than reproducing other peoples' music. I dont think 'anarchist' music has to be experimental/avant-garde either, just in the classical world it tends to be (though Andriessen's written some pretty funky stuff - kind of classical punk...). Someone like Adorno would argue that popular music is inextricably linked in content and structure to capitalism but he was a musical snob.....
Quote: why can't music 'made
Yeah, I second that, though I don't believe that experimentation necessarily leads to non-enjoyable music.
We can do a lot of crazy stuff and still have music that is nice to listen. It's all a matter of equilibrating experimentation and niceness. We must fight pop music without ceasing to make popular music, fight commercial musical alienation without alienating the people with unlistenable stuff. It's hard, but it's not impossible!
Some time ago I started a blog in this theme. It's still in the beginning, though. Check it out: www.anarchofolk.wordpress.com (It's mostly in portuguese, but you get the idea!)
chansons anarchistes
chansons anarchistes
Quote: The Rolling
I'll take that back; I see Mick Jager lives in Mayfair!
Richard, General Strike's
Richard, General Strike's split with Sab Cats was available from ASF-IWA site under Audio, but now the link is broken. Do you know where I can get it?
Robot, I got some of the albums you mentioned here:
Georges Brassens
Les Anarchistes
Pour en Finir avec le Travail
found in the Wikipedia
found in the Wikipedia article on Andrew Eldritch: "Politically, he has claimed to be "traditionally a Labour supporter" despite his "anarcho-syndicalist tendencies"" ;)
Interesting discussion
Interesting discussion between igor and dano about experiemental music and the need not to alienate people.Not all free jazz is screaming sax (though a good feak out is great to listen to at the right time) it can be a whole mixture of styles etc. The Art Emsamble of Chicargo is a very good example. One of the problems is that music has become almost wallpaper, and there is no encouragement to either site and listen, or to learn how to appreciate music. This was one of the points that Adorno was getting at. I am speaking as someone how has no musical training and deeply regrets it.
I am not sure if anyone has raised this point, what about 'industrial' folk music. This was clearly hijacked by the Stalinists from the 30's onwards but there are some very moving and stirring songs by the likes of Vin Garbutt (City of Angles, reduces me to tears every time I hear it)
Talking about music appreciation, does anyone know of any good websites that deal with this?
Quote: was referring to the
Fair enough, my knowledge of classical music is pretty much limited to the first half of theThe Rest Is Noise. I still don't see anything inherently anarchistic in free form composition however (nothing particularly unanarchistic about it either mind), its just another form of creating sound. I don't really get how one ceases to be a wage-slave just by having input to a creative process. Likewise in a anarchist society I don't see anything wrong with people taking the lead from composers if they are willing to, in present society people seem quite content and happy in amateur groups/cover bands to basically emulate and perform someone else's ideas even if they have no 'ownership' of the intellectual property.
as far as i can see no one
as far as i can see no one has mentioned The Ex from the Netherlands. they've been around for ages (30 years), began as punk, crossed over to a more experimental sound.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H844aTFx2z4
unlike most anarchist punky bands they are listened to by musos and even non-anarchists (unbelievable!). unfortunately, most anarchos just seem to listen to that spanish revolution CD/photo book thing they did, but their music got much more interesting later on, esp in collaboration with Tom Cora, Han Buhrs etc
Rats wrote: You want some
Rats
For real, saw her live in Houston, great show, but she was a bit wasted
Rats wrote: You want some
Rats
For real, saw her live in Houston, great show, but she was a bit wasted
Thought this might of
Thought this might of interest:
http://www.christiebooks.com/ChristieBooksWP/2012/02/arena-3-anarchism-in-music-guest-edited-by-daniel-oguerin-9-95-inc-pp/
Radical - Anarchy
Radical - Anarchy
The first thing that came my
The first thing that came my to mind was Skryabin's unfinished Mysterium.
I mean, this was the most mental idea whose outcome was supposed to be nothing else than the end of the world...
"Scriabin intended that the performance of this work, to be given in the foothills of the Himalayas in India, would last seven days and would be followed by the end of the world, with the human race replaced by 'nobler beings'.”
Too bad he never finished it.
pretty subversive EL P -
pretty subversive
EL P - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lF8NuE5AdNA
ALLFLAWS - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NFcHz4pqIo
ATMOSPHERE - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4zvYLxZuf8
Cee Lo Green - Fuck You
Cee Lo Green - Fuck You
mindmatter wrote: EL P + 1
[quote=mindmatter]
EL P
+ 1
These are not specifically
These are not specifically anarchist, but express revolutionary socialist sentiment.
Style Council, Walls Come Tumbling Down!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElhC1jFz7-c
And Aztec Camera, Good Morning Britain
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WyChNh_p-E
I like them :)
VT (hip hop collective who
VT (hip hop collective who use folk samples from around the world) often have an anarchist message and are very working class - http://verbalterrorists.bandcamp.com/
I also saw Drowning Dog perform once (female anarchist mc) and she works with DJ Malatesta.
Try reggae anarcho-syndicalst
Try reggae anarcho-syndicalst stylee available from the ASF-IWA website. It features downloadable tunes from General Strike as well as The Sab-Cats.
(No subject)
[youtube]mDJRaUQ8TOQ[/youtube] ;-)
Doesn't Comrade malone have a
Doesn't Comrade malone have a new album out soon?
BEST IWW SONG
BEST IWW SONG
Not
Not this:
http://youtu.be/WG6XF84ymsQ
What's really funny about this one is that is made by a capitalist that has found a nice little niche in the alternative/life stylist scene, and is doing very nicely from it.
Stonking baseline though.
for those interested in
for those interested in industrial type stuff here's a band from Belgium
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aauyGe_szzs
Keeping it simple - The
Keeping it simple - The Blackleg Miner:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFG3C02kmtk
General Strike now available
General Strike now available on Soundcloud
https://soundcloud.com/lugius-commilito/fed5
The latest from General
The latest from General Strike:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/General-Strike/677702198927384?ref=hl
Witold Lutoslawski's Symphony
Witold Lutoslawski's Symphony No.3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NK8gvqWEFpk about the Polish uprising against the Russian-backed police state - full of tension, hope, horror, repression, exultation and hectic random motion redolent of the news scenes at the time
Luciano Berio's Sinfonia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZpU7ZR3PXA written in 1968 about the French uprisings and using a multitude of sources for its text from Beckett and Levi-Strauss to the situationist-style wall slogans each broken up into its sounds and interacting on multiple levels, the running street battles and confrontations at the barricades, the sit-ins, the repression make up a lot of the musical subject matter contained within a vast theatre of collective memory
Lugius wrote: General Strike
Lugius
I am very confused. I couldn't listen to the latest as I don't do Facebook but listened to this one and I can't figure out what cheesy cod reggae with Rolf Harris playing lead on the Stylophone has got to do with anarchism???
Webby wrote: Lugius
Webby
haha! Everyone should start soundtracking their riotporn with this stuff it would do wonders for the image of anarchism.
Anyway Webby I reccon you should come out of your closet now and do a three page thread with your own true music selection. I've been sensing some self censoring for a while now!
Webby wrote: Quote: I am very
Webby wrote:
Sorry about that, I posted the wrong link, try this:
https://soundcloud.com/lugius-commilito/federation-radio-edit
Cooked wrote: Webby
Cooked
Coo! The throwing down of a gauntlet, eh?
Alrighty then! Anarchist music? Well, I only know about the dreaded 'Anarcho Punk'. Yeah, I know it's pretty unpopular around here but to me it was extremely important and very exciting. There I was, 16 years old, interested only in music, clothes, drugs and girls and then I read the fold out sleeve of a Flux of Pink Indians single - it covered war, animal abuse and all the isms you can imagine. My head just fucking exploded! Life became so much more interesting and purposeful. Every aspect of life needed reevaluating. Nihilistic punk bullshit became the last thing that I wanted to aspire to. Punk was now a positive force that could do something worth doing instead of lining the pockets of revolting Westbourne Grove trendies like The Clash and their ilk.
The gigs were phenomenal! Crass and 15 other bands plus free soup at the squatted Zig Zag Club for 50p. The Ambulance Station squat in the Old Kent Road where I saw, amongst others, a 15 year old Bjork. In no time me and my mates formed a band and played at the Ambulance Station as well. We also toured with 2 of my favourite bands at the time - DIRT and Antisect. We were shit but they gave us a go and we had a blast!
The much maligned Crass started it and pretty much saw it through. I FUCKING LOVED CRASS!!! There energy, their dedication, their incredible artwork and most of all their brilliant sense of humour which all of the po faced haters never fail to miss. Ok, so they didn't offer a viable anarchist revolutionary theory - like I gave a fuck at that time. Through them I got my first glimpse into the stinking world of government, corporations and religion. I also got my first taste of feminism(check out the album Penis Envy), anti racism etc.
Certainly they could be labeled life stylists and I find lifestyleism to a pretty empty concept these days but I'm not going to throw the baby out with the bath water.
On the musical front, at the later stages some truly original and interesting music was made. Crass, Flux and Antisect smashed it, especially Flux - their Uncarved Block album still cuts the mustard to this day.
Say what you like, but at the very least anarcho punk woke up millions of young people to the shit that was happening in the world. Ok, so most of them did fuck all about it but many changed their attitude to a more honest and caring one.
It's easy, if it didn't affect you, to sneer at its impotence and many faults. Question it if you like but in the words of Crass, I would reply with my own question - 'and what if I told you to fuck off?!'.
As for my own music selection, maybe later. For now though, getting back to the OP, here is an anarchist playing some music:
http://youtu.be/Veely6MOyGo
Available for weddings, bar mitzvahs and funerals.
Well its the Sex Pistols of
Well its the Sex Pistols of course silly!
I'm very disappointed with
I'm very disappointed with you lot - after months of holding back I finally put my pro anarcho punk position out there and no response. Where are the expected withering comments and the poker up the arse deconstructions? Not even a single down vote or a 'is that really you in the video Webby, you fat bastard'?
Pah! What a bunch of lamearse slackers.
Webby wrote: I'm very
Webby
I'm actually a vintage slack-dick mate!!
Eastern Barbarian
Eastern Barbarian
It seems that the web page is down from quite long.
Can anybody help me to find that songs? I offer myself to exchange revolutionary anarchist music. Contact me in my Twitter account: @Pez_Robot. Thanks in advance
Anarchist lyrics Fuck is
Anarchist lyrics
Fuck is women's money.
We pay with our bodies.
There is no purity in our love.
No beauty. Just bribery.
It's all the fucking same.
We make soldiers with our submission.
Wars with our isolation.
Fuck is womens money.
We pay with our bodies.
There no purity in motherhood.
No beauty. Just bribery.
It's all the fucking same.
We are all slaves to sexual histories.
Our awareness of whoredom can be release.
War is mens money.
They pay with their bodies.
There is no purity in that game,
Only blood, death and bribery.
It's all the fucking same.
But we've got the power.
Don't just stand there and take submission on the strength of fear.
FIGHT WAR, NOT WARS.
I stumbled across this
I stumbled across this through a google search, and finally created a Libcom account just to reply. The anarchist/conscious/revolution music scene is absolutely HUGE and getting bigger every year :-) Not all of these folks would self-identify, and not all of them are quite there with their philosophy, but they are all on the path at least. Here are some of my favorites (I will most likely end up editing as I remember more):
Since I'm typing this on a phone, and the ratio is very distinct, I'm only going to label the artists who are not hip-hop. After spending well over an hour making this list nice links to every one of these artists, the website told me that it was considered spam, so here's just the names I guess.
Alais Clay
Brother Ali
DISL Automatic
Dustin Thomas (Beat-Boxing, Acoustic Guitar, etc)
Fetti Profoun/The Profoun Poet
Freedom Movement (Jazz-Hop)
Jordan Page (Acoustic Rock)
Keith Wallace
Kite 9d3
Kurt David Robinson
MC Xander (Vocal Looping, Reggae-Hop)
Medicine for the People (World)
Metanoia (Big Band)
Michael Franti & Spearhead (Reggae-Rock-Hop)
Mike Love (Reggae)
Payday Monsanto
Peace Officer
Potent Whisper
Ralph Smart (Hard to Genre)
Rebelution (Reggae)
Rob Hustle
Shea Freedom (Hard to Genre)
Steve Grant
Soul Pros
The Polish Ambassador (Electronic)
Tommy Truther (Pop Rock)
Trillion (Hard to Genre)
Triumph (Rock)
Truniversal
Wandering Monks (Big Band Hip-Hop)
Wookiefoot (Reggae-Rock-Hip-Hop-Funk)
Your Friendly Neighborhood Anarchists (Punk/Metal)
If you have the links, please
If you have the links, please PM them to me and I'll add them or turn them into a library article.
Why isn't there an up-up-like
Why isn't there an up-up-like for this? I just got so much of their music recently (to mention as a feat!) since their albums can be difficult to come by.
Why isn't there an up-up-like
Why isn't there an up-up-like for this? I just got so much of their music recently (to mention as a feat!) since their albums can be difficult to come by.
In response to Wellclose Square, first page.
Wellclose Square: "Not anarchist with a capital 'A', but I think Rembetika music from Greece was pretty anti-establishment/subcultural - celebrating the dissolute lifestyle of the 'Mangas' (or am I getting mixed up with comics?) of the Piraeus area of Athens in the '30s, '40s and '50s. Rembetika was the music of the Hellenic speakers of Asia Minor, expelled from Turkey in 1922, with oriental influences and bringing with them the bouzouki - it became known as 'the Greek blues', and was rediscovered by young anarchists in the late 1960s. Worth checking out is stuff by someone surnamed Janitsaris or Gennitsaris (both are googleable, I'm sure), who had his bouzouki smashed by police and was imprisoned on an island by a right-wing regime in the '30s for smoking dope and being a rembete - he featured on a BBC 2 documentary about 15 or so years ago (on You Tube, I think - just enter 'Rembetika')."
There’s a song on YouTube
There’s a song on YouTube under the title 1936-Spanish Revolution with English subtitles.Accompanied by a great video and performed by a Spanish punk band.
Also The Ex-1936-The Spanish Revolution
La Barricadas is beautiful
What happened to Comrade
What happened to Comrade Malone?
wojtek wrote: What happened
wojtek
Was wondering this recently too.
An insight into the politics
An insight into the politics of Chumbawamba
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/jan/14/chumbawamba-alice-nutter-trust-tv
Sometimes you just gotta do
Sometimes you just gotta do the right thing...
https://youtu.be/3w5AxET519E
ajjohnstone wrote: An insight
ajjohnstone
So Nutter is a fucking door knocker for Corbyn, eh? It’s times like this that I wish I could figure out how to post emojis on here - the facepalm one would fit the bill nicely.
Noah Fence
Noah Fence
Might find this useful for emojis.
I'd recommend Pop Group if they haven't already been mentioned, maybe slightly less crass and abrasive than Crass but still have some pretty political songs ("We're All Prostitutes" etc.).
I like some elements of 90s hip hop but still find other aspects appalling (misogyny, working-class violence and so on). There are groups like the Coup who've done more overtly political hip hop and are against all those tendencies (Riley actually collaborated with 2Pac in the 90s). I like this by Nas (I'm not sure if the "represented by dead fucking presidents" bit refers to money or the guillotine, or both).
Pretty sure I saw the Pop
Pretty sure I saw the Pop Group around 1980.
For political hip hop B Dolan is brilliant. On stage he’s even better.
Noah Fence wrote: Pretty sure
Noah Fence
I'm guessing they didn't leave much of an impression on you? I saw also the Stewart guy worked with Tricky (that's more trip hop though I guess). I think I've heard of Dolan. I'd also suggest Ceschi for political hip hop/folk punk, and Run the Jewels are another political hip hop group, but I'm not that fond of them.
Tell you the truth, I had a
Tell you the truth, I had a bit of a prejudice against them at the time - the We are all Prostitutes t-shirt was really popular and it was around that time I developed a hatred of band t-shirts and other merch, so probably rather stupidly I gave them a swerve. My girlfriend has just informed me that she saw them several times and that they were pretty splendid. If you’ve got any sense you’ll take notice of her and ignore me!
Maybe you’ll like this one
Maybe you’ll like this one Zugzwang? Political rap.
https://youtu.be/OO18F4aKGzQ
Noah Fence wrote: Maybe
Noah Fence
It's not bad, don't instantly hate it. There are probably lots of nice political hip hop groups/artists around.
Found this by Royal Family and the Poor in my bookmarks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3iQ52UqFrQ
I was introduced the the
I was introduced the the concept of anarchism in(I think) 1981 by reading the fold out cover of a record by Flux of Pink Indians. This is one of their later songs, I particularly like this lyric...
https://youtu.be/iaNeB5MZIQg
Noah Fence wrote: I was
Noah Fence
Nice stuff, think I've come across them. Don't think there's a 70s, 80s punk/post-punk band whose name doesn't at least ring a bell from all the band-googling I've done over the years (strangely though I couldn't picture myself ever attending any type of concert). What did you think of the Smiths? I believe one of their songs has a Crass reference in it, "Still Ill"; Smiths have a lot of lyrics actually that could be interpreted as anarchist if you ask me.
Quote: What did you think of
The Smiths were fucking ace!
You’re darn tootin’
Morrisey sang
An accidental one I should imagine. Crass had a song called Do They Owe Us A Living?
That Smiths song has the lyric(I think) ‘England is mine(or ours?), and it owes us a living.
Doubt it’s an intended reference. Still, I’d love it if it was!
Flux are a contender for one
Flux are a contender for one of the most unexpected cultural after-effects of anarcho-punk - I'd love to know the chain of transmission that led from Tube Disasters in 1981 to the bassline turning up in a Professor Green song in 2008/9.
And yeah, I think that line in Still Ill is a coincidence - but thinking about it, it could be read as Morrissey shouting out both Crass and a somewhat more dodgy/in line with his recent persona Cock Sparrer song?
For political hip-hop, have people heard Dalek? I think the overall philosophy is more black nationalist/pan-African, but they've got some good lines, and some fantastic cold industrial beats. Think they sample Chomsky on one of the last two albums. Try A Beast Caged for starters.
Come on then RT - were you
Come on then RT - were you part of the anarcho punk thing?
Fucking hell! That Cock
Fucking hell! That Cock Sparrer song has to be a contender go the worst music I’ve ever heard, and speaking as someone that’s heard Jimi Hendrix, that’s saying something!
I mean, I wasn't actually
I mean, I wasn't actually around for the 80s, but definitely a fan of a lot of the music. As it happens, a lot of my IRL activity over the few months was supporting the RMT strikes on Northern Rail, and after going down there a few times it turned out that a healthy proportion of the regular pickets at my local train station shared my love of Conflict and Discharge, in the middle of a reminiscing session one of them came out with "remember that compilation Crass put out? Got to give them credit, they certainly managed to detect a lot of bullshit for that one."
Noah Fence
Noah Fence
Not the scolding I was expecting, was half joking there, but yeah I like the Smiths too. Reel Around is probably my favorite track of theirs (think I prefer the non-sexual interpretation of it; most of the Smiths' songs are actually about sex, not that there's anything wrong with that) though they have a lot of nice stuff and some of Morrissey's solo stuff isn't bad either. Morrissey tries really hard to be hated it seems though, and I didn't really care for his comments on Manchester bombing or some of the other stuff he's said/done.
Haha! Can’t ima why Mozza
Haha! Can’t ima why Mozza hates Polyester though...
https://youtu.be/dYwDXfBJ9ZY
Will the bad boy get the gal
Will the bad boy get the gal or will she have to marry the bourgeois?
Henry Garat & Danielle Darrieux (with Emile Prud’homme playing accordion) - C'est un mauvais garcon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ljq3Jr0d6Qw
Compare the Beatles'
Compare the Beatles' anti-direct action Revolution:
https://genius.com/The-beatles-revolution-lyrics
With Nina Simone's emancipatory version released within a year later:
https://genius.com/Nina-simone-revolution-lyrics
Mike Harman wrote: Compare
Mike Harman
Here’s a great little anecdote about Nina Simone...
https://youtu.be/Ge842COFHSs
Mike Harman wrote: Compare
Mike Harman
There's also Swiss metal band Sybreed's "Re-evolution" song
https://genius.com/Sybreed-reevolution-lyrics
Revolution
Revolution Action!
https://youtu.be/i8JBUktSxvQ
Ehg https://youtu.be/KUC8m13N
Ehg
https://youtu.be/KUC8m13NdEI
zugzwang wrote: Mike Harman
zugzwang
Simone is amazing btw. Some nice covers she has too:"Ooh Child" and another Beatles song "Here Comes the Sun". Also this: Wiki
I might also mention Lennon's "Working Class Hero"... will that get me a scolding?
Mike Harman #206 Comparing
Mike Harman #206
Comparing The Beatles and Nina Simone’s take on ‘Revolution’ reminded me of a discussion some time ago regarding Bob Dylan’s ‘Only a pawn in their game’ (1963) and Donovan’s ‘Universal Soldier’ (1965).
Both songs deal with violence and its causes. Dylan locates the murder of Medgar Evers in the social and political structure of society, particularly the racist manipulation of poor whites by the ruling class and their lackeys. Donavan conversely suggests an unchanging human cycle of fighting for peace based on individual choice. Whimsical bollocks IMO.
Dylan:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KY2lQV3ADfc
Donavan:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UC9pc4U40sI
Quote: Whimsical bollocks
What a great name for Donavan’s ‘best of’ album, though I must say the word ‘best’ seems somewhat incongruous!
R Totale wrote Quote: in the
R Totale wrote
Haha, I missed that. Funny and true. I believe it was worth it’s release though just for the name of one of the tracks, ‘High on a hill with Pink Floyd tattooed on my arm man’ by Rudimentary Peni
Noah Fence wrote: Revolution
Noah Fence
Cheers Noah, never heard these guys before but I've been listening to their 60 Second Wipeout non-stop
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLmMyLPQQLc