Anarchist music?

Nice article about Gil Scott Heron in yesterday's Independent - 'The Revolution Will Not Be Televised'.

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 a look at those thanks.

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 good yes.

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

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'.

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 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" black metal band from Vancouver, Canada.

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 flamenco singer
vivir la utopia

Canti Anarchici di Pietro Gori

Corrido a Flores Magón

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 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.

http://www.myspace.com/vidaseca

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 in this thread... Thanks! Lots of new stuff to check out now.

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 thus far. Proto-punk band inspired by the beat generation. Check out 'Nothing' and 'CIA Man'.

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. 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 State
Left Over Crack
The Casual Terrorist

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?

Wellclose Square

One of my favourite operas: it is beautiful.