Re: [Marxism] Two rock-and-roll band documentaries

["Carlos A. Rivera" <cerejota@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Calvin Broadbent" <calvinbroadbent@xxxxxxxxxxx>

> In response to Louis' own review of the Ramones and Metallica
> 'rocumentaries', I would just say a couple of things. I think Louis makes
> an interesting point in counterposing the ideology behind a lot of punk
> and metal music to that of the rock music of the 1960s.

I think you read too much into it. Had Louis attempted a comprehensive
review of the political landscape of metal and punk, I would have disagreed
profoundly. But by narrowing it down to the Ramones and Metallica, I am much
more open to the contrast.

Punk and Metal were both born in the late 60s early 70s, even if they broke
in by 1977 (much like grunge was around in the mid-80s but breaks in
1991-92).

Culture-wise, the break with the hippies was in the mid-60s, with the
emergence of the working-class hard-mods (who listened to Soul and
Ska/Reggae) in the UK, and with the biker culture in the USA (ironically,
bikers in the UK were enemies of the Hard Mods).

Bands such as The Who and The Kinks (the whole british invasion crowd) were
part of this.

In the USA, metal was born with MC5, who were a harder version of hippies,
and left-wing.

> Undoubtedly, the punk and metal rejection of the dreamy hedonism of the
> more popular end of the hippy scene led those forms into some murky
> political waters.

Not any different from the murky waters the hippies ended up.

> To be fair, the metal band Black Sabbath (perhaps the principal
> originators of that musical style, in my view) were by no means an
> authoritarian or conservative group. Early Black Sabbath lyrics are
> definitely more politically aware than those of their descendents.

Black Sabbath was the finest example of proletarian rock ever.

> Likewise, there is absolutely loads of punk music that has embraced
> left-wing ideas in its lyrics.

Most of it, mind you.

There are 3 distintly reactionary, sizeable but still minorities within the
wide punk "movement", there is the RAC-White Power rock, with mainly British
origins, there is the Ramones school of silly individualist american punk,
and there is nihilist punk of the Sex pistols. All

The rest of punk owes alligiance to The Clash, Angelic Upstarts, Iggy & The
Stooges (Search & Destroy is one of the finest anti-war anthems ever, done
while vietnam was still a war). To this day, any non-commercial punk

> Still, Louis' suggestion that punk has some sort of inbuilt antipathy
> toward collective action is not too wide of the mark- most left-wing punk
> is basically agressive anarchism.

I will disagree with this categorization of anarchism as immediately
anti-collective. Most of the anarchism exposed by political punk is
precisely of the collective sort, from The Clash's anthems in "Sandinista!"
to Anti-Flag's "Underground Network" (which has the only non-Rican song I
have heard address Vieques):


"Vieques, Puerto Rico: Bikini Revisited"

All united, all as one, let's make a stand...
We've got a privilege in the power that we command !
So let's not drown in ignorance,
And let our strenght waste away...
As the richest nation in the world, we've got a responsibility !

Vieques, Puerto Rico, a protectorate -- of the USA.
Part a home for native families, the rest...
A NAVY BOMBING RANGE !!

Shells misfired kill civilians there,
And napalm hangs in the island air.
But the government beats down protests against this misuse...

So...

STAND UP, FIGHT BACK, RESIST-REFUSE !!
'Cause if we don't do it, no one's going to...
So,
STAND UP, FIGHT BACK, RESIST-REFUSE !!
'Cause if we don't do it, no one's going to...

I look into the eyes, of a dead island boy's face.
His eyes remind me of another's,
> From a different time and place...

Where A-Bombs baked the ground,
Of Bikini's tropical lands.
Where a culture was erased,
Families misplaced,
BY A NAZI-LIKE PLAN !!!

All done, in your name, by Uncle Sam...
So if we don't fight it, then we're guilty too!

So...

STAND UP, FIGHT BACK, RESIST-REFUSE !!
'Cause if we don't do it, no one's going to...

I think it's 'bout time that we had a change...
I think it's 'bout time that WE MAKE A CHANGE !!

As a Puerto Rican who went to jail for Vieques' freedom, I am somewaht
ashamed that the best song about vieques, the one who calls for
organization, that connects that struggle to Bikini, that empowers all of us
to fight back, was written not by a puerto rican socialist folk singer, but
by an anarchist punk band from Pittsburg, PA.

But more to the point, not just angry individualist anarchism, but a call
for organization that would have made Lenin proud.


> Some metal bands- most notably Birmingham's seminal Napalm Death, Brazil's
> Sepultura, and New Jersey's brilliant Brutal Truth- have purveyed fully
> anti-capitalist ideras in their songs.

Sepultura is openly pro-MST, and have played benefits for them.

Napalm Death is seminal in one more respect...

Until they appeared, Crustcore/Grindcore, was basically apolitical gutural
screams of sophomoric terror stories. Since Napalm Death, and Morbid Angel,
this scene is increasingly political, to the point that Grindcore is as of
today considered mostly a left-wing music, in contrast to Black Metal's
reaction and sometimes fascism.

Granted, some of this leftism is about animal rights, anti-homophobia,
anti-racism/anti-fascism, not red flag waving communism, but it is far from
the reactionary individualism Lou would have us belive.

For example, the only band in the USA (that I know of) who is openly
pro-CPP/NPA/NDF is a grindcore band.

Flattbush:
http://www.flattbush.com/headquarters.html

Complete with a short class in maoism:

"Expose and Oppose"

Its a sure win if we face the facts and act on them
Remold against subjective, anarchic and liberal type
Confront the real not your imaginay tooth fairy
Expose oppose imperialist that breeds and kill!!!

Intense lives they are squeezing us and dying slow
In return to this, ratatatatatatat!!!
Expand our force, build the united effective front
In factories, countryside, in our schools, church...

Oh men and women
Expose and oppose
Oppose imperialist that kills!!!

> Nonetheless, I believe that the vast majority of heavy metal music is more
> or less right-wing. Either we have endless paeans to War and Death (a la
> California's musically brilliant Slayer),

Who are right wingers on their own right.

> or endless whining about the singer's grim emotional state (most of the
> contemporary metal bands).

Not unlike the hippie's, mind you.

> With Metallica there is usually both- IMHO, they haven't made a good album
> since 'Ride the Lightning'.

Which is ironic, because Metallica's greatest political album is "...And
Justice for All", which is quite after "Ride the Lightning".

For example the anti-war master piece "One", the refflective yet political
"Blackened" and "Harvester of Sorrows" etc.

"ONE"

I can't remember anything
Can't tell if this is true or dream
Deep down inside I feel to scream
This terrible silence stops me
Now that the war is through with me
I'm waking up I can not see
That there is not much left of me
Nothing is real but pain now

Hold my breath as I wish for death
Oh please God,wake me

Back in the womb its much too real
In pumps life that I must feel
But can't look forward to reveal
Look to the time when I'll live
Fed through the tube that sticks in me
Just like a wartime novelty
Tied to machines that make me be
Cut this life off from me

Hold my breath as I wish for death
Oh please God,wake me

Now the world is gone I'm just one
Oh God, help me
Hold my breath as I wish for death
Oh please God, help me

Darkness imprisoning me
All that I see
Absolute horror
I cannot live
I cannot die
Trapped in myself
Body my holding cell

Landmine has taken my sight
Taken my speech
Taken my hearing
Taken my arms
Taken my legs
Taken my soul
Left me with life in hell

> Anyway, I think a good class analysis of the development of these musical
> forms (in terms of the class background of the performers and the fans and
> also the class context wherein such virulently macho identities are
> packaged) would be interesting.

I agree. A lot of rock n roll is still how the mostly white working class
deals with oppression, much like hip-hop for the mostly black working class.
Yet ironically both genres continue to spouse in the mainstream the values
of their own oppression. This has been explored mainly by post-modern
culture studies types, but it would indeed be nice to see a class thing.

> At any rate, I think if people want to listen to good lyrics they would do
> well to listen to good (less commercial) hip hop music and a lot of the
> folk music of the past.

I disagree. Music is subjective, and hence, a term such a "good lyrics" is
quite problematic. Good in what sense? Good writing? I mean, Marx admired
Balzac, even if he was a reactionary, simply because he was a good writter.
And while I have a taste for social-constructivist art, a lot of it is quite
frankly shite, regardless of how ideologically correct it is.

sks


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