Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] "Working Class Hero"
It's a nice post, CJ On Wed, Dec 15, 2010 at 11:12 PM, CeJ wrote: > Looks like at the archive a couple songs got clipped out--perhaps too > long a post? > > Here is what didn't make it to the archive: > > > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOTHdjymnW0 > > Atom and Cell > David Sylvian > > Her skin was darker than ashes > And she had something to say > Bout being naked to the elements > At the end of yet another day > And the rain on her back that continued to fall > From the bruise of her lips > Swollen, fragile, and small > > And the bills that you paid with were worth nothing at all > A lost foreign currency > Multi-coloured, barely reputable > Like the grasses that blew in the warm summer breeze > Well she offered you this to do as you pleased > > And where is the poetry? > Didn't she promise us poetry? > > The redwoods, the deserts, the tropical ease > The swamps and the prairie dogs, the Joshua trees > The long straight highways from dirt road to tar > Hitching your wheels to truck, bus, or car > > And the lives that you hold in the palm of your hand > You toss them aside small and damn near unbreakable > You drank all the water and you pissed yourself dry > Then you fell to your knees and proceeded to cry > > And who could feel sorry for a drunkard like this > In a democracy of dunces with a parasites kiss? > > And where are the stars? > Didn't she promise us stars? > > > Nothing will ever be as it was > The price has been paid with a thousand loose shoes > Pictures are pasted on shop windows and walls > Like a poor mans Boltanski > Lost one and all. > > Sell, sell > Bid your farewell > Come, come > Save yourself > Give yourself over > Pushing your consciousness > Deep into every atom and cell, > Sell, > Bid your farewell > Come, come > Save yourself > Give yourself over > Pushing your consciousness > Deep into every atom and cell, > Sell, > Bid your farewell > Come, come > Save yourself > Give yourself over > Pushing your consciousness > > > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_Uz8ud1qns&feature=related > > What are you working for? > Stuart Adamson and Big Country > > There was a crooked man and he wore a crooked smile > He built a crooked highway and it ran for miles and miles > With money from the revenue and sponsorship from Ford > But it barely holds together with the goodwill of the Lord > > In the penthouse of the baron, the little children sleep > Daddy talks to smugglers while armed guerillas creep > Poison for the great unwashed, business for the mob > Another teenage murder, it's just trouble on the job > > Now I see what I must see > > The poor do time the rich go free > You keep the faith and they keep score > Is this what you are working for > > A newsleak in the city, another scandal breaks > Sex and drugs in city hall, someone on the make > Legal bounty hunters aim their lawsuits well > The victim talks to Playboy says I guess I'll go to hell > > ___ > Marxism-Thaxis mailing list > Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu > To change your options or unsubscribe go to: > http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis > ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] "Working Class Hero"
Looks like at the archive a couple songs got clipped out--perhaps too long a post? Here is what didn't make it to the archive: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOTHdjymnW0 Atom and Cell David Sylvian Her skin was darker than ashes And she had something to say Bout being naked to the elements At the end of yet another day And the rain on her back that continued to fall >From the bruise of her lips Swollen, fragile, and small And the bills that you paid with were worth nothing at all A lost foreign currency Multi-coloured, barely reputable Like the grasses that blew in the warm summer breeze Well she offered you this to do as you pleased And where is the poetry? Didn't she promise us poetry? The redwoods, the deserts, the tropical ease The swamps and the prairie dogs, the Joshua trees The long straight highways from dirt road to tar Hitching your wheels to truck, bus, or car And the lives that you hold in the palm of your hand You toss them aside small and damn near unbreakable You drank all the water and you pissed yourself dry Then you fell to your knees and proceeded to cry And who could feel sorry for a drunkard like this In a democracy of dunces with a parasites kiss? And where are the stars? Didn't she promise us stars? Nothing will ever be as it was The price has been paid with a thousand loose shoes Pictures are pasted on shop windows and walls Like a poor mans Boltanski Lost one and all. Sell, sell Bid your farewell Come, come Save yourself Give yourself over Pushing your consciousness Deep into every atom and cell, Sell, Bid your farewell Come, come Save yourself Give yourself over Pushing your consciousness Deep into every atom and cell, Sell, Bid your farewell Come, come Save yourself Give yourself over Pushing your consciousness http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_Uz8ud1qns&feature=related What are you working for? Stuart Adamson and Big Country There was a crooked man and he wore a crooked smile He built a crooked highway and it ran for miles and miles With money from the revenue and sponsorship from Ford But it barely holds together with the goodwill of the Lord In the penthouse of the baron, the little children sleep Daddy talks to smugglers while armed guerillas creep Poison for the great unwashed, business for the mob Another teenage murder, it's just trouble on the job Now I see what I must see The poor do time the rich go free You keep the faith and they keep score Is this what you are working for A newsleak in the city, another scandal breaks Sex and drugs in city hall, someone on the make Legal bounty hunters aim their lawsuits well The victim talks to Playboy says I guess I'll go to hell ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] "Working Class Hero"
I was trying to think of songs that actually expressed working class consciousness outside of accepting the fantasy that 'pop music' is one means to escape it (either through commercial success from making it or being transported somewhere while listening to it). Or songs that actually acknowledge the existence of working class. My memory takes me back to the 70s and 80s, or to artists who continued producing after that but come from that time. Some of it seems to be working class rejection and parody of bourgeois values (something the Beatles stood out for but most didn't understand that back in the 1960s). The first song on my list is trying to be an anthem for the working class but ends on a less than hopeful note. The Skids' song 'Charles' strikes me now as one I actually hadn't understood back in 1978 when I first heard it. I thought the factory job had resulted in some sort of physical injury, but what the song is really saying is that when you participate in a machinic assembly line you become a machine that loses human thinking ability and feeling, while your life is worth as much as a machine written off the books as obsolete. The Skids were a punk/post-punk band of the late 70s. Stuart Adamson would go on to form Big Country, whose name seemed to confuse Americans (they were more hard rock and Celtic folk rock but did do some country later). The Mekons 'Millionaire' is simply brilliant. They got started as one of the acts that always got compared to Gang of Four (there is some similarity of sound). David Sylvian's song, it seems to me, is about how working class status helps define the foreign other--we want 'poetry' from them in their existence, but once we see them closer to how they are (desperate, disposable, but 'damn near unbreakable'), we are changed. I know it sounds like a cliche' but the 'third world poverty' I have seen near tourist resorts always struck me as people with more dignity than the poor of a 'developed democracy' like the US. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rF5t4FH5B4Y&feature=related Belief In The Small Man Stuart Adamson/Big Country --- Just as one life turns from birth Just as the ring finds its worth Just as the leaf turns to gold So you and I will be sold Chorus Sold for the work done While we could feel young Sold for the new son Gold for the pure one Where does our home lie When is our own Lonely the cold cry Only unknown Dark comes the night on the aged Hard comes the day still unpaid yet All in a bed still unmade it Chokes like the tomb and it says its Chorus (three times) Unknown, unknown Chorus Where does our home lie When is our own Lonely the cold cry Only unknown Unknown, unknown http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50LwbnBlk6A&feature=related Millionaire Mekons everybody's so in love but they don't touch or meet eyes all stinging eyes all red a bunch of flowers in the street i love a millionaire the champagne was never cheap but i could pay someone to drink it for me never rise up from these sheets watching time just roll away stretching out my bones a million miles from home lust corrodes my body i've lost count of my lovers but i can count my money for ever and forever dreaming of a creature who is too pale and large to stand and only feels the terror of his vain flight from earth http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySHOOnhpCy8&feature=related America Killing Joke I can survive the rat race honey Time is money and money is honey, honey My megabucks your symmetrical beauty Together we can serve the nation - yeah! The quality of life filled us all with pride America And as I watched I just cried and cried How I love America I will buy you rich perfumes And we will eat the finest foods A mansion in New England A silver dollar for every child Where everybody has got their price They'll sustain our way of life You and I will fly to Rio I'll make you feel like a millionaire I can survive the rat race honey Time is money and money is honey, honey My megabucks your symmetrical beauty Together we can serve the nation - yeah! The quality of life filled us all with pride America And as I watched I just cried and cried How I love America West is best and might is right And with our allies - fight the good fight A first class, five star enterprise Now everybody's got to compromise My moral code's on overload Liberty still takes it's toll Take a look at the losers wasting in the bars Where they cut their losses! I can survive the rat race honey Time is money, and money is honey, honey My megabucks your symmetrical beauty Together we can serve the nation - yeah! The quality of life filled us all with pride America And as I watched I just cried and cried How I love America There were fireworks in the Gulf There was champagne at home - How I love America But showbiz and Hollywood still shouted out - America http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pEGM47bkvQ Charles The Skids Charles got a job in a factory Drilling sheet metal from six till three Work
[Marxism-Thaxis] Working Class Hero - John Lennon
Working Class Hero - John Lennon http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njG7p6CSbCU ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
