Music To Shout Racist Taunts To

It's been a looooooooong time coming but finally it is here: Yay, more new music.

This week's music is old though, so: Yay, more old music!

I was planning on putting these tracks up with this post but me being me, nothing came of it. Until now!

Today, for your ears' enjoyment, it's the Morrissey Racism Roadshow:

National Front Disco from Your Arsenal - A delightful little story about a boy who runs off to join the circus, sorry, the National Front (one of England's more openly "nationalistic" political parties). The upbeat cheeriness of the tune belies the fact that the story is obviously not glorifying the whole idea. Morrissey apparently tried to get that across eventually... From Wikipedia: "He later cleared it up in the fanzine Sing Your Life (Issue 5) that the song was about someone he knew who was politically naive and had gone to an "NF Disco" (one of Griffin/Anderson's many attempts to win favour with the young during their "Let A Thousand Initiatives Bloom!" phase of the 1980s). This person found himself promptly ostracised by local people and friends equally politically naive."

Bengali In Platforms: Viva Hate - Another little story of alienation in society, which is Morrissey's bread and butter. Even so, the lyric "Don't hate me just because I am the one to tell you that life is hard enough when you belong here" does seem to sit outside of the frame of the story and sounds rather more like a comment. Ill advised, considering the majority of the Bengali population living in London at the time were most probably born here. On top of that why should somebody who is not born here not belong. Oh, fuck it, it is just a really stupid demeaning lyric to put in a song.

Ambitious Outsiders from Maladjusted - I don't think this track ever got Morrissey in trouble, mainly I think because nobody was listening to his music at the time this was released. I love the cinematic nature of the music and the creepy, claustrophobic "we're taking over from within" tone. I would have thought more people would have taken issue with this tale, which borders on the paedophilic "Top of the list are your smiling kids, but we'll be smiling too, so that's okay... and we know when the school bus comes and goes" I love the way he articulates all the fears that suburbia has of subcultures without ever naming what exactly is going on.

Trouble Loves Me from Maladjusted - Nothing creepy here, just general Mos morbidity/catharsis. This was the standout track at the Ally Pally. This track is the reason I revisited this album. It certainly had more punch live but I still love the recording.

Alma Matters from Maladjusted - The track that almost balances out the six or so duds on the album. I loved it as soon as I heard it and it comes right at the top of the album so there was so much promise (I've given you tracks 2, 3, 4 here and it is only down from there. Still, you have to love this classic track.

Now take your Union Jack out of the drawer and run along and play...

Remember you can order all these albums and more at Amazon UK.

Next up I will probably offer up some Spoon, New Pornographers and Decemberists, as I am seeing them all next week.

Tags: music