This month I’d like to talk about the politics of music, and I think the perfect place to start is by discussing the angry rants of musicians. Let’s face it – everyone needs to vent from time to time. Sometimes when musicians vent, the results can be uniquely toxic diatribes about their own fans or their own record companies. Some bands can alienate their audience easily, others have to work hard at it. So in the spirit of diplomacy, here are some of my favorite angry rants about music. Stay tuned for part II next week!
Dead Kennedys – Chickenshit Conformist
As lead singer and principal song writer for the Dead Kennedys, Jello never had any problem expressing his opinion. His stance on corporate-backed rock hasn’t changed since the band first began in 1978. But on their 1986 LP Bedtime for Democracy, Jello crossed into a whole new territory on a song called “Chickenshit Conformist”. The song is both a parting shot against punk and an unapologetic rant against heavy metal, complete with Jello’s own personal vendettas against 70’s rock and Sid Vicious. During the second verse, he attacks Combat Records and New York crossover band S.O.D. with the lyrics, “From New York metal labels looking to scam…Who sign the most racist queerbashing bands they can find”. With 543 words total, this six minute rant is easily the longest and weirdest of them all.
The Smiths – Paint A Vulgar Picture
If any band deserves the right to complain about their own record company, it’s The Smiths. The band’s catalog has repeatedly been cut up and repackaged for audiences on both sides of the Atlantic, and still to this day presents challenges for fans and collectors. This song appeared on their final studio LP, Strangeways, Here We Come which was released posthumously in 1987 and is a virtual laundry list of grievances and complaints. In the song, an unnamed record company continues to profit from a dead pop singer by constantly reissuing new versions of old recordings. While it’s not my favorite Smiths song, the strangely prophetic lyrics are definitely autobiographical.
Black Sabbath – The Writ
The last song on the sixth Sabbath record was written about the band’s ex-manager Patrick Meehan. Ozzy claims that Meehan’s lawyers caused him severe anxiety after repeatedly serving him legal papers while he was on stage performing. The lyrics of the song run the gamut from personal swipes, “What kind of people do you think we are? Another joker who’s a rock and roll star for you?” to direct attacks on the savage cruelty of corporate management, “Vultures sucking gold from you…Will they still suck now you’re through”.
Sex Pistols – EMI
The Sex Pistols wrote this scathing song about EMI, which ultimately ended up on their debut LP. The band was in hot water with label executives after cursing during a live TV interview with Bill Grundy and upped the ante in January 1977 after creating a public disturbance at Heathrow Airport. The incident was widely reported in the media, and accused the band of spitting on themselves and the airline crew. The Pistols had only released one single on the label and were only three months into their two-year, £40,000 contract, when EMI called manager Malcolm MClaren and fired them over the telephone.
MK Ultra – Bring Me The Head of Tony Victory
90’s Chicago legends MK Ultra weren’t the only band to viciously attack Victory Records, but they were certainly the meanest. Zach Baron from The Village Voice has written a great article that collects some of the better songs aimed at Tony Brummel over the years which I highly recommend reading
The Mad – I Hate Music
Classic song from the New York Thrash cassette compilation, released on ROIR in 1982.
John Fogerty – Zanz Kant Danz
If John Fogerty is god, then he’s an angry god. Fogerty’s rocky relationship with Fantasy Records is well documented, but he took matters into his own hands on his 1985 Centerfield LP with a song called “Zanz Kant Danz”. The chorus, “Vanz can’t dance, but he’ll steal your money, Watch him or he’ll rob you blind.” is a poorly disguised attack on former manager Saul Zaentz. Zaentz responded to the song by suing Fogerty repeatedly during a decade long legal battle.
7 Seconds – Aim To Please
7 Seconds outlasted most of their peers in the 80’s, and still continue to tour and record today. On their 1985 LP The Crew, singer Kevin Seconds took the chance to directly confront the band’s critics, who had accused them of “selling out”. In the lyrics, Kevin pulls no punches and sets the record straight. “You say some years ago our songs were fine, and our debut EP was just divine. But now a shadow haunts us through and through, and songs we wrote before you never knew.” This wasn’t the last time 7 Seconds fired back at their critics, but it was an important part of their stance on punk music in general, which argued that musical progress (not regression) was only natural.
The Clash – Complete Control
“They said we’d be artistically free, When we signed that bit of paper they meant let’s make a lotsa money”. I think it’s strange that the band at the center of most of the “selling out” arguments might have been the first to recognize the irony of the situation. And by 1984, the band really had lost complete control when they began work on their final LP, the disastrous Cut The Crap, a record which was originally aptly named Out Of Control. This song from their 1977 debut is about the release of their single, Remote Control. Confusing, isn’t’ it?
Government Issue – Rock N’ Roll Bullshit
Some of the early Dischord bands took great pleasure in attacking traditional rock n’ roll archetypes. The Teen Idles focused their anger at the inept, lazy attitude of the hippies, and GI went after their older peers in The Clash and The Ramones as well as the bloated corpse of stadium rockers Supertramp. Lyrics like “Now I’ve got it, I’m insane, Van Halen gives me pain” was a virtual permission slip for younger kids to disown the popular music of their older siblings that had nothing to offer except empty rebellion and vapid conformity.
