Eyes and Reprise...
Primal ScreamFoto: archiv skupiny
Happy anniversary! The most carefully-worded Friday Ripple ever...
This is a special anniversary show. It's one year since... great Czech alternative bands like Sporto, The Prostitutes and Aran Epochal started recording cover versions of Primal Scream's 1999 hit Swastika Eyes.
It would be pointless to further discuss the meaning of the lyrics to Swastika Eyes here, since so much has been written about this in the past year. Instead, I will try to put Swastika Eyes into the wider context of European traditions of criticism, and of protest music worldwide.
Detail from "The Sermon on the Mount" by Carl BlochFoto: Press kit
Perhaps surprisingly, I'm going to begin this by talking about Jesus. Christianity has been the single biggest influence on European thought for around two thousand years - and it is the source of a very long European tradition of using frightening symbols to illustrate dangerous gaps between words and actions. In fact, this particular poetic technique arrived in Europe via Jesus's Sermon on the Mount:
"Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them." (Mark 7:15-7:16)
If you're looking for the roots of the poetic devices used by Primal Scream in Swastika Eyes [lyrics| video], you will find them in this Bible passage: the emphasis on recognising someone by their "fruit" (or actions) rather than by their words; the threatening symbol of the wolf in sheep's clothing. By juxtaposing a cynical "autosuggestion psychology... illusion of democracy" with the disturbing image of "swastika eyes", Primal Scream continue one of the longest traditions of symbolism in European history.
However: at the same time, it is important to recognise that this theme is certainly not unique to Christian and post-Christian cultures.
For example, similar methods of criticism appear in the songs of the late Fela Kuti, the legendary Nigerian Afrobeat bandleader, dissident and secular Pan-Africanist. In 1978's Shuffering and Shmiling [lyrics|video] Fela accuses Nigeria's Christian and Muslim elites of faking religious devotion as a means to justifying their corrupt excesses; this song's provocative juxtaposition of religious invocations with descriptions of poverty and police brutality is still genuinely shocking 31 years later.
The theme of a dangerous gap between words and actions also appears frequently in the work of radical British Muslim hip hop group Fun-da-mental (and in this case, the word "radical" is probably actually justified). Most famously, their controversial 2006 single Cookbook DIY [lyrics|video] explores the internalisation of such hypocrisy, describing various excuses for mass murder from the viewpoint of characters including a suicide bomber and a military scientist.
George OrwellFoto: Press kit
Perhaps the most powerful use of such themes in modern music is found in the 2000 track Animal in Man [lyrics|video] by American hip hop duo Dead Prez. This one comes with a clear literary background: it's a hip hop reworking of the novel Animal Farm, George Orwell's classic satire of Soviet totalitarianism published in 1945. The themes of power, ideology and hypocrisy in Animal Farm are probably too well-known to cover here; suffice to say, they have much in common with many of the songs discussed in this week's show, and Dead Prez's interpretation of the story makes this particularly clear.
In recognition of the important role alternative music has played, and continues to play, in civil society opposition movements worldwide, the show also includes some international dissident hits: 21st-century releases from Zimbabwean rapper Begotten Son and exiled Ivoirian reggae singer Tiken Jah Fakoly (here performing as part of a supergroup of French and West African stars); classic tracks from apartheid-era South African multiracial punk pioneers National Wake and - of course - Czech underground legends The Plastic People of the Universe.
There's lots more great stuff in the mix, including possibly the two most unsuccessfully-banned songs in the history of alternative music: God Save The Queen [lyrics|video] by punk legends the Sex Pistols; and Jaga Jaga [lyrics|video] by the Friday Ripple's favourite contemporary protest musician, Nigeria's Eedris Abdulkareem.
All this and more, streaming right now on the Radio Wave Jukebox under Friday Ripple > 23.10.2009.
Here's the playlist in full:
Primal Scream - Swastika Eyes (Jagz Kooner Mix) (Creation Records)
Primal Scream - Beautiful Future (B-Unique Records)
Asian Dub Foundation - Free Satpal Ram (FFRR)
Fun-da-Mental - Cookbook DIY (5 Uncivilised Tribes)
Dead Prez - Animal in Man (Loud Records)
Aran Epochal - Swastika Eyes (self-released)
Primal Scream - Higher Than The Sun (Creation Records)
Eedris Abdulkareem - Letter to Mr President (Out Here Records)
Eedris Abdulkareem - Jaga Jaga (Kennis Music)
Sex Pistols - God Save The Queen (demo version) (Virgin)
Sporto - Swastika Eyes (self-released)
Fela Kuti - Shuffering And Shmiling (Wrasse Records)
Plastic People of the Universe - Špatná Věc (Globus International)
Matisyahu - Smash Lies (Epic)
Thievery Corporation - Radio Retaliation (Eighteenth Street Lounge Music)
Begotten Son - Revolution (Afrolution Records)
Mokobe, Manu Chao, Amadou & Mariam, Tiken Jah Fakoly, Fou Malade - Politique (Jive/Sbme Europe)
National Wake - International News (Rhythm Records)
The Prostitutes - Swastika Eyes (Radio Wave Live Sessions)
Terror MC - Liberate Yourself (Pioneer Unit)
Rooftop MCs - Lagimo (Tenth Code Media)
Antibalas - Government Magic (Afrosound Records)
