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Post by Whitneyfan on Nov 14, 2017 17:10:02 GMT 1
I remember the eighties as being quite a bleak time politically, and it will forever be known as the Thatcher years... Of course this meant that some great songs were written in protest, and I was going to try and make a playlist of the best ones. So far I've got:
The Blow Monkeys - It doesn't have to be that way Style Council - Walls come tumbling down Elvis Costello - Shipbuilding The Specials - Ghost Town
Any more?
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Post by Razzle Dazzle on Nov 14, 2017 17:42:17 GMT 1
Morrissey – Margaret On the Guillotine (1988) Frank Turner - Thatcher f***ed the Kids (2006)
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Post by suedehead on Nov 14, 2017 17:45:17 GMT 1
The Beat - Stand Down Margaret Elvis Costello - Tramp The Dirt Down
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Post by Milliways on Nov 14, 2017 17:46:46 GMT 1
Notsensibles - I'm In Love With Margaret Thatcher
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Post by raliverpool on Nov 14, 2017 18:12:05 GMT 1
The Jam - A Town Called Malice Bucks Fizz - Land Of Make Believe Hue & Cry - Labour Of Love Style Council - Have You Ever Had It Blue The The - Heartland Billy Bragg - Between The Wars Duran Duran - Meet El Presidente Kirsty MacColl - Free World Pink Floyd - The Fletcher Memorial Home Hefner - The Day that Thatcher Dies Billy Bragg - Thatcherites Kitchens of Distinction - Margaret's Injection Crass - How Does It Feel To Be The Mother Of A Thousand Dead? Newtown Neurotics - Kick Out The Tories UB40 - Madam Medusa Tin Machine - Maggie's Farm Pulp - The Last Days Of The Miners' Strike Sinead O'Connor - Black Boys On Mopeds Blow Monkeys - Celebrate (The Day After You) Simply Red – She’ll Have To Go Julian Cope - Promised Land New Model Army - Spirit Of The Falklands TV Personalities - Only The Grocers Daughter
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Post by Earl Purple on Nov 14, 2017 18:24:58 GMT 1
Style Council - Have You Ever Had It Blue I think you mean "With Everything To Lose" which was a track on Our Favourite Shop, and has the same tune, but an arrangement more like that of "Long Hot Summer".
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Post by raliverpool on Nov 14, 2017 18:43:57 GMT 1
Style Council - Have You Ever Had It Blue I think you mean "With Everything To Lose" which was a track on Our Favourite Shop, and has the same tune, but an arrangement more like that of "Long Hot Summer". No I was referring to the more subtle lyrical remake & 1986 single which lyrics still packed a punch narrating someone telling somebody who voted for Thatcher & The Conservatives in 1979 referencing the Falklands Islands War; high unemployment; Milk snatching & being "in bed" with Rupert Murdoch; Yuppie ism & the rising inequality between the North & The South had been duped: Have you ever chased the night that sailed in front of you On a boat that's bound for hope - But left you in the queue With your shouting, waving, taunting, flaunting friends as crew Telling you that every lie you ever heard was true Have you stood upon that deck - Have you ever had it blue. Have you ever woke to find the morning didn't come Undelivered with the papers - stolen by someone Found the milkman bound and gagged and shackles, round The Sun And the holder of the keys turns out to be the one The girl you had your heart set on - Have you ever had it blue.
Have you ever watched the day, passing by your door Powerless to change its course, your feet fixed to the floor When all the people you thought you knew are changing more and more Even the girl you thought would see, seems only to ignore The only love worth fighting for - Have you ever had it blue
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SheriffFatman
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Been spending most our lives living in the Cheshire countryside
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Post by SheriffFatman on Nov 14, 2017 19:10:19 GMT 1
I’ve always absolutely loved the Family Cat song Bring Me The Head Of Michael Portillo. Despite it’s amusing but somewhat silly title it never mentions Mr Portillo by name in the lyrics. Lyrically it is a savage but intelligent criticism of Thatcherite politics. Almost uniquely I think, it manages to combine being overtly political with sounding absolutely gorgeous, it is amazing that a song can feel so lovely and yet be so filled with bile at the same time.
Also, virtually everything by Carter USM prior to their chart topping 1992 The Love Album is fiercely anti Tory. Their wonderful Is This The Only Way To Get Through To You? even samples Thatcher herself.
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Post by Whitneyfan on Nov 14, 2017 19:12:43 GMT 1
Some good suggestions so far. How could I forget 'Free World'?!
The Blow Monkeys named a whole album after her actually. The 1987 release 'She Was Only A Grocer's Daughter'.
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vya
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Post by vya on Nov 14, 2017 19:15:01 GMT 1
Sure I'll think of more, but those that spring immediately to mind include yet another Paul Weller composition and one excellent Blow Monkeys number with a video that (when you watch it to the end) serves as a useful reminder that the anti-Thatcher left tended to be strongly anti-EC (as it then was), up to when? 1988 I reckon, which is when Thatcher started to be far more critical of "Europe"...
That one is: the Blow Monkeys' "It Pays To Belong" - a great deconstruction of individualistic yuppiedom. The video is a fine document of the time too, largely filmed around London City Airport and the then rapidly changing Docklands. Featuring enormous mobile phones!
Also by them, "Choice?" featuring Sylvia Tella, was pretty critical of Thatcher's economic and social policies. Decent tune too.
"Celebrate (The Day After You)" released to tie in with the 1987 election I reckon was a bit less good - too blatant too.
The Style Council's "Life at A Top People's Health Farm" - another portrait of social change under Thatcher, a bit scathing and cynical in places
Aztec Camera featuring Mick Jones - "Good Morning Britain" - a bit of a litany of everything they deemed to be wrong about Thatcher's Britain, released just about the time her premiership ended
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Post by Whitneyfan on Nov 14, 2017 19:32:21 GMT 1
Good Morning Britain is a great tune.. I'd forgotten about that one!
I've been listening to a bit of Blow Monkeys today. I hadn't realised before that 'Digging Your Scene' was about AIDS - which could be a good idea for another topic! Actually, maybe I'll make a set of alternate 80s playlists - each featuring a different subject which was topical at the time.
Another anti-Thatcher one is Boy George's 'No Clause 28', which was opposing the new anti-gay law that had just come in, banning any talk of homosexuality in schools. A subject which still causes much controversy in some Facebook groups!
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Post by Whitneyfan on Nov 14, 2017 20:47:51 GMT 1
The Christians debut album is another classic of the era.
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SheriffFatman
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Been spending most our lives living in the Cheshire countryside
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Post by SheriffFatman on Nov 14, 2017 21:24:13 GMT 1
Has anyone mentioned The Only Way Is Up by Yazz & the Plastic Population yet?
Although I know that was a cover of a song originally released in 1980, that’s still (just) of an era where it could conceivably be about Thatcher’s Britain.
For me, with all it’s talk of being evicted and not knowing “where our next meal’s coming from” it will always be evocative of the late 80s London I used to see on the news when I was a kid. Although it seems like the ultimate pop soundtrack to those times, I can never quite decide what it’s getting at. Is the message a fierce criticism of the politics of the time, or simply blind optimism in the face of it?
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Post by raliverpool on Nov 14, 2017 21:39:04 GMT 1
Has anyone mentioned The Only Way Is Up by Yazz & the Plastic Population yet? Although I know that was a cover of a song originally released in 1980, that’s still (just) of an era where it could conceivably be about Thatcher’s Britain. For me, with all it’s talk of being evicted and not knowing “where our next meal’s coming from” it will always be evocative of the late 80s London I used to see on the news when I was a kid. Although it seems like the ultimate pop soundtrack to those times, I can never quite decide what it’s getting at. Is the message a fierce criticism of the politics of the time, or simply blind optimism in the face of it? Seeing as the original was written by the Mississippi born southern soul singer/songwriter George Jackson as a song of hope about the incoming Reagan Republican administration, and performed by New Orleans based singer Otis Clay; then does that make the cover a pro-Thatcher anthem? But Yazz' follow up was most definitely not a pro-Conservative policy anthem.
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