Russell Brand on Revolution

[savoloysam]

Jarvis Cocker made an excellent point about 10 years ago, as regards the seemingly apolitical stance of many popular musicians, which boiled down to "if you're not hungry, you don't get angry". Given the predominance of "fame school" alumni, manufactured groups and the like that populate the charts, there's little hunger there, so no urge for change from them.
It's a class thing.

I may well have missed it but where was politics in Pulp's music?

 

[brogdale]

I may well have missed it but where was politics in Pulp's music?

If he was talking for himself, I'd say that "Running the world" pretty much makes up for any deficiency of his former band.

 

[Blagsta]

I may well have missed it but where was politics in Pulp's music?

Have a listen to Common People

 

[savoloysam]

Have a listen to Common People

 

[killer b]

Pulp were pretty political. Maybe not firebrand socialism in every song, but TBH who wants to hear that anyway?

 

[el-ahrairah]

I may well have missed it but where was politics in Pulp's music?

you missed it good and proper.

there's loads of politics in their work.

as blagsta says, common people is probably the most famous. but joyriders, weeds, cocaine socialism, and the trees off the top of my head. and that's just "proper" politics.

 

[DotCommunist]

common people slips under the radar sometimes cos its so unashamedly indie poppy.

 

[savoloysam]

Personally for politics and music it's always been about The Clash for me. But each to their own I guess.

 

[killer b]

 

[ViolentPanda]

I may well have missed it but where was politics in Pulp's music?

Have you actually listened to the lyrics of "Common People"? Class politics at its best.

 

[killer b]

maybe not at it's best, but certainly well expressed in the medium of indie-pop music.

 

[8115]

Re politics and music is part of it the fact that it's so hard to survive without a job nowadays and if you've got a job you haven't got time to do music?

People always wax a bit lyrical about the good old days of "the dole". I don't know if that's a real factor.

 

[youngian]

Not overly impressed by Brand's press tour which heavily relies on talking over interviewers and critics in order to put words into their mouth. His points are mainly mood music and sketching the landscape but he's at least connecting with people who most politicians are failing to do. And if the BBC wants a ratings boost from a half-baked political populist, I'd rather it was Brand than that cunt Farage every other night.

 

[BigTom]

Jarvis Cocker rather than pulp, from a couple of years ago, lyrics are nsfw, no question of this being political or not

Spoiler

 

[elbows]

it would be good if he dropped a couple of names which showed he knew what he was talking about, even e.p. thompson or mike davis for fuck's sake.

Here are names he drops in the intro to his book:

Johann Hari
Adam Curtis
Dave Graeber
Daniel Pinchbeck
Dave DeGraw
Naomi Klein
Noam Chomsky
Matt Stoller
Helena Norberg-Hodge
Peter Tatchell
Edward Slingerland
Thomas Piketty

There are others, including abstinence recovery and transcendental meditation types, but I'm sure the above are more than enough to get the gist.

 

[Pickman's model]

Here are names he drops in the intro to his book:


Adam Curtis
Dave Graeber
Daniel Pinchbeck
Dave DeGraw
Naomi Klein
Noam Chomsky
Matt Stoller
Helena Norberg-Hodge

Edward Slingerland
Thomas Piketty

There are others, including abstinence recovery and transcendental meditation types, but I'm sure the above are more than enough to get the gist.

i've removed johann hari and peter tatchell, who are not to the best of my knowledge academics. i'm sure there's one or two left who aren't academics either.

 

[elbows]

Indeed there are several authors there who would not count as academics.

 

[weltweit]

Brand is on my radio now.

Gawd that man is a smug wanker!

 

[redsquirrel]

you missed it good and proper.

there's loads of politics in their work.

as blagsta says, common people is probably the most famous. but joyriders, weeds, cocaine socialism, and the trees off the top of my head. and that's just "proper" politics.

I Spy is another example, hell there's (pretty obvious) political refs/allegory's in virtually every song on Different Class.

 

[Spanky Longhorn]

I'm struggling to think of a Pulp song that isn't political

 

[Pickman's model]

I'm struggling to think of a Pulp song that isn't political

why?

 

[Spanky Longhorn]

why?

Well, alright I'm not struggling but if I could be arsed to try and think of one it would be a struggle

 

[PoorButNotAChav]

I wouldn't say Pulp released a lot of political songs but as well as directly political songs (such as Cocaine Socialism and The Day After The Revolution) they also had songs containing social commentary (like Joyriders, Common People, Mis-Shapes, Sorted For E's & Wizz, I Spy, Mile End and Weeds). Add in the story-based songs (which Pulp tended to favour) and the love songs and you have a fantastic and varied band. I'd say they were in the same league as The Smiths. This Is Hardcore is an under-rated album and Different Class is almost as good as Strangeways, Here We Come.

I wish one or both of them were together now, writing about the era of the Coalition, UKIP or the Rotherham scandal. There's so much that is wrong that you would hope musicians or comedians would write about but there are very few people who are willing and able to do it well and get their ideas out to a mass audience. At the moment Stewart Lee is in a league of his own.

 

[frogwoman]

I think Frankie Boyle's allright.

 

[treelover]

I wouldn't say Pulp released a lot of political songs but as well as directly political songs (such as Cocaine Socialism and The Day After The Revolution) they also had songs containing social commentary (like Joyriders, Common People, Mis-Shapes, Sorted For E's & Wizz, I Spy, Mile End and Weeds). Add in the story-based songs (which Pulp tended to favour) and the love songs and you have a fantastic and varied band. I'd say they were in the same league as The Smiths. This Is Hardcore is an under-rated album and Different Class is almost as good as Strangeways, Here We Come.

I wish one or both of them were together now, writing about the era of the Coalition, UKIP or the Rotherham scandal. There's so much that is wrong that you would hope musicians or comedians would write about but there are very few people who are willing and able to do it well and get their ideas out to a mass audience. At the moment Stewart Lee is in a league of his own.

I like your posts but not your title, why are you denigrating 'chavs'

 

[PoorButNotAChav]

I like your posts but not your title, why are you denigrating 'chavs'

I've explained this before on another thread. It's the username I used on The Guardian's website which I picked years ago in response to an article by some members of the Fabian Society who wanted the word "chav" banned and wrote "You cannot consider yourself of the left and use the word". I picked "PoorButNotAChav" because I was pointing out that some chavs are not poor and some poor people are not chavs. The name wasn't chosen to denigrate chavs. It was chosen to differentiate.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/jul/15/equality.language

However, I'm prepared to denigrate chavs. I see no contradiction between being "of the left" and disliking chavs and their predecessors such as townies. There might have been a revolution in this country (or at least no Tory-led coalition government) if thousands of young people had been more interested in politics, socialism and bringing down the system than in getting pissed, consumerism and battering goths and students and the Labour Party hadn't been taken over by the likes of Peter Mandelson and Tony Blair and sold its soul to the City of London and Rupert Murdoch.

 

[killer b]

Crikey.

 

[frogwoman]

 

[killer b]

it's difficult to know where to start with that.

 

[Cheesypoof]

common people slips under the radar sometimes cos its so unashamedly indie poppy.

Never liked it. All the finger pointing and stuff...tiresome. I dont mean the lyrics...i mean the melody and image of the band...