Well, needless to say, while DJ-ing lately I’ve gotten a lot of requests for The Gang of Four’s song “Anthrax” since my last article. I’m glad because Gang of Four was a truly fantastic band worthy of reconsideration in so many ways. They were the first post-punk blast of visceral angst-ridden politically outspoken, intellectual and loud music to remind us that the revolution was far from over. They opened a dialogue for malcontents when most of the world seemed more than happy to seal the coffin closed on punk rock with the sugar coated, fashion friendly, mass market acceptable and vapid “New Wave”. Their approach was in some ways far more intense. Taking their name from a group of chinese revolutionaries active during the chinese cultural revolution from 1966 to 1976, four Leeds University students formed the group in 1977. Other acts from the same era and scene include The Fall, The Mekons, and The Delta 5. The lyrical content showed not just cartoon anarchy and nihilism of a general nature directed towards any and everything establishment, but rather a more than passing knowledge of political theory and history. Their song titles sounded like titles of radical political essays, “Guns Before Butter,” “At Home He’s A Tourist,” “It’s Her Factory” and the music was a completely fresh and charged exercise in hard somewhat minimal rhythmic assaults with terse angular sputtering guitar and vocals that were almost spoken rather than sung, flat and intense. It doesn’t sound like a very appealing combination, and over-intellectualized political manifestos to boot, but Gang of Four managed to have a gripping jarring effect, cathartic and angry and and somewhat sloganistic and oddly enough you could dance to it. This was due to the pushed-to-the-fore rhythm section of Dave Allen and Hugo Burnham, arguably among the first players in a rock outfit to dabble with a more R&B based low end funkiness matched with an aggressive and hard edged guitar sound. Today that combination is very commonplace and bands like Red Hot Chile Peppers, Limp Bizcuit, Korn, and Rage Against The Machine have rode it to great success.
Gang of Four put out three absolutely essential records, Entertainment, Solid Gold, and Songs of The Free, all of which have been reissued recently, and their final studio effort before splitting Hard, a somewhat uneven but not without merit foray into a more R&B flavored realm. Before they disbanded in 1984, they played their final show here in San francisco, and I was lucky enough to catch that show as well as their Songs of The Free tour, the record that produced their first hit single in the U.S. “I Love A Man In Uniform.” Both live sets were astonishing although by that time the original line-up had changed. More recently there have been a couple attempts to reform the group in the 90’s yeilding two studio albums, Mall and Shrinkwrapped that were disappointing but with a few worthy moments, not enough to warrant big sales or massive touring.
There are two excellent collections available, History of The Twentieth Century and a more recent two disc set called A Hundred Flowers Blooming.
This recent resurgence of interest in Gang of Four hasn’t been solely because of the new meaning current events have given to that one particular song, “Anthrax.” It seemed to start well before the postal terrorism thing judging by all the new young bands who are sounding like Gang of Four are among their influences. In fact there seems to be a great deal of new bands heavily influenced by quite a few bands from that era currently, which I think is great. Quite often a new record will remind me of an old band and prompt me to start appreciating and listening to that band again, as well as the band they’ve influenced. I think any musician being influenced by the abilities and style of other artists and that fact reflecting in their own music merely shows a pure love of music, the love and excitement of a fan as well as the drive of a musician creating their own.
As for “Anthrax,” I heard that recently when Victor Krummenacher, former Camper Van Beethoven and Monks of Doom Bassist, played at one of the EagleTavern’s always bitchin’ always free live Thursday night shows he led his band through a great cover of the song, with someone actually speaking the lyrics while he sang them simultaneously just like on the recorded original. Recently after I played the song because someone requested it, the person who asked for it thanked me and said, “I knew you would be the only one tasteless enough to play it.” I beg to differ, but thanks nonetheless. Of course at the very sold out, absolutely mind-blowing Kiki and Herb show at Great American Music Hall last week, Kiki had a comment about the anthrax postal scare. Never one to shy away from frank discussion of current events she cautioned, “I tell all my friends, if you get any mail with white powder on it, don’t snort it!” Earlier in the week I met an interesting person online who posed this thought on the subject, “So anthrax has killed two postal workers, isn’t that a mere fraction of the total body count that disgruntled postal workers amass in a good year?” He’s right you know. My friend Jerry stopped by the other day while I was checking my e-mail and cautioned me, “Don’t open it, you’ll get anthrax.”
I remember once on an episode of The Big Valley one of the finest tv series of all time about the matriarchal Barkley family led by Victoria Barkley (Barbara Stanwyck), anthrax reared it’s dangerous head in the context of the plotline. I had never heard of it before which was odd being from a big cattle family myself. But the story went something like this: Victoria and her daughter Audra (Linda Evans, young and fresh from a controversial playboy pictorial) were travelling home to Stockton by stagecoach and decided to stop overnight in a small cattle town around auction time. It was bustling and unruly with ranchers selling their herds and the ladies retired to their rooms to rest. Victoria woke up and went to check on Audra and she was gone. Then all the help at the hotel and drunks in the saloon and everyone basically told Victoria that she was mistaken, that she had arrived alone, there was no daughter nor anyone who even resembled the delicate blonde prarie flower arriving by stage that day. They kept suggesting that she was travel weary and confused and that perhaps she should get more rest and maybe Doc could give her something to help her rest, etc. Victoria was determined to prove that she woke up and suddenly the entire town was gas-lighting her, trying to drive her crazy and kidnapping her daughter. By the time she really was starting to lose it, they ordered her to get on the coach and leave town alone. She finally agreed and just as she was getting on the coach she reached in her pocket and found two ticket stubs, proof that she didn’t arrive alone. That’s when they finally fessed up. They had to hide Audra because she had come down with a case of anthrax and if any word of it got out it would spoil the entire economy for the town and all the hardworking ranchers whose livliehood depended on selling their healthy non-diseased herds at auction. So you see, they only drove her to the brink of madness because they had to. They took her to the barn where they hid Audra and she was already in her travelling suit—the doctor had a vaccine so the fever broke and she was just fine. Nothing was said about the cattle of central california but audra didn’t die so throughout this crisis I believe I’ve managed to stay calm just by thinking of that episode on television. After all, aren’t we all supposed to believe and resemble what it dictates to us anyway—especially in this time of national crisis?
Crisis, crisis, crisis, I’m so over it all! I sometimes sit awake at night thinking about where the next terrorist attack will be, or if one is even possible or one of a similar magnitude at least. I was moaning about it to a friend who stopped by and he brought up a very interesting thought that hadn’t occurred to me at all and I really wondered why it had never occurred to terrorists either, and that was, why hasn’t The Vatican ever been the target of terrorist attack? Why hasn’t anyone flown a passenger jet right smack up the popes ass while he sleeps? In fact, come to think of it, the pope has been relatively quiet during most of this situation. Very Curious. Odd how certain acts of terror can actually seem like better ideas than others. I’m terrorism-jaded.
Finally, I have to say that Kiki and Herb’s sold out one night only appearance at the Great American Music Hall was by far the duo’s finest hour to date. All the people I urged to go who had never witnessed the brilliance were totally blown away by a tour de force so huge and epic that it defies description. Clearly San Francisco’s finest export, these two monumental talents gave us a two hours of pure genius, an act so politically incendiary and over the top you could watch the jaws drop, hear the laughter, and even notice a tear or two, but more than anything you knew that kiki and herb are at the top of their game, doing something no one else in the world does. They are originals in the grandest sense of the word, making sense of the chaos, making life worth living. All I can think of to say is thank you, Justin Bond and Kenny Mellman, you’re a class act.