Remember when explicitly political songs like that cracked American radio?
Yeah, me neither.
Anyway, enjoy the holiday.
UPDATE: This fucking moron
can blow me, BTW.
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23 comments:
That same moron penned a column last week that actually led with this:
As you watch your children board the school bus for the first day back to classes, consider this: that school bus driver is likely forced to pay fees to a union as a condition of driving that bus.
To which Roy Edroso replied:
And that driver probably thinks he deserves a so-called "living wage" for his money! Better the school district should have the freedom to hire non-union employee Rummy Tom to drive your kids -- he's a little shaky behind the wheel, but he'll work all day for a bottle of rotgut!
As I said, that moron can blow me.
I had forgotten about the Strawbs. As to union dues, the higher pay and better bennies that the union gets the worker is why the latter pays the dues. Duh.
This is the only song I remember from an album I played many times. A rousing version.
I never objected to my union dues when I was a member. When I became manager, it was easy working with the union. Their rules actually protect everyone by making things clear.
That moron must be another priviledged white douchebag.
A rat-faced privileged white douchebag.
http://video.foxbusiness.com/v/3895485/health-care-bill-impact-on-union-strength/?#sp=show-clips
I'm proud to have my union dues deducted ever paycheck! Fuck Governor Christie!!!!!!!!
Teacher Captain Al
Been a union member most of my adult life–first, as a member of the Wobblies (International Workers of the World) when working at the University of Michigan's "University Cellar" in the record department, then IATSE since I got into animation editing. (The IA, unfortunately, is fairly lame–notorious for not showing solidarity, which I took them to task for during the Writer's Guild strike of 2007. Got a lame response from a union rep the same day the IATSE publication editorialized against the Writer's Guild.) But even though they're not all they could be, I'll be retiring with at least something resembling financial security.
And yeah, I loved "Bursting At The Seams", the LP from which this song comes. Got it in some bargain bin for 33¢. Actually, most of my favorite albums (Stooges, Velvets, MC5, Love, Nick Drake (the imports!), Rundgren's first two solo albums) came straight out of the bargain bins. God, I miss 'em.
Lastly, Edroso RAWKS.
You mean this song isn't just a tad sarcastic?
Sounds like something a bunch of drunks would sing in a pub or at a stupid rally. Liked the band, but this song doesn't do much for me. It sure ain't rock 'n' roll.
Maybe The Boss should cover it. He can channel Woody Guthrie as he speaks out for the oppressed working man. We can all sing along and glow inside as we revel in our stodgy orthodoxy:-)
Enjoy the day off. Let loose. Find the waves that aren't walled. And may they break both ways.
VR
I am hardly an expert on the British political/class system, but I do know that however it was intended the song was taken and is still taken in England as a pro-union/working man anthem.
I am unaware that the Strawbs were Thatcherite assholes, in any case.
Yeah, they might've sounded like a bunch of drunks down the pub, but it might've been deliberately so. Their normal performing style on the rest of the record wouldn't fit this song, so they might've sung it "drunkface".
This article talks about the state of things ca. 1972:
http://www.agor.org.uk/cwm/themes/events/1972_1974_strikes.asp
And I can't find anything that says definitively that the Strawbs were Tories at the time...they may have gone that way later on, but so did a lot of other UK musicians.
I'll always think of it as being an honest pub singalong describing the state of things at the time.
"Leave the factory leave the forge and dance to the new St George"
-Richard Thompson, starring as Henry The Human Fly (1972)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PD5DTQnujxc
Ironically, the anarchy that was caused by union strikes later in the decade brought Thatcher to power.
Let me be clear, I could give a shit about politics. It's all a ruse. Everybody's being used so that some sociopathic douchebags can satisfy their lust for power. Useful idiots will always abound. I got better shit to do than call people names, hold a goddamned sign or attend mindless rallies. Fuck that shit. Life's too short. Let's shoot some pool where there's a good jukebox. Or, better yet, let's just fuck the politics right out of each other.
BTW, as you may have gathered, Hudson and Ford were not my favorite members of this band. Cousins didn't even participate in this song, which is very un-Strawbs like. I suppose it can be argued that Hudson-Ford songs like this sowed the seeds for the band's imminent split, even though it provided the band its biggest hit. Oh well, I'd still rather listen to Hero and Heroine and Ghosts more than anything Hudson-Ford did subsequently. And I'd much rather rock to glam than march to Part of the Union.
Saw the Strawbs live twice. One of the times they opened for Procol Harum with Dr. John in Anaheim. That would be the Bursting At the Seams pre-split-up tour. It's a long story about that night. The entire week, actually. But I gotta get some tacos and cerveza before they close my favorite place at nine.
VR
God, this place is turning into the musical Baby Blue. (At least this post.)
VR, I largely agree with you. I think American "politics" is largely bread and circuses for the lumpenprole. Wall Street rules the game; there's no essential difference between "Democrats" and "Republicans"...they're all sucking at the Wall Street Teat. ("Do the Wall Street shuffle...dah dah dah...")
But I still think that "Part Of The Union" was honest; not a Tory ploy. They might have been profiting off of the UK state of play, but the song itself, no matter its possible ironic intentions, has become an anthem for unions. So more fool Strawbs if they meant it as Tory satire.
Ah, whatever. KICK OUT THE JAMS, MOTHERFUCKERS!
Cbeers; hope you all had a good Labor Day.
PS–to keep in the MC5 mode, I'm sick to my guts of the American Ruse!
From spiked:
".... Another hit, the Strawbs’ ‘Part of the Union’, was apparently intended as a parody of trade-union power, yet became an unofficial anthem for militant workers."
Parody and sarcasm do not necessarily constitute a Tory ploy. In my view, the song was meant to mock people's absolute faith and belief in institutions that are inherently corrupt. It wasn't to take sides. I give the Strawbs credit for that, even if I am not moved by the song in any way.
VR
Let me be clear, I could give a shit about politics. It's all a ruse. Everybody's being used so that some sociopathic douchebags can satisfy their lust for power. Useful idiots will always abound. I got better shit to do than call people names, hold a goddamned sign or attend mindless rallies. Fuck that shit. Life's too short. Let's shoot some pool where there's a good jukebox. Or, better yet, let's just fuck the politics right out of each other.
You know, I fucking hate that attitude. Why not tell that the girls who died in the Triangle Shirtwaist fire that you don't give a shit? Or all the suffragettes who fought for you to have the right to vote that you can't be bothered?
There's room for both hedonism and activism in a single life, you know.
A very few explicitly political songs made it through. Bruce Cockburn's "If I Had a Rocket Launcher", and Leonard Cohen's "Democracy" come to mind. Of course, those were only really aired on college radio, so that may not actually count. One could make an argument for Won't Get Fooled Again and Born In The USA, I suppose.
Speaking of Strawbs, was visiting my friend in a small town in NJ, and we ended up picking up some BBQ supplies at Stop & Shop.
My friend said hello to someone passing with his cart, and casually mentioned that the man was his neighbor... John Hawken, from the Strawbs.
So I added Mr Hawken to my list of NJ musical supermarket sightings... which include Debbie Harry (Wholefoods), Max Weinberg (ShopRite), and Bruce Springsteen (A&P). I've seen more stars in the produce aisles of NJ than in the clubs...
Remember Chicago in 1968? Remember the cops jogging out of the woods in Grant Park in phalanx, swinging their clubs over their heads and chanting "Kill... Kill.. Kill..." Remember how they had back tape over their badges so you couldn't identify them? Good union men, one and all.
Good union men, one and all.
Oh. Puh. Leeze.
To each their own. But in my view, if you want change, then just be it.
"Take all the trauma, drama, comments, the guilt and doubt and shame, the what ifs and "if onlys, the shackles and the chains, the violence and aggression, the pettiness and scorn, the jealousy and hatred, the tempest and discord, and Give It Up!"
I have no desire to project my beliefs on anyone else. That seems quite sanctimonious and egotistical to me. I get no emphatic arousal from shouting slogans in the street. From my perspective, activism borders on a psychological disorder. A need to fill some kind of void about the participant's self-worth. Often, and unfortunately, it is motivated by hatred, stubbornness and reflexive propagandized thinking.
Most ideas that have merit evolve naturally. Marches and protests don't precipitate change, rather, they only reflect the predestined change that is already underway. In fact, many times protests have impeded the very causes they meant to accelerate. People are stupid enough all by themselves. A mob is the height of polarizing idiocy. I will never hitch up to that bandwagon and be someone else's tool for attention and unrest.
I'd rather fuck to side two of Larks' Tongues In Aspic.
VR
BTW, Steppenwolf's "Move Over" qualifies as an explicitly political USA radio hit. As does "War" Edwin Starr; CCR "Fortunate Son." I'm sure there are others.
The Strawbs were and are confirmed lefties. Anyone who says otherwise is talking out of his or her "nonpolitical" ass.
Here's something from a English left wing blog which compiled a CD called "Right-Wing Rock." 22 songs were chosen, one of which was the Beatles "Taxman." Each song is listed with the author's diatribe against it.
Track Three is The Strawbs "Part of the Union." Here's what the rather hateful compiler had to say:
"THE STRAWBS – Part Of The Union
It’s perhaps the perfect punishment for The Strawbs that this piss-taking dirge was adopted by British trade unionists and sung lustily on freezing picket lines for more than a decade, without a trace of irony. It’s also quite satisfying that it completely overshadows the rest of their output, which would otherwise have attained cult status but is now eschewed by self-respecting rock fans since The Strawbs are, forever more, just those “Part Of The Union” guys. True poetic justice would have the ex-Strawbs currently eking out a living in de-unionised jobs with no workers’ rights; sadly, they used to make a lot of money playing Tory cabaret nights, so they’re probably not."
So is everybody crazy? I'm just sayin'.
VR
I have no desire to project my beliefs on anyone else. That seems quite sanctimonious and egotistical to me.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!
I get no emphatic arousal from shouting slogans in the street. From my perspective, activism borders on a psychological disorder. A need to fill some kind of void about the participant's self-worth. Often, and unfortunately, it is motivated by hatred, stubbornness and reflexive propagandized thinking.
Gee, generalize much? Your sneering condescension is palpable.
There are all kinds of activism. You reap the benefits of the actions of others. Ever think about that?
And the pigeons shit on their statues.
I also suffer its consequences, whether intended or not. Just as an example, the current politically correct environment in large part stems from activist groups. I find today's world much more uptight than it was in decades past. The politics of being offended and litigious have gotten to the point where people are afraid to speak freely.
Then there is the endless red tape, bureaucracy, regulations, restrictions, expenses etc that come into play when an individual is trying to get something done.
As I said, I could give a shit about politics and "getting involved." I find people who immerse themselves in such things amusing. But that's just me. I feel that good ideas emerge on their own.
For others, writing that letter to your representative, lobbying, demonstrating, boycotting, civil disobedience or hurling a Molotov cocktail might help you vent and make you feel that you are moving the society one step closer to Utopia. But all I see is South Park.
Never lose your marvelous sense of humor. And keep quacking me up.
The Trestles are happening today. A little rain with the surf is kinda spiritual.
VR
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