Eh, a state recognizing the accomplishments of local artists is pretty cool. A state using that process to further enact bullshit bigotry is very much not.
Their past two albums were amazing and ground breaking, but all firmly footed within one genre: state of the art 70s punk. One-two-three-four.
Then suddenly, out of nowhere, London Calling comes along, and just jumps all over the place. Ska. R&B. Jazz. Folk. Rockabilly. Reggae. Whatever the hell Lover's Rock is. It just goes everywhere. And even weirder, it's all fucking fantastic.
In terms of songwriting it's equally insane, covering issues such as the Spanish Civil War (Spanish Bombs), the life and times of Montgomery Clift (The Right Profile), a murder investigation among a bunch of fucked up junkies (Jimmy Jazz), the tale of Staggar Lee (Wrong 'em Boyo), contemporary problems of gang and police violence (Guns of Brixton), how we all end up as slaves to the same system we start out trying to defeat (Clampdown), and how little room there is left for humanity in modern living (Lost in the Supermarket).
Or, perhaps most tellingly, the title track itself: a distress call, nodding back to BBC wartime broadcasts starting with "this is London Calling". The song fittingly kicks off the album with a doomsday scenario declaring the death of punk itself, coming from the most important band in the genre at the time. It's the end of the 70s, the hype around punk is over, if it was ever real to begin with.
London Calling
Now don't look to us
Phony Beatlemania has bitten the dust
This is really well said, and would have been my pick, as well. I was not yet 10 when this album came out and only ever listened to it after hearing Combat Rock, which is an absolutely groundbreaking record in its own right (side 2 of Combat Rock defies any attempts at pigeonholing it in a genre - it's masterful).
But once I'd heard their earlier albums and then London Calling, my though whenever I listen to this album is, "how the fuck did that happen???" It's hard to say whether it happened because of, or despite Guy Stevens (the producer), but one thing is clear: he pushed them to do things that they might never have done without him wandering about the studio throwing ladders around or whateverfuck he was up to during recording.
Lost in the Supermarket was written just as the consumerism began to hit the shelves, if you'll allow the shitty pun, and could just as easily have been written today. Absolutely timeless, spot-on, chillingly accurate portrayal of the beginning of the end as we decided we needed stuff more than we needed community.
"I wasn't born as much as I fell out". It's just too good.
And speaking of being born - I didn't even see the light of day before more than a decade after London Calling was released. I'm still not entirely sure how I ended up stumbling into 70s punk in my teenage years, but I'm glad I did.
Combat Rock is another insane album. Starved in metropolis, hooked on necropolis. Come on. And it all starts so innocently with Know Your Righs as well.
Funny, it just hit me that “supermarket” isn’t being used here as a synonym for “grocery store” and that there was a time before these massive grocery stores we’re used to now.
I don’t have the time or brainpower to write something as nice as these two comments, but if you love those albums for these reasons you have to check out Sandinista!, it’s a bit messy and overstuffed with ideas at 3 vinyls in length, but the best 2 vinyls worth of music the Clash ever did is in there imo
Bitch you work for a fucked up industry how are you going to leave the world better when the industry lets people starve and consistently steals from young artists AND puts culture vultures into the hood?
Another self righteous dumbass Christian right there, wow what a post she made.
Like how dumb are these people?
Well when they consistently try to destroy public education this type of lame ass non aware shit you get.
The plaintiffs claim they were made to feel their employment was precarious, and that they had to comply with requests that made them uncomfortable in order to continue working. Some of those requests were of a sexual nature, including, among other things, pressure from Lizzo to attend a performance with nude dancers in Amsterdam, to eat bananas placed in nude dancers’ genitals, and pressure on one of the plaintiffs to touch a dancer’s breasts.
Other allegations were tied to religious harassment. The suit alleges Quigley spoke extensively about her religious views as a Christian and berated those who didn’t share these beliefs. It claims that one dancer’s virginity was frequently discussed without her consent, and that dancers were pressured to participate in group Christian prayer, regardless of their religious beliefs. All three defendants did little to remedy such actions despite knowing about them, the lawsuit claims.
So she claims to be a christian but takes ppl to a stripbar and make them eat banana out of pussy and fondle boobies and so on? Sounds very christian to me….
I'm so pleased we have reduced beetlejuice-hand job lady to just being beetlejuice-hand job lady. May she go down in history as beetlejuice-hand job lady, the absolute worst at giving hand jobs.
For those as baffled by the headline as me, the Tennessee House regularly honors musicians/artists from their state, voted on by the representatives. This year, while Paramore’s honors were passed through with no issue, the resolution to honor Allison Russell was “paused” due to “questions” some members of the House had. Noteably the same house that just last year voted to kick out two black members but not the white member who did the same thing.
Also, not that this isn’t very admirable of Williams, but this article really focuses on her and not Allison Russell, which seems inappropriate, tbh. Variety published a better article that focuses more on Russell and the House member that brought her resolution to vote.
White cishet calling out bigotry is the bare minimum and absolutely not worth the media stealing the spotlight from those harmed. I was really confused reading this article trying to understand what was going on. Ty for the link!
OTOH they’re a world famous band, which gives much more exposure to the problem. I’m from France and I clicked the post because I know Paramore, I’d have ignored it otherwise.
Well I do feel where you are coming from, I didn’t know Allison Russell before this article, (Although I’m listening to her winning album now and super in to it!) Ain’t nothing wrong with the headline, more the content of the article. Which is why that variety article linked is better since it actually focuses more on Allison then near exclusively on Paramore.
Really all I’m doing is pointing out the white savior complex is still alive. Hayley Williams did nothing wrong, this is just flawed media narrative.
I disagree that this is an example of the white savior complex. It's a well-known band pointing out bigotry. It wouldn't get any attention if it didn't come from a well-known band and Paramore is the one most relevant to speak up in this instance.
This is simply an example of somebody doing the right thing, and they happen to be cishet.
This is simply an example of somebody doing the right thing, and they happen to be cishet.
Exactly, I mean that was my point, they did the right thing but not exactly an exemplary over the top thing. I just dislike that this article was about Paramore more than Allison. But it’s whatever, we all agree on what’s important nuisance of it all. I think this article does have flaws, but we can disagree on minituia that I don’t really wanna litigate much further.
Above all, and as always, go fuck yourself Tennessee. More like… Two-at-best-nnessee
It’s worth noting, that Paramore rejected the honors, but only as secondary to Russell’s honors being “paused.”
Something like “TN House “pauses” vote on giving honors to local black Grammy winner Allison Russell while passing same honors to white band, Paramore. Paramore rejects the honors in solidarity.”
From my experience you can still load the page, see the song suggested, and then find a suitable link, rather than throwing our hands up at the thought of a manual search query ⭐
When my friends using other services send links, I don’t constantly remind them of my subscription; I quietly search for the song in a place that I will use.
They had 2 excellent albums full of crackers. Other albums were good, but didn’t have that raw magic. I think dreams is the nicer melody and song, but zombie has raw energy bursting at the seams. Add the political messaging and it’s an iconic anthem.
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