Tricky Kid

If we accept as truth that Tricky made some of the most uncompromising and influential music of the 1990s- as well as his part in Massive Attack's Blue Lines, his debut album Maxinquaye with the voice of co- singer Martina Topley- Bird rewrote what UK rap/ blues/dub/ sound system music could be like and was instrumental in the development of trip hop. He then made Pre- Millennium Tension and Nearly God, both seriously heavy albums. 

He's continued to release records, including 2020's Falls To Pieces and Fifteen Days (as Theis Thaws) and a new one comes out in July, Different When It's Silent. I haven't kept up with all his releases but the Theis Thaws single last year, Fly To Ceiling which had a David Holmes remix and another, Where Are You Lately, remixed by Radioactive Man, both got me listening to him again. 

I got a ticket for his gig at Factory International in Manchester on Saturday night and a group of us headed down. The gig was, well, it was odd, some aspects of it were downright perplexing. Tricky is an artist and known for being fairly idiosyncratic and uncompromising. We were in the seated venue of the Factory arts centre which felt very formal from the off (there's a hall downstairs which is also used for gigs which is standing which would have been better). 

The stage was dark, no spotlights. The three musicians at the back- a man on synths/ laptop, a drummer in the middle and a guitarist on the left- were all lit but the front of the stage where Tricky and two co- vocalists were, was in complete darkness. They stayed that way for the entire gig- not lights at all, just three shadowy figures either at the mic or moving back from it and waiting. The set was largely newer material and it was gripping stuff at times. The drummer (huge drum kit but only really used the snare, the floor tom and the kick) was good, the laptop/ synth operator did a lot of heavy lifting and the guitarist was on it, kicking up dirty, distorted punk riffs, slashing away when it needed it and playing quieter, single notes on the less intense songs. 

 Tricky did thank us after two or three of the songs but other than that there was little sense that we were involved in the gig. It felt more like a performance than a gig. At a gig, there's a shared experience, an energy between crowd and artist, a sense that the audience is part of it. It didn't feel like that. On some songs Tricky was barely present vocally. The two co- singers were great, very much in the sound and style of the songs he did with Martina in the 90s. Occasionally Tricky would rasp a few lines, approach the mic and gives us some of that half stoned/ half threatening magic. At times he was just a figure on stage in complete darkness. It's obviously his thing, they're his songs and it's his sound, he's in charge of it all- but a little more of him and maybe a flicker of spotlight or stage lights onto him would have been nice. 

Halfway though the guitarist kicked into the familiar wah wah intro to Black Steel and the tension and intensity grew and the audience responded with cheers and applause. Black Steel is a seminal 90s tune, one of those songs that rewired the culture for me, a new take on Public Enemy's song, an anti- government, anti- military, anti- authoritarian tune with ferocious guitars and bass and huge punk drums. It was a significant part of the reason I was at the gig. 

Black Steel

The singer on the right led it as the guitarist thrashed away and the drum got ready to explode, 'I got a letter from the government the other day/ Opened it and read it/ It said they were suckers'. I felt a jolt of excitement, a moment of electrification. Tricky wandered to the back of the stage, wandering round behind the drum riser. I expected he'd make his way back for the 'Many switch in, switch on, switch off ' lines', but he didn't. He came back after the song finished. A few songs later they played Overcome, the song that he shares with Massive Attack (Kormacoma on Protection) and again, a big moment for me and I'd imagine many of the audience. 

Overcome

'You sure you wanna be with me?/ I've nothing to give' is one of the bleakest opening lines in pop music and the song is one where love and sex merge with paranoia and dislocation, 'You're a couple/ 'specially when your bodies double/ Duplicate and then you wait/ For the next Kuwait'. It's dark and messy and reeks of the fug of weed. The band and singers play it perfectly. Then we go back to the newer songs, some of which gather steam, a few lines from Tricky here and there and then often just as it looks like the song's come together and going to fly, the guitarist and drummer locked in, they stop dead. 

Forty five minutes and they're done and head off. Tricky leads the band back on for an encore, three more songs. 'Come on Tricky!' someone shouts from the seats below us. Still no lights, it could be anyone centre stage. Afterwards, chatting to a few other people near the bar, they felt the same. A few are pissed off, wanted or expected a little more. Most people are fairly sanguine- 'it's Tricky, it's what he does'. He definitely can't be accused of becoming a heritage act living off former glories and giving it some showbiz moves.  

It was a little mystifying in a way and could have been so much more- some lights, some projections or films behind the band, a little bit more from the man himself. The band are really good and the sound is superb. The singers are great. It's up to him of course and god knows he's had to deal with some terrible stuff in his life but I was left with the feeling that Tricky was only partly there.

Forty Minutes Of That Drum Break

Back in December I posted I'm Not The Man I Used To Be by Fine Young Cannibals and then more recently Madonna's Justify My Love, both songs driven by a very famous drum break- the Funky Drummer, a drum solo played by the legendary Clyde Stubblefield on James Brown's 1970 single Funky Drummer (actually from the B-side Funky Drummer Part 2). Digging into My Bloody Valentine's back catalogue over the last two weeks brought me back to a B-side from 1988 titled Instrumental No. 2, the flipside to a 7" single given away free with the first 5000 copies of Isn't Anything. 

My Bloody Valentine and Madonna (with co- writers Lenny Kravitz and Ingrid Chavez) both built their songs around a short interlude track by Public Enemy from 1988's It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back. PE's Hank Shocklee denies that the drum break on Security Of The First World is a sample from Funky Drummer but both My Bloody Valentine and Madonna sampled Public Enemy- Kravitz denied it saying it was a drum break that was 'just lying around the studio'. Kevin Shields was getting into acid house in 1988 as well as developing MBV's guitar noise and there's a good argument that Instrumental No. 2 is the first indie- dance track, ahead of The Soup Dragons, ahead of The Stone Roses and ahead of Primal Scream. Admittedly Happy Mondays might want a word.

Anyway, the whats and wheres and who's firsts aren't what I'm here for today. I started piecing these tracks together and thought I'd try to get them and a handful of others to work together in a mix. Forty minutes seemed enough- there are literally thousands of songs that have sampled the Funky Drummer and hundreds of hip hop records including Boogie Down Productions,  LL Cool J, Eric B and Rakim, Run DMC, Beastie Boys and NWA. In fact I might come back and do a hip hop Funky Drummer Sunday mix. But in the meantime, this one is those records above and a couple of others. 

For a while Shadrach by The Beastie Boys were in the mix but it's a different drum break, more likely from Hot & Nasty by Black Oak Arkansas and I dropped Fool's Gold in too but it's not the same break either- it's a funky drummer but not the Funky Drummer. DNA and Suzanne Vega did make the cut but I don't think it's actually the Funky Drummer, it's more likely sampled from Soul II Soul, but it felt like it fitted. 

It's probably worth remembering that Clyde Stubblefield, the man whose drumming is the Funky Drummer, got nothing more than the session fee as the drummer in James Brown's band. 

Forty Minutes Of The Funky Drummer

• Public Enemy: Security Of The First World
• My Bloody Valentine: Instrumental No. 2
• Madonna: Justify My Love
• Sinead O'Connor: I'm Stretched On Your Grave
• Fine Young Cannibals: I'm Not The Man I Used To Be
• DNA and Suzanne Vega: Tom's Diner (DNA Remix)
• Radio Slave: Amnesia (Instrumental)
• James Brown: Funky Drummer (Album Version)

Security Of The First World is from side two of It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back, the greatest hip hop album ever made, Chuck D, Flavor Flav and The Bomb Squad writing the book on how to splice noise, funk and rap, politics, race and music. Security Of The First World is a one minute twenty loop, the Funky Drummer, a pulverising bassline and some bleeps, that changed music. 

Kevin Shields sampled Public Enemy for Instrumental No. 2. The pitch drops a little and it sounds scratchier- maybe they sampled it from vinyl. Over the top Kevin plays ghostly guitar chords and layers of wordless vocals to create something that would inform later MBV tracks- Soon is surely born here. 

Madonna's Justify My Love was a 1990 single, banned by MTV due to the S&M, voyeurism and bisexuality on display in the video. I wrote about it earlier this month here. Madonna and Lenny Kravitz wrote and recorded it in a day according to Lenny, very quick and in his words 'authentic'.

Also from 1990 is Sinead O'Connor's I Am Stretched On Your Grave. Sinead was a huge Public Enemy fan. The lyrics are from a 17th century poem, Taim Sinte Ar Do Thuama, translated into English by Irish poet Frank O'Connor and set to music in 1979 by Irish artist Philip King. Sinead's vocal is stunning, alone over Clyde's drumming. Some bass bubbles in, there are some drum crashes and at the end there's a dramatic fiddle part by Waterboy Steve Wickham. 

In 1989 Fine Young Cannibals released I'm Not The Man I Used To Be as a single (the fourth from their album The Raw And The Cooked). They sped the Funky Drummer up and there's some house music in the chords and production. A song that bears repeat plays. Roland Gift was a star who reused to play the game. 

DNA sampled Suzanne Vega's a capella version of Tom's Diner (from here 1987 album Solitude Standing though it dates from earlier, it's on a 1984 Fast Folk Music Magazine album). DNA played it over the drum break from a Soul II Soul record. DNA pressed it up and released it without permission and it took off. Suzanne's label A&M decided to release it officially rather than sue (Suzanne liked the version) and it became a massive hit. It's not the Funky Drummer but it felt like it fitted with Sinead and Madonna and the whole 1990 drum break sampling vibe. 

Just to show that you can't keep a good drum break down, Amnesia is from 2023, a track by Berlin DJ and producer Radio Slave and a tribute to the Ibiza club Amnesia and partying under the stars in the mid- to- late 80s, something Radio Slave admits is a romanticised notion. 

I was in two minds about including the source material. Funky Drummer was released as a single by James Brown in 1970, split over both sides of the 7" with Part 2 being the source of the drum break. This is a nine minute studio version, released on a 1986 album In the Jungle Groove- surely the source for many of the hundreds of artists who followed Public Enemy's lead after 1988 who sampled it. 

You Say 'What Is This?'

Someone somewhere recently opined that they had just heard Public Enemy's Fight The Power again and that it contained the same thrill, shock of the new and sheer urgency that it did when they had first heard it in 1989, that it's power to move was undiminished by the thirty five years gap in between its release and 2024. I played it- loud-  to see if it had the same effect on me and am happy to report it has lost nothing at all since '89, it remains one of the great moments in popular music, a perfect, righteous collision of hip hop, sampling, loops, noise, funk, Black Nationalism and Spike Lee. 

Fight The Power

From the opening sample, the voice of civil rights activist Thomas TNT Todd declaring, 'Yet if our best trained, best educated best equipped, best prepared troops refuse to fight...', to the crescendo of noise and samples that follow and then Chuck D's ever- memorable, ever quotable opening lyrics- '1898/ Another summer/ Sound of the Funky Drummer/ Music hitting hard/ Cause I know you got soul', it's a powerhouse of a song. 

In 1988 Spike Lee had approached the group and told them he needed a theme song for a film he was making, a film about racial tensions in Brooklyn. He wanted something 'defiant... angry... rhythmic... anthemic' and thought of Public Enemy straight away. Chuck, Flavor Flav, Terminator X and The Bomb Squad delivered on every level. The Bomb Squad constructed the music out of a bunch of loops including Trouble Funk, Brandon Marsalis, Sly and the Family Stone, The Dramatics, James Brown, Bobby Byrd, Afrika Bambaataa plus scratching from Terminator X. Meanwhile Chuck D wrote his all time best words, the chorus of, 'Fight the power/ Fight the powers that be', matched by the verses, a up to the minute, state- of- the- nation address. In the third verse Chuck went to go full throttle and penned one of the finest lyrics ever written, one guaranteed to further enrage white rock 'n' roll purists...

'Elvis was a hero to most/ But he never meant shit to me/ You see straight out racist that sucker was simple and plain/ Motherfuck him and John Wayne'

Even if Elvis wasn't actually racist (and the jury's out with various people defending him/ accusing him), Chuck is surely covered here by the appropriation of black music by white singers and the crowning of Elvis 'King' while ignoring the work of earlier black musicians. John Wayne is less defendable- 'I believe in white supremacy until the point the blacks are educated to a point of responsibility' he said in 1971. Regardless, it's a brilliant piece of songwriting provocative, powerful, and with perfect flow and scan. He follows it, without pause, with...

'Cause I'm black and I'm proud/ I'm hyped and I'm amped/ Most of my heroes don't appear on no stamps'.

The video is a blast as well, filmed on the streets of Brooklyn, Chuck and Flavor in their absolute pomp. Flav knows what time it is- he's wearing multiple clocks.The SW1s strut and dance. The crowd jump. Malcolm X is everywhere along with Marcus Garvey, Angela Davis and Paul Robeson. 

Fight The Power came out as a single on Motown, released in summer 1989 to promote Spike Lee's incendiary film Do The Right Thing. The film's opening sequence is as memorable as the song's video, a four minute highly stylised sequence with Rosie Perez dancing and shadow boxing, a scene that took eight hours to film

One of the things about late 80s dance floors (or at least the best of them) was that for a period there was a genuine sense of anything goes as long as you can dance to it. Fight The Power could be heard alongside house music, acid house, indie guitar bands and nascent indie dance tracks- and was equally rapturously received. The walls that divided one type of music from another were briefly blown down and Fight The Power was a big part of that. 

STFU

In many ways the Trump presidency should have stopped before it even began, it should have been halted dead in its tracks when he mimicked and mocked a disabled reporter, Serge Kovaleski, back in November 2015. Any sane world would have demanded his withdrawal from the process right there, a man clearly unfit to run for public office, and it's to the eternal shame of his backers, his family, the Republican Party and anyone who voted for him that he sailed past this point. 

Since then he has dragged the office of the President of the USA to ever lower lows. His lies are ever present, over 22, 000 falsehoods and lies uttered as President identified by fact checkers. His racist dog- whistles and outright refusal to condemn white supremacist groups. His public praise for violent right wing militias and encouragement of them overthrow Democratic state governors. His appointment of family members to top jobs, the shameless nepotism of a mob boss. His determination to rip up democratic norms and conventions, the checks and balances upon which the entire system rests. His long running campaign to discredit people like Anthony Fauci, actual experts within their field. The laying the groundwork throughout this year for challenging a defeat at the ballot box by telling his supporters that postal voting is fraudulent, that Democrats will rig the election and that he may refuse to handover the reins of power even if he is soundly defeated. His approach to Coronavirus which has led directly to the deaths of over 200, 000 Americans to date. His posturing outside the Church of the Presidents holding an upside down bible, during the worst civil unrest for decades. His refusal to take questions from female reporters. His racist approach to Central American politics. It goes on and on and on...

 And it matters to us in the UK because like it or not the US is the central player in global politics and how things work. What happens in the USA affects us over here- and the general, widespread debasement of public life affects us all too. I read an article recently that described discussions among commentators and historians about whether Trump is a fascist. He shares many of the characteristics of fascist dictators (the fact that he hasn't invaded anywhere or committed acts of genocide don't necessarily rule him out). One of the descriptions of him was a 'post- fascist populist'. The funny thing about all populist leaders, and Trump especially, is that they actually despise the people they claim to speak for. Trump would rather admit the true size of the small crowds at his inauguration in January 2017 than spend any time with the poor saps in MAGA caps at his rallies. He left thousands of them standing in the freezing cold after a rally recently. He encourages them to refuse to wear face masks, a policy that has led to tens of thousands of infections among his supporters, people who are collateral damage in the Trump re- election campaign, a man with so fragile an ego that killing his own people is preferable to losing.

I've no idea what will happen today and tonight. There have been all sorts of forecasts, a narrow Biden win, a big Biden win, a Trump resurgence. It looks like a Trump tactic may be to declare victory at some point during the night, regardless of the count and see if the media go with it, an actual anti- democratic power grab. Are we still squeamish about using the word fascist? He has said that he will contest any result in the courts, and has rushed through an appointment to the Supreme Court to enable this. It looks like any kind of Biden win will lead to Trump having to be prised out of the White House, the US political system and Constitution creaking at the sides as legal crowbars are applied to jemmy the bastard out. 

He has to go. He has to be defeated. For fuck's sake America, please, get it done. 

Back in June Public Enemy returned with a new single, the righteous fury of non- Trump America diffused into one three minute song, a song that opens with Chuck D declaring 'whatever it takes, rid this dictator...' and builds to the chorus, 'State of the Union/ Shut the fuck up/ Sorry ass motherfucker/ Stay away from me'

Public Enemy also updated their 1989 single Fight The Power for 2020, bringing Nas, Rhapsody, Black Thought, Jahi, YG and QuestLove on board, a song is still as relevant as the day it was written. 

State Of The Union

On Friday night Public Enemy returned with a new single, State Of The Union, Flavor Flav and Chuck D at the forefront with DJ Premier at the decks.



There's no nuance or subtlety about this song, it is direct and furious and confrontational. It is a message aimed directly at Donald Trump and the USA's white supremacists. The chorus leaves no room for doubt 'State of the union/ Shut the fuck up/ Sorry ass motherfucker/ Stay away from me'.

In a brief message to go with the song Public Enemy said this...

'All we know is Trump has gotta go…. We shot this video in secret in the dead of the night. PEace Chuck D and Flavor Flav'

Chuck D at sixty still raging with the energy of a man forty years his junior.

Back in 2007 Public Enemy proved they were still alive and kicking with the Shirley Bassey horn sampling Harder than You Think. The song had a UK resurgence in 2010 when it was used as the music for Channel 4's TV coverage of the London Paralympics. It still sounds magnificent today.

Harder Than You Think

In 1990 Public Enemy released their third album, Fear Of  A Black Planet, a dense, sample heavy, layered album with hard, funky loops underpinning the rhymes. Among the lyrics were calls to organise and become self sufficient, samples dealing with the treatment of black men by white police forces and media coverage of race issues, songs about the stereotypical portrayal of black people in Hollywood films and the inadequacy of the emergency services. Public Enemy made Fear Of A Black Planet thirty years ago. State of The Union is partly asking the question 'what has really changed?' and the answer is nothing, in fact, things under Trump are worse.

Revolutionary Generation

You Say What Is This?

Yet another thirty year old record for your ears, this one first released in June 1989, almost thirty years to the day- Public Enemy's Fight The Power. The first line of Chuck D's explosive vocal states the year, as if you had any doubt, '1989, the number, another summer, sound of the funky drummer'. Before that though there is a sample from a speech by civil rights activist Thomas Todd describing African American men and their attitude towards the war in Vietnam- 'Yet our best trained, best educated, best equipped, best prepared troops refuse to fight. Matter of fact, it's safe to say that they would rather switch than fight". 

From there The Bomb Squad take over, bringing the rhythm and the noise, riding in on several James Brown samples- loops layered over loops layered over loops- plus parts borrowed from the lineage of black American music including Sly Stone, The J.B.s, Bobby Byrd, The Dramatics, The Isley Brothers, Rick James, Afrika Bambaataa, Trouble Funk and Kurtis Blow, plus Bob Marley, and for good measure sampling themselves. It's a production tour de force, both furious and made to be danced to, seething with anger and righteousness but funky as you like. Chuck D's voice is an instrument in itself, the tone and timbre of his voice and the rhythm and flow of the words, with Flav cutting in. The only 'live' instrument is Branford Marsalis' saxophone, further cut up and dropped in by Hank Shocklee. It's a 1989 peak, a Public Enemy peak, an anyone ever peak.

Chuck's lyrics for the third verse are are among his best and most provocative. The group always said that the song was about fighting the abuse of power. In the third verse he takes it to another level, aiming squarely at white America and the entire music industry, stealing from black artists to sell white performers to white consumers- 'Elvis' he rasps, his vocal chords igniting, 'was a hero to most but he never meant shit to me, straight up racist that sucker was simple and plain', 'yeah' comes in Flavor Flav, 'motherfuck him and John Wayne'. Chuck D later said he wasn't attacking Elvis personally but that Elvis represented the theft of black music, the lack of acknowledgement that there was black music before Elvis. John Wayne's racist views, on the other hand, were widely known. It's a powerful, incendiary line and followed by one almost as good 'cause I'm black and I'm ready and hyped plus I'm amped, most of my heroes don't appear on no stamps'.

Fight The Power's release in 1989 came with the film Do The Right Thing, Spike Lee's exploration of racial tensions in the summer in Brooklyn, simmering disputes between Italian Americans and African Americans and Korean Americans, white cops and black residents and ends with an explosion of violence by the end of day and the film, partly caused by a pair of scuffed Nikes. The film opens with Rosie Perez dancing to the song. Radio Raheem  blasts it out throughout the film from his boombox. Spike Lee commissioned Pubic Enemy to write the song, something 'defiant... angry... rhythmic' It's fair to say they delivered.

There are two versions of the song- this one, the soundtrack version, worth posting it with the video which is a definitive and dramatic piece of work in itself, filmed in Brooklyn.



The following year a slightly shorter version of Fight The Power closed Public Enemy's album Fear Of A Black Planet, the third of their three classic lps.

Fight The Power 

Nothing Is Quick In The Desert

Yesterday mistakes were made here at Bagging Area. The Various Artists post on the Junior Boys Own Collection should have appeared today but due to an administrative error was published yesterday alongside the Orbital post. An inquiry has been carried out which has gone all the way to the very top of this organisation. Rest assured, action has been taken and heads have rolled.

As a result of the erroneous publishing of two posts simultaneously (and being out last night) this is a brief post. Public Enemy are celebrating thirty years in the rap game and have made their new album Nothing Is Quick In The Desert available as a free download. Off you go.

Push The Sky Away/Harder Than You Think

Right then, time for action, time for change, time to see what is going on. Today is the day. By this tomorrow we should know what we face. The way I see it there are three potential outcomes of this general election.

1. A victory for a socialist Labour Party, led by Jeremy Corbyn. If I am to believe my Twitter timeline this is a completely plausible outcome, but I fear it is unlikely.

2. A hung parliament. Seeing as there can't be any parties out there who would prop up a minority government led by a politically damaged Theresa May, I'm guessing this would result in a progressive alliance of Labour, SNP, PC, possibly some Lib Dems, and the Greens. I am happy with this as an outcome.

3. A Tory government, a cabinet of barbarians, who will hold power for the next five years, driving us off the cliff face and into some sort of post-EU, post-human rights, right-wing elective dictatorship where the poor are left to fend for themselves and Britain becomes a Poundshop, Daily Mail outpost off the coast of northern Europe.

I'm not looking forward to this.

In 2013 Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds released an album called Push The Sky Away, the first without long term cohort Mick Harvey. It has a warmth that singles it out in Nick Cave's back catalogue and on this beautiful closing song, a most un-Bad Seeds sound, an almost post-club sound with some optimistic, life affirming lyrics...

'I was riding
The sun was rising from the fields

You've got to keep on pushing and keep on pushing
Pushing the sky away

And some people say that it's just rock and roll
Oh but it gets down right into your soul

You've got to keep on pushing and keep on pushing
Pushing the sky away'


Push The Sky Away

It's a thing of beauty, even if you're not much of a Nick Cave fan. But it's not a song to take to the barricades or the polling station. This is though, Chuck D and Flavor Flav telling it how it is...

Harder Than You Think

Beauty's Where You Find It

There are plenty of Madonna singles I'll make a case for, from Into The Groove to Ray Of Light and several in between. I even like American Pie. In 1990 she released two singles that are as good as anything she did, splicing pop with house to stay a step ahead of the rest, and pushing pop music into new places. Vogue is a smart pop song, a dance, a homage to 1920s and 1930s style and Hollywood legend, a light shining on the gay club scene, and a celebration of the dancefloor. The rap section is totally memorable and the rhythm can only have come from producer Shep Pettibone's exposure to house music in Europe.

Vogue



Justify My Love was a step further, calculated to cause offence and controversy. Co-written by Lenny Kravitz, drums borrowed from Public Enemy (and Clyde Stubblefield originally), it sets off like a train and Madonna's breathy vocals make it clear there's only one thing on her mind. The video features the full range of button pushers for the TV censors- scenes of a sexual nature, cross-dressing, BDSM and nudity, all par for the course for Madonna in 1990. The Sex book (with Vanilla Ice of all people) was just around the corner. Justify My Love is a great single in its own right though, a chuggy dance pop monster. The video was banned by MTV (obvs) and to watch it you'd have to buy it on VHS. Until Youtube was invented.

Justify My Love

Revolutionary Generation

I'm going to see The Stone Roses in a football stadium today. Reports from the first three nights have ranged from 'great' to 'a religious experience'. Nothing if not enthusiastic, Roses fans. The support acts today are The Courtneeners (no interest from me I'm afraid, generic northern rock band) and Public Enemy (lots of interest from me, groundbreaking hip hop band who remain untouched in their field). Fear Of A Black Planet, their 1990 album, is a must own record from 911 Is A Joke to Can't Do Nuttin' For Ya Man, Brother's Gonna Work it Out and Fight The Power. And this one, which samples Musical Youth and Parliament...

Revolutionary Generation

1989 Another Summer, Sound Of The Funky Drummer

Here's today's post which didn't publish this morning for some unknown reason.

The ultimate extension of Keith LeBlanc's 1983 Malcolm X record was this, the motherlode of righteous hip hop, the pinnacle of Public Enemy's career, the greatest protest record of them all- Fight The Power. One record pulling together the history of the civil rights movement, the upsurge in interest in Malcolm X, Spike Lee's film making, The Bomb Squad's screaming, pummeling production and Chuck D's angriest, most on-point lyrics (the verse that goes 'Elvis was a hero to most but he never meant shit to me, straight out racist that sucker was simple and plain, motherfuck him and John Wayne, people get ready 'cos I'm black and I'm proud, I'm hyped and I'm amped, most of my heroes don't appear on no stamps' is as good as it gets). Again, not on the hard drive but do you want the full seven minute version of the video? Yeah, boyeee!



There are some technical gremlins loose in the machine- yesterday's video won't un-embed.

Harder Than You Think

There's all this top sport all over the place at the moment and then the mp3 player shuffled up this on the way home from work on Friday, just as I was at the traffic lights near home. The World Cup and the Tour de France will be poorer for those injuries to poor old Neymar (definitely out) and poor old Mark Cavendish (probably out).

Public Enemy's Harder Than You Think was a single from their 20th anniversary album How Do You Sell Soul To A Soulless People Who Lost Their Soul? and proved that Chuck D and co had not lost their edge. It is lit up by a Shirley Bassey horn sample and is probably best known over here as the song that soundtracked the paralympic games two summers ago. This Futurecast remix adds a massive, punishing breakbeat.

Harder Than You Think (Futurecast Remix)

Most Of My Heroes Don't Appear On No Stamps

I've been having a bit of a Public Enemy revival, partly sparked off by Drew's 1988 rap week and the band's appearance at Glastonbury last weekend. I've even got E.T. going around using the phrase 'Don't, don't, don't, don't, don't believe the hype', which pleases me no end.

While the media was looking at all the fuss over at the main stage Chuck D turned in a blinding set of Public Enemy songs, including the evergreen '88 classic...



I keep going back to this, from 1989. Their best moment? Maybe...



I don't know if Elvis was racist but it's a magnificent line- the whole verse is untouchably great. Chuck and I were in agreement for many years about most of our heroes not appearing on no stamps- until the Royal Mail released that series of classic British album covers a few years back, which included London Calling, Power Corruption And Lies and Screamadelica. Damnthe Royal Mail- they took that piece of righteous anger away from me.

Bring The Noise

I Got A Letter From The Government The Other Day...

... opened it and read it, it said they were suckers.

Is as good an opening line for a song as any I can think of. In fact, the receiving of a letter is a good starting point for songs generally- Jimmy Cliff's Vietnam, Son House's Death Letter both spring to mind. It could die out within a generation couldn't it?- I was cc'd into an email last week doesn't carry the same drama.

Tricky's cover version of the Public Enemy song Black Steel In the Hour Of Chaos is one of those covers that is better than the original. The clattering beats, the female lead vocal shifting everything from the original around, the full on bass, the descending punk guitar riff- this is one of the best songs of the 90s and one of the few Tricky songs I can come back to time and time again. And there was a guitar heavy remix on the 12" that was even better.

Black Steel

Gypsy Rose Lee got more than a letter from her government- she was investigated by Joe McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee during the Red Scare of the early 50s. You've got to watch those burlesque artistes- Commies every last one of them.

Arizona Alpert

Another Public Enemy mash up I re-found recently (I think via Tedloaf and Twitter). Chuck D rages about Arizona, the state who refused to recognise Martin Luther King Day, while Herb Alpert parps away merrily underneath. Herb sued the makers, The Evolution Control Committe. Chuck and Flavor Flav didn't. But then PE always knew what time it was.

Seven Nation Noise Revelator

Found this, I think via Twitter. The charmingly named Bastard Brothers have taken this pair's best known song...

...and this man's biblical acapella John The Revelator...

... and this band's Bring The Noise...

... and stuck 'em all together- good fun. Some blues purists seem a little upset about Son House being used in this way but I reckon he wouldn't have minded. Due to 'copyright restrictions' I'm not allowed to embed it. Youtube link here.

Harder Than You Think

This picture shows what happens when an athlete at the top of his game wins a major event, as David Weir did a couple of nights ago at the Olympic Stadium in London.

I'm sure I can speak for a lot of people when I say I've found the Paralympics to be just about the most inspiring thing I've seen for ages. The coverage has been a little patchy by Channel 4 in terms of showing actual live action but the excitement and interest it's stirred up has been phenomenal, especially when so much of it has been about the sport itself and not just the disability. Perhaps people will start looking at disability differently. And though it seems unfair to pick any of the athletes out the performances of David Weir, Hannah Cockcroft, Ellie Simmonds, Jonnie Peacock and Sarah Storey have brought tears to the eyes. I'm just wondering if we can find an event to start training our son IT in. He'll be seventeen when Rio comes around.

Channel 4's coverage has been soundtracked by a catchy little horn sample and a fragment of voice. This began to nag at me so I googled it. It turns out it's a Public Enemy song from 2007, which made me realise I haven't bought (or possibly even heard) a new Public Enemy record since, ooh, the last century. It was just as surprising to find that Harder Than You Think is riding high in the UK charts. It doesn't surprise me that it's selling, I just didn't know we still had a chart. Here's Chuck and Flavor doing the right thing...



Which reminds me; why did 80, 000 people boo George Osbourne at the Olympic Stadium?
Because the Olympic Stadium only holds 80, 000 people.

So You Wanna Mess With The Coke?

From twee indie yesterday to militant black hip-hop today. Public Enemy are/were the greatest of all the 80s hip-hop acts, but look and sound somewhat dated today, especially compared to the multi-million dollar, lifestyle aspirational accessory rap music has become. When I posted Passing Me By by 90s rappers the Pharcyde a couple of weeks ago I never thought it would become the most popular (as in most downloaded) track we'd have here at Bagging Area, but it is, so let's see what happens with this one.

After the pinnacle of all of Public Enemy's albums- Fear of A Black Planet (feel free to disagree)- they lost focus and direction and members a little. An album called Greatest Misses was put together featuring new tracks on one side and remixes on the other. One of the new ones was this song, Gett Off My Back and it's is a much overlooked part o their back catalogue featuring two George Clinton samples (Parliament and Funkadelica I think), some great chanting backing vocals, heavy but funky drums, some squeeling noises, and advice about the perils of drugs from everyone's favourite clock-wearing, gold-teethed, reality TV show appearing, black power sidekick Mr Flavor Flav. Tip-top hip-hop with a sense of fun and freedom that was sometimes absent.

Public Enemy - Gett Off My Back.mp3