Song lyrics

I don't really consider myself a connoisseur or being really pasisonate about music. I rarely go to gigs and don't really look out for new bands etc. I tend to find out 2nd hand from people i've met over the years. I got into the Stone Roses after my good friend from uni Scott Baikie reccomended them and shared his passion for them. I got into music by Richie Hawtin and other techno stuff through another good uni friend Cameron Wilson.

Other people have introduced me to other bands, and interest in one band often leads to interest in others. I can't remember how i got into liking The Doors, i remember meeting other people at uni that liked them, one particularly mental but nice Irish guy called Jerome was into them but it wasn't him who introduced them to me. I do remember going to a Doors tribute band one night with him, buying a t-shirt for about ten quid and the t-shirt not even making it home.

the same way i don't recall exactly how i got into the Clash, i was interested in the idea of punk music generally and has some basic knowledge of it's existence and impact so i listened to the most notable bands i could think of. The Clash, the Sex Pistols and the Jam were the first ones i listened to. Anyway i read something of an interview in a newspaper supplement or some such thing an interview with Chris martin of Coldplay. It was promoting their 2nd album if i recall, and he was asked about it, how they tried to move on and improve etc. He answered that he felt he had much stronger lyrics now and joked that some relative had teased him "what was all that yellow shite about?"

So i was thinking about music and lyrics. How often do we really listen to songs and what they are saying, certainly half the time music is something we have on in the background. Like now, i have music on but i'm concentrating on writing this. Then there are plenty of songs where even when you do listen you struggle to understand what the fuck the singer is on about. Techno tends to somewhat light on lyrics, doesn't that render it lacking in merit or meaning. Not necesarily, some of my favourite techno tracks are inspiring, uplifting, exciting thrilling pieces of music, although if there is meaning to osme of them it is obscure but i'm sure the artist producing them has a better idea than i.

I do think that while lyrics arn't necesarily essential to a good listening experience, i think the very best songs have got something very definate to say. Most lyrics are trite anodyne nonsense, like the entire output of Coldplay or any other bland band you care to mention. Lets not even mention likes of Michael Bolton, George Michael, Robbie Williams and all the other souless suckers of Satans cock.* However for myself i have been very into the Clash just now and one song in particular that resonates with me is called Washington Bullets(lyrics below), it is quite an angry song albeit with quite a funky tune and is a searing criticism of US foriegn policy and well the foreign policies of established powers in general and how fucked up the world is where power is prized above all else. It makes listening to shite like Coldplay seem pointless and their very existence all the more annoying as they are lauded for their meaningless work provide yet another example of how mediocrity rules the world.

Oh! Mama, Mama look there!
Your children are playing in that street again
Don't you know what happened down there?
A youth of fourteen got shot down there
The Kokane guns of Jamdown Town
The killing clowns, the blood money men
Are shooting those Washington bullets again

As every cell in Chile will tell
The cries of the tortured men
Remember Allende, and the days before,
Before the army came
Please remember Victor Jara,
In the Santiago Stadium,
Es verdad - those Washington Bullets again

And in the Bay of Pigs in 1961,
Havana fought the playboy in the Cuban sun,
For Castro is a colour,
Is a redder than red,
Those Washington bullets want Castro dead
For Castro is the colour...
...That will earn you a spray of lead

For the very first time ever,
When they had a revolution in Nicaragua,
There was no interference from America
Human rights in America

Well the people fought the leader,
And up he flew...
With no Washington bullets what else could he do?

'N' if you can find a Afghan rebel
That the Moscow bullets missed
Ask him what he thinks of voting Communist...
...Ask the Dalai Lama in the hills of Tibet,
How many monks did the Chinese get?
In a war-torn swamp stop any mercenary,
'N' check the British bullets in his armoury
Que?
Sandinista!

*according to Bill Hicks if anyone plans to sue!