The Serenade Is Dead

I've been thinking a lot about the 80's this past week and of all the diverse styles of music that I sampled during that time. The ones such as acid house and northern soul which I dove head first into and got submerged in and the other which I dabbled in, liking bits and pieces of but  couldn't embrace fully.

One such genre was the anarchist punk stuff of the early 80s. I was drawn into this by the politics, which although even then I found naive the beliefs did appeal, all except the ardent veganism. I never could bring myself to stop munching on dead animals. The anarchists were always the coolest guys on the CND demos, what with their black flags and dyed black army fatigues, they were always the ones with a bit of gear and some Merrydown.

The soundtrack however left a lot to be desired in most cases. There were the exceptions, Hagar The Womb, Flux Of Pink Indians and Chumbawamba to name three and the Mob could have been a really good band if the singer wasn't quite so tone deaf.

For the most part, however it was rudimentary stuff, with lots of shouting and swearing and lyrics that didn't quite fit in time with the music unless they were spat out at over 10 syllables per second.

Crass were the major force in this musical movement and I loved their ideals and even quite liked some of their songs, with titles like How Does It Feel (To Be The Mother Of 1000 Dead) and Bloody Revolutions it wasn't hard to figure out what they were going on about.

The band that followed in the wake of Crass and who subsequently Steve Ignorant, chief shouter with Crass joined was Conflict. If Crass were angry Conflict were permanently livid, there music and lyrics being even more brutal and in your face than Crass. I never could get into them, I tried but it just didn't do anything for me. S on the other hand loved them and I think still has everything that they ever produced.

There was one track by Conflict that I did like and a few months ago I borrowed it from S and ripped in order to post but it never seemed to be the right time until now. Don't ask me why,  as Conflict like all the other anarchists didn't believe in party politics or elections but somehow I think that this week is the time to post this song.

Conflict - The Serenade Is Dead