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Thursday 29 April 2021

Unionize

One of my regular evening walks takes me past the park not far from us and the view across it to the line of trees on the far side with a row of houses behind it. The sun setting and the fade of the blue in the sky differs from one night to the next. I probably wouldn't have noticed this pre- Covid, I certainly wouldn't have walked past it frequently enough to see it and photograph it. 

Here is some political punk/ soul from The Redskins. Punchy agit- prop from the skinhead three piece who wanted to marry Motown and The Clash... and largely succeeded. Unionize was the B-side to their 1983 single Lean On Me, a plea to the workers to organise themselves set to an irresistible, fast as fuck rhythms and scratchy guitars. 

Unionize 

The Power Is Yours was the first song on their 1986 album Neither Washington Nor Moscow and while the tempo is slower, the message is just as powerful. 

The Power Is Yours

And that leads me to The Style Council and their 1985 single Walls Come Tumbling Down. 'You don't have to take this crap/ you don't have to sit back and relax/ you can actually try changing things... governments crack and systems fall/ 'cos unity is powerful/ lights go out/ walls come tumbling down'

4 comments:

drew said...

This feels even worse than those dark days of the mid 80s.

The Power Is Yours was always the first track on any dj set I did, much to the consternation of the House and Techno heads and it was positively loathed by the owner of the pub I used to dj in too until I was sacked due to musical differences

DBS NETLABEL said...

theres a 4cd completist boxset of The Redskins coming in july

Walter said...

This songs could be the soundtrack of May Day in better times. Great choices Adam

Swiss Adam said...

Box set sounds good DBS, looking forward to that.