Gang of Four-Music for a meltdown, sountrack to a bailout

Now I'm not one to get too political, I like to leave that to those far more experienced, like Sarah Palin or Barack Obama for example. But as I witness the Dow close at an 11-year low of 7,552.29, it creates a perfect alignment of the heavens in allowing me the opportunity to highlight my absolute, all-time favorite Post Punk artists, Gang of Four.

I find it both serendipitous and frightening how their discography of some 30 years ago marries perfectly to the current events of the ongoing world financial crisis in an Ashton and Demi sorta way. Freaky.

Let's begin with the most obvious 'Capital (it fails us now)'. "One day all will be living on credit...bankrupt" King and Gill certainly nailed this one, I knew Marx was a socialist, but a clairvoyant?

Feeling 'A hole in the wallet', lets move on to the funky, disjointed opus 'Ether'. I can envision some disillusioned hedge fund manager fixing a noose from his $300 Hermes tie while this plays softly in the background. Dirt behind the daydream. You ain't kidding.

'Paralyzed' reminds us of the most visceral of lessons: you have absolutely no control over anything, least of all your job. "the crows come home to roost and I’m the dupe". Biting.

Lest we not forget the anthem for this entire imbroglio, 'To Hell with Poverty'. So profound, I feel it a must to transcribe the lyrics in their entirety:

In my arms we shall begin with none of the rocks
well there’s no charge
In this land right now some are insane a million charge
To hell with poverty we’ll get drunk on cheap wine
To hell with poverty the check will arrive we’ll turn the boast again
To hell with poverty the check will arrive we’ll turn to boast again
In my arms we shall begin with none of the rocks
and there’s no charge
In this land right now some are insane a million charge
To hell with poverty we’ll get drunk on cheap wine
To hell with poverty

This should be engraved on Allan Greenspan's headstone.

I'm just sayin'.

Remember, the key tenet of socialism is the redistribution of wealth.






Gang of Four- To Hell With Poverty (1981)