johnglen said:
I like public enema number 1 , mostly for the music , but some of the social commentary in these 2 albums is dreadful. For example i loathe the lyrics of "afraid to shoot strangers" , such a right-wing pro-Bush song .
Not so sure about that - seems more of a pragmatic statement about war rather than a kneejerk, idealistic, anti-war rant about
all armed conflict.
Clearly the first part of the song outlines the horrors of war, but the latter part essentially asks what the alternative is? For example 'Should we live and let live?' - just turn a blind eye and let the aggressor get on with it?
No, because the lyrics ask: "But how can we let them go on this way? The reign of terror corruption must end."
Thus: "And we know deep down there's no other way. No trust, no reasoning, no more to say."
In essence, therefore, you can't debate rationally with a tyrant (like Hitler, say), so the bottom line is that armed force must be used.
Thus I don't see how the song can necessarily be characterised as right-wing. I think some people have construed it as being specificallly about the Gulf War - ie following Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait in 1990 - but I'm not so sure about that.
Songs like.... "Weekend Warrior" have embarassing lyrics, that's not serious social commentary , IMO just childish rumblings.
Well I don't know, it's neither pro-violence nor another kneejerk response against violence.
There are several interesting angles;
- the normal life during the week and he more sinister side at weekends;
- the behaviour in the normal environment and the completely different attitude in the enviroment of the terraces/football match.
- questioning how the person got involved in it all in the first place.
- the difficulty of escaping from it all, even when the person knows it's wrong.
Thus essentially it's about how peer pressure and certain enviroments affect our behaviour, and how we may think it's wrong but can't find a way out of it.
In fact there's perhaps a parallel with ATSS, because
deep down the narrator knows that violence may be morally right in the just war scenario, but morally wrong in the football hooliganism environment, but being morally honest about it is perhaps more difficult. In the just war scenario it's perhaps difficult to admit that it may be just and the only alternative if you inhabit a certain political environment , while in the latter it's difficult to tell your mates that something's wrong and you think you should be doing something else.
OK, neither the song nor my analysis offers any particularly devastating insights, but at the end of the day it's a rock song, not a sociology thesis. But surely a bit better than "childish rumblings"? Although perhaps the music is a different matter!