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Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Cold War Music Box From the Other Side of the Iron Curtain




OK so I figured I ought to find a video that took a harder look at the "good guys" in the Cold War and thought immediately about one Billy Bragg, punk/socialist/folk singer.

Mr Bragg lets the US have it with both barrels and truth be told he scores a lot of hits with his shot gun splatter.   I figure a little introspection and self criticism never hurt anybody, but lets face it  I'd have taken the West over the East any day.  A lot of the points made in the 80s still hold true in 2014 - for instance with in the last 2 years PBS had a special on efforts to replace Evolution with Creationism in school biology texts.  So yes it may be land of opportunity but there's still a monkey trail on TV!

This video was filmed in the USSR in 1987 (well before the USSR ceased to exist)!  There's cool shots of Billy in neat looking hats and T-shirts, interacting with regular Ruskies and a steam train with a genuine Commie Red Star on it (how cool is that).  And my god Billy looks young and innocent.

And for all those young kids who wanna be rock'n'rollers:

  1. Forget about overproducing and never underestimate the impact of one guy on a rhythm guitar.
  2. Passionate singing trumps auto tune every time.

Now here's the song


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTneVU-E7Jo

There's a great interview with Billy on Q here.  He ranks on the list of rockers that I would like to chat with over tea in this case!.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oa_LLnZ_qcA

1 comment:

  1. Agreed on the autotune and overproduction in the studio. So much music made in 2014 sounds so sterile and lacking in soul because of over-reliance on them. And Canada has had, and continues to produce, scads of great rock artists of all kinds.

    Best Regards,

    Stokes

    ReplyDelete