Swastika Eyes

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In the past I've been pretty critical of Bobby Gillespie's sallow sloganeering. But this afternoon I was watching BBC World in my Berlin bunker and they showed a few seconds of a Tokyo antiwar demonstration. And there was a placard that said 'SWASTIKA EYES'. And I thought 'Yes! Good on yer, Bobby Gillespie!'

Now, when Primal Scream released 'Swastika Eyes' BG said it was about Madeleine Albright. And I thought it was just a teensy bit adolescent to describe her as a fascist. But the current US administration makes yesterday's hysterical rhetoric today's level-headed analysis.

John Cage said 'Eventually noise turns into harmony'. I'd add, eventually Bobby Gillespie makes sense.

― Momus (Momus), Saturday, 8 March 2003 15:34 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm not quite ready to paint 'Bomb the Pentagon' on a placard as a proposal for world peace, but ask me again in two weeks.

― Momus (Momus), Saturday, 8 March 2003 15:36 (twenty-three years ago)

Hang on, are you seriously calling the current US administration a bunch of fascists?

― RickyT (RickyT), Saturday, 8 March 2003 15:43 (twenty-three years ago)

'What Bob really meant' time:

'Reign down fire on everyone
...Elimination policy
A military, industrial Illusion of Democracy

Swastika eyes, you've got
Swastika eyes, you've got
Swastika eyes, Swastika eyes, Swastika eyes'

See, Dylan -- I mean Gillespie -- uses 'eyes' to suggest that out-and-out fascism is only an ambition for these people, a pipe dream. But give them their head, our bard-seer predicts, and truly fascist policies will follow. All the Bush junta needs to do is create enough instability in the world, and they can clamp down with martial law. Now, how to create instability? Create new enemies, wage new wars, disregard international agreements, send the economy tail-spinning...

― Momus (Momus), Saturday, 8 March 2003 15:56 (twenty-three years ago)

It's been done better, and in a more prescient fashion (the phrase "infinite justice" is dropped in 1999!).

― Nate Patrin (Nate Patrin), Saturday, 8 March 2003 16:08 (twenty-three years ago)

I knew it! Crass were right all along.And Bob Dylan's "Masters of War" was obviously his Nostradomus-like take on the situation in 2003. Um,wouldn't a billion songs that have come out in the last 50 years fit the current fuckedupness?

― Scott Seward, Saturday, 8 March 2003 16:13 (twenty-three years ago)

Well Dylan was Cold War and the Crass were Reagan-Thatcher. I don't think too many people were all that worried about things in 1999-2000 except for Clinton's jism and internet pedophiles.

― Nate Patrin (Nate Patrin), Saturday, 8 March 2003 16:16 (twenty-three years ago)

The Gulf War (the previous one) spawned at least two songs, in The Rolling Stones' "Highwire" and Prefab Sprout's "The Sound Of Crying"

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Saturday, 8 March 2003 16:59 (twenty-three years ago)

Even though I love him, Momus isn't someone that I look to for serious discussions of politics. ANY comparison of current US policy to Nazi Germany is fucking obscene, not to mention lacking in forethought. Get back to art and music, Nick.

― maria b (maria b), Saturday, 8 March 2003 17:09 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm with Scott Seward on this one. They'd Like To Conquer Us All Songs are especially valid these days, but not a new thing. A fact made more obvious by the fact that Primal Scream's done it.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Saturday, 8 March 2003 17:13 (twenty-three years ago)

Nate,I seem to recall a couple of people in 1999-2000 being worried about globalization and a powerful country/corporation like the U.S. doing whatever they want whenever they want wherever they want. Specific songs? I don't know. I'll have to check the crusty-punk data bank. I just meant that almost all anti-war/fascism/everything songs are applicable somehow in someway everyday.
Hey,I looked up war songs on google and found my new favorite web site: Parlorsongs.com I learned all about Chas K.Harris the "King of the Tearjerker".He wrote a song in 1884 called "Creep,Baby Creep"!

― Scott Seward, Saturday, 8 March 2003 17:14 (twenty-three years ago)

This is my fave Primal Scream song. It just rocks.

― Calum Robert, Saturday, 8 March 2003 17:50 (twenty-three years ago)

Fuck, I forgot about that whole WTO thing. Didn't Jello Biafra record a single with Soundgarden (!!!) about it?

― Nate Patrin (Nate Patrin), Saturday, 8 March 2003 18:24 (twenty-three years ago)

I think only 1/4th of Soundgarden (Kim Thayil) was involved, Nate. & one-third of that Nirvana beat combo. Dunno the song.

― David R. (popshots75`), Saturday, 8 March 2003 21:34 (twenty-three years ago)

Favorite Gulf War ver. 1 song: "Turkey Shoot" by Killdozer.

― hstencil, Saturday, 8 March 2003 23:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Well thankfully Fripp/Eno's Swastika Girls had no lyrics. Hell, even the music couldn't be considered "lyrical".

― Chris Krohn, Sunday, 9 March 2003 04:29 (twenty-three years ago)

So some band write songs about revolution in a generalised sense? That's a good thing, if only now. America wants a good bombing.

― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Sunday, 9 March 2003 05:02 (twenty-three years ago)

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