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Rating: Black screen. Then, fragmented guitar. Then, a rhythm that turns your limbs into pistons; then, the problem of leisure: what to do for pleasure. Here's the story of a girl, the queen of France who, among dead sisters, boredom, and sapphic love, lost her head to modernity. This simple story in many ways, transformed into the chronicle of the search for pleasure, of youth, in this naturalness that no longer exists or is no longer here. As if to say: fornication makes you happy, no escape from society.
And I say it: while my limbs turned into pistons, my head went straight, on the tracks built by that exclamation point of Jon King, because exclamation points are the only ones that speak to me or that I can hear.
Naturalness is not here or at least not in the sudden transfer of power, Kant would say. Perhaps in enlightened despotism, but only maybe. Perhaps in education. Or - to put it like Burke - repent and thank God for the naturalness you may find in the next life, the celestial one, because in this post-revolutionary, democratic or supposedly democratic life, with the freedom to say nothing about it, you will not find naturalness.
In short, 1979 or 1789 makes no difference: exclamation points, those who squeeze themselves to live, have always been reactionary; because it's obvious: progress is always a form of selfishness. And it has always been. Better naturalness, zero superstructure, everything straight and then BOOM.
And it goes without saying that the music of the Gang of Four - reactionary by choice from above, but also by their own abilities, a group that goes beyond the simple musical signifier - should be listened to by isolating it from what naturalness rejects.
The Peel Sessions have always been a beautiful thing, a halfway point between the crafted artificiality of a record and the alcoholic rawness of a concert. And so there is no better way to listen to them than with the bass drum that stings and the bass that rattles, in its roundness, to the unimaginable.
The Peel Sessions Album, released in 1990 by Strange Fruit, was recorded in three sessions, presented on the album, as naturalness requires, in strict chronological order. The first two took place in 1979, with the album not yet released, and reveal 8/13 of what will be Entertainment!. The sound is alive, it pulses.
It opens with "I Found That Essence Rare" and we find ourselves with a tight and sharp group in our ears, who seem to be walking joyously on a razor's edge. "5.45" is something alienating, like Joy Division who don’t care about delivering themselves to beauty and let themselves go to the chronicle and the guitars, the guitars - Andy Gill was a person close to God - and then it comes, the moment where King screams. Guerrilla War Struggle is a New Entertainment. Then, STOP.
Then "Natural's Not in It" - my favorite; one, among all, of my favorites - and then silence. "Not Great Men" is, more or less, the starting and ending point of the whole new-new wave that until a few months ago reigned and that no one seems to remember now; like demonic A Certain Ratio. The rhythm section of "Ether" dances on what remains of the world destroyed by Jon King's proclamations and it's a beautiful dance, there's no denying it.
In 1981, with Solid Gold out, they returned to John Peel's studios to play "Paralysed", with the bass that pierces, straight through, the walls of home. The guitar becomes even more dry and harsh - as Gill's personality demanded - and it's easy to perceive where Albini's guitar style comes from... Every man is for himself.
They record "History's Bunk", where the guitars become synths, and "To Hell With Poverty"—ecstatic and thoughtful—both of which later appear on the 1982 EP, Another Day/Another Dollar.
As if to say: a glimpse of naturalness just before losing it completely.
Tracklist and Lyrics
01 I Found That Essence Rare (03:11)
Aim for the body rare, you'll see it on TV
The worst thing in 1954 was the Bikini
See the girl on the TV dressed in a Bikini
She doesn't think so but she's dressed for the H-Bomb
(For the H-Bomb)
I found that essence rare, it's what I looked for
I knew I'd get what I asked for
Aim for the country fair you read it in the papers
The worst happens any week a scandal on the front page
See the happy pair smiling close like they are monkeys
They wouldn't think so but they're holding themselves down
(Hold themselves down)
I found that essence rare, it's what I looked for
I knew I'd get what I asked for
I found that essence rare, it's what I looked for
I knew I'd get what I asked for
Aim for politicians fair who'll treat your vote hope well
The last thing they'll ever do act in your interest
Look at the world through your polaroid glasses
Things'll look a whole lot better for the working classes
(Working classes)
I found that essence rare, it's what I looked for
I knew I'd get what I asked for
I found that essence rare, it's what I looked for
I knew I'd get what I asked for
04 At Home He's a Tourist (03:43)
At home he feels like a tourist
At home he feels like a tourist
He fills his head with culture
He gives himself an ulcer
He fills his head with culture
He gives himself an ulcer
Down on the disco floor
They make their profit
From the things they sell
To help you cover
all the rubbers you hide
In your top left pocket
At home she's looking for interest
At home she's looking for interest
She said she was ambitious
So she accepts the process
She said she was ambitious
So she accepts the process
Down on the disco floor
They make their profit
From the things they sell
To help you cob off
And the rubbers you hide
In your top left pocket
Two steps forward
(Six steps back)
(Six steps back)
(Six steps back)
(Six steps back)
Small step for him
(Big jump for me)
(Big jump for me)
(Big jump for me)
(Big jump for me)
At home she feels like a tourist
At home she feels like a tourist
She fills her head with culture
She gives herself an ulcer
Why make yourself so anxious
You give yourself an ulcer
05 Natural's Not in It (03:19)
The problem of leisure
What to do for pleasure
Ideal love a new purchase
A market of the senses
Dream of the perfect life
Economic circumstances
The body is good business
Sell out, maintain the interest
Remember Lot's wife
Renounce all sin and vice
Dream of the perfect life
This heaven gives me migraine
The problem of leisure
What to do for pleasure
Coercion of the senses
We are not so gullible
Our great expectations
A future for the good
Fornication makes you happy
No escape from society
Natural is not in it
Your relations are of power
We all have good intentions
But all with strings attached
Repackaged sex keeps your interest
Repackaged sex keeps your interest
Repackaged sex keeps your interest
Repackaged sex keeps your interest
Repackaged sex keeps your interest
Repackaged sex keeps your interest
The problem of leisure
What to do for pleasure
Ideal love a new purchase
A market of the senses
Dream of the perfect life
Economic circumstances
The body is good business
Sell outs [? out ?] maintain the interest
Remember Lot's wife
Renounce all sin and vice
Dream of the perfect life
This heaven gives me migraine
This heaven gives me migraine
This heaven gives me migraine
07 Ether (04:01)
Trapped in heaven life style (locked in Long Kesh)
New looking out for pleasure (H-block torture)
It's at the end of the rainbow (White noise in)
The happy ever after (a white room)
Dirt behind the daydream
Dirt behind the daydream
The happy ever after
Is at the end of the rainbow
Dig at the root of the problem (Fly the flag on foreign soil)
It breaks your new dreams daily (H-block Long Kesh)
Fathers contradictions (Censor six counties news)
And breaks your new dreams daily (each day more deaths)
Dirt behind the daydream
Dirt behind the daydream
The happy ever after
Is at the end of the rainbow
White noise in a white room
White noise in a white room
White noise in a white room
White noise in a white room
Trapped in heaven life style (locked in Long Kesh)
New looking out for pleasure (H-block torture)
It's at the end of the rainbow (White noise in)
The happy ever after (a white room)
Dirt behind the daydream
Dirt behind the daydream
The happy ever after
Is at the end of the rainbow
Dig at the root of the problem (Fly the flag on foreign soil)
It breaks your new dreams daily (H-block Long Kesh)
Fathers contradictions (Censor six counties news)
And breaks your new dreams daily (each day more deaths)
Dirt behind the daydream
Dirt behind the daydream
The happy ever after
Is at the end of the rainbow
There may be oil
(Now looking out for pleasure)
Under Rockall
(It's at the end of the rainbow)
There may be oil
(The happy ever after)
Under Rockall
(It's corked up with the ether)
There may be oil
(It's corked up with the ether)
Under Rockall
(It's corked up with the ether)
There may be oil
08 Guns Before Butter (04:27)
All this talk of blood and iron
Is the cause of all my shaking
All this talk of blood and iron
Is the cause of all my shaking
All this talk of blood and iron
Is the cause of all my shaking
All this talk of blood and iron
It's the cause of all my shaking
The fatherland's no place to die for
It makes me want to run out shaking
I hear some talk of guns and butter
That's something we can do without
If men are only blood and iron
O Doktor Doktor, what's in my shirt?
Just keep quiet, no room for doubt
I'm hearing talk of joy in labour
I'll tell you this you can leave me out
The motherland's no place to cry for
I want some sand to hide my head in
I'm hearing talk of strength in labour
That's something I can do without
If I'm only blood and iron
O Doktor Doktor, what's in my shirt
Just keep quiet, no room for doubt
All this talk of blood and iron
It's the cause of all my shaking
The fatherland's no place to cry for
It makes me want to run out shouting
I hear some talk of guns and butter
That's something I can do without
If men are only blood and iron
O Doktor Doktor, what's in my shirt?
Just keep quiet, no room for doubt
09 Paralysed (03:20)
PARALYSED
Blinkered, paralysed
Flat on my back
They say our world is built on endeavor
That every man is for himself
Wealth is for the one that wants it
Paradise, if you can earn it
History is the reason
I'm washed up
Blinkered, paralysed
Flat on my back
What I wanted now just seems a waste of time
I can't make out what has gone wrong
I was good at what I did
And I'm the dupe
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