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Rating: 1977: Wire, born in art school a year before the advent of Punk (1976), debuted with Pink Flag. What was one of the most important albums of British punk, was also one of the most unusual and modern at the same time, ahead of its time as rarely happens with a debut album. In small bursts, over the span of a minute or two, Wire composed a type of deviant song that transcends the furious immediacy of punk, always hiding a dark side, not instantly decipherable; it's as if the necessity for revolt and emancipation now transforms into a greater desire for intimacy, without completely erasing the sound themes of the English '77 generation. An intimacy, however, that does not yet reveal itself in the darkening of sounds but is expressed rather by the labyrinthine nature of the song, which despite its short duration, amazes with incoherence, surprising the listener by never giving what is expected, creating a sense of ungraspability, a sense of unease, not stemming from atmospheres as in Dark, but directly evoked by the structural setup of the piece.
Each track is as frantic and brief as it is rich in nuances, never completing the canonical structure only hinted at, yet almost always allowing variations on theme. This holds true for lengthier pieces like “Reuters” or “Pink Flag”, as well as for the numerous fragments, distorted songform sketches (though no less fascinating for it) like the various “Three Girl Rhumba”, “It’s So Obvious”, and the near entirety of the 21 episodes that make up the album. Incompleteness is also a fundamental component of early Wire, and it's part of that same destabilizing intent for which nothing ever arrives at the moment you expect it. So, each piece ends where you would expect it to have much more to say, and it's as if every time the main melody, reduced to the minimum of allowable expression, is fundamentally something negligible, less important than the formal distortion to which the piece is constantly subjected.
For this reason, in music first before lyrics, Wire proved to be the first to anticipate the disillusionment that followed the '77 enthusiasm. The world that emerges from their music is a world without points of reference, where sound violence is more a disillusioned white rage than anarchic, already postmodern and directed towards the next decade, rather than tied to the past. Pink Flag may not be definable as a masterpiece as its frenzy makes it excessively, albeit deliberately fragmentary, yet it represents one of those insights so strong it influences an entire era to come, the British New Wave, and does not sound outdated even almost 30 years after its release.
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
01 Reuters (03:01)
Album "Pink Flag"
Our own correspondent
Is sorry to tell
Of an uneasy time
That all is not well
On the borders
There's movement
In the hills
There is trouble
Food is short
Crime is double
Prices have risen
Since the government fell
Casualties increase
As the enemy shell
The climate's unhealthy
Flies and rats thrive
And sooner or later
The end will arrive
This is your correspondent
Running out of tape
Gunfire's increasing
Looting...
Burning...
Rape...
Rape....
02 Field Day for the Sundays (00:28)
I wanna be a field day for the Sundays so they can f**k up my life
Embarass my wife, and leave a bad taste
That striped toothpaste can't remove on Monday mornings
I wanna be a target for the dailies so they can show
Pictures of me with a nude on page three, so lacking in taste
Touched up near the waist, looking as limp as Monday morning
04 Ex Lion Tamer (02:19)
There's great danger
For the loneliest ranger in town
No silver bullets
Tonto's split the scene
Next week will solve your problems
But now, fish fingers all in a line
The milk bottles stand empty
Stay glued to your T.V. set
There's great danger
At hand most caped crusader of all
No cloak of justice
Robin's flown the nest
Next week will solve your problems
But now, fish fingers all in a line
The milk bottles stand empty
Stay glued to your T.V. set
05 Lowdown (02:25)
The time is too short
but never too long
to reach ahead,
to project the image,
which will in time become a concrete dream.
Another cigarette,
another day,
from A to B,
again avoiding C, D, and E,
'cause E is where you play the blues.
Avoiding a death
is to win the game,
to avoid relegation,
the big E.
Drowning in the big swim,
rising to the surface
The smell of you
That's the lowdown
06 Start to Move (01:13)
Start to move
Time at hand
Bird in hand
No bush but trees thicken
Which now, rooster or chicken?
Leave the past
Feel the wrench
Smell the stench
Was good, but flesh soon rots
Emotions, we all got spots
Please believe me I still do care
Plesae believe me I'm just not there
07 Brazil (00:41)
It's true darling, I'll walk you home
I'll be your date forever
I love you girl, I love you
Until they split the atom
So many times, there's nothing left
There's nothing left at all
I know I'm right, cause when you're gone
There's nothing left at all
Left right, salute
08 It's So Obvious (00:52)
It's so obvious, it's here, it's there
It's not just the colour, it must be more, at Least 17+3 score
This is 77, nearly heaven.
It's black, white, and pink, just think
There's more to come, hum hum hum hum, it's so obvious
Well it's alright, just listen,
Can't wait for 78
God those RPM,
Can't wait for them,
Don't just watch, hours happen,
Get in there kid and snap them
09 Surgeon's Girl (01:16)
Sitting in a surgeon's world, a surgeon's will
A surgeon's girl with me
Standing on a river bed, where weeds can be
I'm on my knee, to you
I've seen in glossy mags
I've seen you and you see me
I've seen you and you see me
Said you weren't a tuna fish, put in a tin
They're very big, Ha Ha
I've seen in glossy mags
I've seen you and you see me
I've seen you and you see me
10 Pink Flag (03:39)
I was sold up the river to the red slave trade
The stores were gathered, the plans were laid
Synchronised watches at 18:05
How many dead or alive
In 1955
The pink flags was screaming
Bugle boys sucked and blew
No time for confessions, orders given
Books were cooked, on the 4th of the 3rd
How many seen or heard
On the 12th of the 3rd
How many dead or alive
12 Straight Line (00:42)
My mind is unwilling and your flesh is so weak,
Do my movements betray the secrets I think,
I always stand by walls and try to humour fools.
Am I moving in a straight line?
Oh it's unlust and the one dimensional boy,
Oh it's unlust and the one dimensional boy,
Oh it's unlust and the one dimensional boy,
Oh it's unlust and the one dimensional boy.
13 106 Beats That (01:14)
Album: "Pink Flag"
If he had a room
He'd paint it white
Avoids the day
Prefers the night
Build sight...
Got a head for figures
No time for bickerers,
(Or so he says)
Prefers the company of a woman.
One... Two... Three... Four...
Finds it more physical
(That's the important word)
Always seen first then heard
Such a rare bird
With praise he glows-
With change he grows-
Finds that important-
Hates waiting-
It's not stimulating-
Likes celebrating-
I can't understand why that is so funny-
That is sex.
14 Mr. Suit (01:21)
I'm tired of being told what to think
I'm tired of being told what to do
I'm tired of f**king phonies
That's right, I'm tired of you
No, no, no, no, no, no, Mr. Suit
You can take your f**king money and shove it up your arse
'Cause you think you understand, well it's a f**king farce
I'm tired of f**king phonies
That's right, I'm tired of you
And if you turn and walk out that door
And take your f**king money, let me tell you what it's for
I'm tired of f**king phonies
That's right, I'm tired of you
15 Strange (03:56)
There's something strange going on tonight
There's something going on that's not quite right
Joey's nervous and the lights are bright
There's something going on that's not quite right
There's something going down that wasn't here before
Keep your eyes glued to the floor
No one's gonna save your life
Something strange going on tonight
There's something going on that wasn't here before
Keep your eyes glued to the floor
No one's gonna save your life
Something strange going on tonight
There's something strange going on tonight
There's something going on that's not quite right
Joey's nervous and the lights are bright
There's something going on that's not quite right
16 Fragile (01:20)
Tears fall in slivers, you broke my shades
The light too bright, let me bury my heart
Filter emotions of green, cowardicee gives blue
A restricted view, let me open my heart
I have a fleeting love
Searching when it lands
Fragile, needing precious hands
Fragile
You eat my energy, give me more rope
Nail in the wall, let me hang my heart
I have a fleeting love
Searching when it lands
Fragile, needing precious hands
Fragile
17 Mannequin (02:36)
You're a waste of space
No natural grace
You're so bloody thin
You don't even begin
To intrest me
Not even curiousity
It's not animosity
It's just you don't interest me
You're an energy void
A black hole to avoid
No style, no heart
You don't even start
To interest me
Not even curiousity
It's not animosity
It's just you don't interest me
18 Different to Me (00:42)
Well I wonder what's going on,
same old stuff suppose,
not quite right that,
the stuff's the same,
but it seems different to me,
seems like the cancer in this city,
has got to be terminal,
I haven't got it though.
Incidentally where are you?
Thought you lived here,
the bright lights have got you,
I'd rather be a sprat than a mackerel,
you can slip through the net,
it's set.
It also takes one to catch one.
19 Champs (01:47)
The race of champions, the pace the pace
The speed the need, the need to seed
The chance to die
Another dead don't cry, another dead don't cry
You've still got speed, you'll maybe bleed
But that's next time
Less time than before, more speed than before
You're rich not poor, what are you doing it for?
Want more want more
Another dead don't cry, another dead don't cry
Indeed it's speed, to feed from speed
Doing it all the time
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