Holiday In Cambodia

Sorry that I haven't posted on this particular blog in ages, but I'm back now. This week it's a punk classic: "Holiday In Cambodia" by the Dead Kennedys.
DK were always One Of Those Bands That I Mean To Check Out One Day - I'd heard of them, I can definiately remember reading about them in a book about how bands got their names when I was about 12-13, and I'd heard all this stuff about how influential they were. When I was about 14 or 15, I was reading Kerrang! magazine one day when I noticed a competition to win a copy of a CD called Skate To Hell: The Extreme Skaterock Collection, and the tracklisting had a lot of bands I liked and a lot of bands I'd been meaning to check out, including the DK. I didn't win the competition but I did buy a copy of the album (highly recommended btw), and one of my favourite tracks on it was "Holiday In Cambodia."
Everything about this song was gripping, tense, exciting, anthemic, threatening and menacing, even though at the time I didn't understand a lot of it (e.g. who Pol Pot was). The doom-laden bass intro, then guitar chords cutting in, then a bit of regular guitar playing, subtle cymbals building up, then drums, then that riff kicks in, then Jello Biafra's voice jumping in... right from the start it grabs you, and it gets even better. The lyrics are sarcastic, caustic and brimming with social commentary, contrasting the lives of rich Americans who think they understand the suffering of poor foreigners, and oppressed Cambodians under Pol Pot's regime who really are suffering but are ignored by the West. Towards the end, Biafra starts chanting "Pol Pot" repeatedly, with both him and the instruments picking up pace, the guitar frantically spiralling into a black hole, before a final repeat of the chorus and then ending on a huge downbeat with one last call of "Pol Pot!"
It is still alarmingly relevant today (not to mention that it is alarming that there is still so much inequality in wealth in the world today). With lines like, "Play ethnicky jazz to parade your snazz on your five grand stereo, bragging that you know how the niggers feel cold and the slum's got so much soul," it digs deep into the heart of hypocrisy surrounding rich kids who pretend to care about the world's problems.
In a way it reminds me of the charity wristbands craze at school, and a certain bunch of latest-craze-chasing people in my year group who fell hook, line and sinker for the craze: there was a certain bunch of spolit-rotten trendies who wore certain wristbands because they were the ones their friends wore, not because they cared about those charities, and never helped others or gave to charity even though they were rolling in it (well, compared to me, anyway) but on the rare occasions that they did something charitable they bragged about it. They were also the sort of people who would preach to others about stuff like racism, when they themselves were actually among the most racist people you could ever meet, not to mention bullies to anyone who was different to them ("You want everyone to act like you"). They would also suck up to teachers at school, and then bitch on them when they weren't around to hear them ("Kiss ass while you bitch...").
Anyway, here are the lyrics. There are two versions of this song: the one I'm referring to here is available on the best-of album Give Me Convenience Or Give Me Death, and another version is available on the studio album Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables. "Holiday In Cambodia" was released as a single in May 1980; the lyrics were written by Jello Biafra and the music was composed by Biafra, Klaus Flouride, East Bay Ray and Bruce "Ted" Slesinger.

So you been to school for a year or two
And you know you've seen it all
In daddy's car thinkin' you'll go far
Back east your type don't crawl

Play ethnicky jazz to parade your snazz
On your five grand stereo
Braggin' that you know how the niggers feel cold
And the slums got so much soul

It's time to taste what you most fear
Right Guard will not help you here
Brace yourself, my dear

It's a holiday in Cambodia
It's tough kid, but it's life
It's a holiday in Cambodia
Don't forget to pack a wife

You're a star-belly sneech you suck like a leech
You want everyone to act like you
Kiss ass while you bitch so you can get rich
But your boss gets richer on you

Well you'll work harder with a gun in your back
For a bowl of rice a day
Slave for soldiers til you starve
Then your head is skewered on a stake

Now you can go where people are one
Now you can go where they get things done

What you need my son:

Is a holiday in Cambodia
Where people dress in black
A holiday in Cambodia
Where you'll kiss ass or crack

Pol Pot, Pol Pot, Pol Pot, Pol Pot...

And it's a holiday in Cambodia
Where you'll do what you're told
A holiday in Cambodia
Where the slums got so much soul...
Pol Pot.

How Soon Is Now?

This week's song is "How Soon Is Now?" by The Smiths (yes, them again). This is a song that hugely changed my life. For years i had read in books and magazines how great it was and what a great band they were, and i had some very memorable memories of them performing on Top Of The Pops from BBC2's TOTP nostalgia show TOTP2 (now sadly no longer). Like Pink Floyd, Radiohead, The Who, etc., they were one of those bands that i always meant to check out but never got round to until recently.
My tragically late grandmother (who i would like to dedicate this to... i know that a blog seems poor tribute to a person, but what else can i do? i'm not earl spencer or anything, i can't build a fountain or monument or whatever!) lived in a flat practically next to my 3rd school, so i often visited her after school. I have very fond memories of these visits. she also spoiled me (as grans do) and let me watch her telly, which had stuff on it like teletext and digital that my immediate family's TV didn't have. I often went there after school in winter, or when i had after-school viola lessons, to wait for my dad to pick me up in the car. while i was waiting i'd spend hours flicking through the music channels that we didnt have at home.
one day in 2004, in about september, maybe october, i was watching Kerrang TV when they showed the video for Hundred Reasons' cover of "How Soon Is Now?". At the time i was quite a fan of HR and i was meaning to check out The Smiths, and i liked the song (which i later learned wasn't a patch on the original), it had interesting sounds and lyrics, so i wanted to get it, but i couldnt find it anywhere. then i heard about a Smiths tribute album featuring that cover, and in october or november i bought it off eBay. I thought it would be a decent way to check out the smiths before i checked them out properly (before knew which albums to get, etc.) as well as to check out the bands on the album (yourcodenameis:milo, walter walter, garrison, etc.)
Then around november/december i was watching MTV2's Proper Legends show one evening. normally i would have been home by that time, but i was there late for some reason, i think dad was late picking me up or something. On came the video for the smiths' original version of "HSIN?" and from the first moments of the buzzing guitar intro and black and white footage of industrial chimneys, i was hooked. I often videotaped music videos i liked and took them home with me, but i was so transfixed by the song and the video that i just couldnt move to get the blank tape.
i didnt want to miss a moment of it. everything about it was interesting, unique and perfect - and it was infinitely better than the hundred reasons version. i was transfixed by the sight of Morrissey and Marr swirling and spinning round on stage in blue light, the iconic flowers, the chimneys (my vision of what Manchester and The North looked like), and the sound of the slide guitar (i tried hard to get the sound just right in my head later that evening. i had it stuck in my head because i WANTED to get it stuck in my head, it had sounded so cool! the way johnny marr did the slide was so different to the HR version...), all the instruments, Moz's voice, the oscillating sound... and the lyrics...
well you know how i am with lyrics that speak to me, that i relate to, that almost seem to have been written just for me. This tale of shyness ("i am the son and the heir of a shyness that is criminally vulgar"), ordinariness ("i am the son and heir of nothing in particular"), loneliness ("i am human and i need to be loved, just like everybody else does"), with a warning about how we think we can find love in nightclubs (we can't! "there's a club if you'd like to go, you could meet somebody who really loves you. so you go and you stand on your own, and you leave on your own, and you go home and you cry and you want to die"), plus the title (i was always told that stuff like happiness would happen soon or now, yet it always seemed so far off... nothing ever seemed to happen in my boring, stuck-at-school, seaside-town life.), it was all stuff i could relate to. I had begun to forget how much i had related to song lyrics (they were the one thing that got me through the hell of my high school) and this track reminded me of that.
I was 18, in year 13 at sixth form college, and while i was not satisfied with it, i was a lot happier than i had been at school. i was beginning to think i no longer needed these kinds of lyrics to keep my spirit afloat (how wrong i was... i was the happiest i'd been in ages, but life still wasn't perfect, and i soon found myself needing lyrics as much as ever. i still need them today), but i would soon want them.
Before the song had ended i knew i NEEDED to get hold of it, and check out The Smiths at last. I had a list of records that i wanted to get but had put off getting until after the january A-Level modules (i often went to the library to borrow and copy CDs, but most of them weren't in our local branch so i ordered them from others to be delivered to this branch. it was sometimes hard to find time in my timetable to pick them up, which is why i postponed ordering most of them. buying them would have been faster and more convenient, but i had no money so that was not an option) but now i couldn't wait. At lunchtime the next day, i went to the library and found a CD called "the very best of the smiths" was available from another library, so i ordered it to this one. A few days later i had it at last!
this album had the full-length (6 minutes 46 seconds) version, not the 3-and-a-half-minute radio edit used in the video, making me even happier. There were also all their other hits, like "Panic", "Shoplifters of the world unite", "This charming man", "Bigmouth strikes again", "Last night i dreamt that somebody loved me"... 23 tracks in total, and i loved all of them. I absolutely fell in love with this band and it changed my life. I went through a phase for a few months when i could not go to sleep unless i had listened to the whole album, and i had to listen to "HSIN?" at least once a day.
(Since then i have also realised more and more the wisdom of the lyrics. nightclubs are NOT the place to find love, unless you count being groped by funny-smelling, drunk strangers.)

sorry that that was a long story there. back to facts: "How Soon Is Now?" was written by Morrissey (lyrics) and Johnny Marr (music), performed by The Smiths, features on the albums The Very Best Of The Smiths, Singles, Hatful Of Hollow, Meat Is Murder and Best... 1. it has been covered by artists including Hundred Reasons, TATU, and Love Spit Love (the famous version on the "Charmed" soundtrack). None of the covers measure up to the original.

lyrics:

I am the son
And the heir
Of a shyness that is criminally vulgar
I am the son and heir
Of nothing in particular


You shut your mouth
How can you say
I go about things the wrong way ?
I am Human and I need to be loved
Just like everybody else does

I am the son
And the heir
Of a shyness that is criminally vulgar
I am the son and heir
Oh, of nothing in particular

You shut your mouth
How can you sayI go about things the wrong way ?
I am Human and I need to be loved
Just like everybody else does

There's a club, if you'd like to go
You could meet somebody who really loves you
So you go, and you stand on your own
And you leave on your own
And you go home, and you cry
And you want to die

When you say it's gonna happen "now"
Well, when exactly do you mean ?
See I've already waited too long
And all my hope is gone

You shut your mouth
How can you sayI go about things the wrong way ?
I am Human and I need to be loved
Just like everybody else does

Whole Lotta Love

hello folks, this week's song will be "Whole Lotta Love" by Led Zeppelin.
one night, when i was about 12 or 13, we had some sort of power cut that meant we lost all the gas (heating, cooking etc.) but still had electricity in our house. it was the middle of winter, dark and cold, a bit like my current situation (except i was in my house then, not in a room in a uni hall of residence). the whole family moved into the lounge and crowded round a small electric heater (i think we borrowed it from my gran, god bless her) that was the only source of heat in the house that night. to keep our minds off things, like the fact that the gas fire and radiators weren't working so we felt like we were going to freeze, we decided to watch TV (good old telly, it's always there to save the day!). we'd recently got a satellite dish to get european channels, and one of the best channels was BBC World, so we settled on the sofa and floor to watch that.
that night there was a documentary on Led Zeppelin, and me and my younger brother, at our tender ages, witnessed hell-raising rock-and-roll. We were hooked. this band were wild, long-haired, cool, everything... they totally rocked. i thougt they were brilliant, and i remember my brother going through a huge Led Zep phase for the next couple of years (sadly, i think, he is now more interested in stuff like computer games...). the riffs, the drumming, the lifestyle, the tunes, the way that they looked like how you always imagine a rock band to be, the wild, primal singing... and when they played the video for "Whole Lotta Love", well, we fell in love with it. I loved - and still do love (listened to it twice today already) - that distinctive, instantly-hummable opening riff, which used to be used as the theme tune to Top Of The Pops (much better than the current theme tune! ahh, the good old days...).
then there was the rest of the song too: the lyrics which were a bit too adult for us to fully understand at the time (and frankly theyre gibberish half the time, but when a song rocks as much as this, who cares?), the brilliant guitar playing throughout the song, the unearthly singing (the wonderful Robert Plant), the rhythm section... i could go on. but i won't. let the music do the talking, as they say. you know it's a brilliant song, and if you don't, well go out and get some Zep CDs! You can find this song on the albums Led Zeppelin II and Early Days, and also on Remasters and Early Days & Latter Days which i think are boxed sets. It was written by John Bonham, John Paul Jones, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, and released in 1969.

the lyrics aren't really profound or life-saving (unlike last week's song, "Rubber Ring"), it was the way they were sung that got me, but i've decided that for every song i stick in this blog i'll put the lyrics, so here they are.

You need coolin', baby,
I'm not foolin',
I'm gonna send you back to schoolin',
Way down inside honey, you need it,
I'm gonna give you my love, I'm gonna give you my love.

*Wanna Whole Lotta Love (X4)

You've been learnin', baby,
I been learnin',
All them good times, baby, baby,
I've been yearnin',
Way, way down inside honey, you need it,
I'm gonna give you my love...
I'm gonna give you my love.

* Chorus

You've been coolin', baby,
I've been droolin',
All the good times I've been misusin',
Way, way down inside,
I'm gonna give you my love,
I'm gonna give you every inch of my love,
Gonna give you my love.

* Chorus

Way down inside... woman...
You need... love.
Shake for me, girl. I wanna be your backdoor man.
Keep it coolin', baby...

A postscript: this is one of the songs that sparked a love affair with rock 'n' roll that i'm sure will last a lifetime (or at least outlive my other infatuations...). oh, and we got the gas heating back in the end. hooray!

Rubber Ring

i had been making a list of songs that changed my life in my head (a bit Nick Hornby-esque, perhaps... except i'm a girl, and ladies aren't supposed to be this nerdy about music, we're just supposed to shake our asses to the Top 10), which was quite a long list... so which should i begin with?
i decided to start with "Rubber Ring" by The Smiths, because it summarisies perfectly how songs can affect people like me. when you're alone - whether physically, or feeling lonely despite being surrounded by others - a song can be a source of warmth for your soul. it's comforting to hear someone who feels similar emotions to you. music, especially lyrics, has got me through some of the hardest parts of my short life. Morrissey seems to understand this: millions of people around the world relate to his lyrics. to the uninitiated or uninterested, he's "that bloke from the most depressing band in the world", but listen carefully and you'll find that he's just "telling it as it is", as "street" people would probably say. in this song he also shows he understands that, in the future, those fans that currently need his lyrics will one day be happier and will forget how their favourite songs got them through the darker times of their lives. many writers write songs that people relate to, but not all of them realise the profound effect they have and how much they will be remembered - or the fact that they may one day be forgotten. morrissey isn't "depressing", he's just aware of mortality.
"rubber ring" is a quietly funky piece, with lyrics that express perfectly how songs can change (young) lives and, in a way, look after you. at the end there are samples from one of the many film versions of Oscar Wilde's "the importance of being earnest" (namely "you're clever" and "everybody's clever nowadays") plus a sample from an LP of communications with the dead ("you are sleeping, you do not want to believe"), presumably because the "clever" person he addresses in the song is outgrowing music, and moz is like a voice from that dying past. the title "rubber ring" itself... well, a song can keep you afloat when you're drowning in the melodramatic stresses of teenage life.
written by Steven Morrissey (words) and Johnny Marr (music), it was on the b-side to "the boy with the thorn in his side" (originally fading into the next track "asleep" on the vinyl) and can be found on the albums Louder Than Bombs, The World Won't Listen and Best... 1.
more information on this track can be found on this webpage and in the book "the smiths: the songs that saved your life".

lyrics:

A sad fact widely known
The most impassionate song
To a lonely soul
Is so easily outgrown
But don't forget the songs
That made you smile
And the songs that made you cry
When you lay in awe
On the bedroom floor
And said : "Oh, oh, smother me Mother..."

No ...
Rubber ring, rubber ring, rubber ring, rubber ring
La ...

The passing of time
And all of its crimes
Is making me sad again
The passing of time
And all of its sickening crimes
Is making me sad again
But don't forget the songs
That made you cry
And the songs that saved your life
Yes, you're older now
And you're a clever swine
But they were the only ones who ever stood by you

The passing of time leaves empty lives
Waiting to be filled
The passing of time
Leaves empty lives
Waiting to be filled
I'm here with the cause
I'm holding the torch
In the corner of your room
Can you hear me ?
And when you're dancing and laughing
And finally living
Hear my voice in your head
And think of me kindly

No ...
Rubber ring, rubber ring, rubber ring, rubber ring
La ...
No ...
Rubber ring, rubber ring, rubber ring, rubber ring

Do you
Love me like you used to ?
Oh ...
Rubber ring, rubber ring, rubber ring, rubber ring
La ...

You're clever
Everybody's clever nowadays
You're clever
Everybody's clever nowadays
You are sleeping
You do not want to believe
You are sleeping
You do not want to believe
You are sleeping
You do not want to believe
You are sleeping

welcome to a world of lifesaving lyrics

hello bloggers.
i've decided to create a blog just for songs that have had a big influence on me. the reasons - and how much they affected me - vary. but i hope it will be interesting for other people.
some people seem to be really affected by music, while for others it is just background noise or cheap entertainment. i'm one of those who is really affected, and it is a huge part of my life. i'm not particularly gifted at making music myself (probably as i always forget to practice) and i'm not the best journalist in the world, but i hope my enthusiasm and passion for it is evident from my writing here!
please feel free to add comments - i would like to know that i am not the only one on earth who has had their life changed by music! - and, if you're really keen, you can contact me to request being added to this blog as a contributor.
you can also check out my regular blog at http://helfire.blogspot.com plus my other blogs (including the picture blog and the mullet blog). i know it seems like a lot of little blogs but i didn't want my main blog to get too clogged up with stuff. i'll be back soon to start adding songs to this blog.
see ya later...
helen.