Friday
12 March 2004
The Guardian
Anyone
who saw black-clad anarchist punks Crass play live, or took a cursory glance at
their record sleeves, may be surprised that they considered their output to be
songs of love rather than hate. It was easy to miss amidst the buzzsaw guitars
and expletive-laden lyrics, but Crass never went about anything in an orthodox
manner during their tenure as fomenters of dissent from 1977 to 1984. Living as
a collective on the edge of Epping Forest, where growing organic vegetables was
more important than tour schedules, Crass were on the end of a large amount of
invective from the music press. This is why the likes of Garry Bushell and Tony
Parsons come in for a fair bit of stick in this collection of the band's lyrics
set out as poetry and revealing which band member wrote which song. Previously
the words were credited to the band as a whole, an important part of their "no
celebrity" stance. Shorn of the music, the lyrics lose none of their power and
act as an essential, insightful piece of social history. They also go a good way
towards explaining how the band came to spawn the anti-globalisation and modern
animal rights movements, as well as get up the nose of police, security services
and politicians.
Update
December 2012
Exit
Stencil Press Gee and Pennys publishing house have produced a beautiful
Hardback version of the book, Listed on the southern website as
Hardback,
304 pages, 12.7 x 19.5 cm. Litho printed, embossed heavy card cover bound with
litho printed spine tape.
Love
Songs is the book which compiles all of the words to all of the
songs by Crass. Originally published by Pomona in 2004 as a paperback, and out
of print for a couple of years and so we felt it was time for
a resurrection. Love Songs seems a fitting endpoint to the Crassical
Collection - the remastered and expanded CDs of Crass' studio albums.
Photos
curtesy of Southern.
There
are still copies available from the southern web site
No comments:
Post a Comment