Essay on Crass music

was originally "Asylum", later renamed "Reality Asylum", and was deemed too blasphemous by the music industry to release. 14 "Asylum" was an extremely anti-Christian song that mocked society’s portrayal of "the right way to be". "Asylum’s" lyrics were a protest against the government using Jesus as a way to control people, such as banning records if they were anti-Christian. Crass eventually found a pressing plant that agreed to release "Asylum", and along with "Shaved Women", a song about the media’s pressure on women, it was printed and sold for 45 pence. As soon as it was released, the "Reality Asylum" single ran into problems.15 Police raids on record stores ensued, and got Crass a visit from Scotland Yard’s vice squad. Crass said that "Eventually we (Crass) received a note informing us that we were free, but that we'd better not try it again. The nature of our 'freedom' made doing it again inevitable, and so the endless roundabout of police harassment set itself in motion; it has continued to this day." 16 Soon after the Reality Asylum fiasco Crass did their only ever radio talk for the BBC host John Peel. In this show they tore the Falklands situation (not yet a full-blown war) and spoke about economic injustice, all teeming with profanity. Crass said about this show, "From then on our growing reputation as foul mouthed yobs precluded us from being given airplay, although we did appear on several chat-shows which led to us being temporarily blacklisted by the BBC. Apparently, expressing dissident views on the Falklands is not acceptable to the listening public who jammed the BBC switchboard with complaints. "17 "To offset claims in the press that we were nothing but leftist/rightist thugs, they never could quite make us out, we started to hang an anarchist banner alongside our own. At that time the circled-A was rarely seen outside the confines of established and generally tedious, small-time anarchist literature. Within months the symbol was to be seen decorating leather jackets, badges, and walls throughout the country, within a few years it spread worldwide. (Sex Pistol’s singer Johnny) Rotten may have proclaimed himself an anarchist, but it was us who almost single-handedly created anarchy as a popular movement for millions of people." 18As it states in the above quote, Crass literally created anarchy as a movement for many people. Their anarchy was NOT the anarchy that today’s media portrays. For them anarchy was all about their famous quote "There is no Authority but yourself" 19, that no one but you had the right to tell you what to do. They didn’t believe in violence, as they said in the song "Bloody Revolutions", "Well, freedom has no value if violence is the price.Don't want your revolution, I want anarchy and peace."Shortly after this Crass began campaigning for The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, or CND, and hung the peace symbol behind themselves at gigs. About this they said,"The true effect of our work is not to be found within the confines of rock'n'roll, but in the radicalized minds of thousands of people throughout the world. From the Gates of Greenham to the Berlin Wall, from the Stop The City actions to underground gigs in Poland, our particular brand of anarcho-pacifism, now almost synonymous with punk, has made itself known"20 .This shows that they were in essence, a political movement, not just a band. Since 1977 Crass had been "…maintaining a graffiti war throughout central London. The messages, anything from ‘Fight War Not Wars’, to ‘Stuff Your Sexist ****’, were the first of their kind to appear in the UK and inspired a whole movement." 21 They insipred people to grafitti political slogans all over London’s bus stations and underground stations. To celebrate this, they decided to call their next album Stations of the Crass, with a cover photo of some of their artwork in central London’s underground stations.22 Since Small Wonder Records was tired of constant police raids and hassle that Crass brought to them, Crass released Stations on the newly founded Crass Records.In 1980, Crass played several benefit gigs for jailed anarchists, and were asked by them upon their release if Crass would contribute to an anarchist center. They found that they could easily raise money for the center, because there were literally thousands of fans who wished to contribute.23 They then decided it was time to make a large stab at modern culture. In late 1980, Crass launched a feminist attack against the mainsteam media for portraying women as inferior. "The release of ***** Envy confirmed a suspicion that we (Crass) had had for some time. After one week in the shops it entered the national charts at 15, the next week it wasn’t anywhere in the top 100… we knew that it just wasn't possible to be that high in the charts one week and nowhere to be found the next. It seemed obvious to us that if the major labels paid to get their records 'in' the charts, they'd pay to get ours 'out'." 24 ***** Envy had full vocal responsibility given to Eve and Joy, and tore apart society’s ill treatment of women. It mocked the proper life for a woman, mocked beauty treatments and pressure to look beautiful by putting on makeup.In 1981-82, Crass recorded Christ –The Album, which was released in Summer 1982. But as they said later, "This time, however, the trouble did outweigh the joy. 'Great Britain' had gone to war." 25 Crass said later about the Falklands war: "Insignificant events on an island called South Georgia, which no one had ever heard of, led to significant events on an island called the Falklands which no one had ever heard of. The first pin-prick had been placed in the anarcho-pacifist bubble, a pin-prick that would in the space of a few months tear the bubble to shreds. As young men died by the hundreds, our songs, protests and marches, our leaflets, words and ideas suddenly seemed to be worthless. In reality we knew that what we had to offer had value, that what we believed in was worthwhile, but for the moment it all seemed futile." 26 This quote shows how badly Crass realized something needed to be done, because the government of the time, Thatcher and her gang, were not listening to their people at all.After the short war in the Falklands had ended and Crass released "How Does It Feel To Be The Mother Of A Thousand Dead", the "**** really hit the fan." 27 Margaret Thatcher was asked in the House of Commons whether she had heard the record, and soon her party wanted to punish Crass. The Tory MP (Tories are similar to our Republicans, the Labor Party is similar to our Democrats) Tim Eggar was chosen to lead the prosecution, but the case soon fell apart when Eggar was exposed as a complete fool on live radio by Crass. But many Tories still disliked Crass, and it seemed that the music critics hated the song as well, but it was soon exposed that the principal critic of How Does It Feel was Tim Eggar’s brother. He said about the song, ‘"However distasteful the Sex Pistols appeared to be in 1977, their songs were a chilling warning of the coming recession. But anarchist band Crass have gone too far. They released last week the most revolting and unnecessary record I have ever heard. How Does It Feel To Be The Mother of 1,000 Dead? is a vicious and obscene attack on Margaret Thatcher's motives for engaging in the Falklands war. It bears little relation to reality." 28. However, another record critic of the time, one who was not the brother of a conservative politician, said that while many bands have pointless attacks at political leaders, this is not one of those attacks, and Crass’s attacks on Thatcher are "urgent, memorable, smart." 29 In response to Eggar’s accusations, Crass said that they "accept (Tim) Eggar's accusations and claim that they fully intend to insult those parties as it was them that has insulted ‘decent consciousness’ with their futile, unnecessary and barbaric little war." Crass referred to "How Does It Feel" as "a violent but considered attack on Mrs. Thatcher's handling of the 'Falklands Crisis,"’30 Yes Sir, I Will was Crass’s first response to the Falklands War. It was an attack on the wielders of power and those who passively accept them as an authority. Its clear message was "There is No Authority but Yourself." 31Shortly thereafter Crass released the now infamous "Thatchergate Tapes" to the press. The tape was made by drawing from news broadcasts, etc., and was a fake conversation between Ronald Reagan and Thatcher. It had her admitting responsibility for the sinking of the Belgrano, and implying that she knew about the sinking of the Sheffield before it occurred. This tape in turn had Reagan saying that he would not hesitate to nuke Europe in order to stop a Soviet advance. 32 The tape was dubbed "KGB" by Reagan, and fooled many authorities world wide. The world’s media gobbled up the story, thrilled that a ‘bunch of punks’ had fooled the State Department, and asked what else Crass had done. 33 Crass later said:"…all of a sudden we were 'media stars'. We were interviewed by the Russian press as American TV cameras recorded the event, we were live on American breakfast TV, we talked to radio stations from Essex to Tokyo, always giving the anarchist angle on every question. We had gained a form of political power, found a voice, were being treated with a slightly awed respect, but was that really what we wanted? Was that what we had set out to achieve all those years ago?" 34It was 1984, the year in which Crass had promised to break up. Andaccording to Crass "…it was rather worse than Orwell had predicted. Unemployment, homelessness, poverty, hunger. The police state had become a reality, as the miners were going to discover (South Wales miners were brutalized by the police during a strike soon afterwards). 'Accidental' death from Thatcher's private army of boys in blue had become an acceptable norm. The balance of a whole society was hanging on the apron strings of a vicious and uncaring despot. Far less important by far was our own fate. We were hauled into the courts to face an obscenity charge that almost broke us. 'We have ways of making you not talk'." 35 That summer Crass played their last gig together, a benefit for the South Wales miners. They said in the end:"There is no authority but yourself', we said that, but we'd lost ourselves and become CRASS. We are still involved in the often painful process of redefining that self, of seeing each other again, of healing ourselves from the self-inflicted wounds of 'public life'. The 'movement', from Class War to Christians For Peace, needs to regain the dignity that it has lost in the process of attempting to confront problems that appear to be created by others. We have all been guilty of defining the enemy, and indeed there are those who would obstruct the course of liberty, yet ultimately the enemy is to be found within. There is no them and us, there is only you and me. We need to consolidate, reassess, reject what patently does not work and be prepared to adopt ideas and attitudes that might. We need to find the 'self' that can truly be the authority that it is. We need to look beyond the barbed-wire and the ranks of police for a vision of life which is of our choosing, not that which is dictated by cynics and despots. The exponent of Karate does not aim at the brick when wishing to break it, but at the space beyond. We would do well to learn from that example. We have spent too much of our time, energy and spirit attempting to dispel the shadow of evil cast over us by the violence and terror of the nuclear age. That shadow has become a stain on our hearts. It is time to wash away that stain and to step out of the shadow into the light. We have become trapped in fear outside metaphorical Greenham Gates. 'Knock and ye shalt enter. . .the kingdom of heaven is within you.' We know enough of the sickness of the world, we should be careful not to add to it through our own physical and mental exhaustion and ill health. If we are ever to achieve our shared objectives we must each of us be strong enough to do so. We have all failed and we have all succeeded. This is no tail between the leg ending, but a proud, albeit painful and confused, beginning. Love, peace and freedom, What was CRASS, but now knows better" – Crass, 198436Crass was a true anarchist band, they were always political, and always angry, for the right reasons. Crass in all their time from humble beginnings in 1977 to political stardom, if only momentary in 1983-’84, could not have stayed truer to the anarchist cause. They constantly gave the anarchist view on everything, and lived the true meaning of what they preached. They were harassed, arrested and prosecuted but they refused to change, and constantly fought for peace and freedom.