Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CDV--The Godfathers: Birth, School, Work, Death

Really need to work on my time management--more than a week late might be the worst showing ever.

Every now and again a song comes out of nowhere and provides a much-needed breath of fresh air--which is exactly what this week's tune provided at a time (the late eighties) when for me there wasn't much of interest gaining airplay.  While I would in no way claim the song led the way to the Alternative craze that would sweep America and much of the world in just a few short years, in retrospect it certainly seems like it was at least a harbinger of the great music to come....

The Godfathers formed in Lonon in 1985 and had secured an indie record deal by the next year and released their first album.  Their second and third albums were the only records they released that charted (and neither was exactly a hit--didn't even chart in America), but the band managed to stay together for fifteen years before disbanding in 2000.  The Godfathers reunited in 2008 (the band has seen numerous personnel changes with twenty-one different people being one of the five members at one time or another), and are still touring and recording, having released their latest LP this year.  For their career, they released nine studio albums (highest charting was #49 in the U.K.), three live albums, and six compilations.  They have also released six EP's and 18 singles (with four songs charting in the U.K. and one in the States).

"Birth, School, Work, Death" was the first single released from their second album, the rather inventively titled Birth, School, Work, Death.  The single never charted in the U.K. but was their biggest (and only) hit in America, hitting #38 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100.  The album reached #80 in Great Britian, but did not chart (at least that I could find) in the U.S.

There's something to be said for simplicity in music (and often in life, as well) and in "Birth, School, Work, Death" The Godfathers make the utmost of the electric guitar, the bass guitar, and a set of drums.  The bass and drums literally drive the song from beginning to end and the electric guitars fill up the rest of the empty space with a reverberating pulse that reaches right down into your soul (a thoroughly enjoyable guitar solo is thrown in just to make the song that much better).  Lyrically the song is an angry rebuke to the scourge that was Margaret Thatcher--and the cruel soulless world that she (and her partner in pathetic, Ronald Reagan) envisioned.  Nihilistic?  Sure, but it beats the living hell out of drudging off to work every day as just another cog in a fascist's dream.

Lyric Sheet:  "I've been abused and I've been confused/And I've kissed Margaret Thatcher's shoes/I've been high and I've been low/And I don't know where to go..."

Enjoy:

Republican = Traitor

Peace,

emaycee