Gang of 4 were shit. Discuss.

M

martin

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1) They played funk like the Police played reggae ie- stiff, soul-less, with a weedy, stretched tight to breaking point bass sound

2) Their supposed leftist theoretical lyrics are bullshit. "This heaven gives me migraine" isn't clever, it's poetry - just like Nick Cave singing "Rats in Paradise!". On 'Cheeseburger' they sing, "No classes in the U.S.A./Improve yourself, the choice is yours/Work at your job and make good pay/Make friends, great/Buy them a beer!" What the fuck does this say about America? And what's wrong with buying people beer, I'm sure these hypocrites were happy to buy a few rounds for the bloke at Fast Records when they (ill advisedly) were given the go-ahead to record for the label. What is "At Home He's a Tourist" about? It rhymes "culture" with "ulcer", and? If I rhyme "theocracy" with "osteopathy" does that make me a genius critic of the religious right? And as for "Love will get you like a case of anthrax, and that's something I don't want to catch", it's just bollocks, isn't it? Certainly not a patch on the Pirrhanas' "I don't want my body / It looks like a reject from an Oxfam poster / sex is its hobby / I stick it in the slot like bread in a toaster". People, Go4's lyrics were shit. A little girl could have written better.

Please feel free to agree with me and big me up.
 
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dubplatestyle

Well-known member
actually, i'm not particularly ready to discount the lyrics argument, though they certainly had their moments. but "stiff and soul-less" seem like funny adjectives to throw at a band whose entire shtick was to reveal the automoton nature of modern lurve. plus they have one of the greatest liquefied concrete block guitarists of the last 30 years.
 
M

martin

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dubplatestyle said:
"stiff and soul-less" seem like funny adjectives to throw at a band whose entire shtick was to reveal the automoton nature of modern lurve.
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Yeah, but you still have to listen to the actual music, don't you, gimmick or not? And anyway, just cos they had bad relationships with bored / boring girls, it doesn't mean they had to inflict their disappointment on everyone else. I'd have to argue here that the Buzzcocks were much better at doing the whole 'modern lurve' send up, with genuinely funny / bitter emotional perspectives, and great tunes as well.
 
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dubplatestyle

Well-known member
the gang of four are actually not a favorite band! (so i'm not 100% sure why i even care, except that they get a lifetime pass for the guitar on "anthrax" alone.) i totally wore them out through overplay during my college years. (plus they've dated for me in a way that, say, the fall hasn't.) (though this could be every carpetbaggin indie schmuck who learned a disco pattern in the last five years.)
 
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Noah Baby Food

Well-known member
Gang of Four were certainly shit when I saw them in Leeds a few months ago. Big meaty stadium rock-esque sound, none of the spartan scratchiness, and the performance was cabaret. Serious...the singer, whose name I forget, actually flashed devil signs and danced across the stage like a space invader. Wack. Crying shame, but al least I din't pay the friggin £18 ticket price (reformed Marxists eh? eighteen quid...it ain't Sidewinder is it? have these boys not got enough money?...if not, they should sue Bloc Party, Franz and every other young mo'fo sahrking their styles).

As for The Fall though...they'll never date. The most progressive (in the best sense of the word) "traditional" band going I reckon. They were on fire at the Irish Centre the other week.
 
Grievous Angel

Grievous Angel

Beast of Burden
Big up Martin!

(Since he requested it :))

But no, Go4 weren't shit. Certainly the earfly scratchy stuff was ace.

Mind you, I LOVE the Police. I even love all the Roger Sanchez remixes of Voices in My Head (which is a TUNE!)

Interested to hear the fall are still kicking it. I haven't found them vital since about 1988, but I love them still.
 
jenks

jenks

thread death
i know this sacred cow slaughtering is fun but no Go4 were not shit - go back and listen to Entertainment.too tired to argue at present but let me eat my tea and i might have a cogent argument!
 
O

owen

Well-known member
'hard' is certainly shit, barely worth the 25p I got when I sold it to MVE....

but as for the lyrics argument, you are surely jesting. when i was working a craply paid job in an office i had half of 'entertainment' playing on a loop in my head constantly, and hadn't listened to it for ages. 'please send me evenings and weekends' i still think is wonderfully poetic, and nicely sums up the utter brain death one has in said situation. oh and the problems with gurls stuff i'd always heard as problems with songs about gurls, which is IMHO more interesting
 
B

bun-u

Trumpet Police
Noah Baby Food said:
As for The Fall though...they'll never date. The most progressive (in the best sense of the word) "traditional" band going I reckon. They were on fire at the Irish Centre the other week.
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definately, the fall are one of the few old bands that are worth seeing, can help a new listener understand punk/post-punk in a 'live' setting. really enjoyed that bbc4 doc on the band as well
 
D

dominic

Beast of Burden
owen said:
'hard' is certainly shit, barely worth the 25p I got when I sold it to MVE....
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i disagree . . . . or rather, maybe the album's not that great, but in general i prefer the later releases ("man in a uniform," "we live as we dream alone") over the earlier releases
 
M

martin

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owen said:
as for the lyrics argument, you are surely jesting. when i was working a craply paid job in an office i had half of 'entertainment' playing on a loop in my head constantly, and hadn't listened to it for ages. 'please send me evenings and weekends' i still think is wonderfully poetic, and nicely sums up the utter brain death one has in said situation. oh and the problems with gurls stuff i'd always heard as problems with songs about gurls, which is IMHO more interesting
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Exactly what I meant, their lyrics are more like personal poetry, whereas I hear people raving about their Marxist dialectic. I'd never knock someone's ability to get an emotional response from a song. I'm just saying Go4 were shit.

The reason I brought up the Buzzcocks comparison was that Pete Shelley did the same, only he actually immersed himself in the subject, sending in reports from the frontline, to make shitty break-ups less unbearable for all of us. Whereas Go4 seemed to be doing it from a detached, patronising viewpoint, like Philip Larkin. I can imagine Go4 members smirking at couples snogging on the tube and shaking their heads, before heading home to masturbate furiously (into their top left pockets)

I hate Scritti Politti as well
 
S

slanderlord

bloody roar
Ugly bad. Entertainment is painful to hear. The first time I heard "I Love A Man in a Uniform" I thought it was a joke, it's so sloppy and hamfisted in trying to convey a point the band probably thought was clever. Take that military dudes.

Along with Mission of Burma this is one of the worst offenders among early '80s groups who produced 1-2 good to great singles accompanied by a lot of mis-appraised crap (That's When I Reached For My Revolver / My Academy and To Hell With Poverty would be the respective good moments).
 
M

mind_philip

saw the light
martin said:
before heading home to masturbate furiously (into their top left pockets)
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Is this a hint that Go4 all have huge cocks, or that they engage in some acrobatic circle-jerk involving different postures and extremely good aim?
 
D

dominic

Beast of Burden
slanderlord said:
The first time I heard "I Love A Man in a Uniform" I thought it was a joke, it's so sloppy and hamfisted in trying to convey a point the band probably thought was clever. Take that military dudes.
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don't think the song pertains merely to men who wear military uniforms -- it also applies to people who wear camouflage whenever it's said to be in fashion (and it's been in and out of fashion since at least the early 80s)

plus the entire sex game (role play) angle of the lyrics is effective
 
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