Guys and Dolls: The Mummies - (You Must Fight to Live) On the Planet of the Apes (16 April 1993)

 

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NOTICE - This post contains mild spoilers relating to Planet of the Apes (1968). I mean it’s a twist that’s quite widely known, but I don’t want to make assumptions.

The world was a simpler place when The Mummies recorded (You Must Fight to Live) On the Planet of the Apes. In 1993, one could listen to this piece of lumbering, yet enjoyable slice of  garage metal and conclude that singer Trent Ruane and friends had completed a binge watch of the five Planet of the Apes movies released between 1968 & 1973, and chose to mark the occasion by writing a song, most likely told from the perspective of Charlton Heston’s character, George Taylor, an astronaut who finds himself on a future version of Earth, where in the centuries following a nuclear holocaust, apes became the dominant, intelligent species, while man was reduced to mute animals.  The lyrics describe some of the authoritarian stratas seen within that society with gorillas as the military class,  orang-utans representing the religious orders and chimpanzees as the scientific elites. It’s through striking up a relationship with a pair of scientists that Taylor gets into a position where he can escape and try to live as a free man.

Alternatively, we could have looked at this as an allegory of an allegory, with the broader context being about the way in which man’s cruelty to man - in ways both large and small - sees us treating others as though they were animals. The fight to live on this planet of apes could relate to the struggle to get from one end of the day to another. The great strength of the Planet of the Apes series is that it’s open to so many interpretations and packs in so many concepts: slavery, the science/religion debate, nuclear dread, genocide, cultural shift, fear of the outsider and so much more. It is, to my mind, one of the greatest series in 20th Century film.

But in 2025, (You Must Fight to Live) On the Planet of the Apes feels like a state of the nation address on politics in the United States. Characters from the films can now be replaced by current symbols of authority which are running unchecked in the United States. For example:

Men were caged like beasts  (Alligator Alcatraz)

Soldier apes on horseback/Soldier apes on foot (ICE)

Learned apes with orange hair, give you dirty look (The shitgibbon himself) 

And where in Trump’s America are the figures that Ruane could strike up a relationship of mutual understanding with? Either intimdated into silence or tacitly accepting of the new reality in America.

With two members of their band having South East Asian heritage, The Mummies would not have been unaware of the conflicts and prejudices that their friends went through in early 90s America and how vulnerable they would be if the events of the Planet of the Apes films ever bled through to the real world, but back then, such things seemed the work of fantasy that they were. It’s the certainty of a world and a time which was still a layer or two removed from the venality of 2025 which people lament and pine for when they talk about “how great the 90s were” on any message board or set of YouTube comments. I appreciate that it’s lazy writing on my part when I say that songs from 30+ years ago speak more to the times we live through now, than they did when they were originally recorded, but I can’t be the only one who misses the days when songs like (You Must Fight to Live) On the Planet of the Apes were fables instead of documentaries.

Video courtesy of entropyness.

Guys and Dolls: Zimbabwe Cha Cha Cha Kings - Shanduko [Peel Session] (16 April 1993)

 

A pleasant time passer from the session recorded by Zimbabwe Cha Cha Cha Kings on 24 November 1992. The session had Peel promising to catch the group if they came to the UK in 1993, as he had missed them last time they had toured here.

My lists initially included another track from this session called Naome, but I suspect if I was making up a mixtape, I would be more eager to replay Shanduko, so I’ve just gone with that one. The other tracks on the session were Dear Maideyi and Makandiramba. The whole session, together with Peel links from 16/4/93, can be heard here.

Video courtesy of Vibracobra23 Redux.

Guys and Dolls: Akash - Balle Balle Balle (16 April 1993)

 

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A week after delighting us with some Bhangra tinged grooves, Peel went the whole Bhangra hog this week with a track from Akash’s fifth and final album, Sky’s The Limit. 

Balle Balle Balle is a Punjabi phrase which translates as Hooray Hooray Hooray. The vibe of the track is celebratory and upbeat, though as ever I retain a trace of concern as I don’t know what it is the track is cheering about. We’ll have to take it on trust. 

I think what I respond to in particular are the leaping passages first heard around the 55 second mark, which recur throughout the track. The interconnected nature of music shows itself as those tightly strung Easter. guitar lines sound surprisingly close to the Celtic jigs and reels of Matt Molloy.

Sky’s the Limit seems to have struck a chord with Peel as he played a number of tracks from the album up to June 1993. It remains to be seen whether any of them turn up here, but Balle Balle Balle makes me hopeful.

Video courtesy of Akash - Topic (so enjoy it while it’s here).

Guys and Dolls: Tommy McCook and the Supersonics - Second Fiddle (16 April 1993)

 

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Given the name of the artists, both Peel and I missed a trick by not pairing this up with Dirty Robber by The Sonics from this same 16/4/93 programme.

Tommy McCook formed the Supersonics in 1965 after the dissolution of his previous band, The Skatalites. They would serve as the house band for Duke Reid’s Treasure Isle label. In general, Treasure Isle singles in the 1960s operated on a split single principle. They would feature the Supersonics backing a featured artist on one side of the disc, with a performance by McCook and the Supersonics on the other side. The title, Second Fiddle, potentially offers an insight into what McCook thought of this arrangement. However, it’s a jaunty, jazzy rocksteady instrumental which showcases McCook’s saxophone work and the skills of his flautist. It was issued in 1968 as the flip to I’ll Be Lonely by Jay and Joya (John Holt and Joya Landis).

Video courtesy of Jorge M.

Guys and Dolls: Spiral Tribe - Going All the Way (16 April 1993)

 

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I never went to a rave. I wasn’t well connected enough to know where any of them in Cornwall were taking place, and if I had known, I don’t think I’d have been too enthusiastic about trying to get out to a remote beach on the arse end of the coast, especially given that I would have been too nervous to do any drugs in order to make the long night pass by more beautifully. 

I don’t tend to think of this as a major omission in my life experience until I hear a tune like Going All The Way by the free party collective, Spiral Tribe, and then I know that with its hypnotic, eddying runs of sound - I especially like the part around 1:37 which sounds like it’s remixing Tuesday by Milk Cult at 128bpm - and banging tribal drum beats, I’d have been set to dance way beyond dawn and all the way up to lunchtime.

Unfortunately though, if I’d wanted to do so in 1993, I’d have had to take a crossing to France given that Spiral Tribe moved their operations over there due to increasingly repressive UK legislation - sparked off by the vastly over attended Castlemorton Common Festival and culminating in the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 - which sought to stamp out unlicensed raves and festivals. Once again, the UK’s loss would prove to be Europe’s gain. At least Spiral Tribe put out a steady stream of official and unofficial releases throughout the 90s in order to bring the raves to those who couldn’t get to them.

Vice Magazine with more on Castlemorton Common - “The Biggest Illegal Rave in UK History”

Video courtesy of Bryan G.

Guys and Dolls: The Sonics - Dirty Robber (16 April 1993)

 

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There was a strong sense of 21st Century influence over including this, not least because it’s nice to hear The Sonics performing something which doesn’t cause the listener to worry about whether their car insurance policy is in date. 

It’s a coin flip as to whether The Sonics version of Dirty Robber, which they recorded for their 1965 debut album, is better than the original 1959 recording by The Wailers. What is beyond doubt is that there was clearly something in the water in Tacoma, Washington where both groups hailed from.  The Sonics recording has the benefit that you clearly hear the lyrics, albeit garlanded throughout with singer Gerry Roslie’s trademark shrieks and screams. But, in The Wailers’ original, the deceitfulness of his lover has driven Kent Morrill to an almost incomprehensible babble, leaving him sounding like a hybrid of Elvis Presley and Gene Vincent, whilst poised on the brink of an orgasm, a heart attack or both. 

Similarities between the two versions are probably deliberate given that Morrill and Wailers bassist, Buck Ormsby produced the Here Are The Sonics!!! LP.

 Unlike The Wailers, The Sonics never had a hit single, though their influence was huge on many, more successful bands that came after them. Michael H. Little gives some reasons as to why success may have eluded the band during the 1960s*.

Videos courtesy of garagefan66 (Sonics) and Mr RJDB1969 (Wailers)

*TLDR - The Sonics were producing explosive versions of Rock ‘n’Roll standards at a point (1965-67) where the market and the more go-ahead groups were seeking to expand their sounds beyond the standard rock band sound. In 65-67, The Sonics were an anachronism of sorts. By the time, music started looking back to its roots circa 1969 and groups like The Stooges were getting wider attention with The Sonics garage rock playbook, The Sonics had disbanded.

Guys and Dolls: Eric’s Trip - Haze (16 April 1993)

 

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For the second Friday show running, we get an Eric’s Trip song which is open to two interpretations. Unlike last week’s where I thought it was about one thing when it was actually about another, I’m open to persuasion on both potential meanings for Haze.

1) Your music is better than mine: This is the meaning which I’m less enthusiastic about, mainly because I don’t really like songs which are about trying to write songs. The giveaway on that is lines such as I live within some stupid rhyme and So trapped within this useless rhyme, which both have the feel of placeholder lyrics which were subsequently never replaced. However, lines such as I saw the fire in your try (or tribe?) together with the I can’t be what I need refrain suggest some element of inspiration being taken from another source while our narrators struggle to get their own music off the ground due to a tendency to fall into writing lousy rhymes for lyrics.

2) An encounter with aliens: This is the meaning I’m more persuaded by, principally due to the atmosphere which permeates the recording and the transcendent harmony between Rick White and Julie Doiron, which manages to conjure up a romantic moment between a lost (in all senses of the word) human and a passing traveller from far, far away. The beauty of that scenario is that it’s impossible to definitively say which role was played by Rick and which was played by Julie. The vibe is closer to Starman* than Out of this World.

Alternatively, Haze could be like Listen, a love song, but in this case it’s one about being unable to see the love that’s in front of you due to the distractions and prevarications brought about by the haze of everyday life. It’s quite some achievement to be able to project so many different interpretations from such lo-fi material. While I don’t think I’m fully ready to passionately embrace Eric’s Trip, I can see myself starting to regard them as a more substantial band than I previously had. It just takes a little time and exposure, as Bone Rolling Reviews can testify.

*The 1984 John Carpenter film, not the David Bowie song.

Video courtesy of RockAllTheTime247.

All lyrics are copyright of their authors.