The recent 2020 US presidential election was the second one in this blog’s lifetime. I’ve been fortunate that happy accidents of scheduling have meant that within a few weeks of the elections, I’ve been able to post a track from John Peel’s 1992 playlists which has somehow managed to predict the political mood of the last two US presidential elections. In late November 2016, I was able to mark (because I sure as hell wasn’t celebrating it) the victory of Donald Trump with The Corner Hot Dog Stand by Gag, a story of a Mexican family business getting pushed out of its pitch and replaced with a faceless, neon restaurant. Gag did at least draw the line at making the Mexicans pay for it. Now, nearly a month after voting day, I’m delighted to be able to celebrate Trump’s defeat with Youth Against Fascism, originally recorded for Sonic Youth‘s 1992 album, Dirty. The actions and behaviour of a large number of prominent Republican Party leaders and officials since the election make it a perfect track to mark the occasion.
Just as it was 4 years ago, Trump would always be the story of the election and that remains the case even after he has lost this one. It’s been incredible to see how, either through not being able to bring themselves to acknowledge Joe Biden’s victory at one end of the scale or by clamping themselves to the ongoing clown car that is Trump’s legal challenges driven by Rudy Giuliani who is as determined to shred any dignity and gravitas he may once have had as he is to uncover evidence of voter fraud and accompanied by Jenna Ellis who went from arch Trump critic to breathless fangirl over the course of Trump’s sole term. Of course, she’s not the only person in Republican circles to do this. Step forward Senator Lindsey Graham, who over 4 years went from a Trump critic to the only named person, so far, who tried to influence this election in a way that could be considered questionable. Don’t take my word for it, ask Brad Raffensperger, The Republican Secretary of State for Georgia. Trump has galvanised the right wing of American politics in many different ways over the last 5 years, but I don’t think anybody quite foresaw that he would be skilled enough to make the response to his defeat one where so many people on the right essentially try and argue that he should be granted the powers of a dictator and be allowed to stay in power regardless of the numbers.
When Sonic Youth recorded Youth Against Facism, their targets were fairly obvious symbols of the extreme right wing such as the Ku Klux Klan or Westboro Baptist Church. Although they made jibes against George H.W. Bush, they would have any number of targets to aim at within the Republican Party now, especially those like Mitch McConnell who through either their silence or belligerence towards compromise and lack of a view of the bigger picture ending up fomenting an atmosphere which has seen fascism and totalitarianism drift more centrally into the American body politic than at any time since the late 1960s. Given the potential problems that the Republicans face in trying to get voters out to vote in 2 Senate seat runoff elections in January - Republican National Committee Chair, Ronna McDaniel, has just these past few days discovered the difficulties of trying to both claim electoral fraud and convince those whose votes your party needs to trust in the system - I find myself asking which will be destroyed first: The United States of America or The Republican Party? Given the way the Conservative Party crashed the UK in order to achieve Brexit as a means of securing their own survival, I’m not optimistic about the answer to that question.
Youth Against Fascism is built around three main elements: a rotating bass line, a frantic - almost apoplectic guitar part - which sounds like a hundred people spewing invective and which may have been played by Ian Mackaye, who was invited down to the studio by the band while they were recording this song. On arrival he was handed a guitar and asked to improvise a guitar part. The final main element is provided by Thurston Moore‘s refrain at the end of each verse, “It’s the song I hate” which takes in the poison spread by white supremacists, the bigotry of rednecks, American foreign policy especially in relation to the 1991 Gulf War and in yet another reminder that things never really change in American politics, a sideswipe at the behaviour of a Republican nominee - subsequently appointee - for the US Supreme Court. The line “I believe Anita Hill” showing support to her allegations of sexual harassment against Clarence Thomas. Has anyone in recent years written anything supporting those who made similar accusations against Brett Kavanaugh? And don’t get me started on the way Republicans have manipulated the make-up of that court over the last 5 years and the blatant, stinking hypocrisy of blocking an Obama pick for the Supreme Court for 10 months before an election while being happy to nod a Trump pick through just 35 days before one.
Among Sonic Youth, the song became the hit that could never be. DGC Records, feeling that the record might be topical in an election year, chose it as one of the singles to be taken from the album. Unfortunately, no radio station would go near it and the record bombed, although UK record buyers nearly got it into the Top 50.
Looking at it from this distance, it feels like a record out of its time and I’m sure that at the time, one reason it failed to connect was that it seemed unnecessarily gloomy in its predictions given the mood of optimism that was still widely felt in the post Cold-War years. But now, despite the respite brought about by Biden’s victory, it could be turned from a simple 3.39 rock song into a full-scale musical.
Video courtesy of Sonic Youth
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