He actually went to see a concert by him when he was a student in Birgham university ! And he remenbers singing along to that very song !
I particularly like that performance of the song that is from 1979 because I love the venom in his voice, and I think its quite interesting to know that he was so angry (and right to be ) because he was singing at a benefit concert for amnesty international and they refused to support gay prisonners. It is intersting to know that they where jailled for having relationships with other consenting people that where below 21 . As it is said in the description of the video
Even if it is quite depressing to think about that I wish you a good evening
julia
Julia, Thank you for sharing this song.
ReplyDeleteTrue enough, the lyrics and the situation are indeed heart-breaking. But I don't think you are depressing us.
First, I have to say that as a teacher and parent I love that you are sharing something you discovered with your dad. This makes me hopeful.
There will indeed always be prejudices and terrible dramas because of it. Yet there will always be people who fight them, with great talent, and others will follow the lead (singing along for example) so in the end the situation will improve (you may say I'm a dreamer... - to quote another great artist- but I firmly believe in that.)
I agree with you there is quite a lot of rightful anger in his tone (the eyes support the voice) but there is also humor even if ironical when he introduces the chorus and you all have seen in the works we study with you what powerful weapons to yield humor and art can be and that's in my opinion reason to celebrate.
As usual, I choose to see the glass as half-full rather than half-empty (After all, in the OIB we go for the positive vibe, don't we? ;-)
Mrs. C.
It is true, I love the irony in his voice, as well has the anger. It has a big impact on me, i get the felling that even if life wasnt easy he still has the courage to fight by adopting an ironic tone that must have been so hard for him and I really admire him for that .
Deletejulia
He's now a DJ on my favourite British radio station BBC 6 Music, discovering new talent, so he's still cutting-edge. I really like 2-4-6-8 Motorway too, although it's less political (I think)
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