Style: protest, hard rockLabel: Rock-O-Rama
Year: 1990
Home: England
Members: Ian Stuart ~ vocals/guitar
Stigger ~ guitar/keyboard
Jon Herson ~ bass
Jon Burnley ~ drums
This might just be one of the best albums by Skrewdriver, featuring cult frontman Ian Stuart. It's the same under-produced highly distorted non-melodic guitars against an non-descript rhythm section that marks much of their output. The secret being Stuarts's distinct crunchy voice & biting social commentary. Skrewdriver started as a typical anti-social angry punk band before a change of membership, predominantly in guitarist Stigger, brought a more hard rock sound. While Stuart's obsession with the British Nationalist movement & later his becoming a father figure to the White Supremacist movement turned his lyrical content from just anti-social to racial, eventually leading to his untimely murder. It put Stuart & Skrewdriver into the British & international spotlight & gave them a distinctiveness they hadn't had & probably wouldn't have gotten otherwise, but it also shrunk their fanbase & isolated them in the music community, let alone any community. Skrewdriver would be an on/off affair, while Stuart formed many side groups, such as work with Stigger, Rough Justice & the Klansmen, that would experiment with metal, rockabilly & folk or cracked country as its come to be known. The lyrics, though, always the focus over musical development. The problem is that most people, if they know Stuart & company at all, only tend to know him for his racialist views, the term used by the community versus the more common racist, but much of his recording output actually is not racialist at all. His beliefs on race were just one part of his personality & one thing to protest. Yet, people think that's all he knows & sings about & hate him fiercely for it. It's no different than saying everything George Harrison sang was related to Hare Krishna, even if "This Song" & "When We Was Fab" & "Sue Me Sue You Blues" have nothing to do with spirituality, while Hinduism has often been seen as a backwards pagan religion. The difference is nobody hates Harrison but many hate Stuart, so it doesn't matter if what they say about him is based on what he actually did or what they think he did. It's a case of not separating the stereotype from reality. But, then, those people are never going to listen to anything Stuart has done, no matter what, & its their loss. But, considering we iconize rap musicians who kill others or superstars who act like embarrassing jerks in public, but yet Stuart who did neither is ostracized & murdered for his beliefs. This is sad how fame works, because much of his output, particularly with Skrewdriver, & certainly with the one-off Rough Justice, was actually aimed at universal problems, particularly the big brother government & the more modest disillusions of failed friendships. On this album there's not a single racialist line, while his pointed & unabashed criticisms are as powerful as Dylan, Baez & Guthrie, if not far more direct. His lyrics should be floated out at every protest. This is the album to float out. This album doesn't necessarily have the most poetic lyrics, the one album with Rough Justice is my recommendation for that, but the album congeals in a way that Skrewdriver albums don't always do. Stuart doesn't necessarily get as explicit on who he is talking about on some albums, but hits big themes such as pride in one's ideas & even teachers. In "The Strong Survive" Stuart sings: "However they hit us/we'll be back again/the strong survive/look at us baby/we're still alive". Or, in "Shining Down": "Don't tell me nothing can be done/with that attitude/nothing will be won." As for education, in "Voice Of Evil" he sings: "Crime in the classroom ... some call it a teacher/they'll try to tell you that north is south/they're making up stories ... they never stopped trying/to make you feel bad." There's also a cover of Black Sabbath's "Paranoid", which is a nice little inclusion & feels like it lyrically matches though I haven't considered if it really does or not & far better than his take of "Back In Black" on another album. "Backstabber" & "Warzone" are Stuart's take on bad personal relationships, thus rounding out the album with some personal notes.
You can try to legitimise this guy and his band by turning a blind eye to some of the more "colourful" lyrical themes and views which they freely espoused, but you are unlikely to change anyones minds about Skrewdriver as a result.
ReplyDeleteBecause without these elements, their music, when judged on it's own merits, is piss-poor derivative 2nd division Oi, with little to distinguish their uninspired racket from most of their peers.
The only reason they had any profile at all was because of their "controversial" views, which were half-baked reactionary rants at their best, and vile knuckle-dragging bile at their worst.
Allow Skrewdriver to fade from memory please.
Your writing's usually of a uniformly high standard, please don't waste it on bands who don't deserve to be remembered.
-Rico Allotacokka
Thank you so much for your comment, but I'm not sure I'm god nor do I represent ALL of society. And, not having that role means I am NOT in a position to decide who deserves to be remembered and who does not. I'm glad you think you are superior and represent everyone, but I, sir, do not.
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ReplyDeleteI don't agree with his message & not advocating it or endorsing it ... but having lived in 4 countries & in a city that has a larger Jewish population than Jerusalem I know what he sees. I aim to understand him. As people we should aim for understanding, not condemnation, though that's certainly not the majority rule.
ReplyDeleteI've posted videos on youtube by Jewish pianist Irving Fields who I work with & have been ripped for supporting Jews, all of the responses coming from Europe. Yet, I live in NYC where Hassidics walk around on 90 degree days in long black jackets & all Hassidic men dress the same. They don't help tear down prejudices my acting in a way many would consider crazy & anti-individual. Yet, I've also worked for a wonderful Hassidic woman from Israel (our office was full of Jewish stuff & folks thought I was Jewish too). In another job was fired for a making a sale to a drag queen as I didn’t know my boss was a Klansman. I've been around the block. Most people talk about understanding but actually don't do it. I try. "Man Of Understanding" also happens to be the religious mantra I chant daily.
I talk about Stuart not to make him great but to learn about understanding & share that learning with others.
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ReplyDeleteGreat write up Aaron. Some of us can separate the artists from the art and take things in objectively. I personally think this is a good album, and Stigger is a phenomenal guitarist. Like them or not, Skrewdriver have a place in music history, and they do have more than a few good songs. And only a fraction of their songs are 100% racial...there are plenty of other garbage bands that have entire albums full of that stuff.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for you comment. It was nice to read.
DeleteI should note I actually have listened to most of Ian's output, as I wanted to understand it. I've also gone back in the years since this review and listened to Oi! bands and even wrote a crossword puzzle book you can find on Amazon featuring the Oi! scene. For those that criticized me not knowing Oi! I would like to think I've done my research since. Interestingly, this blog was always about unique and interesting music, good and bad, and yet I was criticized for putting unique and interesting music here! Oh well, you just can't win sometimes. As you write, they have their place in music history. I'm in no position to decide who or what is worth including in the history books. I don't hold such a lofty position. I don't know anyone who is that powerful.
I still support what I wrote here years after writing this. I really don't like judging someone without investigating or based on one thing. Does Ian deserve judgment based on his life and other work, and is it negative judgment? Maybe yes, maybe no, but I'll let others decide. For the matter of this blog I'm looking at ONE album. What was said on other albums and his life really shouldn't matter. I'm reminded of Fleetwood Mac's Time album. If you compare it to the rest of their career its weak. On its own, its not bad. So, do we isolate it in time or compare it to everything else? The judgment of that album will be very different depending on how we approach it. Which is the better approach? Don't know.
And, yes, not all his stuff is racialist - I refer to Rough Justice in the review, which I still think is great. What's funny is looking back from 2021 at this blog: "Voice Of Evil" is exactly 100% the complaint of our education system today, as we teach kindergarteners they are oppressive racists who have 1000 gender identities they can choose from.