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I Crass sono uno di quei gruppi più riconosciuti come una fantastica spilletta da attaccare al proprio chiodo, che come musicisti.
Musicalmente hanno avuto un discreto successo, concettualmente hanno dato una forte impronta estrema alla musica hardcore, con i loro testi completamente schierati e a volte maniacalmente duri. Conosciuti per il disco storico "Stations of the Crass" hanno suonato dischi leggermente presi più sottogamba come "Christ" o l'album preso in considerazione "Penis Envy".
Il messaggio dei Crass è l'elemento fondamentale dei loro lavori, diciamo che la poetica e gli eccentrici testi erano molto più importanti della musica. Animalisti, anti-razzisti, anti-consumisti, anti-maschilisti, anti-sociali, contro la guerra e con una lieve sfaccettatura Hippie questa band si schierò contro band che nel momento cavalcavano l'onda del successo come i Clash, memorabile difatti è la frase "They said that we were trash, well the name is Crass, not Clash", tutto ciò perchè la storica band di Joe Strummer veniva prodotta da una multinazionale. "Penis Envy" è suonato da scatti furiosi, chitarre distorte ossessionanti e rumorose, metriche frastornanti miscelate con musica elettronica, tempi disconnessi e assurdi, cantato dalla particolare voce di Eve Libertine, caratterizzato da una forte monotonia che può causare mal di testa.
Si inizia con "Bata Motel", una canzone che racconta di una bambola gonfiabile e il suo amore verso l'uomo che la possiede, suonata istintivamente senza assoli o particolari riff, l'importanza è solo sulla voce e il ritmo assurdo della batteria. Si va avanti con "Systematic Death" dove ci si sofferma sull'odio verso il conformismo e il modo in cui un neonato viene indirizzato verso le regole assurde della società. Una delle canzoni migliori dell'intero album. Continuando, il lavoro viene sempre più duro, ma allo stesso modo stancante, tutto ciò inevitabilmente per una mancanza di appoggi musicali e parti orecchiabili. La bravura di Eve Libertine è indiscutibile, il modo di scrivere è assurdo e privo di regole, i testi sono dei temi, cantati interrotamente, divisi solo da piccoli ritornelli e parti elettroniche. Il rumore è una caratteristica per i Crass, ma ascoltare tutto "Penis Envy" diventa una prova molto difficile se non impossibile, per non parlare della song "What the Fuck", circa sette minuti di elettronica, fischi e rullate sconnesse di batteria. Andando avanti le altre traccie sono troppo simili tra di loro, fatta eccezione per la caraibica "Barkertex Bride" o "Health Surface".
Credo che l'ascoltatore se non per buona volontà abbia una strana voglia di spegnere tutto ed andare a prendere una boccata d'aria, si, questo album è veleno allo stato musicale.
Elenco tracce testi e samples
01 Bata Motel (03:34)
<i>[Little girls, of about six or seven, were asked what do they like to do. And then sometime later the same question asked in a slightly different form; they were asked what do little girls like to do. ]</i>
I've got 54321,
I've got a red pair of high-heels on,
Tumble me over, it doesn't take much,
Tumble me over, tumble me, push.
In my red high-heels I've no control,
The rituals of repression are so old,
You can do what you like, there'll be no reprisal,
I'm yours, yes I'm yours, it's my means of survival.
I've got 54321,
Come on my love, I know you're strong,
Push me hard, make me stagger,
The pain in my back just doesn't matter.
You force-hold me above the ground,
I can't get away, my feet are bound,
So I'm bound to say,
That I'm bound to stay.
Well today I look so good,
Just like I know I should,
My breasts to tempt inside my bra,
My face is painted like a movie star,
I've studied my flaws in your reflection
And put them to rights with savage correction,
I've turned my statuesque perfection
And shone it over in your direction.
So come on darling, make me yours,
Trip me over, show me the floor,
Tease me, tease me, make me stay,
In my red high-heels I can't get away.
I'm trussed and bound like an oven ready bird
But I bleed without dying and won't say a word.
Slice my flesh and I'll ride the scar,
Put me into gear like your lady car,
Drive me fast and crash me crazy,
I'll rise from the wreckage as fresh as a daisy.
These wouds leave furrows as they heal,
I've travelled them, they're red and real,
I know them well, they're part of me,
My birth, my sex, my history,
They grew with me, my closest friend,
My pain's my own, my pain's my end.
Clip my wings so you know where I am.
I can't get lost while you're my man.
Tame me so I know your call,
I've stabbed my heels so I am tall,
I've bound my twisted falling fall,
Beautiful mute against the wall,
Beautifully mutilated as I fall.
Use me don't lose me.
I've got 54321,
I've got a red pair of high-heels on.
Strap my ankles, break my heels,
Make me kneel, make me feel.
Turn, turn, turn, like a clockwork doll,
Put in your key and give me a whirl.
Tease me, tease me, the reason to play,
In my red high-heels I can't get away.
I'll be your bonsai, your beautiful bonsai,
Your black-eye bonsai, erotically rotting.
Will my tiny feet fit your desire?
Warped and tied I walk on fire.
Burn me out, twist my wrists,
I promise not to shout, beat me with your fists.
Squeeze me, squeeze me, make me feel,
In my red high-heels I'm an easy kill.
Tease me, tease me, make me see,
You're the only one, I need to be me.
Thankyou, will you take me?
Thankyou, will you make me?
Thankyou, will you break me?
Use me don't lose me,
Taste me, don't waste me.
Use, lose, taste, waste.
02 Systematic Death (03:57)
System, system, system
Death in life
System, system, system
The surgeons knife
System, system, system
Hacking at the cord
System, system, system
A child is born
Poor little fucker, poor little kid
Never asked for life, no she never did
Poor little baby, poor little mite
Crying out for food as her parents fight
Crying out for food as her parents fight
System, system, system
Send him to school
System, system, system
Force him to crawl
System, system, system
Teach him how to cheat
System, system, system
Kick him off his feet
Poor little schoolboy, poor little lad
They'll pat him if he's good and they'll beat him if he's bad
Poor little kiddy, poor little chap
They'll force feed his mind with their useless crap
They'll force feed his mind with their useless crap
System, system, system
They'll teach her how to cook
System, system, system
Teach her how to look
System, system, system
They'll teach her all the tricks
System, system, system
Create another victim for their greasy pricks
Poor little girly, poor little wench
Another little object to prod and pinch
Poor little sweety, poor little filly
They'll fuck her mind so they can fuck her silly
They'll fuck her mind so they can fuck her silly
System, system, system
He's grown to be a man
System, system, system
Taugh to fit the plan
System, system, system
Forty years of jobs
System, system, system
Pushing little buttons, pulling little knobs
Poor fucking worker, poor little serf
Working like a mule for half of what he's worth
Poor fucking grafter, poor little gent
Working for the cash that he's already spent
Working for the cash that he's already spent
He's selling his life
She's his loyal wife
Timid as a mouse
She's got her litlle house
He's got his little car
And they share the cocktail bar
She likes to cook his meals
You know, something that appeals
Sometimes he works til late
So his supper has to wait
But she doesn't really mind
Cos he's getting overtime
He likes to put a bit away
Just for that rainy day
Cos every little counts
As the cost of living mounts
They do the pools each week
Hoping for that lucky break
Then they'd take a trip abroad
Do all the things they can't afford
She'd really like to have a fur
He'd like a bigger car
They could buy a bungalow
With a Georgian door for show
He might think of leaving work
But no, he wouldn't like a shirk
He'd much prefer to stay
And get his honest days pay
He's got a life of work ahead
There's no rest for the dead
She's tried to make it nice
He's said thankyou once or twice
System, system, system
Deprived of any hope
System, system, system
Taught they couldn't cope
System, system, system
Slaves right from the start
System, system, system
Til death do them part.
Poor little fuckers, what a sorry pair
Had their lives stolen, but they didn't really care
Poor little darlings, just your ordinary folks
Victims of the system and it's cruel jokes
Victims of the system and it's cruel jokes.
The couple views the wreckage
And dreams of home sweet home
They'd almost paid the mortgage
Then the system dropped its bomb
03 Poison in a Pretty Pill (03:39)
Your tactile eyes is running over glossy paper,
Printed on with tactile lies of glaze and gause.
They say, "Forget yourself, adorn with this disguise",
This womanhood of smooth and tampered whores.
Let me warn you of their cold sensitivity,
They'll have you gathered in a trap of glass.
Is your reflection all that you will recognise?
That cruel lie will stare you in the face.
Wrapped up in haze and flow of bridal gown,
They tell your lover he must hold a gun.
You're the pornographic reassurance he's a man,
They deal with flesh, incarcerate with rags,
Red lips, shimmer-silk and body-bags,
Hairless legs against the blistered napalms burn.
I want to rape the substance of your downy hair,
In that mist a gutted child fights for air.
Against the fragile, mashed and sweaty wound
Your facile beauty has an outrageous sound,
Like a glamour billboard on a battlefield.
At least the blood-red poppy was of nature will,
That flower perfecting by the barbed wire fence
Must be insulted by your scented poor pretence
Just as I, who finds it hard to touch you now,
You traumatise my love with needle doubts,
I want so gently to remove your mask.
It's hard enough to find water here
In this barrenness of dishonesty and fear
Without you accepting poison in a pretty pill.
Your bondages of silky robes and lace
Are the bandages on a bullet punctured corpses,
The layers of precious imitation worn
Are the layers of history to suffocate the unborn.
Poison, poison, poison, poison
Poison, poison, poison, poison
Poison in a pretty pill.
Poison in a pretty pill.
Poison in a pretty pill, etc...
04 What the Fuck? (06:43)
(chorus)
What now? Now you would destroy the earth
Dry, the river beds
What now? Now in your control, birth and death
Dry, the bodies, incandescent in the heat
Your fire is melting both soil and soul
In plan maybe, is that not enough?
Your war and raving of it is so total
You're consumed by it as you'd consume us
Would you see the fire from your sanctuary of death?
What terrible pain you need to hide
In your hatred you'd seek to destroy the earth
What is it that you have been denied?
Your mind and its rantings are so barren
What the fuck are you thinking? What the fuck?
Your eyes and their vision, empty, staring
What the fuck are you seeing? What the fuck?
So singularly your motives, yet impossible to define
How finely lined my destiny in the cobwebs of your crime
So insular your future, so alien your plan
Take all of this if you will and take what I can
A town that is no more
"My God", you say, "What have I done?"
But you won't heed what's gone before
"What pity?", you say, "There is none"
And so you drive the world to war
But this war will not be lost or won
The desolation that you've seen but never saw
Is the lesson that you teach, but never learn
But would you see the fire in the world where you exist?
Will your hard eyes register the pain?
Are you so cold that there is no distress?
Where there's death would you give death again?
No flowers in your landscape, some withered rose
Kicked amongst the corpses where they lay
Halted where all hope died, froze
By the horror of your acts compelled to stay
Unnoticed all this in your lusting after death
How determined that your darkness should be shared
Unnoticed in your blindness this miracle of breath
What element of beauty attracts your cruel desire?
Would you see the burning? Is that your delight?
Would you have me see it in your stead?
Would you feel my yearning? Peace, life, light
Body, breath. Would you take all this?
What is it that you're seeking, so cold and so deprived?
What is it that you dream of in your empty eyeless head?
Why must I share your lust of death?
Can you not die alone? Why must I share your fear of breath
Life, light, PEACE?
06 Berkertex Bribe (03:21)
Berkertex bribe. Oh! Berkertex bribe.
Berkertex bribe. Oh! Berkertex bribe.
Berkertex bribe. Oh! Berkertex bribe.
Berkertex bribe. Oh! Berkertex bribe.
The object unsoiled is packed ready and waiting,
For the moment of truth in this spiritual mating.
The object unsoiled is packed ready and waiting,
To be owned, to be cherished, to be fucked for the naming.
The public are shocked by the state of society,
But as for you, you're a breath of purity.
Well don't give me your morals, they're filth in my eyes,
You can pack them away with the rest of your lies.
Your painted mask of ugly perfection,
The ring on your finger, the sign of protection,
Is the rape on page 3, it the soldiers obsession,
How well you've been caught to support your oppression.
One god. One church. One husband. One wife.
Sordid sequences in brilliant life,
Supports and props and punctuation
To our flowing realities and realisations.
We're talking with words that have been used before
To describe us as goddesses, mother and whores,
To describe us as women, describe us as men,
To set out the rules of this ludicrous game,
And it's played very carefully, a delicate balance,
A masculine/feminine perfect alliance.
Does the winner take all? What love in your grasping?
What vision is left and is anyone asking?
What vision is left and is anyone asking?
She's a Berkertex bribe... Bribe. Bribe...
08 Health Surface (03:31)
Places of sickness nurse me cold,
Attendant whiteness glare in dark,
Straighten out the winding sheet
Twisted round in poorest dreams.
Shattered proofing of the lost,
Splinter shackled, little wounds
Of cruelty and truth, they tie
The one way sickness up inside.
Regressive smile, a baby's laugh,
A learnt contortion of the mouth,
Places of laughter leave me cool,
Hot fire dying down to ash.
Beauty breezes through so swift,
Endless roundabout of grief.
Not much to ask, a rightful place
Where nothing matters, but can't touch
Without a sinking heart, this sigh
Could be the wind among the leaves.
This pain does not belong to me,
They've taken everything away
To nurse the sicknesses of loss,
Instilled with fear and bleachy guilt
Impatient winds up in her cloth.
The tired shoes are splitting up
With weighty promises of love,
Waiting for the last to fall away
Buckle noose around the strap
All that separates the flesh
From green grass or sinking mud.
Stagnating, knowing the delusion,
Clean sheets waiting for a body,
Slapped into life and slowly gutted.
A place of sickness is to die in
Tired of the cruelty and lying,
Drip-fed tears of the forsaken.
They say, "Well soon have you up and walking".
Took the prison for a stronghold.
Took the lies for a love-song.
Paid for life on a shoestring.
Waiting for the last to fall away
Buckle noose around the strap
All that separates the flesh
From green grass or sinking mud.
09 Dry Weather (03:06)
Is there anyone prepared to tell me why? Tell me why I'm being suck dry? Oh yes, that is yours and this is mine, As long as the balance is out, that's fine. I don't define the terms of the oppression, Do you awake to that dull and grey depression? You ride on me, Suck my energy. You take what you want when you want it, You reject any change that I make. You ask me for more when I've spent it, When I've given it all, you still take. Is there anyone prepared to tell me why? Tell me why I'm being suck dry? Oh yes! I know the lines you draw are for protection, The number given for a name is simply for detection, I know I'm only paper in a file, But couldn't you treat me as a human for a while? You ride on me, Suck my energy. You take what you want when you want it, You reject any change that I make. You ask me for more when I've spent it, When I've given it all, you still take. Is there anyone prepared to tell me why? Tell me why I'm being suck dry? You offer your protection, but insist when I decline, You offer independence, but demand I tow the line. You say you give me freedom, but you hang on to the key, Well don't you think, perhaps, the decision's up to me? You ride on me, Suck my energy. You take what you want when you want it, You reject any change that I make. You ask me for more when I've spent it, When I've given it all, you still take. Is there anyone prepared to tell me why? Tell me why I'm being suck dry? So tell me I'm dreaming if I want to live And I'll tell you you're just scheming to make me give, More than I want to, more than I can, You don't want person, you just want a woman. You hide behind logic, secure with your facts, You've a history of time to back up your claims, Protecting the future by filling up the cracks That might expose the real nature of your games. You want woman cos she's children for your system, Well people wither in that living death. You hide behind your prejudice, afraid of my wisdom, Afraid I might question your unquestioned worth. You ride on me, Suck my energy. You take what you want when you want it, You reject any change that I make. You ask me for more when I've spent it, When I've given it all, you still take. Is there anyone prepared to tell me why? Tell me why I'm being suck dry? Used as a tool? Treated like a fool? Spat on? Shat on? Totally confused? Fucked up? Mucked up? Totally abused? Pulled about? Fooled about? Treated like a toy? Joked about? Poked about? Something to destroy? Tricked? Kicked? I don't want these games.
10 Our Wedding (02:04)
All I am I give to you
You'll honor me, I'll obey you
Rich or poor or come what may
We'll forsake all other love
Just we two, one flesh, one blood
In the eyes of god
I am yours to have & hold
I'm giving you my lie...
Never look at anyone, anyone but me
Never look at anyone, I must be all you see
Listen to those wedding bells
Say goodbye to other girls
I'll never be untrue my love
Don't be untrue to me
Don't be untrue to me
Don't be untrue to me
Don't be untrue to me
Don't be untrue to me
Don't be untrue to me
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