From: Mike Dickson <mike@blackcat..demon..co..uk>
Subject: Re: Need suggestions on political prog.
Date: Mon, 23 Mar 98 05:36:00
Message-ID: <CheetahPRO_v1.0972_60271@blackcat.demon.co.uk>
Newsgroups: rec.music.progressive
Organization: Black Cat Software Factory

> I'm interested in prog that has more of an anti-establishment,
> anti-corporate, socialist message. I guess the term would be agitprop.

The term is 'Rock In Opposition', more often titled RIO. The main RIO
band was Henry Cow, but any of the myriad bands that make up RIO might
do you the same service.

The trouble that a lot of people have with Henry Cow is that it isn't
prog in the sense that they *expect* it to be prog, it's much more off
the wall and musically adventurous, not to mention far more
compositionally creative. If you want to start anywhere then try the
Henry Cow/Slapp Happy album 'In Praise Of Learning' which is
representative and features some fairly overt socialist angles on the
lyrics. It's fair to say that Chris Cutler is not an easy read, although
as he once said, there's no point in playing the same old music as
everyone else and simply saying 'we're socialists' - you need to start
again and find an alternative musical approach to make your statement
valid.

You might also like to try out Robert Wyatt's music as well,
particularly 'Nothing Can Stop Us' which features Robert's take on 'The
Red Flag', 'Shipbuilding' and an a-capella number called 'Stalin Wasn't
Stallin'. It's fair to say that I've never heard a bad track from Old
Rottenhat himself and I don't expect to. Just love that man!

Mike Dickson, Black Cat Software Factory, Musselburgh, Scotland
fax 0131-271-1551 - Columnated Ruins Domino - Mellotron M400 #996
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