The Gospel according to Saint Ug
Newcastle University 
POLI1020:  Introduction to Politics  Lecture Notes  Semester 1  2003  © Jim Jose
Excerpts from the file: http://buslaw1.newcastle.edu.au/policy/politics/politicssubjects/poli1020/LEC1020.112.pdf.
I now want to turn to the fourth topic that I foreshadowed, namely a brief discussion of three songs that aim to be definitely political, though perhaps for different purposes. The songs are “Wake Up My Mind” by the Uglys (1965),“Open Your Eyes” by The Lords of the New Church (1982), and “Open Your Eyes” by Goldfinger (2002).
Uglys: “Wake Up My Mind” The Uglys were a Birmingham group who could not really even be described as a one-hit wonder. They released several singles during the 1960s, but none had any impact on the charts in Britain or anywhere else, with the exception of Australia where “Wake Up My Mind”, their first single, was a major hit in 1965. A version of the band is still performing in Britain. The song is about apathy and the inability of the central character to take on board the serious aspects of life, especially the trials and tribulations of those less fortunate than him. The sound of song, with its jingly-jangly guitars is typical of the folk-rock sounds of the mid-1960s. Although the song deals with a serious issue the sound and feel of it is slightly upbeat and, largely, optimistic. The song was part of a wave of commercially produced protest songs of the day, perhaps best signified by Barry McGuire’s “Eve of Destruction” (written by P.F. Sloan) – though Sloan argues that the song was not written to cash in on the protest wave but “as a prayer to God for an answer” (Sloan 1999).
“Wake Up My Mind” expresses a concern about apathy by  juxtaposing various protest issues (ie war, hunger, racism – but not sexism) with the circumstances of everyday living. The central character might just be able to makeup his mind about the colour of his new car, but not about the colour of his politics. The song makes a number of statements: That the primary concern with satisfying material needs blunts our sensitivity to the needs of others, and ultimately does not bring contentment but alienation. That the pains and sufferings experienced by others are the results of forces beyond individual control, a sense reinforced by the repetition at the end of each verse of the line “and the days break and the nights fall and drift into time”.
That if one wakes up one’s mind the sense of powerlessness is just too overwhelming to deal with. And somewhat paradoxically, that not being able to see whatever it is that is deemed to be wrong requires at least the tacit cooperation of individuals, specifically that one must choose not to see. Each of us has a responsibility to see, to “wake up our minds”. But the singer leaves it open to the listener to work that out. When we get to the Lords of the New Church a more aggressive sentiment is being expressed.


Lords of the New Church: “ Open Your Eyes” The band formed in London in late 1981 with involving Stiv Bator (an American exile from the New York punk scene), and members of English punk bands, the Damned and the Barracudas. The Lords of the New Church generated a sound that derived from late 1970s punk with a distinctive 1980s pulse and beat. The mood of “Open Your Eyes” is far more sinister and aggressive. The sounds conjure up a much more distinctive machine-like quality, relentless and pounding. There is no escaping the impact of the modern.
The theme is also apathy but this time the song is directed straight at the listener. Not just wake up, but look at what is happening around you, recognise the forces that are blinding you to reality. The Lords are much more explicit about pointing to the causes of the apathy and do-nothingness. The band adopts a more conspiratorial tone in its lyrics. Television, video games, the media have put us all to sleep. And they are quite explicit in noting that being conciliatory or believing that goodness will prevail is an illusion. In their view, the only earth that the meek will inherit is the earth of their graves. In their view the “powers that be” encourage us to see politics as a sideshow, at best a bad movie that is the concern of others. But they also emphasise that the lies are visible. All you have to do is “open your eyes” and see them. Shades of Plato’s parable of the cave here. And the lyrics also emphasise the need to shift from being alone to being part of a wider understanding. On the back of the cover of the vinyl album appears a line authored by Stiv Bator: “the truth is the sword of us all”. But the question is whose truth? Is it as simple as just opening your eyes? The answer is ambiguous because the sound of the song militates against the message. While the message is optimistic, the sound is much less so. The sound is much more depressing in its emotional impact. After the first few rushes of energy are absorbed, the bass and rhythm pound away pushing the emotions down as the lyrics aim to liberate perception. The conspiracies can be exposed and broken. Despite the tension between the words and music, and the overall feeling of despair, there is still the hope that a positive, liberatory challenge can be made.
Goldfinger: “Open Your Eyes” In Goldfinger’s “Open Your Eyes” there is a stronger sense of gloom and despair. Goldfinger are a Californian band with a strong social justice and vegetarian perspective. They began in 1994 but it was not until 1996 that their first album was released. A somewhat manic band in terms of their live performances, they mix elements of ska, reggae, metal, punk and grunge to produce a potent mix of rock music. The song is more aggressive than the other two songs. Both musically and lyrically it generates a much stronger assault on the senses. There is no sense of optimism. The outlook is bleaker.
There is a sense of defiance that is far more menacing than the aggression articulated by The Lords of the New Church. Not only is Goldfinger attacking the things that they think keep our eyes closed, the band is also not accepting our acquiescence. If we don’t open our eyes then, in some unstated way, the band is going to force us to become aware. We may not like it, but tough situations call for tough solutions. The language, the choice of words such as “lies”, “kill”, “destroy”,“flies”, “force” and so on, underscore the level of violence and frustration that is built into the songs emotional impact. Moreover, the pushiness of the song underscores the threat of making us aware, of forcing us to open our eyes.

These three songs provide an interesting illustration of the trajectory that I was pointing to earlier. The almost playful commentary on waking up to what is going on in the 1960s has given way to the pulsating despair evident in Goldfinger’s 2002 critique of much the same sort of thing. The anger and frustration evident in Goldfinger’s music, a sound deriving from the grungier genre of the 1990s, reflects the sort of social relations in which large-scale unemployment and a very uncertain future are the norm.
Clearly, one of the assumptions underlying this lecture is the view that popular music has a political presence. I have chosen to focus on examples that emphasise the dimension of social critique. We could also have focused on those songs (the vast majority of them) that reproduce the prevailing social relations, especially the prevailing social relations of gender. And we could have spent much more time on the commodification aspects of popular culture, where rebellion itself is packaged and sold back to us to as an item of consumption. I have also tried to demonstrate the emotional aspect of popular song and the way in which it encodes social and cultural values.

By way of a conclusion, I would suggest that you take the opportunity to seek out a recording by the Mothers of Invention from 1976, “We’re Only In It For The Money”. This album parodied the Beatles’ Sgt Pepper’s album, right down to the artwork. The Mothers provided a cutting critique of the pretensions of the love and peace generation. It also critiqued the values of the previous generation, including the dominant social institutions relating to marriage, sexuality, politics, authority and so on. The album demonstrates the level of paranoia that was palpable in 1967 when it was feared that the authorities, notably Governor Ronald Reagan, were planning intern political dissidents, hippies and other “undesirables” in the unused concentration camps that housed Japanese Americans during the Second World War. On the back of the album cover, the principal architect of the album (the late Frank Zappa) advised listeners who had not yet read Franz Kafka’s “In the Penal Colony” to turn off the record player before listening to the final track. Once the familiar with Kafka’s short story the listener would then be suitably prepared, according to Zappa, to listen to the final instrumental track, “TheChrome-Plated Megaphone of Destiny”. Prescient indeed.

“Baby Boom Ché”John Trudell, 1992. You want to know what happened to Elvis? I’ll tell you what happened. I ought to know man, I was one of his army. I mean man I was on his side. He made us feel all right. We were the first wave in the post-war baby boom. The generation before had just come out of the Great Depression and World War II. You know, heavy vibes for people to wear. So much heaviness, like some kind of voiding of the emotions. Their music, you know the songs, like life always carries. You know every culture has songs. Well this music was restrained emotions, you know like you didn’t dance if you did not know-how, which says something strange. Well anyway Elvis came along about ten years after the nuke, when the only generals America had, and the only army she had, were Ike [former army general, President of the USA 1952-60]and Mac [General Douglas McCarthur], and stupor hung over the land. A plague where everyone tried to materially free themselves; still too shell-shocked to understand to fell what was happening. Everything was getting hopeless. Then when Elvis started to rock the roll just picked up. I mean drab Mr Beaver [popular 1950s television show “Leave It to Beaver”] showed us what could only be a foretold future. Who wanted to be Ward and June [parents in “Leave It to Beaver"] and I mean father never did know best [referring to another popular 1950s TV show, “Father Knows Best”], he was still crazy from surviving the war. Like there was this psychotic pall so widespread as to be assumed to be normal, heavy man. You know, really. Anyway Elvis showed us an out. You know he showed every boy/man and every girl/woman, there’s something good in feeling good. Like a prophet for every boy every girl when someone’s mom and dad lied. Something about him told us that to be sensual was okay. Someone’s mom and dad waltzed us around. Every girl wasn’t supposed to enjoy it. If she did she was bad. And every boy, well boys will be boys: don’t feel anything, take what you can, marry a decent girl when the fun’s done. Well no matter what we did, we all were guilty. Maybe someone’s mom and dad resented what they missed and while they were trying to pass it on us, we heard Elvis’s song. And for the first time we made up our own minds. The first wave rebelled. I mean we danced even if we didn’t know how. I mean Elvis made us move. Instead of standing mute he raised our voice. And when we heard ourselves, something was changing. You know like for the first time we made a collective decision, about choices. America hurriedly made Pat Boone a general in the army they wanted us to join. But most of us held fast to Elvis and the commandants around him – Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, Little Richard, Bo Diddley, Gene Vincent. You know, like a different civil war all over again. I mean you take “Don’t Be Cruel”, “I Want You, I Need You, Love You”, and “Jailhouse Rock”. Or you take Pat in his white bucks [white trousers/ shoes] singing “Love Letters in the Sand”. Hell man, what’s real here? I mean Pat at the beach in his white bucks, his ears getting sunburned, told us something about old wave delusion. I mean wanting and needing and imprisonment, we all been to those places. But what did white bucks at the beach understand other than more straight line dancing. You know, I mean. Anyway man for a while there we had a breath of fresh energy to keep us from falling into the big sleep. Then before long Elvis got assassinated in all the fame. Taking a long time to die, others seized control while Elvis rode the needle out, never understanding what he done. It’s like we were the baby boom because life needed a fresher start. I mean, two world wars in a row is really crazy man. And Elvis, even though he didn’t know that he said it, he showed it to us anyway. And even though we didn’t know that we heard it, we heard it anyway. And now they are trying to put us back to sleep. So we’ll see how it goes. Anyway, look at the record man. Rock and roll is based on revolutions going way past thirty-three and a third [speed of a long playing vinyl record 33 1/3 revolutions per minute]. You gotta understand man. He was America’s baby boom Ché. I oughta know man. I was in his army. words and music John Trudell & Jesse Ed Davis) John Trudell AKA Grafitti Man (Rykodisc RCD 10223, 1992)

“Wake Up My Mind” The Uglys, 1965.
I am a man in the prime of my life,
I’ve got a house and a car and a beautiful wife.
There’s no chip on my shoulder, I’ve no axe to grind,
And no possible reason to wake up mind.
And the days break, and the nights fall, and drift into time.
Somewhere there is hunger, somewhere there is war,
But I can do nothing so I’ll just ignore
The cruelty around me, pretending I’m blind,
In case I start thinking and wake up my mind.
And the days break, and the nights fall, and drift into time.
I read in the papers a policeman shot down
Two Negroes in cold blood in some racial town,
And I’m having a new car but don’t know what kind,
But one of these days I will make up my mind.
And the days break and the nights fall and drift into time.
Yes it seems as though fortune has smiled upon me.
But now it’s too late I’m beginning to see,
I’ve spent my life searching but no peace I find,
And it’s left me with no time to wake up my mind.
And the days break and the nights fall and drift into time.

(words & music by …) The Uglys,
Released as single on Pye Records (UK) and Astor Records (Australia) 1965.Available on the vinyl record The British Pop Collection: 60 Original Artists 60 Original Hits, (EMI Rock 4, 1983); and on the vinyl record Songs of the Protest Era, Telmak Records TMAK029, 1983).

“Open Your Eyes” Lords of the New Church, 1982.
Video games train the kids for war.
Army chic in high-fashion stores. Law and order’s done their job.
Prisons filled while the rich still rob. Assassination politics.
Violence rules within our nation’s midst.
Well ignorance is their power tool.
You’ll only know what they want you to know. The television cannot lie. Controlling media with smokescreen eyes.
Nuclear politician’s picture show.
The acting’s lousy but the blind don’t know.
They scare us all with their threats of war.
So we forget jus how bad things are.
You taste the fear when you’re all alone.
They gonna git’cha when you’re on your own.
The silence of conspiracy. Slaughtered on the altar of apathy.
You gotta wake up from your sleep.
’Cause meek inherit earth… six feet deep.
Open your eyes see the lies right in front of ya
Open your eyes …

(words & music by Stiv Bator & Brian James)
Lords of the New Church, Lords of the New Church,
(Illegal Records, ILP 009, 1982).

“Open Your Eyes”Goldfinger, 2002
Open your eyes To the millions of lies
That they tell you everyday
Open your mind To the clever disguise
That the advertisements say
How do they know What’s good for you
Wake up, wake up, who awake up, wake up, whoa
A shot to the head
They are better off dead
Will you wake up
Destroy all the land
And kill what you can
Just to make the profits rise
They sell you from birth For all that you’re worth
The money spreads like flies
And how do they know What’s good for you
Wake up, wake up, whoa
Wake up, wake up, whoa
A shot to the head
They are better off dead
Will you wake up
Don’t want to hate you
Don’t want to blame it all on you
I’m out of options
If you don’t look, I’ll force
you to If you don’t look, I’ll force
you to If you don’t look, I’ll force
you to
Wake up, wake up, whoa
Wake up, wake up, whoa
A shot to the head
So you can be fed
Won’t you wake up
Wake up Open your eyes
Won’t you open your eyes
(Words & Music Goldfinger) Goldfinger, Open Your Eyes
(MOJO Jive 9270032)

May2003.Strausbaugh, R. (2001), Rock ‘Til You Drop: The Decline from Rebellion to Nostalgia, London, Verso Books.

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