Writing about one-man British pixel-Punk band Sportsday Megaphone yesterday, and noting several qualities he shared in common with Mick Jones‘ post-The Clash group Big Audio Dynamite, inspired today’s choice of random record. Well, first it reminded me that I was supposed to put B.A.D.’s 1995 album F-Punk on m. Cody’s iPod, but after that it provided the impetus for me to revisit an earlier release from the group in today’s blog post.
The album, a 1988 release titled Tighten Up, Vol. 88, was the third LP from the band which had formed in 1984 as a partnership between Mick Jones and Don Letts. Jones had recently been fired from The Clash, and his longtime friend Letts was an influential DJ who was credited with the fusion of Punk Rock and Reggae, a film-maker who had been an early documentarian of the Punk sub-culture, and the one-time manager of The Slits, an all-girl Punk band whose lead singer Jones had dated. The band they founded would stretch the boundaries of Punk, even the open-minded brand made by The Clash, by incorporating even more obvious elements of Pop, Reggae, R&B, Funk and electronic dance music, making extensive use of sampling, programming, drum-machines and synthesizers in it’s retinue. Tighten Up, Vol. 88 finds the band in an unflinchingly joyous mood, giving rise to a collection of songs that draw from the history of popular music, entwining the sounds of early Rock&Roll, Rockabilly, Punk, New Wave, Synthpop, Electro and Hip-Hop with then cutting-edge electronics a pure ’80s Pop sensibility.
Following up 1986’s No. 10, Upping St., which re-united Jones with former Clash bandmate Joe Strummer who co-wrote and co-produced that LP, Tighten Up, Vol. 88 featured the artistic contribution of another Clash member, bassist Paul Simonon, who painted the record’s distinct cover artwork. The cover, an image of a jubilant celebration where people of every ethnicity dance beneath the stars and in the shadow of nearby housing project buildings to an outdoor DJ soundsystem, is highly emblematic of the heterogenous mix of musical styles and cultural references Jones and the band indulge in on the album in an effort to reflect the diverse ethno-musical identity of modern urban communities. Their intent was obviously to bring together the largest and most multifarious group of people they could to party to their music, a fact echoed not only in the album’s cover art and polyglot musical voice, but it’s songwriting as well.
Whil it may depart musically from the traditional Punk-Rock sound, the conceptual direction of Tighten Up, Vol. 88 alows Mick Jones to revel in Punk’s populist roots, coming off as a sort of Bob Dylan-esque Folk troubadour attempting to make sense out of our every-changing societal and musical landscape. Many of the songs on the disc are about the interaction of strangers, immigrants, foreigners, members of alien subcultures, and people from different ethnic or cultural backgrounds. Sometimes they come together in harmony, other times not so much, but through it all B.A.D. maintains the position that life would be better if people could respect each others differences, get past our imperfections, and come together. It’s a theme that manifests most obviously on selections like “The Battle of All Saits Road,” “Funny Names,” “Other 99″ and the title track.
“The Battle of All Saints Road,” a story-song about an unlikely alliance between white rockers and Rastafarians in the long-since gentrified neighborhood that gave birth to The Clash, prefigures M.I.A.’s “Paper Planes” musically by nearly 20 years with its staccato bassline, claps and snappy programming. Not a surprise since Jones co-wrote the song that gave “Paper Planes” it’s sampled groove, “The Battle…” unlike The Clash’s “Straight to Hell” resides firmly in the digital world, even as it juxtaposes countrified Rockabilly guitars against far-from-authentic Dancehall chatter. Sounding like Buddy Holly with a drum-machine, “Funny Names” takes it’s stuttery programming, electro-claps and Jones’ wonderings why people can’t seem to get past surface appearances back to the days of Doo-Wop and girl-groups. While “Tighten Up” (whose title is an homage to Trojan Records‘ Reggae compilations) picks up on the merger of cultures, racial politics and the economies of city neighborhoods, focusing on the sudden arrival of alien tropical rhythms and the displeasure of the local police with those who brought the new beats. The point is driven home by spliced up samples of tribal chants, Ska horns and Reggae songs floating amidst the track’s pulsating 808 beats, percolating electronic percussion, bionic rubber-band bassline and silky Jazz-Funk guitar noodling.
Jones refuses to “aim high,” acknowledging that nobody, including him, is perfect on the Prince-ish “Other 99.” I liken it — as well as “Applecart,” a song about a couple in a stagnant marriage who harbor dreams of freedom but won’t “rock the boat,” and “Mr. Walker Said,” a meditation on destiny, predestination and free will — to the work of Prince because the music fuses guitar-fueled Power-Pop, synthesizers, drum-machines and baroque arrangements — including synth-strings that are half Symphony/half Soul — in a manner not dissimilar to his early-to-mid-’80s albums like Around the World In a Day and Parade. It’s a sound that stands in contrast to the boomy Electro nervousness of “Tighten Up” (which serves as a precursor to the jittery laptop Pop of The Postal Service in my mind) and the proto-Freestyle club beats on “2000 Shoes,” a scathing but satirical critique of the controversial Phillippino first-lady Imelda Marcos‘ notorious shoe fetish.
The title track is hands-down my favorite of the bunch. But the final cut on the album, “Just Play Music,” is a close second. It’s unashamedly ’80s-sounding, with shiny horns and feel-good synth-gurgles. But it points the way (as does the liquor-themed “Champagne,” and… well… the whole concept behind the band itself I guess) towards the percussive, keyboard-driven Dance-Rock sound of the Indie-Dance and Madchester bands that would move British music into the ’90s. Mainly it’s just got a message I can agree appreciate…
Move my feet and touch my soul
Bass sound, drum beat, Rock and Roll
Just play that music‘Cause I don’t care what key it’s in
Where it’s come from, where it’s been
Just play that musicDoes it have to be so tame?
Do I have to twist and shout?
Do we have to play this game?
Or be down and out?
It don’t have to look the same
I keep tryin’ to tell ‘em
It don’t have to all sound lame
I sing the song you sell ‘em
