Don't Stop Believin'--Stiff Little Fingers--Belfast Legends'---Say Hanx!!



Take a Look Where You're Living

 Stiff Little Fingers is one of the top ten punk bands ever, in my semi-reputable opinion. At their very best they were on a par with the very best groups, and I think on a certain level they are a musicians' band now, admired by acolytes and peers, but not getting the credit they merit. They were tagged as the Irish Clash. I have no idea whether that was intended initially as a marketing move, or it was meant to be a pejorative swipe. Some critics tend to put them a few rungs below The Clash, Pistols, Ramones, Buzzcocks,etc. But when you look at the history of punk and alternative rock, many, many bands have been influenced by their music and their views, probably more than their following would indicate. But knowledgeable punk know what I am talking about. All of their early recordings are classics, the first three studio albums, Inflammable Material, Nobody's Heroes, and Go For It, the singles collection All The Best, the poppier Now Then...and the raw thrilling live album Hanx!  After Now Then... the band split up. Eventually they reunited and have put out a few less successful studio albums (and a host of live albums), but they all have their moments. The lineup at the time was Jake Burns as the singer and guitarist, with Henry Cluney also on guitar, Ali McMordie on Bass, and Jim Reilly on drums.

I was watching a PBS documentary about Irish music on PBS and it was okay but incomplete, a bit homogenized. There were good bits in it here and there. I enjoyed  Glen Hansard, Damien Dempsey and Sinead O'Connor. I admit that I did not see the whole thing. But I didn't see anything about SLF or the Undertones, Whipping Boy, My Bloody Valentine, or Frank and Walters. I'm not even sure if Thin Lizzy made the cut (SLF must have liked them a little judging by some of their own dual guitar riffs) Maybe the documentary was trying to take pains to illustrate the traditional Irish roots of contemporary musicians. If I didn't know better I would think that the music scene in Ireland has a few famous artists, but little else going on. I am pleased to say though, that there is rock in Ireland beyond U2 and the Cranberries.

I've seen SLF a bunch of times, though not recently. There are a lot of things I like about them. First and foremost, their grace under pressure. Though to some degree it could be a matter of self preservation they decided early on that they did not want to do anything to increase The Troubles and cause harm to people. Northern Ireland obviously was not a great place to live in those days. Though their rough and ready first album has political songs (maybe the best political songs by a punk band ever), they largely wrote songs from the perspective of how terrible it is to have grow up in a violent land, how impossible it is to live much less thrive under these oppressive circumstances. The insane cycle of violence needed to be broken. They didn't create the situation,  but they were born into it. And consequently some of their songs, like Alternative Ulster and Suspect Device got banned by the BBC. But their lyrics and outrage resonated with Irish youth, and gave the world a view of life in a police state. And I think a lot of their music holds relevance today.

When they performed gigs in their early days, the songs were such an adrenalin rush, that the audience would just get caught up in the emotion and their anger and frustration would spill out into the street. Clearly there would be consequences to this. While the band wanted change in their society stupid acts of rebelliousness and anarchy by a bunch of teenagers would just create more misery. So that is how they came up with performing "silly encores" to their sets, like Running Bear and their version of White Christmas, which brought some levity to the show so that people wouldn't take their aggression outside. They were pointedly asked which side they were on in an interview, and they refused to say. All they would admit was that band members were both Protestant and Catholic.



Another thing I like is their inclusiveness and their optimism. Jake Burns has a lot of sympathy for kids, and a lot of his songs have a "be all you can be" positive attitude. These are common themes: Don't give up hope, your life is important and valuable. It's up to you to decide your destiny, don't listen to the naysayers. Anti-war, anti-racist, anti-phony patriotism. And most importantly, think for yourself, don't take things for granted, look at the world with healthy scepticism. And I always found a good mix at shows--for every big Irish guy with a cap and an overcoat cozying up to the back wall with a pint, there were Punks of about every race and creed enjoying the show. Their message is one of inclusion, not cliques and small mindedness.

So the ideas behind the music are commendable, but if the songs are bad they would have been forgotten years ago. There are scores of well-intentioned people who have penned protest songs, but how many of them are good? A lot of times the songs sound forced, not very artistic at all. Billy Bragg has a gift for this. The Clash certainly had their moments. Mark Eitzel's Patriots Heart is a good recent example (I think Dick Cheney would challenge him to a duel if he heard this) But I don't know if there are too many more powerful advocates than SLF. When they play the old classics at a show you feel the adrenalin rush through the crowd and you feel as though you have a inexplicable kinship with the anonymous people you are temporarily sharing space with. Their great passion and love of justice are simply contagious.



Hanx! is a live album put out fairly early in their career and is a greatest hits collection, selecting tracks from their first two albums. Apparently this was released to support the band on an American tour. The music is aggressive and high tempo. They perform their traditional cover of Bob Marley's Johnny Was, which succeeds so powerfully. It is complete genius, taking the reggae song and moving it to the streets of Belfast with jagged guitars and a more martial tempo. Though at 10 minutes it is pretty long for punk rock. Jake Burns' voice is in fine form, raw and immediate. Alternative Ulster and Suspect Device are definitely two of the great punk rock songs and they are represented here as you would expect. Alternative Ulster is simply a great anthem, critical of the status quo, but hopeful that positive change was an achievable goal. Suspect Device is just a furious juggernaut of a song. "They take away our freedom, in the name of liberty" is a lyric that resonated with me during the Bush presidency. Two defiant exhilarating songs that never fail to get a crowd delirious.

Another highlight is the ironic love song Barbed Wire Love, which contrasts love and living under lockdown, and has a humorous 50's doo-wop bridge in the middle. Fly the Flag is a sneering dig at pseudo-nationalism. A flag is a symbol, and as such can be offered up to a variety of interpretations. At its best it can bring people together and unite them in a common cause. At its worst, it can bring out a lot of ugly nativism, excludes and divides people, and can blind the public to a lot of bad behavior like rapaciousness and violence. Tin Soldiers is a caustic anti-war anti-draft song that cautions young people not to "sign away their life". The opening song Nobody's Hero warns people not to get caught up in idol worship, but to think for yourself and maintain your independence. At The Edge is a song dealing with becoming an adult and following your own path proudly. I'd like to say the song gave a certain wealthy Irish guitarist a nickname, but I would be lying again.

Overall this a bangup of an album and a decent place to start for SLF. All The Best is probably the best collection, as it contains the band's early 45's. If you haven't heard this band before, you probably already have. They will no doubt remind you of some band you listened to this week, like Rancid or Ted Leo, or Down By Law. And for all you Clinton haters out there, at one show (probably at Tramp's) he took the time to thank Bill Clinton for all the efforts he made to bring about peace in his country.
Certainly there are some valid criticisms that can be made about the ex-President, but the people of Ireland feel a lot of gratitude toward him. Hopefully a rosier future is just beginning for the country. And when I hear Stiff Little Fingers, they pump me up and make me feel like I could change the world, even if only in a small way. And they convey a message without being preachy.