Maybe their only hit song
comes from the Songs of the Free
album and has the rousing chorus
sung by the new bass player, Sara Lee,
and a few other female voices,
“I Love a Man in a Uniform,” while
lead singer Jon King laments in the verses
about how girls aren’t paying him
proper attention and so decides to join
the armed forces. It’s a conceit, of course,
a funny, great song, lampooning 80’s
machismo run amok. It was
likely their only hit because
Gang of Four, of the punk/new wave
bands of the late 70’s and early 80’s,
was one of the least tuneful. Their
hooks were more lyrical than melodic,
and Andy Gill’s guitar playing, especially
on previous albums, was unhinged,
dissonant, percussive. Hearing him play
for the first time was truly a WTF moment.
On this 1982 record, you can hear the band
trying on something more palatable, some-
thing more commercial, less driven
by that crazy guitar, and yet
still laced with their signature political
bent against the power structures and
classism and sexism of the day.
I heard the 1983 follow-up, Hard,
only recently for the first time.
It’s even more polished than
Songs of the Free. Here they’re really digging
into the 80’s electronic funk grooves
and synthesizers and making use
of some hired guns for layered female
background vocals, in fact, the female
background vocalists are the
first voices you hear on this record.
Disappointingly, Sara Lee doesn’t
play bass on every song, and there
is no drum set credit in the liner notes,
which leads me to think that most of
the drums on this record are programmed,
with some additional percussion overdubs
by the guitar player. But these are interesting
songs, far more melodic than any songs
on previous albums, while astonishingly,
nothing quite as hooky as “I Love a Man
in a Uniform.” This is Gang of Four making
their most tuneful, most accessible, most
danceable tunes of the era. I like it,
but as I came to it super late, it’s not
part of my 80’s language, and I have
difficulty seeing how I could come to love
it the way I loved the absolute batshit
songs from the Solid Gold album.
“Cheeseburger.” Anybody? Look it up.
You won’t be sorry.
Notes on the vinyl editions: Songs of the Free, Parlaphone Records, 1982, new pressing on rainbow splattered clear vinyl. Hard, Warner Brothers Records, 1983. This specimen was gifted to me by a friend. It’s a promotional only copy. That stamp says that any unauthorized transfer or sale is prohibited by law. Outlaws, we are.
In case you don’t already know: I’m listening to almost everything in my vinyl collection, A to Z, and writing at least one, sometimes two or three long skinny poem-like-things in response for each artist, and on a few occasions, writing a long skinny poem-like-thing in response to more than one artist. As a poet and a student of poetry, I understand that these things look like poems, but they don’t really sound much like poetry, hence, I call them “poem-like-things.” I’ll admit that they’re just long, skinny essays that veer every now and then into the poetic or lyric.
michael jarmer 