The 500 - #483 - Gang of Four - Entertainment!

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

My plan (amended). 

• 2 1 records per week & at least 2 complete listens.
• A quick blog post for each, highlighting the important details and a quick background story.
• No rating scale - just an effort to expand my appreciation.

Album # 483

Album Title: Entertainment!
Artist: Gang of Four
Released: September, 1979
My age at release: 14
How familiar am I with it: Not at all
Song I am putting on my Spotify Mix: I Found that Essence Rare (With help from Claudio)
Great Lyric:
"Aim for the body rare, you'll see it on TV
The worst thing in 1954 was the bikini
See the girl on the TV dressed in a bikini
She doesn't think so but she's dressed for the H-bomb"

There is a great verse from the band Elbow and their incredible lyricist Guy Garvey in the song Lippy Kids.

"Lippy kids on the corner begin
Settling like crows
Though I never perfected that simian stroll
The Cigarette Senate was everything then"

So much of my high school experience (1979-1985) is encapsulated in that short series of words. My Cigarette Senate fell into the category of a "Rocker clique". We wore concert shirts like a uniform and our parties and headphones rang out with the album oriented, blues influenced hard rocking riffs of bands that included Iron Maiden, Rush, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Judas Priest & Blue Oyster Cult.

I had a peripheral group of friends who were into Post Punk, so it was a genre I knew as casually as I knew them. Some of it crossed over - I really liked The Clash & The Sex Pistols, but I really didn't venture into the world of Siouxsie & the Banshees, Public Image Ltd., Joy Division or this band... Gang of Four. Consequently, I was at a loss for a story when I arrived at this album on the list. In fact, I reached out to my chum Claudio to ask him for his favourite track. He picked a good one!

Listening to Josh's podcast helped a lot. He and his guest Karen Kilgariff really opened up this record for me. I can now hear the through line to so many bands I would later come to love REM, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rage against the Machine & Franz Ferdinand. 

This record grows on you quickly. It is a tremendous listen at the gym and so many of the songs transport me back to the early 80's and a background sound that walked that fine line between inconspicuous and omnipresent.  Kilgariff put it well during the podcast... "these are songs that sound like they were in the background in Pretty in Pink but didn't make the official soundtrack."

I guess that is how I felt about it. These were not on the soundtrack endorsed by my Cigarette Senate but they were certainly in the background. I'm glad this experience has brought them into sharper contrast in 2019.

Things I learned...

• The lyric I chose is actually a reference the Atomic Bomb Tests at the Bikini Atoll (Islands) in 1954. It is juxtaposed against the prevailing attitude about cultural decay when the bikini became a fashion statement.
• The song Guns before Butter track references a macroeconomic model identifying how much a nation's investment in military when compared to domestic goods.
• The band takes their name from a political faction that came to power during the Chinese Cultural Revolution.