Public Carmodism

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Discussion on the tournament thread about GHOST TOWNE by the Specials - is this the biggest example of Carmodism being generally accepted and written into the executive summary of rock history?

(Definition of Carmodism for the 99% of you who won't know what I'm on about: the belief that the state of the charts reflects the state of the nation, or at least the belief that it makes for more interesting analysis to pretend it does. From Robin Carmody, cultural critic and high practitioner of the art.)

Comments

There's A Riot Goin' On

[koganbot]

In the early '70s there was a sudden surge of socially conscious black music, aligned with funk... and reflecting what in particular? The previous 400 years of history? Sly Stone had produced Bobby Freeman's dance-pop "Come On And Swim" in the mid '60s and the Great Society's original version of "Somebody To Love" in 1966, which hit in the Jefferson Airplane's version in spring 1967, foreshadowing the Newark and Detroit riots (just kidding; but the song is at least as punk as it is hippie - "When the truth is found to be lies/And all the joy within you dies" - given that the hippie freaks were more punk than hippie, a lot of them). "There's A Riot Goin' On" was 1971.