I have always enjoyed the push and pull of this song's rhythmic structure. The bass part gets lodged into my head often, and I came onto this site for the lyrics before searching elsewhere for more details on the track. I found a great article here that shares Jon King's insights on this song along with the rest of the Entertainment LP.
"There’d been a report published in the mid 70’s that found the British Government guilty of torturing IRA suspects. They used to, among a smorgasbord of cruelties, make suspects stand up for hours in hoods while white noise was played at gross volumes to break their will. The Americans, years later, tweaked this format by playing hard rock to the holed up General Noriega in Panama until he surrendered. As US Sergeant Mark Hadsell said at the time: 'These people haven't heard heavy metal. They can't take it. If you play it for 24 hours, your brain and body functions start to slide, your train of thought slows down and your will is broken. That's when we come in and talk to them.' Yeah, dude.
Whatever, the report on what was being done in our name was shameful; reported back to us on TV, alongside some other world atrocity, while we were enjoying ourselves, unwinding at the end of the day, getting ready for fun and games. So the notion was for 2 voices, telling scripted parallel stories. One voice, the one who’s living his fine life, says 'Locked in heaven’s lifestyle' while the other, at the same time, says 'locked in Long Kesh' (the prison for IRA & UDF members in Northern Ireland). Etc. You get the picture. This one does this as the other does that. The run out chant 'There may be oil in Rockall!', was based on our paranoid notion that the reason the British annexed, in 1955, an ugly & tiny rock in the deep Atlantic was less about stopping the Russians spy on NATO missile tests than the fact there might be oil about to pillage. And it came to pass! In 2007 the Brits announced a claim to vast swathes of the Atlantic for 350 miles around the rock! The first example of eco-colonialism!"
I have always enjoyed the push and pull of this song's rhythmic structure. The bass part gets lodged into my head often, and I came onto this site for the lyrics before searching elsewhere for more details on the track. I found a great article here that shares Jon King's insights on this song along with the rest of the Entertainment LP.
http://www.clashmusic.com/feature/gang-of-four-track-by-track
"There’d been a report published in the mid 70’s that found the British Government guilty of torturing IRA suspects. They used to, among a smorgasbord of cruelties, make suspects stand up for hours in hoods while white noise was played at gross volumes to break their will. The Americans, years later, tweaked this format by playing hard rock to the holed up General Noriega in Panama until he surrendered. As US Sergeant Mark Hadsell said at the time: 'These people haven't heard heavy metal. They can't take it. If you play it for 24 hours, your brain and body functions start to slide, your train of thought slows down and your will is broken. That's when we come in and talk to them.' Yeah, dude.
Whatever, the report on what was being done in our name was shameful; reported back to us on TV, alongside some other world atrocity, while we were enjoying ourselves, unwinding at the end of the day, getting ready for fun and games. So the notion was for 2 voices, telling scripted parallel stories. One voice, the one who’s living his fine life, says 'Locked in heaven’s lifestyle' while the other, at the same time, says 'locked in Long Kesh' (the prison for IRA & UDF members in Northern Ireland). Etc. You get the picture. This one does this as the other does that. The run out chant 'There may be oil in Rockall!', was based on our paranoid notion that the reason the British annexed, in 1955, an ugly & tiny rock in the deep Atlantic was less about stopping the Russians spy on NATO missile tests than the fact there might be oil about to pillage. And it came to pass! In 2007 the Brits announced a claim to vast swathes of the Atlantic for 350 miles around the rock! The first example of eco-colonialism!"