Ctrl.Alt.Spotify: Racism

Welcome to the inaugural Ctrl.Alt.Spotify mixtape! This being our first time, it seems fitting to begin by explaining how this is going to work. Firstly, this is all going to make a whole lot more sense if you’re using Spotify. Spotify is a free music player and streaming service available in the UK, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Spain and France. You can download it here [1].

Each week I’m going to be selecting a mixtape based around a certain theme that we’re dealing with here at Ctrl HQ [2]. I'll post up a link to the playlist which you’ll be able to access using Spotify. However, music being a subjective beast there are bound to be things you love that I’ll miss off, forget about or that I’ve just plain never heard of. That’s why they’ll also be a collaborative users version of the playlist that you’ll be able to add tracks to. Don’t forget to leave a comment on the article if you do, telling us why you think your chosen song was worthy of inclusion.

Now, are you all sitting comfortably? Then let’s begin…
 

Click here for the Ctrl.Alt.Spotify: Racism playlist
[3]

Click here for the Collaborate.Alt.Spotify: Racism playlist to add your own favourites
[4]

Racism has been the hot topic of debate in the week that a man appeared on Question Time who wants Muslim women to remove their veils, has supported war on Arab countries and has overseen the building of prison-like detention centres for immigrants [5]. 

But enough about Labour’s Jack Straw, it was the BNP’s Nick Griffin who overtook Jo from S Club as the nation’s favourite celebrity racist and allowed all mainstream politicians to point at him and say ‘Look over there, he’s the real bad guy’ as they continued to sign self-serving policies and their own blank cheques.

Anti-racism has, however, inspired some incredible music. The man pictured above is American folk legend Woody Guthrie whose guitar bore the legend "This machine kills fascists". So do all these songs, so sit back, give Griffin a few slaps [6] and listen up…

Track 1: Public Enemy – Fight The Power

In her recent review of Lil Wayne’s London gig [7], Sian Anderson bemoaned the lack of social awareness on display. I couldn’t help missing the glory days of Public Enemy, whose political wherewithal and lyrical eloquence still puts other rappers to shame. "What we need is awareness, we can't get careless”. Too true, Chuck, too true.

Track 2: Michael Jackson – Black or White

Michael Jackson’s classic anthem about racial equality: "And I told about equality and it's true/ Either you're wrong or you're right/ But, if you're thinkin' about my baby/ It don't matter if you're black or white". Jackson, of course, was one of the all time great anti-racists, as he was both black and white.

Track 3: 2Pac – Changes

A decade after Changes was released we’re finally ready to “see a black president”. But other things never seem to change. When he said “I see no changes, all I see is racist faces/ misplaced hate makes disgrace to races” he could have been watching Question Time.

Track 4: Bob Marley – Buffalo Soldier

Long before politicians started getting overheated about overcrowding, the original ‘economic migration’ was a nasty business. Nobody described slavery better, or more bluntly than Marley: “Stolen from Africa, brought to America/ Fighting on arrival, fighting for survival”

Track 5: James Brown – Say it Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud

Great moments in my imagination: I’m in a club. I’ve spotted Nick Griffin throwing some shapes across the dance floor. He’s having a good time grinding to Vanilla Ice. Then this song comes on. Say it loud…

Track 6: Sam Cooke – A Change Is Gonna Come

This song was written in 1963 after Cooke and his band tried to stay at a motel in Louisiana which turned out to be “whites only”. They were arrested for disturbing the peace. The Obama-inspired Change artwork is a reminder of how far America has come, and how far the likes of the BNP would want us to go back.

Track 7: Black Eyed Peas – Where Is The Love?

Ok, so maybe history won’t judge the Black Eyed Peas quite as kindly as some of the other artists on this mixtape, but I’ll always love them for having a break-through radio hit that compares the CIA to the KKK: “But we still got terrorists here livin'/ In the USA, the big CIA/ The Bloods and The Crips and the KKK”

Track 8: The Ramones – The KKK Took My Baby Away

Speaking of the KKK, as Kieran Yates pointed out in her piece on Question Time, [8]one of Griffin’s many shocking admissions was that he enjoys the company of the white-hooded thugs. This song was actually written by Joey Ramone about his brother Johnny’s ultra-conservative politics, but it captured the continued taboo of mixed-race relationships.

Track 9: Billie Holiday – Strange Fruit

One of the most haunting songs ever written. The ‘Strange Fruit’ Holiday sings about are “Black bodies swingin' in the southern breeze”, the sight accompanied by the “sudden smell of burning flesh”.

Track 10: Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll

For some legal reason we won’t go into here, Bob Dylan songs aren’t on Spotify. Fortunately, this cover of his “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll” is. Hattie Carroll was a black woman working as a barmaid in a Hotel who was assaulted and killed by a white man. What sentence did the man, William Zantzinger, serve? As Dylan tells us sarcastically, he was “handed out strongly, for penalty and repentance” just six-months in a county jail. Dylan’s frustration and anger is evident, as he tells us to “Bury the rag deep in your face/ For now's the time for your tears.”

Track 11: The Temptations – Message From A Black Man

“The laws of society were made for both you and me / because of my color I struggle to be free.” The song references James Brown’s ‘Say it Loud’, and the “No matter how hard you try, you can’t stop me now” refrain was lifted by Rage Against The Machine for their cover of Afrika Bambaata’s ‘Renegades of Funk’. (Ctrl.Alt.Shift caught up with Afrika himself [9] back in March)

Track 12: Randy Newman – Short People

Racism is just pretty absurd. Why use skin colour as a reason to hate someone else? You may as well choose something as arbitrary as height. This is the tongue-in-cheek thinking which led Randy Newman to pen this satire on racism: “Short people got no reason to live.”

Bonus Track: Bob Dylan – Hurricane

As I can’t put any Dylan on the Spotify mixtape, here’s a treat from the Youtube vaults. It’s another true life tale of racism as Rubin Carter has a murder pinned on him by crooked cops. “The D.A. said he was the one who did the deed/ And the all-white jury agreed.” His story was further immortalised by Denzel Washington in ‘The Hurricane’.

Not the Bonus Track: Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder - Ebony and fucking Ivory. Utterly saccharine crap. Is this song actually worse than racism? Probably not. But it’s close.

Words: Kevin E.G. Perry
Pictures: Notes and Fragments blog, Sam Cooke's 'Change'