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CMU Playlists
Playlist: Gang Of Four
By CMU Editorial | Published on Friday 21 January 2011
Formed in 1977, Gang Of Four released their debut single, ‘Damaged Goods’ the following year. Their first album, ‘Entertainment!’, was released by EMI in 1979, but the band lost the label’s support after the BBC banned lead single ‘At Home He’s A Tourist’ for referring to “rubbers”.
Moving to Warner Bros, the band recorded three albums in the 80s before splitting. Frontman Jon King and guitarist Andy Gill reunited in 1991 to record ‘Mall’ for Polydor and then ‘Shrinkwrapped’ for Castle before the project petered out once again.
Already championed by the likes of REM, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Nirvana, there was renewed interest in the band in the early 21st century as new acts like Franz Ferdinand, Bloc Party and The Young Knives (the latter of whom recorded with Gill) cited Gang Of Four as a major influence. This prompted the band’s original line-up – King and Gill plus bassist Dave Allen and drummer Hugo Burnham – to reform in 2004 for a world tour and a compilation of re-recorded and remixed versions of some of their songs.
Although Allen and Burnham have since bowed out again, Jon King and Andy Gill have written and recorded their first new album for sixteen years, entitled ‘Content’, which will be released though Groenland on 24 Jan. Ahead of the release, we asked Jon King to put together a Powers Of Ten playlist for us.
JON KING’S TEN
Click here to listen to Jon’s playlist in Spotify, and then read on to find out more about his selections.
01 Robert Johnson – Cross Road Blues
The man at the root of it all, who sold his soul to the Devil in exchange for a life without boundaries. An incredible musician, with an irresistible lure for women, who was murdered by a cuckolded husband in a bar brawl, the way we’d all like to go.
02 Muddy Waters – Mannish Boy
Muddy made the Delta electric, and the Voodoo promise of Robert Johnson became a man’s sense of his own worth in a world where he was told he was shit by the forces of evil.
03 The Jimi Hendrix Experience – Voodoo Child (Slight Return)
I listen to this song all the time, Jimi saying it all through the strings, where the improvisation takes you higher and higher to a transcendent place where every moment is a blessing and the villains and criminals and straights who poison our worlds are struck down and everything is possible.
04 The Jimmy Castor Bunch – Troglodyte (Cave Man)
The kind of music that Brian Eno told David Byrne to listen to, copy and then sing over in his wonderfully squeaky way. Get with this take on Palaeolithic man’s struggle to be the fittest.
05 Aretha Franklin – I Say A Little Prayer
One of the greatest pop songs ever, a hymn to being in love and alive and hopeful. Every moment is a gift; we are touched by perfection of Aretha’s voice and the unmatchable music and words of Burt Bacharach and Hal David.
06 Dr Feelgood – Roxette
Canvey Island’s greatest, and one of our greatest inspirations. I loved everything about them, saw them many times, every show a joy; Wilco Jonson shooting about the stage in maniacal amphetamine bursts, chopping a staccato world from his guitar as the late, great, Lee Brilleaux sweated and stomped his way through an alcohol-fuelled brilliance.
07 Plan B – Stay Too Long
A monster guitar riff, a Smokie homage, a Stax-sized groove and on it Brit-style story of what goes wrong if you hang around when a welcome’s worn out; a brilliant punk rock/hip-hop/motor-town mash-up. Superb.
08 The Slits – I Heard It Through The Grapevine
We once shared an office with The Pop Group and The Slits. We played a bunch of triple billed shows with The Buzzcocks and The Slits. The sadly recently departed Ari Up, a true original fronted the band, always a treat, always an experience.
09 The Ting Tings – That’s Not My Name
This and its sister track ‘Shut Up And Let Me Go’ promised the world, but the palette was maybe too tight to deliver long-term on such a majestically poptastic scale. A real treasure of estuary-flavoured rockism.
10 Joni Mitchell – Blue
This song is a special lyrical treat, brought to life with Joni Mitchell’s eccentric phrasing and vocal swoops.
