Another band that rocked my world many moons to the south is Gang of Four. I was a freshman in college when their debut album, Entertainment!, burst into my consciousness. The Gang were a post punk minimalist band that surfaced in 1979. Nobody sounded like them in my opinion, though they might have taken their cues from bands like Wire and Television (if you don't have a copy of Marquee Moon by now just take yourself out back and shoot yourself...you completely missed the boat). The first song I ever heard by them was Damaged Goods and it was like I broke down another musical wall in my tiny world. As has been discussed on this site in the past, I was a classic rocker when I came north to Boston. I was too young to be weened on CBGB's, The Bottom Line and Max's Kansas City. It is with great regret that I tell you I never step foot in any of these legendary clubs. I lived about an hour west of NYC in rural NJ and it was like night and day with metropolitan cities. I had no real desire to return once I got a taste of city life. Today I live about eight miles outside of Boston and sometimes it feels like much further when I feel like knocking back a few. The difference between $20 and $30 cab rides adds up over time. The reason I tell you this is because I only saw my heroes from the New York scene a paltry number of times. I saw Patti Smith maybe twice. Never saw Television. Never saw Blondie. Saw Lou Reed once. Saw The Ramones once. Saw Talking Heads once. Pretty sad for a guy with somewhere in the neighborhood of 700 concerts under this belt. Regarding Gang of Four, I've never seen them either and that's a real shame. I can imagine their concerts being electric. I'm not much of a dancer, but I can see myself Shakin' All Over to Gang of Four. I have a lot of trouble differentiating between Damaged Goods, I Found That Essence Rare, What We All Want, At Home He's a Tourist, Return The Gift, Anthrax, I Love a Man in a Uniform and a couple of other Gang of Four tracks. They all rock...hard. This band was tremendously influential and rightfully so. I love reaching back and playing these cuts at eleven when the mood strikes. Originally from Leeds in the UK, Gang of Four took a quasi political stance by naming themselves after a leftist faction of four members of the Chinese Communist Party who were eventually charged with treasonous acts in the 1970's. Allegedly someone in the band The Mekons suggested the name when driving around with eventual Gang of Four members Andy Gill and Jon King. Their song "I Love a Man in a Uniform" was banned in the UK during the Falklands conflict. Regardless of all these fun facts Gang of Four came and went very quickly. They had a couple of later year releases that didn't sell very well, but their sweet spot was between 1979 and 1983. I'm leaving you with "I Found That Essence Rare" today. I've always been a massive fan of this song and hopefully you'll dump it onto your iPod and think of The Giant Panther fondly. Don't forget to leave me some comments!
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