Caught Stealing?
Do a runner
Imagine it is 1979 and you have heard about The Slits because ZigZag is your favorite English music zine. Imagine your head exploding when you realize their debut record’s pedigree is greater than the shock value of the album cover featuring them bare-breasted and covered in mud.
The Slits’ debut album, CUT (produced by Dennis Bovell aka Blackbeard, who also produced Linton Kwesi Johnson’s solo debut, FORCES OF VICTORY that was released around the same time) was a defining recording of what is now called “post-punk” - especially if you were trying to explain to your local (as in “American”) friends the fluidity between punk and reggae that you experienced during your visits to London over the previous three years. Dennis Bovell was one of the essential links between the two - the London punk artists and the West Indian dub artists.
LKJ’s album is easily right up there as one of the most important reggae records ever. Combining sultry reggae rhythms with the urgency of punk’s messaging, his intense poetry on the subject matter that impacted the creative communities that birthed each genre was a manifesto you could skank to. That poetry is just as relevant today.
The sounds and the themes of CUT accurately reflected the sounds and the themes of the indie/DIY London culture I observed and walked through (even though I was advised not to walk to the Ladbroke Grove tube station — what do you think I did? Walked right into the very neighborhood where the Notting Hill Carnival Riot took place - and it remains one of my fave London neighborhoods to this day).
In the half-century since punk rock picked up the protest mantle of Woody Guthrie-influenced singers and songwriters, its style and fashion have eclipsed the poetry in many ways. In my day - the mid 1970s - the politics of so-called fiscally conservative America AND England were not addressing the realities of poverty, unemployment, police brutality, gender and racial rights and equality… (plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose !). OOPS…
(I posted this version because I was there! The US Festival in California - an absolute clusterfuck, but…. THE CLASH!)
Culture responded with protest music again - punk rock.
The golden age of punk may have peaked with The Clash reminding us to “Know Your Rights,” but in the beginning, artists were describing the day to day, helping build the momentum of a movement by SEEING people where they were.
Justified larceny for food is an ages-old theme that repeats itself - from Victor Hugo’s 19th Century epic novel Les Miserables and its anti hero Jean Valjean - imprisoned for stealing a loaf of bread for his starving family - to the late 20th Century post punk band Jane’s Addiction’s 1990 hit song “Been Caught Stealing.”
In 1979, The Slits mischievously sang about “doing a runner” in “Shoplifting.”
On this Friday night, I will leave you with the suggestion to follow Kris Needs - the issue of ZigZag referenced above is the first issue he edited and it was the band’s first cover story. Prior to Kris taking over the Editor position, it was more of a general music magazine, edited by the legendary Pete Frame, whose Rock Family Trees continue to be a researcher’s and completist’s delight.
Thank you, Theresa. That really means a lot (and great piece!)
The Slit’s album Cut has always been one of my favorites. Played some songs off it just this week.
“Typical Girls” was kinda a theme song for my friend and me. I was excited to see them in LA. My friend had to cancel but my client that day volunteered her boyfriend to drive me from the salon in Newport Beach. He’d never heard of them and we hadn’t met. I wanted someone to drive my car.
When we got to the show, I think at the Vex in LA, the Slits walked on stage. They did a couple of songs. Ari took her shoes off to dance. Left them on the back of the stage. Someone took them in no time. She said they weren’t going to play until they were returned. No one did.
That was so disappointing and I was mad. I Left when they did. Went to the car and finished my bottle. Saw some loud boys walking down the street. Jack Grisham and the rest of TSOL from Long Beach. Jack threw a rock or a brick through the window of a closed store. Guess that was the encore.