Madness Marxism

[subgenius]

Remember the English ska band Madness? Weren't they great?
I think "Our House" was a metaphor for the kind of universalist, democratic communal love that this world is in desperate need of.
Don't you?

http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/default.asp?oid=369

http://www.themagnificent7.co.uk/

[Shane Costello]

The lyrics for "Our House" are here. (http://www.purelyrics.com/index.php?lyrics=zgkhwrho)

"Father wears his Sunday best
Mother's tired she needs a rest
The kids are playing up downstairs
Sister's sighing in her sleep
Brother's got a date to keep
He can't hang around"

Nuclear family who seem to observe the Christian sabbath. More than one young child, with at least two older children.


"Our house it has a crowd
There's always something happening
And it's usually quite loud
Our mum she's so house-proud
Nothing ever slows her down
And a mess is not allowed"

Mother is "tired" and "needs rest" due to exhausting schedule of housework.

"Father gets up late for work
Mother has to iron his shirt
Then she sends the kids to school
Sees them off with a small kiss
She's the one they're going to miss
In lots of ways"

Mother is stay at home housewife. Father has whitecollar occupation. Songs lack of reference to disharmony arising from financial troubles suggest family enjoys high socio-economic status arising from Father's high powered occupation.

Could Margaret Thatcher have penned these lyrics?

Are "Madness" praising the Tory idyll of stable nuclear family life and owner occupancy?

If they were trying to expound universalist, democratic communal love, why on earth did they choose the metaphor of a single income nuclear family?

[subgenius]

Shane Costello (derivative of Castillo, from the descendents of the Spanish Armada?):
"If they were trying to expound universalist, democratic communal love, why on earth did they choose the metaphor of a single income nuclear family?"

How is this inconsistent?
:confused:
Are you a Madness fan?:D

[subgenius]

Oh yeah, well how bout dis?:


Driving In My Car (Madness)

I've been driving in my car
It's not quite a Jaguar
I bought it in Primrose Hill
From a bloke from Brazil
It was made in '59 ('73-ed.)
In a factory by the Tyne (Po-ed.)

It says Morris (Fiat-ed.) on the door
The GPO owned it before
I drive in it for my job
The Govenor call me a slob
But I don't really care
Give me some gas and the open air

It's a bit old but it's mine
I mend it in my spare time
Just last week I changed the oil
The rocker valves and the coil
Just last week I changed the oil

Last week it went round the clock
I also had a little knock
I dented somebody's fender
He learned not to park on a bender
Ha ha ha!

I've been driving in my car
It don't look much but I've been far
I drive up to Muswell Hill
I've even been to Sel-Seville
I drove along the A45
I had her up to 58

This copper stopped me the other day
You're mistaken what could I say
The tyres were a little worn
They were OK I could have sworn
I like driving in my car
I'm satisfied I've got this far

[Shane Costello]

Originally posted by subgenius:
Shane Costello (derivative of Castillo, from the descendents of the Spanish Armada?):

No, but my descendants gave wholehearted support to the last successful invasion of Britain, being all up for William the Conqueror, before finally ending up in the west of Ireland about 150 years later. Read all about it here (http://members.tripod.com/luceuro/costello.htm) and here. (http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Cliffs/4019/page15.htm)

How is this inconsistent? :confused:

Comrade Lenin wouldn't have agreed with using the metaphor of the stay at home housewife. Take it from some marxists. (http://www.marxists.org/subject/women/authors/lenin/abstracts/19_06_28.htm)


"Notwithstanding all the laws emancipating woman, she continues to be a domestic slave, because petty housework crushes, strangles, stultifies and degrades her, chains her to the kitchen and the nursery, and she wastes her labour on barbarously unproductive, petty, nerve-racking, stultifying and crushing drudgery. The real emancipation of women, real communism, will begin only where and when an all-out struggle begins (led by the proletariat wielding the state power) against this petty housekeeping, or rather when its wholesale transformation into a large-scale socialist economy begins."

edited to add that I realise the link isn't working, but rest assured Lenin really did say this.

[subgenius]

Don't forget Groundhog Day's tomorrow;)

[subgenius]

Here's some free legal downloads of great ska.
Much more fun than worrying about a non-existent commie threat.
Hey you, don't watch that, watch this.:D
http://www.themagnificent7.co.uk/default.html

[BillyTK]

Originally posted by subgenius
Remember the English ska band Madness? Weren't they great?
I think "Our House" was a metaphor for the kind of universalist, democratic communal love that this world is in desperate need of.
Don't you?

http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/default.asp?oid=369

http://www.themagnificent7.co.uk/

I think it works as a metaphor in the way the lyrics are a critique of the drudgery of working class existence and patriarchal oppression (hence, "Mother's tired she needs a rest" because of all the unpaid domestic labour she is required to undertake beause of her gender). But it's also a celebration of working class solidarity in the face of societal oppression, so it's definitely socialist in orientation, if not actually crossing the thin red line ;)

[subgenius]

Originally posted by BillyTK


I think it works as a metaphor in the way the lyrics are a critique of the drudgery of working class existence and patriarchal oppression (hence, "Mother's tired she needs a rest" because of all the unpaid domestic labour she is required to undertake beause of her gender). But it's also a celebration of working class solidarity in the face of societal oppression, so it's definitely socialist in orientation, if not actually crossing the thin red line ;)
And I've learned there is/was a stage production in the UK. Did ya happen to catch it?

[BillyTK]

Originally posted by subgenius

And I've learned there is/was a stage production in the UK. Did ya happen to catch it?

I didn't even know there was one! Well, fancy that! Tho' it was probably staged in the Big Smoke (London) which is too far away and too dangerous for a country boy like me ;)

[Crossbow]

Did the group "Madness" appear on that bizzare British sitcom called "The Young Ones"?

[subgenius]

Originally posted by Crossbow
Did the group "Madness" appear on that bizzare British sitcom called "The Young Ones"?
Don't know, but that sure was one wacky socialist sitcom.

[BillyTK]

Originally posted by Crossbow
Did the group "Madness" appear on that bizzare British sitcom called "The Young Ones"?

Yes they did! but being no' but a nipper at the time, I carnt remember what they sang... "Nightboat to Cairo" (seering indictment of Western policy in the middle east ;) ) I think.

[Br000chie]

Originally posted by Crossbow
Did the group "Madness" appear on that bizzare British sitcom called "The Young Ones"?

Bizarre? That, sir, is an accurate reflection of student life in the UK!;)

It seems Madness appeared in 2 episodes ...

Boring
"Is life really that boring for the four students ? A terrorist siege in their own house; a visitation from Hell; a fairy tale world that flourishes while they are asleep. And yet they are so B-O-R-E-D that Neil is driven to dig himself in a grave and Vyv chops his finger off."

It's an average boring normal day in Studentville - or is it? This features a walk down Abbey Road (in London) to the Kebab and Calculator (in Bristol), the three bears, a red dwarf from Hell called Ftooomch, Vyvyan's mother, and Madness singing House Of Fun. Anyone who was in Studentville will know days like this :)

Music by Madness


Sick
"There's bogeys on the blankets and snot on the sheets when Neil and the others come down with the worst colds in the history of civilisation !"

Neil has a cold, and even Vyvyan's cure of drilling a nail in his head doesn't quite work, which is a pity since it sparks off a street riot. They're also taken hostage by Brian Damage, an escaped murderer. But their troubles are forgotten as the real horror happens - Neil's parents come to tea!! Also features a good parody of The Good Life (aka Good Neighbors in the U.S.), Madness singing Our House and the return of Vyvyan's mother.

Music by Madness