the UK home for americana music
Our political take on the week’s news with an accompanying Americana song
This week we have been remembering the Chicago Race Riots of 1919 which occurred over a period of several days starting on 27th July. The event was part of a wider summer of unrest in the USA generally known as “The Red Summer”. Continue reading “Pick of the Political Pops: Wilco “Via Chicago””
This week we have been pondering the Spanish Civil War which broke out in July 1936. It was and, for political historians, remains a fascinating conflict the complexities of which present a head-scratching challenge to the best of us. Essentially at its core it’s a good old story of the fight between right and left (we say ‘good’ but somewhere between 500,000 and 1,000,000 souls perished so not that good). Continue reading “Pick of the Political Pops: Pete Seeger “Freiheit””
This week we found ourselves at something of a loss as to what to vent our spleens on what with everything going swimmingly and everybody being happy. We did think about marking the 35th anniversary of Live Aid but we remember very little of the 1980s and in any case world poverty and starvation are still a thing so that kind of didn’t work. We also thought about marking the 40th anniversary of Concord or Concorde but couldn’t agree on the English or French spelling and were also mindful of the carbon footprint issue so that was out. Continue reading “Pick of the Political Pops: Graham Parker “Under The Mask Of Happiness””
We had a quick straw poll amongst the residents of Americana-UK Towers and pretty much to a man and woman we decided that this was the crappiest zombie apocalypse that we have ever lived through. We didn’t get to break out the AK-47s and go on a zombie slaughterfest. We didn’t get to loot the local Cooperative Stores mini-market for its plentiful stock of artisan gin and Green Shield stamps. We didn’t even get to strike up unlikely relationships with the same/opposite sex, bound together by a desperate need for survival, companionship and consensual (if desperate) sex. Continue reading “Pick of the Political Pops: Sturgill Simpson “The Promise””
This week we were somewhat concerned that local rag – The People’s Republic of Liverpudlia’s Armageddon Times and Advertiser – ran a piece which was clearly in contravention of The People’s Republic’s Declaration on Inhuman Rights. Local law enforcement giant Bobby Bob was interviewed about how he had taken his local authority issued bike on a cycling holiday around a neighbouring republic and whilst there had afforded himself the opportunity to observe the local law enforcement’s methods of subduing the nasty, unwashed miscreants that litter their society. Continue reading “Pick of the Political Pops: Smog “The Morning Paper””
Here in the People’s Republic of Liverpudlia we very much value our autonomous status even though through tradition and, er, the law we closely follow our sister republics on our island(s) home. It has been no different whilst the pesky Severe Acute Respiratory System Coronavirus 2 thing has been keeping us all occupied. Like every other part of our commonwealth of nations we have been issuing regular press updates and, given the momentous events of the past few days, we felt compelled to chip in our tuppence ha’penny. Continue reading “Pick of the Political Pops: Nicolai Dunger “Lost In Freedom””
There has been much talk, and indeed action, of late regarding an improving cultural awareness of the plight/circumstances/experience of certain members of our communities. This is very good and something the residents of Americana-UK Towers would support wholeheartedly. Now given the demographic of those residents its probably not something that most would have direct lived experience of. Couple that with the fact that many are not able to take the knee (since they would have difficulty resuming a standing position) and that we don’t really do statues (except for that nice one of The Editor in the entrance hall) we are still able to express our solidarity with our BAME brothers and sisters (an odd epithet which we’re not sure flies in, y’know, Africa or Asia). In that regard we take a brief look at an inspirational figure to people of all communities. Continue reading “Pick of the Political Pops: Fleetwood Mac “Oh Diane””
Down here in The People’s Republic of Liverpudlia we are a fairly peaceful lot. At Americana-UK Towers we employ our own security staff but down in the village and the surrounding hamlets matters of policing the populace fall to the local constable handily named… err… Bob. Continue reading “Pick of the Political Pops: Iron and Wine “Love Vigilantes””
The pejorative term ‘Fascist’ has been bandied about a lot recently particularly in the direction of certain people and their governments. This week we thought we’d take a little look at what the word means. Historically the word is derived from the Latin ‘fasces’ which was a bundle of sticks around an axe and was a symbol of authority in Ancient Rome. The symbol was co-opted by Mussolini who formed the Fascio Di Combattimento group in the early 20th century and it is from here that we derive the word as we know it now. Other notable fascist regimes include Hitler’s Germany, Franco’s Spain and Peron’s Argentina. Continue reading “Pick of the Political Pops: Bob Dylan “Only a Pawn In Their Game””
We are all good at Americana-UK Towers. The weather has been nice, none of the writers have (recently) slaughtered each other during the night in our communal dormitory and we discovered that our favourite chi-chi little delicatessen is resuming doorstep delivery of our go-to late-night snack of jalapeno flavoured houmous (with a special offer of a free sun-dried tomato side dish drenched in toad urine and tossed in a bag of hand sanitiser). For a very reasonable twenty quid extra Stefanatiti, the Ukrainian-Columbian delivery driver, will even wear full PPE when he drops it off. Continue reading “Pick of the Political Pops: Robbie Robertson “Breaking The Rules””