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The Boomtown Rats
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keith a
keith a
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Re: The Boomtown Rats
Mar 31, 2012, 12:12
I might be missing some point here, but I've never thought of it as right wing.

I haven't heard the album in ages, but it's the opening, title track that stood out. I always liked that one a lot. But lyrically, whilst there's a line about what would happen if the Russians came (we'd beat bongo drums apparently!) I'm not convinced that cynicism with the left makes it makes it right wing. And that's before we even get to irony.

I've just flicked through the lyrics and yes, One To One makes reference to a female who is vegetarian and attends demonstrations. What he's saying he agrees with the woman, he just doesn't want to wear the badge. And he just wants to spend time with her - one to one. Surely that says more about how selfish we are when we're in love than being anti- any of the causes. I totally get that.

The most political track though seems to be Battleground, which has a go at the type of white folk who want to be black, dancing to a band who aren't very good but they're black. 'Rock Against Racism rules tonight', he says, but then goes onto say what is happening in the real world. And the fighting continues...

And it's dedicated to Linton Kwesi Johnson. Personally I don't think he's being ironic there, but I stand to be corrected.

Anyway, its a tricky subject for sure and I'm not totally sure he carries it off TBH, but he wasn't the only person to think that RAR back then was too worthy, no matter how good their intentions were.
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