Yea. I Spotify tubthumping next song I got was about how the nazis never went away, the son after that was about how homophobia sucks. Yea they’re pretty good :)
I remember being sat in a pub in Nottingham UK about 1991 and a large group of of punks walked in (nice friendly group actually). The landlord smiled and put a Sex Pistols song on for them. The punks kicked off, told the landlord to 'get that shit off' and asked him to play some Chumbawamba instead. This was years before Tubthumping.
There's a really funny story about Queen meeting the Sex Pistols. Sid Vicious tried to get all up in Freddie Mercury's face saying Queen were pretentious. Freddie was like, oh my god, you're Simon Ferocious and Sid tried to fight him.
I met them in the early 90s. Long story short, I went to dinner and then made out with one of them at a funk night in a tiny club. They were all pretty cool people. So few normal people have any idea who they really are.
Even their "sellout album" has songs that address homelessness, merciless landlords, slut-shaming, homophobia, etc. Chumbawamba was always punk they just didn't always keep the typical æsthetic.
That shift was intentional. The selling out was orchestrated to get more money to spend on activism and fund anarchist orgs and projects. They're brilliant. They did the actual thing most anarchists talk about by not only monkey wrenching the system but also siphoned millions of dollars away from the wealthy and I to the needs of the poor. Inspiring people.
Tubthumper is the album that, more than any other, exposed little kid me to leftist thinking and had an outsized influence on my political interests growing up.
@@RobertJWI remember wanting to be unique, and trying to resist left wing politics that were sort of the default in the punk and goth groups that were in my city. Chumbawamba happened to be my favorite band, and I couldn't resist the sensibility of what they said, and as I explored their back catalog I got away from wanting to be unique by leaning right. I'm a giant dork for all that, but I can't help but appreciate them for helping to make me see what a dork I was being
I was in school with Harry Hamer (Chumbas drummer) a couple of years below. Him and his mate were the only 2 punks in school. They were both good to me when a lot of other kids weren't. They'd often come and sit with me at lunchtime and were good lads - think they'd cottoned on to the fact that I had a broader musical horizon than most of the other kids in our school. Daz (Harry) was already in the Chumbas by this point and selling bootleg tapes of this and that... His mate Paul wasn't allowed to come into school to do his o-levels because he had a mohawk cut in the interim period between classes finishing and exams starting. Paul ended up dating one of my mum's piano pupils and they'd be over at the Armley squat every weekend.
@@barneysumner1417 Everyone with a brain: "Leaving the EU will straight-up destroy the economy, and have ramifications far beyond what most people imagine" You: "god darn bankers telling me to vote remain!" When you voted according to the opinions of the fucking Conservative party, consisting of Oxbridge cunts and Victorian-era millionaire ghouls, any attempt to sling around the label "elite" holds about as much value as a twice-divorced serial cheater accusing his opponents of destroying family values.
Kinda a 'Devil's advocate' here: Lydon has said a lot of things and sometimes he can't quite clearly explain what he really means (excessive alcohol consumption is playing a great role in my view... he could never be Lemmy!); he surely is a freethinker (sadly and paradoxically, a very flawed one in the last years) that called himself a "natural-born anarchist" in that sense and I understand his solidarity with many of those who voted for the six-times-gone-bankrupt orangey mσrση and 'Brexit' (lots of people ostracized and abandoned in the practice by traditional politicians with their vacuous promises...). He's still right about many issues and, obviously, very wrong about others. 🤷♂
in a era where the left are the establishment being conservative is edgy,its not the 90s anymore it aint evangelical boomers trying to censor stuff its the left and being right wing is now punk,you may not like this,you may type ITS NAWT TRUUU you may cry,screech into your pillow but its the truth and you need to accept its not 1991 no more.
The Pistols were a short, sharp shock in a dull, monochrome London. Chumbawamba come from a long tradition of North English folk and socialist protest singers. Both were punk whereas Chumbawamba had an agenda and an intelligence behind their agenda the Pistols just set out to disrupt. Which they did brilliantly as I remember from the perspective of a London school boy of the time.
Intelligence -but also honesty and integrity- (besides others) is, in absolute contrast, what the poor mσrσηις 'woke' people totally lack... Even their agenda is greatly questionable. I don't agree with Chumbawamba and C.R.A.S.S. about many things but I adore and respect them as artists and individuals (except maybe for Pete Wright and his threat of legal action previous to the release of The Crassical Collection).
Also as an additional comment as I just got a little further in the vid. With regards to the Chumbawumba "prank" - I don't know if it translates in Canada but "I'm thick" means, very literally, "I'm stupid" in the UK. If you call someone thick you're calling them a moron. Especially used in Northern England and they were formed in Burnley so I could see it being a big thing there.
Lol I definitely should have figured it out. My best guess was they were saying their skin was thick or something, their band being called "Skin Disease." I'm the thick one now!
I would love to see more punk as a leftist topic. Punk and leftism has a long history. With bands like the clash, angelic upstarts, dead Kennedy's. Plus the anarcho punk is an interesting topic to look into.
The final evolution of the "right" is anarchism. The final evolution of "leftism" is communism. Socialism is just communism lite, and the Dead Kennedy's were NOT fans of communism. See Holiday in Cambodia.
One of my favourite possessions in my 20s was a Sex Pistol's branded credit card from my bank. Because nothing says 'punk' like a credit card with 20% APR.
Miles Davis was a fan of John Lydon, though most likely more for PIl than the pistols, there was a time when Lydon wasn't so much of a twat and was mostly on the right side of things
Also they chanted "Free Mumia abu Jamal" when performing Tubthumping on Letterman. Props to Dave for not having it edited out. The clip can be viewed on TH-cam.
I liked the "I'm Thick" prank. "Thick" means "stupid in this instance, so they made enough of a banger that it got on a compilation album, and probably had people chanting along with them. Imagine a group of them belting out "I'm thick" and not catching it because it bops. I've got to catch up on Chumbawamba now.
@@ChillGoblin kinda yeah, he can easily be read like a libertarian, but given some thought his ideas basically promote an-com stances just as much if not more.
I don't think, in this otherwise great analysis, that you lent enough credence to the most punk thing is all: not being able to play your instrument. While both bands share a common origin in this regard, I assume that Chumbawumba did eventually learn how to play at some point, whereas that clearly was not the case with the Sex Pistols. Really though, I can't believe you only have the 3 videos so far, because you're knocking them out of the park, although the volume was a little low on this one. I hope your channel blows up!
Absolute shite, Matlock, Jones and Cook were all good musicians that went on to have lucrative careers in music after the Pistols, and Lydon was an awesome frontman. You lot are just clueless.
Sick video dude, The remix of Anarchy in the UK could legit be a Crass song. Seeing as you mentioned Oi I think it's worth saying that while a shit ton of them were fash and the ones that weren't didn't openly condemn it, Roddy Moreno of the Oppressed did bring anti-fascism into the genre, and there are today a number of badass leftist Oi bands. And for my last point Jesus Christ were Chumbawumba right about New Labour.
I think the "I'm thick" song was a burn to the Nazis bc thick is slang for dumb or stupid in the UK. So in that context, it's pretty funny to think of neo Nazi punks jamming out to a song repeatedly saying "I'm dumb" over and over again.
To understand Anarchy in the UK I think it's also important to keep in mind that Rotten was a 19 yo high school drop out with a really tough upbringing (during which he faced, to mention only a few things, poverty, anti-Irish bigotry, disease and unstable family conditions) when he wrote it. Of course he lacked the theoretical framework to write anything resembling a cohesive political vision. The reason why I think it's a really good song nevertheless is because it encapsulates punk's real political potential, which to me has always been the complete rejection of respectibility politics. The Sex Pistols, especially Vicious and Jones, were basically just a bunch of kids from severely troubles backgrounds that really nobody cared about. They didn't need to read philosophy books to know that the political system in Britain was thoroughly fucked. Plus, in Jones' cases he literally couldn't even have done so as the combination of a classist and an ableist educational system had rendered him functionally illiterate until his 40s. I think you're spot on in your suspicion that the song is about shock value more than anything else, but I don't think that's really a bad thing, because it was only shocking to people who deserved to be made as uncomfortable as possible. None of the folks who were scandalized by the Pistols in 76 would have listened to a bunch of uneducated working class boys' opinions on politics without that level of provocation. The fact that they succeeded to create this kind of publicity by being as obnoxious as possible is still unbelievably impressive to me. Expecting them to also then also offer comprehensive solutions to the issues they were making visible by essentially just being there and looking like that feels a bit unfair to me, and it's also not really what I think they set out to do. The real shame to me is that nobody who would have actually had the privilege of receiving the kind of education that would be necessary to do exactly that succeeded in utilizing this moment of public outrage to steer the conversation into a more productive direction. It would have been a great opportunity for actual anarchists to say "if you want to understand why these guys are so aggro, look at where they come from and ask yourself if your really think this is fair" and then go from there. I'm sure that some people probably attempted to do that, but the mere fact that I actually know about no one in particular shows that they didn't do a good job.
Chumbawamba won't stop you using their music, I think it'd be alright even with the YT bots to include actual music from them. Apart from that - subbed and belled! Learnt a lot about how bad the sex pistols are, love Chumbawamba though
Easy! I decided not to include that because I didn’t know that until right now. Damn, would have been cool to include: “The Boy Bands Have Won, and All the Copyists and the Tribute Bands and the TV Talent Show Producers Have Won, If We Allow Our Culture to Be Shaped by Mimicry, Whether from Lack of Ideas or from Exaggerated Respect. You Should Never Try to Freeze Culture. What You Can Do Is Recycle That Culture. Take Your Older Brother's Hand-Me-Down Jacket and Re-Style It, Re-Fashion It to the Point Where It Becomes Your Own. But Don't Just Regurgitate Creative History, or Hold Art and Music and Literature as Fixed, Untouchable and Kept Under Glass. The People Who Try to 'Guard' Any Particular Form of Music Are, Like the Copyists and Manufactured Bands, Doing It the Worst Disservice, Because the Only Thing That You Can Do to Music That Will Damage It Is Not Change It, Not Make It Your Own. Because Then It Dies, Then It's Over, Then It's Done, and the Boy Bands Have Won”
I never liked the Sex Pistols. Never looked into their origins but I’m not surprised it was mostly publicity. Interesting bio of Chumba Wumba. Engaging presentation all around. Thanks.
In my experience as an 80s suburban teen punk, it was the ones who most looked the part with expensive leathers and elaborate haircuts who went on to join the military, become cops, or at least get straight jobs. And yet it was the more ideological kids in the scene who got labeled posers when the couldn’t afford or simply refused to dress the part.
You managed to nearly reflect my exact thoughts on the Sex Pistols' music before I even knew about their origins. I thought I was missing something, because they are so highly praised but their lyrics seem to me like a bunch of punk vocabulary chucked into a blender. This word smoothie certainly sounds like punk, and it's very fun to sing along to, but it doesn't have very much substance.
I was familiar with what the content of this video would be before I watched it - but I was still delighted to see it being covered on TH-cam since I've only really heard it talked about on podcasts. 🖤
came here because some people recommended you in the comment section of a Jordan Theresa's video.... a very long phrase just to say HOLY SHIT, I DID NOT KNOW THAT, thank you
Excellent video!!! I've always seen the sex pistols more like a shock rock band (with a little political vein) than a punk band. Before the pistols McLaren was the manager of the New York Dolls (one of my favourite bands of that era) and he used to make them wore red suits with swastikas (communist nazis xD) to shock the audience. That experience with the Dolls didn't work and it caused a lot of trouble to the band (the Dolls were a difficult band to work and they were into heroin) but it was like an experiment to McLaren before the Pistols.
Yeah! Apparently McLaren begged the dolls to let him manage them because he saw how big the punk movement was getting, and when that one failed he formed Sex Pistols from scratch. Say what you will about the guy (seriously, go off) but he did have a good eye for marketability
@@ChillGoblin yeah I agree completely with that. The Pistols even had a diss track to the Dolls (New York) Apparently Malcolm had bad memories of that experience. In my opinion even the New York Dolls/Johnny Thunders were a lot more punk than the Pistols. Hey your videos are awesome, it would be great one about the Clash, in my opinion one of the most political compromised mainstream bands.
I don't need to watch this video to tell you that chumbawumba are the embodiment of punk. Along with conflict, crass & the subhumans/culture shock. The sex pistols were a pop band
I'm always amazed when this is news to so many people and it makes them mad. The Pistols were boy band ffs. Chumbawumba were proper punks. Anarchisty, anti-fascist folk punk icons. Every festy worthy of the name saw them on its stages for two decades. They still get together for occasional reunion pub gigs and they still kick arse.
I always liked their Amnesia song before I even knew much about Chumbawamba as a band and a group. It came out at a time when I was actually experiencing long term memory loss due to a bad medication so i found it hilarious and relatable. It is also one of the few things I remember from that time, ironically. I didn't know who wrote the song until I met a guy called Seb who squatted with them in Bristol. He told me I should listen to them as I would like them and I did. He also had tea with Alan Moore one time, but got thrown out as he spilt tea on Alan Moore's books. I'm not sure how true these stories he told were, but I like them anyway.
@@ChillGoblin He was. He had a lot of problems though so he's no longer in this plane of existence. I like to think of it as he left his changeling body and went back to the dreaming to be a fully integrated fae being.
Your content is truly amazing. You use such a simple premise to educated us on the topic and slip leftist messaging to centrists. As you say, its definitely [not] just an excuse to talk about anarchy. But please raise the volume. I don't know if it's just a problem on my end, but I always have to raise my volume to around 90% just to hear you.
I loved this! I listened to a lot of punk while working on my relationship anarchy video and didn't know until then how actually commercial the Sex Pistols were. Great video!
squatting was not illegal when chumbas had thesquat ,it only became illegal to squat residential properties later , prior there was squatters rights squatting is a sensible solution to housing , at present im in the uk we have 250,000 homeless , we have 750,000 empty properties , squat the lot
If it helps 'thick' means stupid so the nazi's were jamming out and relating to a song saying 'I'm stupid'. Loved the video btw! Not seen youtube talking about anarchism a lot x
Wow I was expecting an ironic shit post but this turned about to be wayyyy more informative than I was expecting! Thank you for making it. I knew there was something fishy abut the sex pistols but I had no idea how bad it actually was 😱 keep up the good work man you're really talented! And again, I'm always open for a collab, after all what's more punk than signal boosting other small anarchist creators? 😉👌 I wouldn't have found you if it weren't for the boost from your boy Life in Hell after all, keep up the good work, man lovin' it!
According to the book “Please Kill Me”, a collection of memoirs from notable figures in punk from its inception to the early days of its popularity, the Sex Pistols were a bunch of poseurs who didn’t even listen to punk rock outside of their own music and had never even tried hard drugs until after they’d gotten famous. They were pretty much a corporate band, meaning that their inception was in no way organic. The concept for the band was imagined by Malcolm Mclaren and all the members auditioned for their parts at the HQ of a major record label. This was a very uncommon practice for punk bands at the time.
I always felt like I was the only one who delved deeper than Tubthumping. I enjoyed Chumbawamba album all the tracks were wicked I liked the sampling of TV and films in between the tracks. I looked back and bought their albums and singles from when the formed in the early 80s. I lost interest when they turned into a folk band as that wasn't my thing but the band was awesome! They didn't give a shit about anything and that why I love it.
I actually learned about the awesomeness of cumbawumba years ago on the short lived podcast 'surprisingly awesome' where I also learned about the awesomeness of broccoli and concrete
@@ChillGoblin It wasn't subtle. Of course you are one of those losers. I bet you also think that Ben Shapiro is an altrighter, not a neocon zionist. As if you knew the difference between the two.
You need to be making more punk content. The jacket is legit my dude! In fairness to Steve jones on the talk show the host was super Pervy to xuisie and the banshees. I lived that Sex Pistols life when I was a dumb ass kid so I can empathize with being a cretin. Chumbawamba was on crass records and that’s pretty damn cool ❤
I love Chumbawamba thanks for highlighting them. I love the songs "Tony Blair", "Her Majesty" and their cover of "Bella Ciao". Your comments about Oi punk were rather reductive. One of the more notable Oi bands the Angelic Upstarts has a fricking song named Anti-Nazi. The problem is the Oi and Skinhead scenes were mimicked by idiot Neo-Nazis and after that, it's all everyone, not in those scenes, saw. Skinheads were originally just working class British kids who were hanging out with Jamaican British Rude Boys and picked up the look in solidarity. So idiot Neo-Nazis stole the skinhead look that originally came from black kids.
I've just discovered your excellent video via a comment on a facebook group where we happen to be railing on Danzig and I felt like you'd enjoy knowing that. Oooooh, Danzig vs. Michael Graves next! Spoiler alert: They both lose
Candye♡Syrup, The Japanese punk idol unit managed by and named after the hair saloon Candye♡Syrup (they can dye your hair in syrup colours). Is more punk than the Sex Pistols
I'm a bit late to the party but man you was spot on. I grew up with the sex pistols which was cool, but finding chumbawumba was almost life changing, they the truth about how life was in the UK (and around the world) which other band just weren't doing. Yes the pistols are fun to hear from time to time chumbawumba ripes them apart. Thanks for posting and for a yank you done OK. Lol.
Good question! You got me thinking... The Joker lines up with the (incorrect) general perception that anarchy is a synonym for chaos and nihilism. Oddly, one of the most famous depiction of the Joker in comics was written by an actual anarchist- Alan Moore’s “The Killing Joke” which was also influential on the writing of the Heath Ledger Joker in The Dark Knight. This Joker fantasizes about a “world without rules” (again, not what actual anarchists want- more a world without rulers), and is summed up by Alfred’s line in the trailer “Some men just want to watch the world burn.” I don’t doubt this is the attitude many people think of when they think of anarchism. Perhaps this is why Alan Moore considers “The Killing Joke” one of his least favourite works. “V for Vendetta” by Moore has is a much better anarchist character/message which was entirely excised from the film adaptation, go figure.
@@ChillGoblin yeah. i read Killing Joke too, and i totally agree with Moore. it's a pretty weak tale. XD. the movie V for Vendetta is a bit more complicated for us in the global south tho. I'm Malaysian, and definitely prefer the graphic novel. But for people here who have almost never known real direct action against the state and capitalism, V for Vendetta the movie is almost like a rallying call. Kinda like how people here have also taken the 3-finger-salute from Hunger Games during protests now. honestly, after i've gone full Left these few years, i can't enjoy Batman anymore. haha. lots of bad takes in a lot of the narratives, no matter who wrote him. And a billionaire beating people up with his high tech schlock just rubs me the wrong way now. :P i think i was more wondering about how did Anarchism become synonymous with chaos and destruction in the popular lexicon and consciousness, pretty much around the world? although i suspect The Joker's popularity might also helped fuel the misconception, i was wondering if there was a concerted effort to smear anarchism, since way back before the Joker existed. the term is also misunderstood the same way in Malaysia. So the punks i've known here can only go as far as the DIY ethic and maybe anti-consumerism, but can rarely go further to include Left politics or mutual aid. the neoliberal propaganda is strong.
I don’t even need to watch this video to know the title is the best thing I’ve ever read. (Also I did watch the video, fantastic. Thank you for your service)
I'm one of those people for whom "What Genre is it?" is something I trip over with every medium. If I haven't had a specific schema explained to me, I cannot just 'feel it out' and miss things that are not explicitly told to me. And yet, it would seem my favorite genre of music is punk, cause every time I find a deep-dive on an old favorite I find out the lyrics I found Kinda Poignant as an angry teen were actually Several Angry Adults Writing a song about the stuff that is Very Obviously Broken. Tubthumpin was *my very first CD,* given to me as a hand-me-down from my brother along with the player and a cruddy set of plastic headphones. The song Tubthumpin *is still* a song that gets me to belt it out like I'm drunk at a pub with a crowd. I have no grander point to make. Simply some observations and nostalgia. Great video as always, dunno how many times I've been back for a rewatch
Fugazi is kind of a mirror image to Chumbawamba in a strange way. From Aaron Lake Smith’s article “Chumbawamba’s Long Voyage” in Jacobin: “It’s hard to say, which group had a more profound impact on the self-described “anti-capitalist” punk scene. Fugazi’s symbolic rejection of fame and the profit motive was certainly more popular within it though. Ironically though, some of the bands from the scene they had spent time mothering used their association with Fugazi as a stepping stone to become commercially successful. Fugazi hit a brick wall with their American-style, “less talk more rock” radicalism in the same way that Chumbawamba were consumed by their experience as celebrities, and began to criticize the music industry from an insidery perspective. Fugazi’s shows were so accessible that they eventually became inaccessible. Eager attendees had to be turned away at the door because venues would always reach their capacity. Alternately, Chumbawamba had brought the word “anarchy” into the household. The music industry, passed them off as dancing pranksters, conveniently tucking their history as a politically active band under the rug.”
13:09 "Thick" is British slang for "stupid," which makes the prank track make sense. If you can get them jamming to that, you've got a bunch of them moshing about effectively yelling that they're dumb.
I feel like there's a kind of punk aesthetic fundamentalism that takes it for granted that you can't be punk unless you sound like some sort of descendent of the Pistols, Ramones, or Minor Threat. But Suicide - a band with synths an no guitar or drum kit - were the first band to call themselves punk. Patti Smith put out the first full-length punk album, with its fusion of jam-y garage rock and stream-of-consciousness poetry. Television, with their twitchy, interlocking guitars and art-rock ambition, were the first band to play CBGBs and supposedly built the club's first stage. Meanwhile, for all that they made fresh and rebellious music, the Ramones wanted to be a bubblegum pop band, the Pistols were a manufactured group, and Minor Threat... made great music for 16 years olds. I still love a lot of the music those bands made, but to think they're the last word on what defines punk condemns punk to be a kind of limiting and juvenile genre of music. Punk has always been more than just power chords and bratty vocals! It's that and a lot more. And rock historians always wanna talk about the Pistols and mythologize them - and to a lesser degree the Clash - but CRASS strike me as much more influential, aesthetically and politically, on what punk became. All this to say, Chumbawamba's musical diversity is actually punk as fuck. Also, great video!
The answer to the question in the title is dependent on whether you mean “punk” in terms of genre formalisms or “punk” in terms of a sociopolitical ethos. Unlike “jazz” or “prog rock” punk was a subculture that included music. I suppose that “emo” could be an analogy, since at its height what constituted emo music was difficult to define, there were a lot of different things going on musically, and many of them sounded nothing alike but were united under the banner of an aesthetic and an extremely broad ethos, of course unlike punk there was no “emo politics” to speak of and that is a function of the emo ethos being focused on the subjective emotional experience and expression of the individual, an inward looking outlook that is sort of antithetical to politics on a conceptual level, while punk was more about the expression of a communal emotional experience and sensibility, which is basically the precursor to political action.
Holy shit. This was really cool! I admit I knew NOTHING about Chumbawamba outside of that single song but they're hella cool. Gonna try and find some of their other music now!
Great video. Just today, I'm in a conversation on FB about punk and punk rock. It's a group that's a bit of a Gen X community. You know, the generation that *really* popularized punk and punk rock here in the States back in the 70s and 80s. However, a LOT of the people in this group praise the Pistols, and pretty much rag on Chumbawamba. I, myself, give Chumbawamba huge credit for guiding me to be interested in politics. Particularly from a leftist point of view. I want to add a link to this video on the thread I was talking about above. I'd like to see what other Gen Xers have to say about it. You ok with that? 🙂
Okay, so an update on what this group I'm in said. I'm gonna start off by briefly being a bit political: This group I'm in is for politically liberal Gen Xers. Typically, liberals tend to be a bit smarter than conservatives because we value education. I say this preface because I was amazed at how many people who commented didn't pick up that you're going off the premise that both bands are punk bands, and you're trying to determine who's *more* punk. These commenters were a bit upset that you were telling everybody what is punk and what is not. Of the people who picked up on your establishment of both being punk bands, they agree that Chumbawamba is more punk, the Sex Pistols being more of a corporate band than a naturally formed and evolved one like Chumbawamba. Just thought I'd drop a line and let you know what was said. 🙂
@@94memyselfni Thanks for the update, I was wondering how that went! I did go with an intentionally controversial thumbnail ("Sex Pistols AREN'T PUNK???") just because I'm hungry for clicks... But yeah you got it. Glad people agreed haha
Nice video! As others have mentioned, the audio is pretty low, listening with phones is fine but kinda hard to hear through speakers. Sex Pistols probably encapsulated most of what I wrongly assumed to be Anarchism for most of my life, before I got into leftist politics and learned about actual Anarchism. Never knew they were such a manufactured band as I haven't really thought about them since I was a rebellious teen. I also didn't know Chumbawamba's anarchist leanings, tbf I only knew them by that one song, I'll definitely give a listen to their older stuff!
Yep Sex Pistols probably singlehandedly warped a lot of people’s understanding of anarchism, myself included. Thanks for the feedback on the audio, I’ll take in some tutorials before my next video. Don’t want that to happen again
Man you really knocked down The Sex Pistols in this video. I wonder if they'll ever get up again after this
JOHN!
Oh Danny Boy
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 ok this one I actually laughed out loud at omg 😂
@@ChillGoblin u are a communist and poser
I hope they don't.
I had absolutely no idea Chumbawumba were this cool. Almost everything in this video was news to me. Thank you for the education.
Awesome! Glad to spread the word about how legit Chumbawamba is
Dan!
Most of it is actually wrong info.
Chumbawamba weren’t cool, they were shite. Just like this video. The Pistols were the best punk band ever, end of fucking discussion.
Yea. I Spotify tubthumping next song I got was about how the nazis never went away, the son after that was about how homophobia sucks. Yea they’re pretty good :)
I remember being sat in a pub in Nottingham UK about 1991 and a large group of of punks walked in (nice friendly group actually). The landlord smiled and put a Sex Pistols song on for them. The punks kicked off, told the landlord to 'get that shit off' and asked him to play some Chumbawamba instead. This was years before Tubthumping.
LOL really? Love that story
Amazing
I await your Thesis statement
There's a really funny story about Queen meeting the Sex Pistols. Sid Vicious tried to get all up in Freddie Mercury's face saying Queen were pretentious. Freddie was like, oh my god, you're Simon Ferocious and Sid tried to fight him.
Yes! Hahaha I love that story. I think they were recording in the same building or something?
Yeah, they were!
Freddie grabbed Sid's leather jacket lapels and pushed him a bit and said yeah what are you gonna do about it. True.
"Simon Ferocious" I'd never show my face in public again after that.
What's also funny about this scenario is that Queen wrote Sheer Heart Attack mocking punk rock after meeting the pistols
Always appreciate people giving love to my favorite band Chumbawamba and ACTUALLY UNDERSTANDING ANARCHISM big points to you man
Thanks! They're so underrated it's ridiculous
I met them in the early 90s. Long story short, I went to dinner and then made out with one of them at a funk night in a tiny club. They were all pretty cool people. So few normal people have any idea who they really are.
Even their "sellout album" has songs that address homelessness, merciless landlords, slut-shaming, homophobia, etc. Chumbawamba was always punk they just didn't always keep the typical æsthetic.
That shift was intentional. The selling out was orchestrated to get more money to spend on activism and fund anarchist orgs and projects. They're brilliant. They did the actual thing most anarchists talk about by not only monkey wrenching the system but also siphoned millions of dollars away from the wealthy and I to the needs of the poor. Inspiring people.
@@gardavis gotta respect them
Tubthumper is the album that, more than any other, exposed little kid me to leftist thinking and had an outsized influence on my political interests growing up.
@@RobertJWI remember wanting to be unique, and trying to resist left wing politics that were sort of the default in the punk and goth groups that were in my city. Chumbawamba happened to be my favorite band, and I couldn't resist the sensibility of what they said, and as I explored their back catalog I got away from wanting to be unique by leaning right. I'm a giant dork for all that, but I can't help but appreciate them for helping to make me see what a dork I was being
I was in school with Harry Hamer (Chumbas drummer) a couple of years below. Him and his mate were the only 2 punks in school. They were both good to me when a lot of other kids weren't. They'd often come and sit with me at lunchtime and were good lads - think they'd cottoned on to the fact that I had a broader musical horizon than most of the other kids in our school. Daz (Harry) was already in the Chumbas by this point and selling bootleg tapes of this and that... His mate Paul wasn't allowed to come into school to do his o-levels because he had a mohawk cut in the interim period between classes finishing and exams starting. Paul ended up dating one of my mum's piano pupils and they'd be over at the Armley squat every weekend.
if that aint the most punk shit i've ever read
5:30 Ah, yes. Johnny Rotten, the true anarchist who also happens to be a die-hard Farage, Trump and Brexit supporter. Natural-born anarchist indeed.
Yes much better to be a remainer. . .. along with bankers, big business and the political and cultural elite 😂😂😂
@@barneysumner1417 Everyone with a brain: "Leaving the EU will straight-up destroy the economy, and have ramifications far beyond what most people imagine"
You: "god darn bankers telling me to vote remain!"
When you voted according to the opinions of the fucking Conservative party, consisting of Oxbridge cunts and Victorian-era millionaire ghouls, any attempt to sling around the label "elite" holds about as much value as a twice-divorced serial cheater accusing his opponents of destroying family values.
@@barneysumner1417 actually they were all leavers
Kinda a 'Devil's advocate' here: Lydon has said a lot of things and sometimes he can't quite clearly explain what he really means (excessive alcohol consumption is playing a great role in my view... he could never be Lemmy!); he surely is a freethinker (sadly and paradoxically, a very flawed one in the last years) that called himself a "natural-born anarchist" in that sense and I understand his solidarity with many of those who voted for the six-times-gone-bankrupt orangey mσrση and 'Brexit' (lots of people ostracized and abandoned in the practice by traditional politicians with their vacuous promises...). He's still right about many issues and, obviously, very wrong about others. 🤷♂
in a era where the left are the establishment being conservative is edgy,its not the 90s anymore it aint evangelical boomers trying to censor stuff its the left and being right wing is now punk,you may not like this,you may type ITS NAWT TRUUU you may cry,screech into your pillow but its the truth and you need to accept its not 1991 no more.
Pretty sure "i'm Thick" is like saying "I'm stupid". Thick meaning you have a "thick skull"
This ^
...or a "thick ass".
In the UK thick means stupid.
UK terminology.
@@Davey-Boyd Yeah that's that really Old English slang
Was a privilege to help with this! We all need more Chumbawamba in our lives.
Thanks so much for your help!
:)
We need more GG Allin in our lives.
The Pistols were a short, sharp shock in a dull, monochrome London. Chumbawamba come from a long tradition of North English folk and socialist protest singers. Both were punk whereas Chumbawamba had an agenda and an intelligence behind their agenda the Pistols just set out to disrupt. Which they did brilliantly as I remember from the perspective of a London school boy of the time.
Intelligence -but also honesty and integrity- (besides others) is, in absolute contrast, what the poor mσrσηις 'woke' people totally lack... Even their agenda is greatly questionable. I don't agree with Chumbawamba and C.R.A.S.S. about many things but I adore and respect them as artists and individuals (except maybe for Pete Wright and his threat of legal action previous to the release of The Crassical Collection).
yeah Sex pistols distrupted by sucking so hard that there was an air shortage in England.
See thank you
Also as an additional comment as I just got a little further in the vid. With regards to the Chumbawumba "prank" - I don't know if it translates in Canada but "I'm thick" means, very literally, "I'm stupid" in the UK. If you call someone thick you're calling them a moron. Especially used in Northern England and they were formed in Burnley so I could see it being a big thing there.
Was absolutely howling the thought of a bunch of skinheads jumping up & down chanting "I'M THICK". Best thing Chumbawamba ever did imo :D
Lol I definitely should have figured it out. My best guess was they were saying their skin was thick or something, their band being called "Skin Disease." I'm the thick one now!
However, if you say Thicc the meaning changes completely
I would love to see more punk as a leftist topic. Punk and leftism has a long history. With bands like the clash, angelic upstarts, dead Kennedy's. Plus the anarcho punk is an interesting topic to look into.
Totally! I did a collab video with radical reviewer you might like called "Punk and recuperation" that goes into punk & leftism more :)
th-cam.com/video/2vgPKWAAn6Q/w-d-xo.html
Left is the new right, have you not noticed the destruction the left has caused to peoples mindsets!!
The final evolution of the "right" is anarchism. The final evolution of "leftism" is communism. Socialism is just communism lite, and the Dead Kennedy's were NOT fans of communism. See Holiday in Cambodia.
One of my favourite possessions in my 20s was a Sex Pistol's branded credit card from my bank. Because nothing says 'punk' like a credit card with 20% APR.
Lmao awesome
What I’m hearing is that Miles Davis is more punk than the Sex Pistols.
Way, way more punk
lol, especially when he sold women into prostitution to pay for his drug habit!
Absolutely!
As a jazz musician I concur. 🎺
Miles Davis was a fan of John Lydon, though most likely more for PIl than the pistols, there was a time when Lydon wasn't so much of a twat and was mostly on the right side of things
41 or some odd years after I first heard the Sex Pistols, and today is the first time I've EVER heard them called a boy band. Nice.
Everyone remembers where they were the first time they heard Sex Pistols called a boy band
Also they chanted "Free Mumia abu Jamal" when performing Tubthumping on Letterman. Props to Dave for not having it edited out. The clip can be viewed on TH-cam.
I liked the "I'm Thick" prank. "Thick" means "stupid in this instance, so they made enough of a banger that it got on a compilation album, and probably had people chanting along with them. Imagine a group of them belting out "I'm thick" and not catching it because it bops.
I've got to catch up on Chumbawamba now.
I will probably use Chumbawamba's cover of World Turned Upside Down in upcoming review of Common Sense by Thomas Paine.
I look forward to watching that and finding out what that song is about and how it connects to Common Sense! Paine was kind of an anarchist right?
@@ChillGoblin kinda yeah, he can easily be read like a libertarian, but given some thought his ideas basically promote an-com stances just as much if not more.
@@RadicalReviewer to be fair the truth itself promotes ancom stances
@@voidify3 To be fair, everyone thinks that about their own positions, even people who aren't yet ancoms.
@@Amanda-C. love the yet
I have no interest in punk. But ima watch this anyways and leave a like for support and to appease the mighty algorithm.
I don't think, in this otherwise great analysis, that you lent enough credence to the most punk thing is all: not being able to play your instrument. While both bands share a common origin in this regard, I assume that Chumbawumba did eventually learn how to play at some point, whereas that clearly was not the case with the Sex Pistols.
Really though, I can't believe you only have the 3 videos so far, because you're knocking them out of the park, although the volume was a little low on this one. I hope your channel blows up!
Haha you're 100% right. Honestly I did think about putting that in but I didn't want to give Sex Pistols a point
That’s a bit harsh. Steve Jones is probably one of the tightest punk guitarist ever. he also played all the bass overdubs on NMTB.
Absolute shite, Matlock, Jones and Cook were all good musicians that went on to have lucrative careers in music after the Pistols, and Lydon was an awesome frontman. You lot are just clueless.
Daz Hamer had drum lessons when he was still in school so when he joined (also while still at my school) he was already quite accomplished.
This is just silly. The Pistols were a great rock and roll band. Tight as fuck. Great songs too of course but also a right bunch of wankers.
Ahaha we love people outside the uk not getting “thick” means stupid😂😂 (loved the video tho❤️)
The strange thing, for me at least, is the fact that I have heard it used in this manner, and have used it this way myself, in Canada.
Never Mind The Bollocks is still a goddamn awesome sounding album though.
Oh totally. I could never completely condemn that album
@@ChillGoblin it’s a glorious pop album
If you think about it max punk is making videos that are too quiet for anyone over 30 to hear.
LOL
Sick video dude, The remix of Anarchy in the UK could legit be a Crass song. Seeing as you mentioned Oi I think it's worth saying that while a shit ton of them were fash and the ones that weren't didn't openly condemn it, Roddy Moreno of the Oppressed did bring anti-fascism into the genre, and there are today a number of badass leftist Oi bands. And for my last point Jesus Christ were Chumbawumba right about New Labour.
I think the "I'm thick" song was a burn to the Nazis bc thick is slang for dumb or stupid in the UK. So in that context, it's pretty funny to think of neo Nazi punks jamming out to a song repeatedly saying "I'm dumb" over and over again.
To understand Anarchy in the UK I think it's also important to keep in mind that Rotten was a 19 yo high school drop out with a really tough upbringing (during which he faced, to mention only a few things, poverty, anti-Irish bigotry, disease and unstable family conditions) when he wrote it. Of course he lacked the theoretical framework to write anything resembling a cohesive political vision.
The reason why I think it's a really good song nevertheless is because it encapsulates punk's real political potential, which to me has always been the complete rejection of respectibility politics. The Sex Pistols, especially Vicious and Jones, were basically just a bunch of kids from severely troubles backgrounds that really nobody cared about. They didn't need to read philosophy books to know that the political system in Britain was thoroughly fucked. Plus, in Jones' cases he literally couldn't even have done so as the combination of a classist and an ableist educational system had rendered him functionally illiterate until his 40s.
I think you're spot on in your suspicion that the song is about shock value more than anything else, but I don't think that's really a bad thing, because it was only shocking to people who deserved to be made as uncomfortable as possible. None of the folks who were scandalized by the Pistols in 76 would have listened to a bunch of uneducated working class boys' opinions on politics without that level of provocation. The fact that they succeeded to create this kind of publicity by being as obnoxious as possible is still unbelievably impressive to me. Expecting them to also then also offer comprehensive solutions to the issues they were making visible by essentially just being there and looking like that feels a bit unfair to me, and it's also not really what I think they set out to do.
The real shame to me is that nobody who would have actually had the privilege of receiving the kind of education that would be necessary to do exactly that succeeded in utilizing this moment of public outrage to steer the conversation into a more productive direction. It would have been a great opportunity for actual anarchists to say "if you want to understand why these guys are so aggro, look at where they come from and ask yourself if your really think this is fair" and then go from there. I'm sure that some people probably attempted to do that, but the mere fact that I actually know about no one in particular shows that they didn't do a good job.
Well said!
its a bad song
Oh my god I love chumbawumba especially the little bits at the end of the songs, glad to see them getting some love!
Chumbawamba won't stop you using their music, I think it'd be alright even with the YT bots to include actual music from them. Apart from that - subbed and belled! Learnt a lot about how bad the sex pistols are, love Chumbawamba though
How could you not mention that Chumbawamba holds the world record for longest album title
and that the album title is incredibly punk
Easy! I decided not to include that because I didn’t know that until right now. Damn, would have been cool to include:
“The Boy Bands Have Won, and All the Copyists and the Tribute Bands and the TV Talent Show Producers Have Won, If We Allow Our Culture to Be Shaped by Mimicry, Whether from Lack of Ideas or from Exaggerated Respect. You Should Never Try to Freeze Culture. What You Can Do Is Recycle That Culture. Take Your Older Brother's Hand-Me-Down Jacket and Re-Style It, Re-Fashion It to the Point Where It Becomes Your Own. But Don't Just Regurgitate Creative History, or Hold Art and Music and Literature as Fixed, Untouchable and Kept Under Glass. The People Who Try to 'Guard' Any Particular Form of Music Are, Like the Copyists and Manufactured Bands, Doing It the Worst Disservice, Because the Only Thing That You Can Do to Music That Will Damage It Is Not Change It, Not Make It Your Own. Because Then It Dies, Then It's Over, Then It's Done, and the Boy Bands Have Won”
I never liked the Sex Pistols. Never looked into their origins but I’m not surprised it was mostly publicity. Interesting bio of Chumba Wumba. Engaging presentation all around. Thanks.
Observant comparison with PewDiePie there...
Thanks fam! Glad you liked it :)
I absolutely love Chumbawamba, their songs are pretty catchy overall, and I still listen to Good Ship Lifestyle from Tubthumping a lot.
They’re so good!
Audio is pretty low btw, great vid though!
Shoot! I was having problems with the volume, I thought I had it figured out. Thanks for the feedback!
@@ChillGoblin Quick audio tip: you can use a LUFS loudness meter to check your audio (I recommend around -14 LUFS)
@@ChillGoblin its just a little low, perfect otherwise, hope this become a series or something i loved it haha, cheers from barcelona!
the sex pistols have been real quiet since this
Okay, I need to see an Adult Swim cartoon about anarchist Care Bears trying to molotov cocktail their way into making this a peaceful world
In my experience as an 80s suburban teen punk, it was the ones who most looked the part with expensive leathers and elaborate haircuts who went on to join the military, become cops, or at least get straight jobs. And yet it was the more ideological kids in the scene who got labeled posers when the couldn’t afford or simply refused to dress the part.
You managed to nearly reflect my exact thoughts on the Sex Pistols' music before I even knew about their origins. I thought I was missing something, because they are so highly praised but their lyrics seem to me like a bunch of punk vocabulary chucked into a blender. This word smoothie certainly sounds like punk, and it's very fun to sing along to, but it doesn't have very much substance.
I was familiar with what the content of this video would be before I watched it - but I was still delighted to see it being covered on TH-cam since I've only really heard it talked about on podcasts. 🖤
came here because some people recommended you in the comment section of a Jordan Theresa's video.... a very long phrase just to say HOLY SHIT, I DID NOT KNOW THAT, thank you
Nice! Love her channel
Excellent video!!!
I've always seen the sex pistols more like a shock rock band (with a little political vein) than a punk band.
Before the pistols McLaren was the manager of the New York Dolls (one of my favourite bands of that era) and he used to make them wore red suits with swastikas (communist nazis xD) to shock the audience.
That experience with the Dolls didn't work and it caused a lot of trouble to the band (the Dolls were a difficult band to work and they were into heroin) but it was like an experiment to McLaren before the Pistols.
Yeah! Apparently McLaren begged the dolls to let him manage them because he saw how big the punk movement was getting, and when that one failed he formed Sex Pistols from scratch. Say what you will about the guy (seriously, go off) but he did have a good eye for marketability
@@ChillGoblin yeah I agree completely with that.
The Pistols even had a diss track to the Dolls (New York)
Apparently Malcolm had bad memories of that experience.
In my opinion even the New York Dolls/Johnny Thunders were a lot more punk than the Pistols.
Hey your videos are awesome, it would be great one about the Clash, in my opinion one of the most political compromised mainstream bands.
I don't need to watch this video to tell you that chumbawumba are the embodiment of punk. Along with conflict, crass & the subhumans/culture shock.
The sex pistols were a pop band
Thank you for having the correct opinion!
@@ChillGoblin I did watch your vid and it was really good.
The eyeballs guided me to your channel and this is some good stuff. I actually laughed out loud.
I'm always amazed when this is news to so many people and it makes them mad. The Pistols were boy band ffs. Chumbawumba were proper punks. Anarchisty, anti-fascist folk punk icons. Every festy worthy of the name saw them on its stages for two decades. They still get together for occasional reunion pub gigs and they still kick arse.
... super weird to actually know many songs from them and don't know they're the tubthumping-band. actually pretty happy about that. thank you!!
Haha that's awesome
So true. I am terrified how Chumbawamba's lyrics from early 90's are relevant today...
I always liked their Amnesia song before I even knew much about Chumbawamba as a band and a group. It came out at a time when I was actually experiencing long term memory loss due to a bad medication so i found it hilarious and relatable. It is also one of the few things I remember from that time, ironically. I didn't know who wrote the song until I met a guy called Seb who squatted with them in Bristol. He told me I should listen to them as I would like them and I did. He also had tea with Alan Moore one time, but got thrown out as he spilt tea on Alan Moore's books. I'm not sure how true these stories he told were, but I like them anyway.
Seb sounds like the coolest guy ever, love Seb
@@ChillGoblin He was. He had a lot of problems though so he's no longer in this plane of existence. I like to think of it as he left his changeling body and went back to the dreaming to be a fully integrated fae being.
I couldn't casually browse your videos and not click on this one!
Your content is truly amazing. You use such a simple premise to educated us on the topic and slip leftist messaging to centrists. As you say, its definitely [not] just an excuse to talk about anarchy. But please raise the volume. I don't know if it's just a problem on my end, but I always have to raise my volume to around 90% just to hear you.
Always good to hear someone spreading the ChumbaWord
I loved this! I listened to a lot of punk while working on my relationship anarchy video and didn't know until then how actually commercial the Sex Pistols were. Great video!
Thanks so much!
squatting was not illegal when chumbas had thesquat ,it only became illegal to squat residential properties later , prior there was squatters rights
squatting is a sensible solution to housing , at present im in the uk we have 250,000 homeless , we have 750,000 empty properties ,
squat the lot
If it helps 'thick' means stupid so the nazi's were jamming out and relating to a song saying 'I'm stupid'. Loved the video btw! Not seen youtube talking about anarchism a lot x
Ahh so it’s like when your little sister is repeating everything you say so you’re like “I am really stupid” and she says it back
Wow I was expecting an ironic shit post but this turned about to be wayyyy more informative than I was expecting! Thank you for making it.
I knew there was something fishy abut the sex pistols but I had no idea how bad it actually was 😱
keep up the good work man you're really talented! And again, I'm always open for a collab, after all what's more punk than signal boosting other small anarchist creators? 😉👌 I wouldn't have found you if it weren't for the boost from your boy Life in Hell after all, keep up the good work, man lovin' it!
Sure fam! DM me on twitter :)
According to the book “Please Kill Me”, a collection of memoirs from notable figures in punk from its inception to the early days of its popularity, the Sex Pistols were a bunch of poseurs who didn’t even listen to punk rock outside of their own music and had never even tried hard drugs until after they’d gotten famous. They were pretty much a corporate band, meaning that their inception was in no way organic. The concept for the band was imagined by Malcolm Mclaren and all the members auditioned for their parts at the HQ of a major record label. This was a very uncommon practice for punk bands at the time.
Sounds about right! I'll have to check out that book, sounds right up my alley :)
No one believes me when I say Tubthumper radicalized me in the 90s.
YESSSSSSSSS!!!!! I got Eyeballed to you early and this is the video I have been waiting for at least a decade now!
Chumbawamba is a legit punk band. Sex Pistols were a punk boy band managed by a proto Lou Pearlman. I said what I said.
Had to look that guy up and my god what a roller coaster ride that Wikipedia page that was
I always felt like I was the only one who delved deeper than Tubthumping. I enjoyed Chumbawamba album all the tracks were wicked I liked the sampling of TV and films in between the tracks. I looked back and bought their albums and singles from when the formed in the early 80s. I lost interest when they turned into a folk band as that wasn't my thing but the band was awesome! They didn't give a shit about anything and that why I love it.
I actually learned about the awesomeness of cumbawumba years ago on the short lived podcast 'surprisingly awesome' where I also learned about the awesomeness of broccoli and concrete
The cut to Pewdiepie when you mentioned Nazi's in the punk scene...I SMASHED that like button and subscribed so fast!
Haha glad you noticed that! Was worried it was too subtle
@@ChillGoblin It wasn't subtle. Of course you are one of those losers. I bet you also think that Ben Shapiro is an altrighter, not a neocon zionist. As if you knew the difference between the two.
@@BNK2442 Fucking incredible comment.
I found punk and chumbawamba around the same time, it took me a decade to go full circle and realise chumbawamba are the punkest thing ever.
You need to be making more punk content. The jacket is legit my dude! In fairness to Steve jones on the talk show the host was super Pervy to xuisie and the banshees. I lived that Sex Pistols life when I was a dumb ass kid so I can empathize with being a cretin. Chumbawamba was on crass records and that’s pretty damn cool ❤
What a chill goblin! Subscribed.
I love Chumbawamba thanks for highlighting them. I love the songs "Tony Blair", "Her Majesty" and their cover of "Bella Ciao". Your comments about Oi punk were rather reductive. One of the more notable Oi bands the Angelic Upstarts has a fricking song named Anti-Nazi. The problem is the Oi and Skinhead scenes were mimicked by idiot Neo-Nazis and after that, it's all everyone, not in those scenes, saw. Skinheads were originally just working class British kids who were hanging out with Jamaican British Rude Boys and picked up the look in solidarity. So idiot Neo-Nazis stole the skinhead look that originally came from black kids.
I've just discovered your excellent video via a comment on a facebook group where we happen to be railing on Danzig and I felt like you'd enjoy knowing that. Oooooh, Danzig vs. Michael Graves next! Spoiler alert: They both lose
Lol! That rules. Danzig is such a joke. Conservative boomer punks are the least punk guys imaginable
5-2 should be the score, the Sex Pistols: 1 point for the interview, 1 point for the fact that they influenced many punk bands.
Candye♡Syrup, The Japanese punk idol unit managed by and named after the hair saloon Candye♡Syrup (they can dye your hair in syrup colours). Is more punk than the Sex Pistols
I'll check em out haha
Just wanted to say this video fucking rules, and I've since gotten into Chumbawamba's music, and they're pretty awesome!
Can confirm, I got knocked down, and got up again as an anarchist. Didn't pick up any adjectives though.
Love punk: hate the punk appropriation of the Mohawk. Reminder that Mohawk is an ethnic group. They still exist. That bit sucks. The rest is fine.
Okay, I'd heard and loved Tubthumping before but now I'm gonna go listen to everything they ever recorded
“I’m thick” is like saying “I’m dumb” in British slang.
I'm a bit late to the party but man you was spot on. I grew up with the sex pistols which was cool, but finding chumbawumba was almost life changing, they the truth about how life was in the UK (and around the world) which other band just weren't doing. Yes the pistols are fun to hear from time to time chumbawumba ripes them apart.
Thanks for posting and for a yank you done OK. Lol.
This video is awesome. I've always looked up to chumba. This is one of the best ideas for a yt video I've ever seen. Big up, Gobbers
Thanks Lukers!
Shit, I really need to listen to more Chumbawumba...
Get into it! I put some links to their early stuff in the description
Thank you for taking the Sex Pistols down a peg.
Another ace vid!!
Sidenote: I have to ask, why is The Joker = anarchy in so many people's minds?
Good question! You got me thinking...
The Joker lines up with the (incorrect) general perception that anarchy is a synonym for chaos and nihilism. Oddly, one of the most famous depiction of the Joker in comics was written by an actual anarchist- Alan Moore’s “The Killing Joke” which was also influential on the writing of the Heath Ledger Joker in The Dark Knight. This Joker fantasizes about a “world without rules” (again, not what actual anarchists want- more a world without rulers), and is summed up by Alfred’s line in the trailer “Some men just want to watch the world burn.” I don’t doubt this is the attitude many people think of when they think of anarchism. Perhaps this is why Alan Moore considers “The Killing Joke” one of his least favourite works. “V for Vendetta” by Moore has is a much better anarchist character/message which was entirely excised from the film adaptation, go figure.
@@ChillGoblin yeah. i read Killing Joke too, and i totally agree with Moore. it's a pretty weak tale. XD.
the movie V for Vendetta is a bit more complicated for us in the global south tho. I'm Malaysian, and definitely prefer the graphic novel. But for people here who have almost never known real direct action against the state and capitalism, V for Vendetta the movie is almost like a rallying call. Kinda like how people here have also taken the 3-finger-salute from Hunger Games during protests now.
honestly, after i've gone full Left these few years, i can't enjoy Batman anymore. haha. lots of bad takes in a lot of the narratives, no matter who wrote him. And a billionaire beating people up with his high tech schlock just rubs me the wrong way now. :P
i think i was more wondering about how did Anarchism become synonymous with chaos and destruction in the popular lexicon and consciousness, pretty much around the world? although i suspect The Joker's popularity might also helped fuel the misconception, i was wondering if there was a concerted effort to smear anarchism, since way back before the Joker existed.
the term is also misunderstood the same way in Malaysia. So the punks i've known here can only go as far as the DIY ethic and maybe anti-consumerism, but can rarely go further to include Left politics or mutual aid.
the neoliberal propaganda is strong.
Your video is really well put together n the editing is really cool I just had 2 comment
Thanks so much!
I don’t even need to watch this video to know the title is the best thing I’ve ever read. (Also I did watch the video, fantastic. Thank you for your service)
I'm one of those people for whom "What Genre is it?" is something I trip over with every medium. If I haven't had a specific schema explained to me, I cannot just 'feel it out' and miss things that are not explicitly told to me.
And yet, it would seem my favorite genre of music is punk, cause every time I find a deep-dive on an old favorite I find out the lyrics I found Kinda Poignant as an angry teen were actually Several Angry Adults Writing a song about the stuff that is Very Obviously Broken.
Tubthumpin was *my very first CD,* given to me as a hand-me-down from my brother along with the player and a cruddy set of plastic headphones. The song Tubthumpin *is still* a song that gets me to belt it out like I'm drunk at a pub with a crowd.
I have no grander point to make. Simply some observations and nostalgia.
Great video as always, dunno how many times I've been back for a rewatch
Very entertaining video! It's really quiet tho. Personally i'd like to see more leftist ASMR, but I dont think that's what you were going for
Hahahaha maybe leftist ASMR could be my niche...
good points, this is why fugazi/beanie ian is the true punk yardstick (idk probably)
Fugazi is kind of a mirror image to Chumbawamba in a strange way. From Aaron Lake Smith’s article “Chumbawamba’s Long Voyage” in Jacobin:
“It’s hard to say, which group had a more profound impact on the self-described “anti-capitalist” punk scene. Fugazi’s symbolic rejection of fame and the profit motive was certainly more popular within it though. Ironically though, some of the bands from the scene they had spent time mothering used their association with Fugazi as a stepping stone to become commercially successful. Fugazi hit a brick wall with their American-style, “less talk more rock” radicalism in the same way that Chumbawamba were consumed by their experience as celebrities, and began to criticize the music industry from an insidery perspective. Fugazi’s shows were so accessible that they eventually became inaccessible. Eager attendees had to be turned away at the door because venues would always reach their capacity.
Alternately, Chumbawamba had brought the word “anarchy” into the household. The music industry, passed them off as dancing pranksters, conveniently tucking their history as a politically active band under the rug.”
13:09 "Thick" is British slang for "stupid," which makes the prank track make sense. If you can get them jamming to that, you've got a bunch of them moshing about effectively yelling that they're dumb.
Discovered Chumbawamba through Todd in the Shadows and they quickly became one of my favourites
I feel like there's a kind of punk aesthetic fundamentalism that takes it for granted that you can't be punk unless you sound like some sort of descendent of the Pistols, Ramones, or Minor Threat. But Suicide - a band with synths an no guitar or drum kit - were the first band to call themselves punk. Patti Smith put out the first full-length punk album, with its fusion of jam-y garage rock and stream-of-consciousness poetry. Television, with their twitchy, interlocking guitars and art-rock ambition, were the first band to play CBGBs and supposedly built the club's first stage.
Meanwhile, for all that they made fresh and rebellious music, the Ramones wanted to be a bubblegum pop band, the Pistols were a manufactured group, and Minor Threat... made great music for 16 years olds. I still love a lot of the music those bands made, but to think they're the last word on what defines punk condemns punk to be a kind of limiting and juvenile genre of music. Punk has always been more than just power chords and bratty vocals! It's that and a lot more.
And rock historians always wanna talk about the Pistols and mythologize them - and to a lesser degree the Clash - but CRASS strike me as much more influential, aesthetically and politically, on what punk became.
All this to say, Chumbawamba's musical diversity is actually punk as fuck. Also, great video!
Minor threat is a stepping stone to better bands
@@ChillGoblin Absolutely! For the band members and hopefully listeners and fans too
OH DAMN THAT WAS SUCH A SLY DUNK ON PEWDIEPIE
The Pistols played a benefit show for the families of striking firemen and miners on Xmas day 1977.
The answer to the question in the title is dependent on whether you mean “punk” in terms of genre formalisms or “punk” in terms of a sociopolitical ethos. Unlike “jazz” or “prog rock” punk was a subculture that included music. I suppose that “emo” could be an analogy, since at its height what constituted emo music was difficult to define, there were a lot of different things going on musically, and many of them sounded nothing alike but were united under the banner of an aesthetic and an extremely broad ethos, of course unlike punk there was no “emo politics” to speak of and that is a function of the emo ethos being focused on the subjective emotional experience and expression of the individual, an inward looking outlook that is sort of antithetical to politics on a conceptual level, while punk was more about the expression of a communal emotional experience and sensibility, which is basically the precursor to political action.
Holy shit. This was really cool! I admit I knew NOTHING about Chumbawamba outside of that single song but they're hella cool. Gonna try and find some of their other music now!
Great video. Just today, I'm in a conversation on FB about punk and punk rock. It's a group that's a bit of a Gen X community. You know, the generation that *really* popularized punk and punk rock here in the States back in the 70s and 80s. However, a LOT of the people in this group praise the Pistols, and pretty much rag on Chumbawamba. I, myself, give Chumbawamba huge credit for guiding me to be interested in politics. Particularly from a leftist point of view. I want to add a link to this video on the thread I was talking about above. I'd like to see what other Gen Xers have to say about it. You ok with that? 🙂
Hell yeah, do it! I’ve already got a bunch of angry Sex Pistols fans in the comments here haha
Okay, so an update on what this group I'm in said. I'm gonna start off by briefly being a bit political: This group I'm in is for politically liberal Gen Xers. Typically, liberals tend to be a bit smarter than conservatives because we value education. I say this preface because I was amazed at how many people who commented didn't pick up that you're going off the premise that both bands are punk bands, and you're trying to determine who's *more* punk. These commenters were a bit upset that you were telling everybody what is punk and what is not.
Of the people who picked up on your establishment of both being punk bands, they agree that Chumbawamba is more punk, the Sex Pistols being more of a corporate band than a naturally formed and evolved one like Chumbawamba.
Just thought I'd drop a line and let you know what was said. 🙂
@@94memyselfni Thanks for the update, I was wondering how that went! I did go with an intentionally controversial thumbnail ("Sex Pistols AREN'T PUNK???") just because I'm hungry for clicks... But yeah you got it. Glad people agreed haha
Started listening to them a month ago, so far tubthumper and anarchy were really good
Omg, I love your channel aesthetic!! I'm so glad the algorithm recommended this to me
Haha awesome! Glad you enjoy it :)
Cool. I didn't know much about either of these bands. What John Lydon is up to these days makes more sense now.
Ugh yeah he sucks
The outro made me miss pat the bunny. Hope they are doing great.
I think they are, adjusting back to a normal life after leaving music behind
Personally I've been growing to resent Pat personally for his more recent behavior, but I can't take away what his music means to me and others.
The PewDiePie cameo, holy shit 😆
I happened to listen to Chumbawamba just the other day, and they are pretty great.
New to the channel. Loving your content brother!
Awesome, thank you!
I think "I'm thick" means "thick skulled" which is an insult akin to calling someone stupid.
Nice video! As others have mentioned, the audio is pretty low, listening with phones is fine but kinda hard to hear through speakers.
Sex Pistols probably encapsulated most of what I wrongly assumed to be Anarchism for most of my life, before I got into leftist politics and learned about actual Anarchism. Never knew they were such a manufactured band as I haven't really thought about them since I was a rebellious teen.
I also didn't know Chumbawamba's anarchist leanings, tbf I only knew them by that one song, I'll definitely give a listen to their older stuff!
Yep Sex Pistols probably singlehandedly warped a lot of people’s understanding of anarchism, myself included.
Thanks for the feedback on the audio, I’ll take in some tutorials before my next video. Don’t want that to happen again
@M. Soares, their older stuff is AMAZING! 🙂
I always knew the Sex Pistols were posers, it's a known fact. I did not know Chumbawamba were so thoroughly cool though, and appreciate learning!
Living Colour is the most punk band. You can’t change my mind. (Afropunk is amazing.)