Primal Scream and Dexys have teamed up to create a fund raiser for the RMT (National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers). Enough Is Enough is named after the RMT campaign and features a guest appearance from general secretary Mick Lynch.
The song itself fits more obviously into the Dexys canon but features strong vocal performances from both Kevin Rowland and Bobby Gillespie. Enough Is Enough is accompanied by a video from Douglas Hart, former bandmate of Bobby in The Jesus & Mary Chain and now an acclaimed director.
You can buy Enough Is Enough via Bandcamp for £1.00 and all proceeds will go to the RMT dispute fund. The politically charged lyrics and potty mouth language mean it's unlikely to disrupt the flow of the Radio 2 drivetime slot, but it's a good song, a good cause and worth five minutes of your time and 100 of your pennies (or equivalent currency).
Inevitably, it called to mind another song called Enough Is Enough, released in 1993 as a collaboration between Chumbawamba and Credit To The Nation. An anti-fascist anthem, it reached #56 in the UK singles chart and is currently available digitally on Chumbawamba's 1994 album Anarchy.
In 2000, a remix of the song, Enough Is Enough (Kick It Over), a remix of the song with updated lyrics, was released as a response to the formation of a coalition government in Austria. The coalition included the Freedom Party of Austria, led at the time by Nazi apologist Jörg Haider. Later that year Haider was forced to relinquish direct control of the FPO due
to international pressure. The remix of Enough Is Enough is still available as a free MP3 download on Chumbawamba's website
Sadly, a look around and both songs resonate with the situation that we currently find ourselves in, here in the UK and overseas. Enough Is Enough.
I must admit when I read "Inevitably, it called to mind another song called Enough Is Enough" it wasn't the Chumbawumba tune that came to my mind but the one by notorious anarcho-feminists Barbra Streisand and Donna Summer.
ReplyDeleteMe too! My concern in posting such a politically-charged song was that it might tip things over the edge and be seen as an incitement to riot. Alone, Streisand and Summer were subversive, together it was moider, as Max from Hart To Hart was prone to say.
DeleteAh the Streisand Summer movement.The SS!
ReplyDeleteAKA The Barbra-Meinhoff Gang
DeleteThat pair were hiding in plain sight all along, corrupting the youth of the times with their political ideologies. Enough Is Enough indeed.
DeleteExcellent stuff - but it makes me despair that how can we still be here, still reiterating the messages from decades ago?! Chumbawumba were brilliant and I have to say that they had that one thing that very few anarcho bands had which was songs that were so very accessible to all, rather than just to anarcho punks. If Barbra and Donna had done it, they would have reached a greater audience for sure! Maybe we need an anarcho Chumbawumba style Eurovision entry... ?
ReplyDeleteThanks, C. Remembering Chumbawumba's Danbert Nobacon chucking a bucket of water over John Prescott at the Brit Awards in 1998, I can only hope that Sleaford Mods get an invite to next year's show...!
DeleteAs the anarcho Eurovision entry, it was this one surely? ;-)
https://youtu.be/xfFu0DMGgbw
I've had this one on a post it since you recommended it last week, looking for the right moment to give it my full attention. Great stuff. I'm not quite sure Kevin and Bobby's voices go together, but in a way that makes it work even more.
ReplyDeleteYes, it feels much more of a Dexys than a Primal Scream song but I'm with you, I'm often attracted to vocal pairings that kind of work because they shouldn't or don't on a technical level.
DeleteSorry K. I'm fully support all that the RMT are standing up for....and you can make me down as a long-time fan of Chumbawamba (and loads of other political protest songs).....but the Scream/Dexy's thing is torture to listen to.
ReplyDeleteIt's never going to make a future Dexys selection, I'll admit, but I will listen to it again. In a strange way, it reminds me of Dexy's Midnight Runners 1986 hit Because Of You aka the theme from Brush Strokes!
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