This Song Promotes Homosexuality...er...Margarine

The Mekons Rock n' Roll is my favourite Mekons album and Empire Of The Senseless a highlight amongst highlights. 

 

I had the accompanying The Dream And Lie Of... EP on 10" vinyl but I hadn't realised that Empire Of The Senseless was also released as a promo 12" single in the USA. The flipside features a 20-minute interview with Jon Langford and Tom Greenhalgh, conducted by Pete Shelley ("of The Buzzcocks" as stated on the label).

 

A video was made for the song, directed by Mike Mason, which I discovered for the first time this week on YouTube. A further surprise was finding that a key word has been clumsily replaced with a cut and paste from another part of the song, inspiring the title of today's post. Did Mekons self-censor this song? Unlikely. More a case of then-label A&M getting cold feet about (I assume) the only song from the album they otherwise considered a potential single. As it happens, Empire Of The Senseless never made it to a formal release on either side of the Atlantic.

 

If, like me, the song has whet your appetite for more, you can listen to The Mekons Rock n' Roll in it's glorious entirety here. If you don't own the album, you can find it and many other Mekons treasures available to buy on Bandcamp.

Empire Of The Senseless

No one's making any noise now, sshhh
We've been waiting for so long
They took away our films and tapes and notebooks
But it's okay, we've self-censored this song

But these lines are all individuals
And there's no such thing as a song
And even the silent are now guilty in the 

(Empire of the senseless)

What's your line of questioning, sir?

(Empire of the senseless)
I can't intercept a one word sentence
Invent a war in secrecy

Sliding scenery like a vintage toy
Isn't plastic surgery wonderful?
Satellite secret national security
(Empire of the senseless)

Turning journalists into heroes takes some doing
(Empire of the senseless)
Boring Ollie North down in the subway dealing drugs and guns
(Empire of the senseless)
Turning little liars into heroes, it's what they've always done

(Empire of the senseless)
This song promotes homosexuality
It's in a pretended family relationship with the others on this record
And on the charts and on the jukebox

And in the radio
And in the radio

No one's making any noise now, sshhh
Stay quiet
All unacceptable gropings have been removed from the screen
Only eyes full of unspeakable thoughts remain
And even the silent are now guilty in the 

(Empire of the senseless)
 

Baked beans, sugar and margarine
(Empire of the senseless)
Bread, jam, groceries and lard
For the unsentimental
The men who like the lady hard
The men who like the hard lady

And you know that people are really rather afraid
(Empire of the senseless)
Afraid of being swamped
(Empire of the senseless)
Afraid of being swamped by selfishness and greed
(Empire of the senseless)
(Empire of the senseless)
(Empire of the senseless)
(Empire of the senseless)
(Empire of the senseless)