29 July 2010

Since the 1960s, the traditional political protest song has been as much a part of popular youth culture as the miniskirt, the sideburn or the spliff.

Back then, Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Jefferson Airplane and others penned romantic laments for their lost utopian fantasies of universal peace, love and acid, and by the early 1970s these musical statements had evolved into intelligent reflections on the darker sides of Western society. By now they were far less fluffy and more direct in their scathing condemnation of subjects such as the Vietnam War, and of the political administrations that had initiated the conflict.

Words: Will JobbinsBy the mid ‘70s, any hopes of protest songs being taken seriously or constructively had faded as successions of musical and political idols were written off as little more than stinking hippies, and this demoralising disregard left in its place an angry frustration with the establishment. This manifested itself in the burning aggression of the punk movement of the late ‘70s. “God save the Queen, the fascist regime…” sneered the Sex Pistols’ Johnny Rotten, as The Clash encouraged the white underclass to violently revolt in White Riot and Crass presented full-scale anarchist ideology as a viable alternative to the government of the time.

But times change, and so does the music. The anger subsided and through the ‘80s and ‘90s, musical protest was embraced by the mainstream – in no small way thanks to Live Aid and other socially-conscious pop events, not to mention the great Billy Bragg – and by the time we entered the new millennium, protest music tended to be limited to the benefit gigs of stadium rock bands, and to bitterly contemptuous, well-informed commentaries on current affairs by the likes of Greenday and even George Michael.

So, as we enter what looks like another turbulent time for capitalism and for Western politics, what do the protest songs of today sound like? Well as you’d expect, it’s more polished than punk, more scathing than the hippie movement and more tongue-in-cheek than the great guilt trips of the 1990s. The Bankers is the debut single by London-based band Grand Harmonic, and if you want to know what the creaking seams of today’s society sound like, look no further.

The Bankers is a satirical, entertaining and sarcastic observation on the state of the UK’s financial system right now. A polished and highly enjoyable live band lays down a bluesy base tune with just enough attack on the crisp guitar notes to hint at a slightly anarchic undertone to the Harmonics’ offering, and that’s before vocalist Nathan steps in with a cynical narrative – delivered with a wonderful London twang – of his fight with the banks over the downward spiral he has been forced into through relentless illegal penalty fees.

The video is entertaining, hilarious at times and makes essential viewing alongside the song as it keeps things light-hearted, chipper and cheekily facetious, but under the surface this track is representative of a deep suspicion and mistrust inherent in our society right now – a mistrust of our government and the banks which it bought out with our hard-earned taxes, partly at least.

This is a mistrust of what evil deeds are done with our money – and thus in our names – across the world without our knowledge. And it is a mistrust of what isn’t done with our money right here at home, and why. The Bankers doesn’t sound deeply revolutionary – in fact it’s rather jolly, and more Martini cocktail than Molotov cocktail – but the acerbic lyrics convey a bitter nail-on-head smack of truth for anybody who’s seen the news in the last six months, knows someone recently made redundant or whose house has just shifted into negative equity.

As a bonus, all profits generated by the sale of the single are donated straight to the UK homeless charity Shelter, which provides help and support for people who have lost their homes. So if you buy this track, you don’t only receive an excellent piece of music but also a little chunk of good karma with your practice of the dana-paramita, the Buddhist philosophy of charity. You might even get a snog off the Dalai Lama. You just can’t lose.


The Bankers is out on the 11th of May on
Dirty Sounds Records from HMV, Amazon,
iTunes and other shops. Check out the
tune, the video and Grand Harmonic’s
other equally good – and equally prescient
- tracks at www.grandharmonic.com or
www.thebankers.biz