Crass - Nagasaki Nightmare / Big A Little A

CRASS - 

NAGASAKI NIGHTMARE / BIG A LITTLE A

In his review of The Feeding Of The 5000 in Sounds music paper, journalist Garry Bushell had somewhat sneeringly written of Crass: 'They claim to be anarchists and hide behind CND badges - how relevant'. Two years later and CND were bearing up to become a major thorn in the side of Thatcher and Crass had become arguably the most relevant band in the country as evidenced by their next release, Nagasaki Nightmare.

This, their third 7" single was another venture into audio soundscaping, creating a traditional Japanese-like atmosphere through the use of pots, pans, bells and flute; along with Eve Libertine singing in her best Oriental-style voice: "They're always there high in the skies, pretty as a picture in the general's eyes. They've done it once, they'll do it again - they'll shower us all in their deadly rain. Fishing children fish in Imperial Waters, sons and lovers, lovers and daughters. Cherry blossom hanging on the cherry blossom tree - flash blinding flash then there's nothing to see. Dying they're still dying one by one, darkness in the land of the rising sun. Lesson? Learnt the lesson? No, cos no-one really cares - it's so easy to be silent just to cover up your fears."

Eve's singing of the lyrics is underpinned and the whole song carried along by Pete Wright relaying the song's title in his best menacing and agitated tone: "Nagasaki nightmare Nagasaki nightmare Nagasaki nightmare..."

Midway through, the whole song stumbles and breaks down as does Eve as she repeats the word 'rain' over and over again as though she's in a state of total shock before the tempo is picked up and the full power of Crass in full Punk thrash mode is unleashed as is the scorching authority of Eve's voice: "So they die in the nightmare nightmare nightmare - Nagasaki nightmare. And live with the nightmare nightmare nightmare - Nagasaki nightmare. Will you stand by and let it happen again? Nightmare death in deadly rain. Nagasaki nightmare!"

Once again, Crass were raising the level of their game and confounding expectations. Rather than another diatribe, Crass on this occasion were placing a lot of attention upon the actual composition of the song, using sound to convey thought and feeling. This wasn't the first time they had raged against The Bomb but it was without doubt their most concentrated effort: "Man-made power - man-made pain. Deadly rain, deadly rain. They'll do it again - shower us in rain. Deadly, deadly, deadly rain. Nagasaki nightmare!"

Very few could deny the power and the passion of Nagasaki Nightmare and a good many would be so invigorated by it they would move to join the swelling ranks of the anti-nuclear protesters of CND. And for those having trouble in getting their head (and ears) around the Punk thrash, or for those seeking more detail and information there was always the fold-out cover of the record.

Containing a map of Britain pinpointing all the areas where the nuclear industry thrived, a mass of text, and another of Gee Vaucher's brilliant photomontage posters - this time depicting world leaders standing over the charred remains of an atomic bomb last victim - the record's cover was a work of political art in itself.

Seemingly leaving no stone left unturned and utilising all the tools in their box and all the tricks in their bag they were communicating what was essentially a very simple message: 'Fight war, not wars. Destroy power, not people'. Song, music, art, facts, figures - and words. Lots and lots of words.

'Civil Defence isn't about defending people. It's about keeping control of people. Stopping rebellion. Maybe there'd be rebellion after a nuclear war, against the pricks that spread their deadly Last Coming over the people. Maybe there'd be rebellion just because the State is so shit-awful. No matter, Civil Defence is there to keep it - us - down...

State control is the name of the game. If they get us into a war, the State fears a rebellion. Damn right there would be, with the total fucking stupidity of the State, of all States, written in mushroom clouds all over the sky so no-one could miss it. What else could they expect?...

Subversives are what the whole thing is about. Subversives are all the people who want to change things. Having this record makes you a subversive. Being on a strike committee makes you a subversive. Women living outside men's rules are subversives. Anyone who's not supporting the generals and the government, the generals and the government are against. And if the government is a Regional Commissioner locked up down in an Army bunker, generals rule government OK?...

Imagine all those men in grey suits and fancy uniforms down there in their bunkers. Imagine them dreaming about being the saviours of the nation they're destroying. Imagine them fantasizing about the Brave New World they'd build, without the awkward people who get in their way. A world ruled by their kind of men, rebuilt in their image. Those men dream about raping their secretaries down in the bunker's womb in their duty to keep the race going. They must be stopped...

Be yourself. Be yourself and break out of their death machine. You can only be yourself, or a collaborator in death. The mind-fucking machine will grind dry without the sweat of your bodies. Refuse to be ruled, and rulers lose power. Refuse to be afraid, and they cannot frighten...'

Essentially, Crass were defining the problem. The West was edging ever nearer to a war with the Soviet Union, promoted by Reagan and Thatcher on the one side and Brezhnev and his Politburo on the other. The world was being pushed headlong toward nuclear destruction through a stand-off between the last two great ideologies of the 20th Century - Capitalism and Communism. Atomic weapons had already been used twice before on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and there was no reason to believe they would not be used again. The build-up of weapons on both sides served only to increase the possibility of this happening.

Crass were defining all governments and all army generals as those responsible for this absolute madness, and those individuals and the institutions they represented had to be stopped. The power they held, however, was simply the power that we as ordinary people were allowing them. In us refusing to be ruled, the rulers would lose that power. It was all very simple: those choosing to be ruled were collaborators with 'the death machine'; those choosing not to be ruled were subversives and therefore enemies of the State.

'They know that as long as you obey, they will rule. To save our lives and make our lives worth saving, there's got to be more people rebelling than obeying. There could be soldiers and police breaking out of their corners of the death machine. All kinds of people breaking the rules that keep us apart. You can try and change your own life but all kinds of people changing together makes social change.

All kinds of people changing together can support each other. Enough people changing together and we can show the government and the generals they can't get away with their lies. They can't get away with our lives. While they have power they may not see sense but they must see the strength of people refusing rules. For thirty-five years they've kept the world in their nuclear nightmare. Now is the time for their rude awakening'.

This idea of breaking free from rule and control was further expounded upon in Big A Little A, the flipside of Nagasaki Nightmare, where Steve Ignorant enters the fray on a classic Punk Rock riff of exhilarating proportions: "Big A little A bouncing B, the system might have got you but it won't get me." Then to a Ramones-like "1, 2, 3, 4!" throws forth a feisty dose of lyrical reality: "External control are you gonna let them get you? Do you wanna be a prisoner in the boundaries they set you? You say you want to be yourself, by Christ do you think they'll let you? They're out to get you get you get you get you get you."

As though the whole world was his stage, Steve delivers scathing parodies of God ("Hello, hello, hello, this is the Lord God, can you hear? Hellfire and damnation's what I've got for you down there.."), the Queen ("Hello, hello, hello, now here's a message from your Queen; as figurehead of the status quo I set the social scene...") and Thatcher ("Introducing the Prime Sinister, she's a mother to us all, like the Dutch boy's finger in the dyke her arse is in the wall..."), before slipping into a full-on Crass rant: "Palaces for kings and queens, mansions for the rich, protection for the wealthy, defence of privilege. They've learnt the ropes in Ireland, engaged in civil war, fighting for the ruling classes in their battle against the poor. So Ireland's just an island? It's an island of the mind. Great Britain? Future? Bollocks! You'd better look behind. Round every other corner stands PC 1984, guardian of the future, he'll implement the law. He's there as grim reminder that no matter what you do, Big Brother's system's always there with his beady eyes on you. From God to local bobby, in home and street and school, they've got your name and number while you've just got their rule. We've got to look for methods to undermine their powers, it's time to change the tables - the future must be ours."

As in Nagasaki Nightmare, midway through, the song suddenly changes into what could almost be a completely new one as Steve advises anyone who might care to listen to: "Be exactly who you want to be, do what you want to do. I am he and she is she but you're the only you. No-one else has got your eyes, can see the things you see, it's up to you to change your life and my life's up to me."

In essence, this was what Punk had always truly been about: to be yourself. An exhortation that was always far easier to urge than to do and far easier to try for than to actually accomplish. It was a message so simple yet so difficult to grasp, understand and achieve.

In essence, was this not what anarchy was also truly about? To be your individual self? Free from authority and control? United with other individual selves?

If the Pistols' Anarchy In The UK was "words of wisdom, vinyl quotation number one", then surely its B-side, I Wanna Be Me, was words of wisdom vinyl quotation number two?

Punk had enabled and created an environment for people to be and to express their true selves, or alternatively for people to simply re-invent themselves. So, John Lydon became Johnny Rotten, Simon Ritchie became Sid Vicious, Joseph Mellor became Joe Strummer, Chris Miller became Rat Scabies, Eric Reed Boucher became Jello Biafra, Steve Williams became Steve Ignorant, Andy Palmer became NA Palmer (and BA Nana, Dada Nana, Hari Nana, and Sri Hari Nana BA), and so on. Bank clerk Mark Perry became a writer and singer, DJ and clothes shop manager Don Letts became a film maker, artist Paul Simonon became a musician, Wimpy bar server Jimmy Pursey became... a spokesman for a generation.

Harking back to Anarchy In The UK and its convoluted rhyming, Steve Ignorant continued to expound upon the advice he was giving: "If you don't like the life you live, change it now, it's yours. Nothing has effect if you don't recognise the cause. If the programme's not the one you want, get up, turn off the set. It's only you who can decide what life you're going to get. If you don't like religion you can be the anti-christ. If you're tired of politics you can be - an an-ar-chist."

In a way that the Pistols never did, however, a proviso of sorts is added: "But no-one ever changed the church by pulling down a steeple and you'll never change the system by bombing Number Ten. System's just aren't made of bricks they're mostly made of people, you may send them into hiding but they'll be back again."

A fine line was being tread here by Crass. Ultimately they were calling for a revolution though as stated in Bloody Revolutions, not a typical revolution as favoured by the Left but more of a personal revolution. A revolution of self. Perhaps, even, a spiritual revolution? At the same time, however, such a good job they were doing in pointing out and railing against all that was wrong with government, politics, religion, nuclear weapons and the system in all its forms that they were actually validating and justifying a full-scale Leftist-type revolution.

As anarchists, Crass were reluctant to lead or to tell people what they should do though as pacifists they had no qualms in insisting there was no solution to be found in violence, and in this particular argument they were being mightily convincing; in the process persuading many a hardened cynic of the possibility of achieving change through peaceful means.

"They make no space for us in their bunkers or in their hearts or in their world." Crass were stating "There is no space for their works in our world. They must be stopped." The problem that was inevitably going to have to be dealt with at some point as Crass were also stating, however, was that "They won't give up their Bomb because we ask nicely."

This then was the potential breaking point of all that Crass were saying. The point at which personal revolution would turn into personal responsibility and personal choice. However important it was for people to first and foremost change themselves and their own lives, when personal change moved into social change it would inevitably be met by those moving in the opposite direction and by those desiring that things remain just as they are. It would be here, crucially, that people would have to think, decide and act for themselves.

Would they capitulate at the first sign of forceful opposition? Or would they have the courage of their convictions and be prepared to fight for them?

These were interesting times. And only time would tell...