Zounds - Can't Cheat Karma

ZOUNDS - CAN'T CHEAT KARMA

In as much as the early Punk bands openly derided hippies and all they stood for, an underground subculture of British hippydom had managed to weather the Punk storm and if not exactly flourished had certainly survived, consolidating around such concepts as peace, freedom and independence - and a certain penchant for drugs.

Entertained and at the same time represented by bands such as Inner City Unit, Pink Faries, Here And Now, Planet Gong and the mighty Hawkwind, it was a scene that sat happily outside of the music business and of the realms of fashion. It turned out years later that Johnny Rotten himself was a big Hawkwind fan and had even at one point (according to Nik Turner) roadied for them. Of all the Punk class of '77, however, it was only Mark Perry of Sniffin' Glue fanzine who braved potential mockery by attempting to build a genuine bridge between the Punk and hippy scenes.

Disillusioned by how his Punk peer group were all flocking to be signed to major record labels, Perry set out in the summer of 1978 with his own band Alternative TV to play a free tour of the UK with Here And Now, taking in along the way the Stonehenge Free Festival of that year. This was Perry's way of demonstrating how he thought the spirit of Punk should be: free, experimental, and wild. A spirit perfectly captured by Crass, who Perry would later become a huge admirer of.

The Here And Now/Alternative TV live experience was captured for prosperity on the split album What You See Is What You Are, a shambolic but vital record of what really was a pivotal moment in Punk.

Zounds were a relatively unknown hippy/Punk band who had only ever played at various squat gigs and free festivals alongside the likes of Here And Now, so were very much a part of that same scene. Through their association with Crass, however, and the release of their Can't Cheat Karma EP on the Crass label they were catapulted to the attention of a far bigger audience. By the time of the release of the EP in July of 1980, the Crass label had gained a reputation of importance and integrity, ensuring thousands of copies of any new release would immediately be sold; Can't Cheat Karma being no exception, going straight to the top of the Independent Chart.

Whilst the record's lead track - Can't Cheat Karma, with its opening line of "I've got an ego it won't let me go what am I gonna do?" - was incredibly catchy and the song War name-checked the "violence in Bristol", it's the song Subvert that was the most compelling.

To an engaging, choppy, Pop Punk sound, vocalist Steve Lake advised how "If you got a job, you can be an agent. You can work for revolution in your place of employment. If you work in a factory, throw a spanner in the works. Internal sabotage - hit them where it hurts. Subvert!"

There would never be any way of telling how many people on hearing this song would actually act on the given advice though the potential was enormous.

"If you got a job, you can be an agent. If you work in a kitchen, you can redistribute food. If you are a policeman ordered to arrest me, you don't have to do it - you can refuse. Subvert!"

Subvert was a brilliant piece of polemic matched only - if not surpassed - by the sleeve notes on the cover: 'Anarchy is a state of mind, not a form of government. It seeks, through the liberation of the individual to free society from the restrictive rules and regulations that have been created in a world dominated by fear and controlled by the manipulators of that fear. Fear is one of the first 'facts of life' that we are taught. The smack for the naughty child, the first agent of normality...'

This was an essay that at the time was invaluable, putting into words much of the thought, sentiment and anger behind what was soon to be labelled as 'Anarcho Punk'. Any young person of school-leaving age facing a future of either unemployment or dead end work could not help but to be inspired by the prose, nor as could any person stuck in a rut of any description.

'At work we are treated as idiots incapable of making our own decisions. We work for our mere survival, while the bosses grow richer and richer. When they fuck it up, it is us that have to do without. They dare ask us to make do, but do you think they give up anything? And when the bosses and the politicians find that their world is collapsing around them they create phony campaigns like 'I'm backing Britain', or phony wars like Northern Ireland and expect us to support them. Back Britain? Fuck Britain! Do you really think that they care one bollock about you? As long as you tow their line they'll feed you your monkey nuts, but try and do it your way and see whose life you're living. They don't care a fuck if you can't afford to eat, they don't care a fuck if you're cold and homeless. As long as you clock in on time you're a convenient number in their little book. Do it your way and you'll be a name again, out on the streets.'

Zounds were putting forward anarchism for consideration as a serious, cohesive idea. Festooning the record sleeve with circled 'A' symbols and even quoting seminal French anarchist philosopher Pierre Joseph Proudon: "Whoever puts his hand on me to govern me is a usurper and a tyrant. I declare him my enemy."

Anarchist ideas that had previously been the domain of students or earnest men in sandals were being given a make-over and presented in a fresh, relevant and exciting way. Revolutionary action suddenly seemed to be reasonable, feasible and under the circumstances of the day, perfectly sensible.

'Don't be fooled by their reasonable smiles. They don't want you, they want a neat number, with no voice, with no mind so that their greed can be fed. Don't be fooled by their polite manner, they'd suck you dry to line their pockets and wouldn't put their hand in it if you were starving. From the very start we are conditioned (conned) to be a part of their machinery. We are conned by our families, schools and places of work into being passive tools. Is that really how you want to live your life? Reject their system of oppression, reject their 'facts of life'. Kick back, question, disobey, make your own rules, live your own life, be responsible. Subvert.'

As a band, Zounds will probably never know or understand just how important their début record actually was. Being one of the first of many releases to come on the Crass label, it not only confirmed the commitment of Crass to their ideas but firmly established the label as being an arbiter of good taste. In addition to this the record also served as a solid foundation stone for a huge number of people to build their personal politics upon, thus helping to pull into shape the budding Anarcho Punk scene.