Crass - Penis Envy

CRASS - PENIS ENVY

Through no fault and through no real desire of their own, Crass were rapidly becoming spokespersons for all things 'alternative' and their views and opinions being sought on a variety of relatively difficult subjects. At the same time, however, they were still very much a music group - a hardcore Punk Rock anarchist music group but a music group all the same - operating within a variety of similar fields to any other pop group.

Whilst a hardcore of their audience were taking the Crass vision seriously there was still a large element who were into Crass purely for the music, the image and the trend - or anti-trend. From these, Crass would be asked the same kind of questions that all groups might be asked such as 'when's the next album coming out?' and so on, to which they would patiently and very politely reply. Another element of their audience, recognising a consciousness in Crass that was rare would approach them on a more deeper philosophical or political level, asking them what they thought, for example, of specific Indian gurus or particular Russian anarchists - to which Crass would oft times respond with a terse 'fuck off'. Others, after listening to Crass were learning to stop looking for answers in groups/bands/music, etc and to actually start thinking for themselves. Learning to say No. Even this element of their audience, however, were still somewhat in awe of Crass and like all the other elements were looking up to and hanging on to Crass's every word.

It was at this point that Crass were on the verge of becoming one of the biggest Punk bands ever - up there in terms of popularity with the Sex Pistols and The Clash - and this success, albeit on their own terms had come as quite a surprise. When first starting out, never in a million years did they anticipate or expect one day to find themselves in such a powerful and influential position. There never had been and never would be any kind of grand, ten-point program.

Though steeped in a history of libertarian, alternative cultural references and ideas - reanimated through the Punk shock - Crass, just like everyone else were learning all the time and however much it may have seemed, really didn't know or have all the answers to everything.

Crass were obviously intelligent enough to be fully aware of the position they held and knew full well there was a huge number of people eagerly awaiting their next album release. Major political issues were being played out and unless you were a total hedonist with your head stuck up your arse, it was impossible not to be aware of it and even more impossible not to be affected in some way by it.

Thatcherism was cutting deeply into everyone's lives, some on the surface seemingly for the better but many more for the worse. Crass, being the most political of bands in Britain would bound to have plenty to say about the way in which the social fabric was being torn apart, wouldn't they? Wouldn't they?

Come its release, Crass's second album proper came as a surprise to say the least. Given the somewhat eye-catching title of Penis Envy, Crass were presenting a whole new side of themselves to their audience. So much so, in fact, that they could almost have been an entirely different band to what had gone before. Almost.

Out entirely were the vitriolic Punk vocals of Steve Ignorant and Pete Wright, in instead were the more measured voices of Eve Libertine and Joy De Vivre. Out were any traces of basic three-chord Punk ramalama, in instead was a more melodious form of Pop Punk. Out was ferocity and anger, in was forceful intelligence and thoughtfulness. Out was Punk as male-dominated aggressiveness, in was Punk as female-powered assertiveness.

Driven by Penny Rimbaud's enhanced drumming skills though absolutely carried by Pete Wright's sublime bass playing, all of the songs on Penis Envy still swam in a rush of tortured fuzzbox guitar, suggesting that Andy Palmer was the actual, real provider of the honey at the core of Crass's sound.

Lyrically, the majority of the songs dealt with issues of life from a woman's perspective and though taken as feminist statements by both critics and Crass fans alike, some of the songs could just as easily have been sung by Steve Ignorant.

Where Next Columbus, for example, concerns itself with the subject of leadership and of being led, a subject obviously applicable to all genders: "Who do you see? Who do you watch?" asks Eve Libertine "Who's your leader? Which is your flock?"

Marx? Mussolini? Jung? Sartre? Einstein? Jesus? All of these great and much-lauded thinkers are swiftly dismissed with cutting one-liners: "The books are sold, the quotes are bought, you learn them well and then you're caught," regarding Marx. "The stage was set, the costumes worn, and another empire of destruction born," regarding Mussolini. "You're not yourself, the theory says, but I can help, your complex pays," regarding Jung. "Revelling in isolation and existential choice, how can you be alone if you use another's voice?" regarding Sartre. "They realised that their god was dead, so they reclaimed power with The Bomb instead," regarding Einstein. And "The guilt is sold, forgiveness bought, the cross is there as your reward," regarding Jesus.

The persuasiveness of these comments are fuelled by the utter conviction in Eve's voice and though anarchism isn't mentioned in the song, between the lines the idea of self-rule is clearly there: "Do you watch at a distance from the side you have chosen? Whose answers serve you best? Who'll save you from confusion? Who'll leave you an exit and a comfortable cover? Who'll take you to the edge but never drop you over? Who do you watch? Who do you watch?"

Likewise, the track What The Fuck? - a meditation on the masters of war and the mindset of those who would destroy the earth - could easily have been sung by any of the Crass vocalists, male or female, without losing any of its power: "Your war and raving of it is so total, you're consumed by it as you'd consume us. Would you see the fire from your sanctuary of death? What terrible pain you need to hide. In your hatred you'd seek to destroy the earth. What is it that you have been denied? What the fuck are you thinking? What the fuck? What the fuck are you seeing? What the fuck?"

The same too for Systematic Death, an almost paint-by-numbers Crass song describing the life journeys of both men and women as lived through the system: "Poor little fuckers, what a sorry pair, had their lives stolen but they didn't really care. Poor little darlings, just your ordinary folks, victims of the system and its cruel jokes."

Admittedly, Eve's precise intonations do actually raise the songs to a whole new level, particularly - oddly enough - in lines that contain swearing, as in for example: "Poor little sweety, poor little filly. They'll fuck her mind so they can fuck her silly - FUCK her mind so they can FUCK HER SILLY!"

In an interview with BBC Radio 1 at the time of the album's release, Penny Rimbaud was asked whether Crass were "a bunch of anarchists?", to which he replied: "We talk a lot about that and we always end up saying we're people first. Broadly we would agree with most anarchist theory. Equally well we'd agree with most feminist and pacifist theory."

If Crass shied away from being labelled, it was probably true to say that they would also shy away from labelling Penis Envy as a feminist record. There was little doubt, however, that it was a woman's record - but for both men and women. From the front panel of the fold-out sleeve depicting the face of a blow-up dolly encased in plastic packaging etched with the words 'Teenage doll. An amazingly life-like companion', to other photomontage images on the sleeve of women in bondage. From the bible quotation accompanying an image of an abattoir worker arranging pig carcasses - 'And Adam said, this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman because she was taken out of Man', to the majority of the songs themselves.

On the track Bata Motel, Eve takes on the unlikely role of woman as servile victim, "trussed and bound like an oven-ready bird". The fact that her public persona was that of a strong woman - all mad-eyed, fiery and cloaked in black Viet-Cong chic - made the opening line of the song somewhat amusing: "I've got 54321, I've got a red pair of high heels on!" But as Eve runs through a torrent of images depicting female masochistic victimhood, culminating with a plea to "burn me out, twist my wrists. I promise not to shout - beat me with your fists," the over-riding effect is slightly disturbing yet at the same time quite thought-provoking.

If these images of women as conveyed by Eve ("My breasts to temp inside my bra, my face is painted like a movie star... I'll be your bonsai, your beautiful bonsai, your black-eye bonsai, erotically rotting") are unacceptable, then where do they come from? Why is it that women are always being disempowered in such ways? Why do so many women happily conform to such powerless roles? And what exactly are the benefits of high heels?

On the track Poison In A Pretty Pill answers of a sort are suggested: "They tell your lover he must hold a gun, you're the pornographic reassurance he's a man," sings Eve in what is actually a rather complex lyric. "Your bondages of silky robes and lace are the bandages on a bullet-punctured corpse."

Comparisons are made between the soldier and the blushing bride, suggesting both are cruel lies and that the image of female beauty as sold to women is a facile one. According to Eve, these roles are traps that both men and women fall effortlessly in to, leading to a "barrenness of dishonesty and fear... Wrapped up in haze and flow of bridal gown... Red lips, shimmer-silk and body bags." All "layers of precious imitation worn", all "layers of history to suffocate the unborn."

If a sense of empathy comes across on Poison In A Pretty Pill, with the song Berkertex Bribe there is nothing but condemnation. In what is probably the best track on the album, it starts as a rather mellow, Buddy Holly-type groove thang before changing abruptly when Eve once again starts swearing, as in: "The object unsoiled is packed ready and waiting to be owned, to be cherished, to be FUCKED for the naming." Then, in a series of scathing lines the institution of marriage is put to death without mercy: "The public are shocked by the state of society but as for you, you're a breath of purity. Well, don't give me your morals, they're filth in my eyes, you can pack them away with the rest of your lies. Your painted mask of ugly perfection, the ring on your finger, the sign of protection, is the rape on page 3, is the soldier's obsession. How well you've been caught to support your oppression: One god. One church. One husband. One wife."

Who would have thought that something so seemingly innocent, something so traditional as marriage could cause so much ire? Something so consistently cited by Right-wing, Christian, moral pundits as being the bedrock of their favoured society? But here was Eve Libertine, asking if there was really nothing better than this State-sanctioned union of men and women? Was this all that there was when it came to realising loving relationships? Or as Eve was putting it: "What vision is left and is anyone asking?"

Of course, an institution so deeply embedded into society such as the 'normality' of marriage was never going to be displaced by a mere song, though the power of Berkertex Bribe was in the way it succeeded in sowing a tiny seed of doubt.

Continuing and developing the same theme, the track Smother Love takes Eve's argument forward to include not only marriage but the concept of love itself as being "another skin-trap, another social weapon. Another way to make men slaves and women at their beckon." Her argument, however, unlike that against the idea of marriage, isn't against love per se but love as sold by "the magazines, the cinema, the glossy shops."

According to Eve, this particular version or type of love didn't so much make the world go round but held it right in place, keeping us thinking that "love's too pure to see another face." Or as she puts it in a more scathing fashion: "Love's another sterile gift, another shit condition that keeps us seeing just the one and others not existing."

If anyone thought Crass were being a little ambitious in taking on the government, the industrial military complex, even Christianity, then taking on such a universal theme as love - even if it was the love as promoted by business and the media - was something else again. But surely, if people the world over drew no recognition from this love as sung, spoken, written about and depicted in the mainstream then wouldn't it be without currency and therefore be a redundant concept? And anyway, what exactly was the alternative? What greater love was there other than that between two people? Again, according to Eve: "If we didn't have these codes for love, of tokens and positions, we'd find ourselves as lovers still, not tokens of possessions."

So did this mean that Crass were all for opening up relationships? For open relationships? Were Crass advocating polygamy? Was monogamy repression? Were Crass promoting free love?

"Do you love me? Do you? Do you? Don't you see they aim to smother the actual possibilities of loving all the others?"

What Crass were doing here was challenging one of the most fundamental issues of human experience and questioning to what extent this experience was being shaped for the benefit of man-made systems rather than for the benefit of the individual. Love as presented by these systems was a distortion of a far greater love that all people were capable of. Love was a gift not a commodity. Love was a force for freedom not a tool for oppression.

This was Crass doing what they were very good at: concentrating on an accepted norm or tradition and blasting it wide open so as to reveal it in a whole new light; then debunking, disputing and questioning its worth, its truth and its validity. Highlighting the fact that there was a problem that required a solution but not offering any real solutions or answers themselves (apart from the trinity of anarchy, peace and freedom) but convincing others to question that accepted norm also.

This important aspect of Crass, however, was one that was causing a lot of confusion, particularly amongst their own audience. People were looking to Crass for answers, with some even looking to Crass as if they were the answer but essentially all Crass were doing was asking questions. Crass were a question. The real solution lay in thinking for yourself. The real solutions, the genuine answers were to be found within.

"Is there anyone prepared to tell me why? Tell me why I'm being sucked dry?" asks Eve on Dry Weather, the penultimate track on Penis Envy. But she already has her answer: "You don't want person, you just want woman." And as a woman, from her personal perspective, this is indeed an answer that makes sense to her: "You want woman cos she's children for your system, well people wither in that living death. You hide behind your prejudice, afraid of my wisdom, afraid I might question your unquestioned worth."

And from this answer comes a resolution and a very simple one at that: to reject, to denounce, to protest. To say 'No'. Or as Eve puts it as though it's the most obvious thing in the world: "I don't want these games."

Penis Envy ends with an unlisted track by the name of Our Wedding, a schmaltzy pastiche of what might easily be a commercial ode to wedded bliss. Over the sound of a synthesized church organ, Joy De Vivre angelically sings words that would be cheesy in anyone's book let alone when sang by the same person who had screamed "Fuck is women's money, we pay with our bodies," on Feeding Of The 5000: "All I am I give to you, you honour me, I'll honour you... Never look at anyone, anyone but me. Never look at anyone, I must be all you see. Listen to those wedding bells, say goodbye to other girls. I'll never be untrue , my love, don't be untrue to me."

Coming from Crass, it's pretty obvious the words are being sung sarcastically but might anyone who didn't know of Crass actually agree with and see value in those same words? Apparently, yes. The editor of a teen romance magazine entitled Loving for one, who prior to the release of Penis Envy had been 'tricked' into offering the song as a free flexi-disc to her readers, seriously proclaiming it to be 'a must for all true romantics'.

On being informed that the artistes behind the record - Creative Recording And Sound Services - were really evil anarchist Punk band Crass, the editor wasn't very amused. It was, however, all good publicity for Penis Envy and an amusing jape all round, proving also that Crass had a really quite wicked sense of humour.

Penis Envy was Crass's most melodic and tuneful offering so far and therefore their most approachable and accessible, serving as a great introduction to the band for those with a more discerning and delicate musical palette. It was obvious it wasn't quite the album that people were expecting from them but it was very much liked by everyone all the same. It was also another stark reminder that Crass were not going to play up to anyone's expectations, not their audience's nor their many critic's.

Penis Envy was a slab of pure genius.