2006
Suite XVI

The fastest song the band has ever recorded. I wanted to cram in as many chord changes as we could and still keep the whole thing rocketing alone. It was inspired by reading about some of the notes, letters and diaries that were found in the allied trenches during the First World War, left by soldiers about to go over the top, never to be seen, and in many cases never to be found, again. I thought it was stirring stuff, heart breaking, poignant, and in the case of many a British Tommy, blackly amusing…never say fucking die…sometimes all there is left is to laugh…

Counterpointing dark subject matter again with a jolly upbeat tune and melody seemed to be key here, and we rattled this off in no time once we’d worked it through. It’s not easy playing as fast as this and keeping it tight, and we’ve been playing it live recently too…a first… As an aside, this was the song I mentioned... (Continues)

1984
Aural Sculpture

That was mine, just a JJ 'where things are now' song. It was one of my melancholy songs about the very strong images that had occurred during my life, while I was growing up. The 'Orange road burning' was about the self immolation of Buddhist priests during the Vietnam war, setting themselves on fire. The 'Youth on fire' referred to Jan Palak, who I'd talked about before on Euroman. The 'Metal machines...' line was about the Prague spring in '68, when the Czechs tried to be much more liberal and the Russian tanks just rolled in. 'Two generations' referred to the two world wars, 'Birth pains' was about the birth of Israel and what I remembered about the Yom Kippur war. 'Freedom in the shape of disease' was about AIDS, suddenly this new word AIDS had arisen when we were writing Sculpture. It was an unknown disease then. 'Kids whose bellies' was about the west and the... (Continues)

[1978]
Album: Black & White

Well, here is the 'typical haughtiness' of a tankman.

1980
Album: The Stranglers IV