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IVH: Fishbone / Truth and Soul [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2023-08-03

Tonight’s selections from Fishbone’s near-breakthrough second album, 1988’s Truth and Soul.

When they were just high-school students riding the desegregation bus from South Central Los Angeles to the San Fernando Valley, the members of Fishbone were collectively hooked by the Funkadelic song “Who Says a Funk Band Can’t Play Rock” and the bold endorsement of musical genre- blending the title implies. It became their manifesto; early on, some would label Fishbone a ska group incorporating other styles, but the band’s stew of funk, soul, punk, metal, jazz, reggae and seemingly everything else musical is far more distinctive — and exciting — than simple categorization allows. As Fishbone tried to explain in one of its songs, the group set out to create a “brand new nutmeg.” [...] Shot in the foot by poor sequencing and a baffled record company, the brilliant Truth and Soul should have been Fishbone’s breakthrough. While the first side is distinguished only by a scorching metallic cover of Curtis Mayfield’s “Freddie’s Dead,” the second half is a dazzling grand-slam of the band’s vibrant stylistic array. From the party anthem “Bonin’ in the Boneyard” to the scalding anti-racist “Slow Bus Movin’ (Howard Beach Party),” the near-hardcore of “Subliminal Fascism” to the soulful “Ghetto Soundwave” and the acoustic racial-unity ballad “Change,” it updates and rivals Sly’s finest work. — Trouser Press

Freddie's Dead

Ma and Pa

“We tried to take our thing, our politics, and put it with humor, make it funny so people would listen,” Jones continues. “And it was wrong. You try it that way, and it just cheapens everything you’re trying to say. So we went back to the real shit.” [...] Fishbone’s dilemma now is how to be heard and understood in mainstream pop society when many of the group’s fans just think it’s a great, goofy night out and its own people, for the most part, can’t deal with the group at all. Last year the band played a free show in L.A., in commemoration of Malcolm X. The turnout was overwhelmingly white, with blacks from the local neighborhood mostly standing in the back, baffled by the freak scene onstage. “I could see ’em back there,” Moore recalls, “wondering what these guys are doing. ‘Are they selling out to the white man? Or are they just lost?’ ” After more than a decade together, the Fishbone soldiers are still caught between their race, their rock and a hard place – and determined to bust out. “When we first started, our whole thing was to get everybody to unify in the house,” Dowd explains. “Black, white, whatever. Feel like brothers. Because even then we realized the system works to keep people separated. ‘You mean shit like this doesn’t happen in your neighborhood?’ It’s a matter of making people aware of each other’s cultures.” — Rolling Stone

Mighty Long Way

I don’t think people understood our philosophy. We wanted to be like, “We’re all just freaks. If you like this thing, we’ve got a song for you. If you like this other thing, we’ve got a song for you.” We wanted to bring everyone under the tent. “We’re all just human.” That would have been it. Instead, people were always trying to figure us out and they assumed they knew. “They were bussed to the Valley and then they heard Led Zeppelin and The Clash.” We were like the original black eccentric punk kids from the jump. I blame it on the radio in some ways, especially in Los Angeles. We were having this conversation the other day. There were records when we were kids growing up in the ’70s and ’80s, like, I remember when they played Devo on the black radio station. “Whip It” was such a big song that they were playing it on 1580K. You hear it shouted out in N.W.A. songs or whatever hip-hop shit was coming out at that time. It was that influential. I heard the B-52s on that same radio station, they were playing “Rock Lobster.” You’ve got to imagine these really hardcore thug life, tattooed, crips guys pop locking in the streets to “Whip It.” That wouldn’t happen now. [...] That rapport was the kind of thing that created your palate. I have to be realistic. Some people just showed up and they were just trying to buy fucking Huey Lewis and the News or whatever was popular at the time. That shit’s fucking corny. “When are we going to the Dead Kennedys concert?” We were those kids. — Chris Dowd interview @ Big Takeover

Bonin' in the Boneyard

On Truth and Soul, Fishbone toned down the humor and infused a harder rock sound which paid huge dividends. The album starts with a cover of Curtis Mayfield’s “Freddie’s Dead.” It was a very wise choice to open with because it pretty much set the course for what you were going to hear for the next 41 minutes. Jones’ guitar work is the unsung star of the LP because it breathes life into their unique sound. It also hides the somewhat dated sound of the keyboards, which has made other ‘80s records close to unlistenable now. A personal highlight for me was seeing them perform “Freddie’s Dead” on Soul Train. Don Cornelius had no idea what he witnessed or where they were coming from. [...] “Ghetto Soundwave” continues along the same vein. One scenario decries the senseless murder of a young black male, while another tells the tale of an immigrant who struggles to earn a living for his family. “Ghetto Soundwave” was timely back in 1988 and it’s still relevant today in 2018. “There's another cry of murder / Policeman shoot down baby brother / Shot him, shot him down in the street / But did they know the mother's grief / Were they sure they got the right one / Did they know he was her only son / A father tries to feed his family / They come here to find their opportunity / Living, living, living in the streets / With their dreams and with their humility / Can't we see all the pain and hurt / They love this land maybe more than us” — Albumism

Ghetto Soundwave



WHO’S TALKING TO WHO?

All repeats

LAST WEEK'S POLL: SHOULD WE HAVE AGE LIMITS FOR POLITICIANS?

Yes 52%

No 38%

π 10%

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/8/3/2184895/-IVH-Fishbone-Truth-and-Soul

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