"Life During Wartime" is a song by New Wave band Talking Heads. It first appeared on Fear of Music in 1979. Its live version from Stop Making Sense in 1983 was released as a single, which peaked at #80 on the Pop Singles Chart.
The song's lyrics tell of a civil insurrection in the USA (the cities Houston, Detroit and Pittsburgh are mentioned by name) with the singer commenting on various activities involving an apparent guerrilla movement. ("Transmit the message, to the receiver / hope for an answer some day / I got three passports, a couple of visas / you don't even know my real name.") The singer laments that due to having to live underground, he can't go to night clubs. The now-defunct downtown New York clubs Mudd Club and CBGB are mentioned by name. A phrase from the lyrics, "This ain't no party / This ain't no disco", became a catchphrase in the Punk rock and New Wave music genres.
In David Bowman's book This Must Be the Place: The Adventures of Talking Heads in the Twentieth Century, Byrne is quoted as describing the genesis of the song: "I wrote this in my loft on Seventh and Avenue A." And later, "I was thinking about Baader-Meinhof. Patty Hearst. Tompkins Square. This a song about living in Alphabet City."
The song was covered and is used at live shows by Welsh indie alternative band, The Automatic. The song is occasionally played in concert by Athens, Georgia, jam band Widespread Panic. The song was included in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll
"Transmission" is a song by post-punk band Joy Division, released on Factory Records in November 1979 on 7" and re-released as a 12" single with a different sleeve in December 1980.
The single charted twice in New Zealand, debuting at number two in September 1981, and re-appearing again at number 24 in July 1984. In May 2007, NME magazine placed "Transmission" at number 20 in its list of the 50 Greatest Indie Anthems Ever, one place below "Love Will Tear Us Apart".
It was played on-stage in the film 24 Hour Party People, a scene in which Ian Curtis suffers an epileptic fit.
It has been covered by Low (on its EP Transmission), Indiana band ...revel in the morning (on the God Less America EP), Bauhaus and Innerpartysystem. A version by Hot Chip is on the War Child charity album, Heroes, released in February 2009. It was also played by The Smashing Pumpkins on the Adore Tour in 1998, with performances of the song usually lasting around 25 minutes
Quiet Life is the third album by the British band Japan, released firstly in Japan, Germany, Canada and other countries in December 1979, then in the UK in January 1980 (due to a delay in manufacturing the album).
Musically, the album was a huge departure for the band as their previous two albums had been more in the vein of alternative glam rock, as opposed to the New Wave leanings exhibited on this album.
Quiet Life was the last of three albums the band made for the Hansa-Ariola label (they switched to Virgin Records later in 1980), though Hansa would later issue a compilation album (Assemblage) that consisted of highlights from the band's tenure on the label. The album is also notable for being the first album where singer David Sylvian used his newfound baritone vocal style, which later became one of the band's most distinctive hallmarks.
Though initially unsuccessful upon its release in the band's native UK (where it peaked at #72 in February 1980), the album returned to the charts in early 1982 after the commercial success of 1981's Tin Drum and the Hansa Records compilation Assemblage. It then peaked at #53, two years after its original release, and was eventually certified "Gold" by the BPI in 1984 for 100,000 copies sold.
Also initially unsuccessful, the title track and lead single "Quiet Life" would later be re-released and make the UK top 20 in 1981. Three other prominent tracks were also recorded and released by the band during this era and would later be re-released and become UK top 40 hits for the band in 1982, but were not included on the album ("Life In Tokyo", "European Son", and a cover of the Motown hit "I Second That Emotion" which would make the UK Top 10).
"London Calling" is a song by the British punk rock band The Clash. It was released as a single from the band's 1979 double album London Calling. This apocalyptic, politically charged rant features the band's famous combination of reggae basslines and punk electric guitar and vocals.
Writing and recording
The song was written by Joe Strummer and Mick Jones. The title alludes to the BBC World Service's station identification: "This is London calling ...", that was used during World War II, often in broadcasts to occupied countries.
The lyrics reflect the concern felt by Strummer about world events with the reference to "a nuclear error" to the incident at Three Mile Island, which occurred earlier in 1979. Joe Strummer has said: "We felt that we were struggling about to slip down a slope or something, grasping with our fingernails. And there was no one there to help us."
The line "London is drowning / And I live by the river" comes from concerns that if the River Thames flooded, most of central London would drown, something that led to the construction of the Thames Barrier.
Strummer's concern for social violence is evident through the lines "We ain't got no swing / Except for the ring of that truncheon thing". This is perhaps a reference to the London riots at the time. Social criticism also features through references to the effects of casual drug taking: "we ain't got no high / except for that one with the yellowy eyes".
The lyrics also reflect desperation of the band's situation in 1979 struggling with high debt, without management and arguing with their record label over whether the London Calling album should be a single or double album. The lines referring to "now don't look to us / All that phoney Beatlemania has bitten the dust" reflects the concerns of the band over its situation after the punk rock boom in England in 1977 had ended.
While many took the line as a slam against the Beatles, another interpretation, offered at the time the song was released, suggested that this line referred not to the Beatles, but to the Broadway production, Beatlemania, which advertised itself as "Not the Beatles, But an Incredible Simulation." Hence, the line castigated late 1970s culture for its lack of substance, such as consuming "phoney Beatlemania," essentially a simulated, rather than actual, experience
Musically, the song is far removed from their earlier style of frenzied punk rock I-IV-V-I chord progressions, as best exemplified on songs like "Career Opportunities" and "I'm So Bored with the USA".
The song is in a minor key — something The Clash had rarely used before — and the inherent dirge-like, apocalyptic feel is intensified by Topper Headon's martial drumming without backbeat, in synchrony with staccato guitar chords; Paul Simonon's haunting and pulsating bass line; the group's deliberate, mid-tempo pace; and Strummer's icy lyrics and baleful delivery.
Strummer's wolf-like howls or perhaps Rooster-like crows, during the instrumental break, further fuel the atmosphere of desolation and paranoia implied throughout the song.[original research?] Like many of the tracks on London Calling — including "The Card Cheat", "Revolution Rock", and "Jimmy Jazz" — the song doesn't end by resolving strongly to the tonic or fading out, as most rock and roll songs do. Instead, it breaks down eerily, with Joe Strummer's cryptic last words "I never felt so much a-like..." echoing over Morse code feedback (the characters spelling out S-O-S).[3] (In live versions of the song, Strummer sings a complete version of the final line, which is "I never felt so much a-like singing the blues...") "London Calling" was recorded at Wessex Studios located in a former church in Highbury in North London. This studio had already proved to be a popular location with The Sex Pistols, The Pretenders and the Tom Robinson band. The single was produced by Guy Stevens and engineered by Bill Price
Artwork
Continuing the theme of the Elvis Presley-inspired London Calling LP cover, the single sleeve (front and back) is based on old RCA Victor (Elvis' label) 78 rpm sleeves. The cover artwork was designed by Ray Lowry and is identical to the RCA sleeve with the exception of changing the LP covers that the young teenage cover models are listening to. From left to right they are, The Beatles' debut Please Please Me, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols, The Rolling Stones debut, The Clash debut, Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited and finally the Elvis Presley debut LP.