I discovered a new album this week! I had listened to some Tom Robinson Band as a child, mainly because growing up in the UK without hearing 2-4-6-8 Motorway playing at a BBQ or on the local pub jukebox is nearly impossible. I thought it was a catchy song and I enjoyed it, what I overlooked however was the huge influence that Tom Robinson band contributed to the counterculture of the 70’s and 80’s.
Tom Robinson has been a dedicated LGBT activist his entire life, having grown up in a time when his sexuality was a criminal offence in the UK and most of his music is outspoken and rebellious. The album “Power in the Darkness” was released with a stencil in the shape of the fist adourning the cover, labelled “This Stencil is not meant for spraying on public property”. The debut album of Tom Robinson band really embodied the phrase “Start as you mean to go on”. It is a brilliant album full of legendary songs
But my favourite is the tangible narrative of the song “Power in the Darkness”. The first half of the song is almost a political speech set to a punk riff in which the narrator is calling for “Freedom”, in his chorus he implores the listener to “Stand up and fight for your lives”. His concern with freedom broaches subjects of elitism, patriarchy, racism and homophobia.
The real narrative however is built up in the bridge, where the song almost becomes a film. The riff is played over newsreel soundtracks of civil unrest, with talks of curfews amongst other matters being heard in the dialogue. The band isn’t just performing a song, its creating a background track to the civil unrest that you’re listening to.
The bridge is cut by the voice of a different kind of character. Someone I believe to be representing a figure of the 1970’s establishment, he is well spoken and comments on the unrest that’s occurring, he also calls for freedom but very quickly reveals that his definition of freedom is very different to the previous definition we’ve heard. He’s not so much concerned with aforementioned topics as much as he is the freedom to avoid those protected by the aforementioned freedoms, the riff is now the background music to his own hateful rant as he lists the members of society he could really do without. (This is the part of the song you don’t want people to catch you listening to out of context).
As the song ends with another call to true freedom from the song’s protagonists we realize that we have been treated to a full narrative of civil unrest featuring both the heroes and the villain. The choice of including the establishment figure played out almost like a monologue from Blofeld that left the listener disgusted, but fully engaged because of the music.
Power of the Darkness written by Tom Robinson and Mark Ambler is just one of an album of protest music, the style of music that makes up most of the band’s catalogue. It has become more obscure in comparison to “Rock the Casbah” or “The Eton Rifles” but it remains a masterclass in creating such a tangible narrative.
T H E N A I V E F I L M M A K E R 