Scritti Politti changes into a new direction

Ever since the seventies Scritti Politti has been jumping between the
two extremes of pop music - from political philosophy to shiny
surface. After a decade of confusion they are back. “I’m like a dog with
a sore leg, I just can’t stop poking in it”, says the eccentric Green
Gartside.

If you want to understand the evolution of modern pop music there is
no better guide than Green Gartside and his band project Scritti
Politti. No other artist has in such a drastic way moved from the anti
commercial alternative music of the seventies, wrapped up in photo
print copied covers, to the perfectly polished pop hits of the
eighties.

And no one else has made pop music out of philosophy either. Scritti
Politti has started out from Wittgenstein on their earlier albums,
quoted the French psychoanalyst Lacan on a top ten hit (”The Word
Girl”) and even penned a song with the title “Jacques Derrida”.

The come-back single “White Bread Black Beer” - released on Rough
Trade on June 5 - is home cooked soul pop influenced by the American
philosopher Richard Rorty. In the radio friendly “Dr Abermathy” Green
sings about “The Owl of Minerva”, a reference to Hegel.

- The new album is about different ways of being dependent, says
Green. I have realized that I really need music, I need my Lovers
rock, hiphop and Beach Boys. I also need the hope for finally finding
true knowledge, even if it turns out to be in vain. And this keeps
leading me back to my books on philosophy. I’m not even sure that it’s
good for me, but I’m just like a dog with a wounded leg. I can’t stop
poking it.

Green Gartside was born on June 22 1955 i Wales, as Paul Julian
Strohmeyer. 15 years old he and a friend started a local department of
Young Communist League, but only managed to recruit one member. When
Green saw Sex Pistols at the Anarchy Tour 1977 he understood that
there are more effective ways to change the world. The band name
Scritti Politti became a game with the italian phrase “scritti
politici”, political writing. A tribute to the italian marxist Antonio
Gramsci (1891-1937).

The first line-up of Scritti Politti had about twenty members, of whom
only a few were musicians. The majority formed a kind of “team in
thinking”. They were all squatters, illegal occupants of flats, in a
house set for demolition in Camden, London. A chaotic interior photo
from that hous was displayed on an EP.

The debut single “Skank Bloc Bologna” was released in 1978 on their
own label. In the lyrics Green meant that the real punk revolution
of 1977 happened in Bologna, where violent riots caused the mayor
to temporarily lose control of the city.

Scritti Politti were also pioneers of the DIY culture (”Do It
Yourself”). The band went further than anyone else by printing the
total costs and production budget of their first album on the album
cover, together with the phone numbers to the pressing plant and
printing manufactory.

But Green soon became disillusioned by the alternative culture where
he himself was held as a leader. Under a concert together with Gang of
Four in early 1980 he was struck by panic and angst leading to his
collapse on stage. When his parents read about that in NME (New
Musical Expreess) they arranged a nursing cottage for him as a little
hut down in Wales.

- I was ill, but even more I needed to think, Green tells us. I began
writing on what was to become a long manifesto. I read and was
inspired by political thinkers and philosophers. I tried to evaluate
what was happening in the world and in pop music. After that I invited
everyone else in the bad to Wales and asked them to read the
manifesto.

What Green had postulated in the manifesto was that the best way of
making a difference in the world was not to go on being
“alternative”, and by that also stay peripheral, but rather to go
right into the middle of the storm. Scritti Politti should be reborn
as a full-blooded pop band with the explicit porpose of making it into
the top lists.

- We were all hanging out in the Rough Trade boutique, says Green. All
musicians used to poster Top Ten lists. On my lists there used to be
Raincoats, Slits, Delta 5, all typical alternative msuic. But one day
I just could not write anything else than “Off the wall” by Michael
Jackson.

- The alternative had become an establishment in itself. A fixed and
justified indie sound had evolved. That sound does still exsist and I
really don’t like it. The soul music felt more honest.

The world was shocked when it experienced the cover art of the
following Scritti Politti singles. Instead of black and white photos
of squats these covers were perfect pastiches of some of those days’
best selling products. “The Sweetest Girl” was manufactured as a
package of Dunhill cigarettes, “Faithless” as Dior Eau Sauvage,
“Asylums in Jerusalem” like Courvoiser coniac. And all this twenty
years befor there even was an expression as “blingbling”.

- Geoff Travis at Rough Trade understood what we wanted to do, but not
many others did. Our bassist, Nial, who came form a more traditional
marxist background, had enormous difficulties living with it.
Finally there was only me left in the band.

With the album “Cupid & Psyche 85″ Green fullfilled the idea from his
manifesto, Scritti Politti was now made up by himself, Fred Mahrer and
David Gamson, two extremely skilled New York musicians.

Backed up by many fat dollars from a multinational record label, and
with unlimited access to Manhattan’s most expensive recording studios,
they churned out tracks like “Absolute” and “Wood beez (Pray like
Aretha Franklin)” to follow the plan by hitting number one positions
on all top lists of the world.

In Sweden Scritti Politti was always played in radio shows like
“Eldorado”. Miles Davis was so impressed by the perfect metronome
groove of “Perfect Way” that he recorded a version himself of that
song. And Green posed as a photo model in Vogue.

After the success during the eighties the nineties became a confused
and lost decade. Green tried to take his ideas even further by
incorporating ragga (two singles released but the album was not) and
then hiphop on the album “Anomie & Bonhomie” in 1999.

- About a week after that record was released Geoff Travis of Rough
Trade called me up. He said he thought I had made a good record, but
explained then why no one was going to hear it. I had the wrong
environment, the wrong record label, the wrong manegement and
therefore was in desperate need of his help. And he was of course
correct in every word.

Seven years later, after many unsuscessful recording hours with hiphop
beats (”for a while I thought I was DJ Premier”) the first Scritti
Politti record on Rough Trade is ready for release. I’m saying that it
seems as they have a great patience with their artists.

- I would rather say that they ARE extremely patient, says Green.
Elizabeth Fraser from Cocteau Twins signed for Rough Trade at about
the same time I did. In seven years she has finished two songs. You
could think they should be hitting us with sticks, but they seem to
have the time for waiting.

Green lives today in Hackney, a non glamorous part of London, in a
house with his wife. He has a small home studio there. After all the
years with skilled studio musicians he has returned to his “do it
yourself” roots and started to make music where attitude counts higher
than perfection. The album title “White Bread Black Beer” has a
double meaning.

- When I recorded with black musicians in New York they could sometimes
comment on my own recordings “Man, that’s so white bread”. They meant
that it sounded white, processed, homogeneous. But I liked it like
that, Beach Boys was my breast milk. I was also told that my melodies
sometimes sound like nursery rhymes. I think that comes from my Lovers
rock (soul-drenched reggae). Lovers rock is just like nursery rhymes
for grown-ups.

- The title “White Bread Black Beer” also mirrors my live in
Hackney. For the first time I am feeling at home in the block where
I’m living. I’m dependant on a soft white bread made by the turkish
baker on my street. Across the road is a pub where I drink Guinness
at night with neighbours and friends.

After twenty years of stage fright Green is finally prepared to
perform live again.

- I have a new band of new players in the twenties, says Green. I had
to buy the bassist her bass because she didn’t own one before. Two of
the boys live in squats in East London. It sounds bloody messy and
chaotic when we’re playing, and I really like it so. In a couple of
weeks I will turn 51 and it feels like I have never felt this good
before.

“I’m like a dog with a wound in the leg, I can’t stop picking in it”, says the eccentric Green Gartside.

Could you help us with this sentence?
“Jag är som en hund med ett sÃ¥r pÃ¥ benet, jag kan inte lÃ¥ta bli att peta i det”, säger särlingen Green Gartside.

Excellent website!

I’ve been a fan of Scritti Politti ever since I heard the HYPNOTIZE 12” on Danish radio some time in 1984/85.

Anyway. I just went to Stockholm for a business trip and sat in my hotel room Friday morning, had my coffee and read the newspapers. No interesting Swedish news that day – until I opened the culture section of Dagens Nyheter (News of the day) and saw the 2 pages article about Green and the new album. Cool!

What a wonderful translation:”Hemmastudio” means ”home recording studio” – you might have figured it out already. What Green says in the end of the interview is, “that he bought the bass player a bass as he/she didn’t have one. Two of the guys live in squats in eastern London. It sounds messily and chaotic when we play, but I really like it. I will become 51 in a couple of weeks. It feels like I’ve never been better.”

If anyone has questions regarding the machine translation, just ask.

Best

Thomas
Copenhagen