The Judge
RAVES!
Date: 07/12/10
Tom Robinson Band - "Power In The Darkness" (live, 1978)
There was a lot of political posturing when punk came along. But posturing was what it mostly was, from the sheer, bullshit hype of the Sex Pistols across to the oh-so-with-it Clash, who didn't take all that long to become corporate whores just like the artists they claimed to be usurping.
The Tom Robinson Band weren't quite like that, in that the radicalism of their subject matter was based quite strongly on what they believed in - the politics of the left, equally fair treatment for all races, genders and sexualities, and such unfashionable stuff.
The band produced two strong albums, and this is the title track of the second one. As a departure, this clip (just audio, but worth it anyway) comes not from the LP itself, but from a live show they did at The Bottom Line in New York City in the summer of 1978. So many of the things Robinson sings (and talks) about could apply equally today both here and in the US.
Enjoy...and ponder:
Update: Oh, bloody hell, not this one as well! I did find one from the same tour (at The Waldorf, San Francisco), but the introductory remarks weren't as good and Tom's singing voice was shot, so I won't bother putting that up here. Instead, here's the LP version:
