The Mekons
The Mekons, ‘Fear and Whiskey’, 1985. We are The Mekons, we are from Leeds and this is our Cult Classic. You’d be surprised how popular the Mekons are, especially in America. This is the real soundtrack to the UK in the 80s, not Dire Straits or Phil Collins or Stock Aitken Waterman. Lo-fi, raggedy, scraped fiddles, country and folk and punk guitars with shouty Northern voices. By 1985 we’d had the Falklands, bad. Miners’ Strike, bad. Greenham Common, bad. Inner-city riots, bad. IRA Hunger Strike, bad. 3 million unemployed, bad. A lot of angry people. The Mekons tap into a sense of dread in post-Industrial Britain with lyrics about black crows against pink sky, trouble down South, darkness and doubt, being hard to be human, last dances, Sheffield, no country left, and a cover of Hank William’s ‘Lost Highway’. It’s the aural equivalent of a donkey jacket on a picket line. But with gallows humour. Two fingers to Thatcherism even though they know they’ve lost. Not a pretty listen but it’s 4 Real. Authenticity, kids. If you sing it like you mean it then it’ll survive.
The Mekons
The Mekons, ‘Fear and Whiskey’, 1985. We are The Mekons, we are from Leeds and this is our Cult Classic. You’d be surprised how popular the Mekons are, especially in America. This is the real soundtrack to the UK in the 80s, not Dire Straits or Phil Collins or Stock Aitken Waterman. Lo-fi, raggedy, scraped fiddles, country and folk and punk guitars with shouty Northern voices. By 1985 we’d had the Falklands, bad. Miners’ Strike, bad. Greenham Common, bad. Inner-city riots, bad. IRA Hunger Strike, bad. 3 million unemployed, bad. A lot of angry people. The Mekons tap into a sense of dread in post-Industrial Britain with lyrics about black crows against pink sky, trouble down South, darkness and doubt, being hard to be human, last dances, Sheffield, no country left, and a cover of Hank William’s ‘Lost Highway’. It’s the aural equivalent of a donkey jacket on a picket line. But with gallows humour. Two fingers to Thatcherism even though they know they’ve lost. Not a pretty listen but it’s 4 Real. Authenticity, kids. If you sing it like you mean it then it’ll survive.