Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
There Is No Authority But Yourself
# They said that we were trash, #
# Well the name is Crass, not Clash #
# They can stuff their punk credentials #
# Cause it's them that take the cash #
# They won't change nothing with their fashionable talk, #
# All their RAR badges and their protest walk, #
# Thousands of white men standing in a park, #
# Objecting to racism's like a candle in the dark #
# Black man's got his problems and his way to deal with it, #
# So don't fool yourself you're helping with your white liberal *** #
# If you care to take a closer look at the way things really stand, #
# You'd see we're all just *** to the rulers of this land #
A typical Crass gig would be a big hall,
with banners everywhere.
Very dark, lot of people milling around, drunk punks collapsed at the back
A few skinheads trying to cause trouble
A real air of, atmosphere of tension.
Always on the lookout for trouble starting,
probably a rumour going around that there were 500 National Front skinheads
coming to beat the *** out of us so just waiting for the doors to burst open,
and then getting on stage and being spat on,
and sometimes things thrown at you but just like real tension.
# Not for me the factory floor #
# Sweeping up from nine to four #
# Not for me the silly rat race #
# I don't see the point in anycase #
# People ask me why I say what I do #
# I say to them, "Well wouldn't you?" #
# If you were *** up just like me #
# A reject of society #
# They say I dig a hole and jump right in #
# Well I don't give a *** about anything #
# I don't comply to their silly rules #
# All they are is hypocritical fools #
I think what Crass was trying to do, but it had to do it in an orderly way,
was to say that it is possible,
you know, it's possible to exist outside the framework.
Gee and myself have really fought hard to sort of understand what it means
Rather than falling into conventional ways of dealing with it,
we've maintained the open door policy, we've maintained trying to expand and extend
that and incorporate anyone in the same way as Crass incorporated anyone.
Against a society which actually has been increasingly closing its doors,
I think that from the 70s, which was really our era in a way, sort of liberationist era,
the fight's got harder and harder and harder.
# *** the politically minded #
# Here's something I want to say #
# About the state of nation #
# The way it treats us today #
# At school they give you *** #
# Drop you in the pit #
# You try, you try, you try to get out #
# But you can't because #
# They've *** you about #
# Then you're a prime example #
# Of how they must not be #
# This is just a sample #
# Of what they've done to you and me #
# Do they owe us a living? #
# Of course they do, of course they do #
# Owe us a living? #
# Of course they do, of course they do #
# Owe us a living? #
# OF COURSE THEY *** DO #
Do you want me to do it?
No, I'm happy to do it.
Are you coming in? Good.
Did any of you come up with any sort of interesting...
or does anyone want to ask about the house or how it's run,
or what you've seen or not seen, anything?
I'm quite interested in the Crass agenda and how that's evolved, I'm wanting to find out about it.
When I opened the doors up here which was forty years ago, whatever it was
it was very much with the idea of being creative centered,
we were always organic because it's sensible and cheaper
but always the prime reason for us being here and
and most of the people who've remained as residents have been creative
artists or writers or filmakers or musicians,
then in our spare time effectively we tend the garden and all that stuff,
and we've done masses of projects and Crass was the only project that ever became renowned
it was a punk band,
very very political, very much our major statement was there is no authority but yourself,
in other words your life is your responsibility.
On the one hand we're viciously opposed to...
what then wasn't known as globalisation but we defined as being rampant capitalism.
So on the one hand we had a very political agenda
but on the other hand we had a very DIY agenda,
basically well get a life
sort yourself out
one the one hand to oppose the material world
on every front
and at the same time offer practical ways of doing it.
On the one hand we'd be giving out handouts on how to make petrol bombs,
and at the same time how to make your own bread.
# They ask me why I'm hateful, why I'm bad #
# They tell me I got things they never had #
# They tell me go to church and see the light #
# Cos the good lord's always right #
# So what #
# So what #
# So what if Jesus died on the cross #
# So what about the ***, I don't give a toss #
# So what if the master walked on the water #
# I don't see him trying to stop the slaughter #
# They say I wouldn't have to live from bins #
# If I would go along, confess my sins #
# They say I shouldn't commit no crime #
# Cos Jesus Christ is watching all the time #
# So what #
# So what #
# So what if he's always over my shoulder #
# I realise the truth as I get older #
# I get to see what a con it is #
# Because it's my life, mine not his #
# Well, they say they're going to send me away #
# Said they're going to make me pay #
You stay here, we won't be long.
I'd heard about punk rock but I hadn't seen it or anything
and then I came out of work one day and I noticed
a poster for a band called The Clash
that were playing at the Colston Hall
so I just went along to see what it was about
and I was just knocked out by it.
For the first time in my life there were a bunch of working class blokes,
young men, looking absolutely really frightening,
saying the things that I'd always wanted to say
but previously I'd got into David Bowie and things like this
and liked it but it was never that... it was always that superstar kind of thing
and now on the stage were these working class guys
coming from the same background I had
saying exactly the things I wanted to say and I was like
and then at the end of it Joe Strummer said:
"If you think you can do better, start your own *** band"
I was like, yes, I want to do that!
So I went to visit Penny Rimbaud at Dial House,
he was living there on his own at the time
and he said "What are you doing?"
and I said I'd like to start a band
and he said "I'll play drums for you if you like"
so then I said what about other members and he said "No, let's just have drums and vocals
and that's how it started.
I was writing a lot
and then one day Steve turned up.
I'd been listening to Patti Smith and some of that sort of stuff.
I'd got an old drumkit
and we just started mucking about.
As we went on mucking about other people would turn up
and they wanted to muck about as well
and really that's how it was.
I mean we certainly didn't take ourselves seriously
and we certainly didn't expect anyone else to take us seriously.
We had no ambition to...
Well I had no ambition, Steve might have done but I certainly had no ambition to
do anything within a sort of conseunsual, within the construct