Crass

I'll be honest, I think Crass sucks and I really don't like them. I'm not a fan of their music, the whole peace-punk thing, and the fact that their music is based entirely around politics, which you can only pull off if you're really, really good, and even then, you can't be preachy about it. How many people here actually like Crass instead of just using it as a name drop?

I went through a brief phase of listening to Crass (I guess I was badly in need of another 'phase') but I stopped fairly soon when I noticed their music fucked up my mood badly. They're not a great band if you want to bring more colour into your life. Preachy, self-righteous, depressing, humourless, dull, monotonous. One of the first punk bands to take the rock'n'roll out of punk and replace it with a sort of marching drumbeat. I don't agree with their anarcho-pacifism either. The logical consequence of their stance is that some of them still live on some godforsaken hippie farm in Essex, stuck in a timewarp and removed from humanity. To each their own, but I'd rather die than live like that.

Having said that, I do admire them for bringing something genuinely new and original to the table when they started out. They didn't just copy the Sex Pistols or The Clash. They created their own outfits rather than getting some ridiculous 'punk' clobber like everybody else. Apparently, every Crass live show was a real multi-media event, with film projections, light show, samples and whatnot. All of the above is more than you can say about the tiresome street-punk/proto-Oi brigade that started out around the same time. They never sold out, they stuck to their beliefs... so hats off, even if I find those beliefs a bit silly.

But you know what? Because the bulk of their musical output was so crap, we tend to forget they wrote some great stuff too. I had a friendly argument with a girl at a party last year. She was a Crass fan and I said that Crass was boring crap that you couldn't even dance to. So just to prove me wrong, she put on a Crass cd and played 'Big A Little A'. When the song kicked in, everybody spontaneously started to dance, including me... It's a great song. Or maybe it's just because we were all drunk?

To sum it up, I kind of respect Crass more than I actually like them.

Do you know that UK Subs song 'Down on the Farm'? I think they're taking the piss out of Crass. Or maybe they don't, but it could be about Crass.

All I need is some inspiration
Before I do somebody some harm
I feel just like a vegetable
Down here on the farm

Nobody comes to see me
Nobody here to turn me on
I ain't even got a lover
Down here on the farm

They told me to get healthy
They told me to get some sun
But boredom eats me like cancer
Down here on the farm

Drinking lemonade shanty
Ain't nobody here to do me harm
But I'm like a fish out of water
Down here on the farm

I wrote a thousand letters
'til my fingers all gone numb
But I never see no postman
Down here on the farm

I call my baby on the telephone
I say, come down and have some fun
But she knows what the score is
Down here on the farm

I can't fall in love with a wheat field
I can't fall in love with a barn
When everything smells like horseshit
Down here on the farm

Blue skies and swimming pools
Add so much charm
But I'd rather be back in Soho
Than down here on the farm

On the fucking farm!

i must admit i like crass and also most of the anarcho scene that evolved from them. still listen to that part of the scene a lot.

Crass is okay as just a band.
But I think they are too damn serious, see Bloody Revolutions and shite like that.

Songs like Punk Is Dead or Big Man, Big M.A.N. are okay musically.

I think most anarcho-punk bands are just dull Crass-rip offs.
Dead Kennedys, Subhumans and MDC are good exceptions.

Here's a band from the fringes of anarcho-punk that I really loved when I was 15 or so:

+ YouTube Video

While Crass lyrics were a bit of a mouthful, Discharge lyrics were limited to three or four brief lines per song, and the songs all sounded the exact same. I think Andy Warhol would approve of this concept.

But hey, is it me or is their singer talking absolute rubbish? "Even though the nuclear weapons might never be used, people will still die". Like... SORRY WHAT?

What, they're doing a reunion show playing their greatest hits? Are you kidding me?

It appears strange to me that Steve Ignorant would indulge in such revivalisms, but if it was fun good luck to him.

I already found it pretty strange when Conflict went along with that whole 'Holidays In The Sun' circus and performed revival shows for rip-off prices. I'm sure it was just to expose a new generation to their message...

I listened to Big A Little A after reading that post, and I liked the song a lot at first, but it kind of got old, a little too long for a punk song I guess, at least for my taste. I admittedly haven't actually heard much by the UK Subs, but I'll check that song out. I need to get more of their music, because from what I've heard, they're good.

I haven't been able to listen to crass after seeing their shirts in hot topic but before then I was having tough time swallowing it all...

I liked Crass in the 7th and 8th grade. Then I discovered shit like MDC, Aus Rotten, Subhumans, The Business, etc. and that gave way to most hardcore, anarcho, and oi! I needed to hear.

Crass - I thought their logos were really cool, so I tried listening to their music. It's terrible on their albums... but from what I've heard, their live shows are a bit more bearable.

Discharge, Nausea, Aus-Rotten and Amebix are much better for bands of that era.

Crass sucks steaming pile of poo.

Well worded STJ

But the music man, the fucking music!

Crass is one of my favourite bands. DK are still better though.

Crass were great. They managed the following: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thatchergate

Link to video of Nagaski Nightmare: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aHFRwGD47M

Well, many of my best friends were Crass-fans. "The Feeding of the 5000" is fun, but I do not support their "besser-wisser" attitude, or their pacifist politics. But, I really like Honey Bane, who was helped by Crass. Sham 69 and Stiff Little Finger were great. The best musicians, though, I think were Skids. Into the Valley...Really clever guys!

Greetings to all the punk fans here on Rev Left from Little-Lenin.

Greetings to all the young punks of the world! I hope you, and everybody else too - in particular all in the Punky group - will enjoy these great punk songs. I feel I´m 18 again... A whole lot better than Crass, I think.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8w72-hyrM88


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSFV6RhdsNs

Little-Lenin

Crass was an angry, hippie, gang of musicians. I can not understand why they become so popular. Perhaps because of their symbol?..

Here is a Buzzcocks song...Enjoy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cT1KBh8WpXY

Happiest Punk song I know.

Little-Lenin