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This page will provide a few commentaries on selected songs from Roger's solo albums. The first will be 'Nazis 1994' from the album 'Happiness?'. The song was written by Roger and the lyrics reproduced below: Nazis 1994 They’re saying now it never happened They’re saying now it never happened They’re saying now it never happened They’re saying now it never happened We gotta stop these stinking Nazis And they say that it didn’t happen What the Nazis did to the Jews If they think they’ve a second coming Then we got different news We gotta stop these stinking Nazis They say now it didn’t happen They say now it didn’t happen They say now it didn’t happen They say now it didn’t happen We gotta stop these stinking Nazis What the world needs is more Nazis Like it needs a hole in the head Your future is not safe at all ‘Til this disease is dead
They’re saying now it never happened They’re saying now it never happened They’re saying now it never happened They’re saying now it never happened We gotta stop these stinking Nazis Yeah!
When
I was living in Munich in the early nineties and was quite amazed that
there still existed a strong right wing element in politics. I wondered
if people wanted to repeat history. There were racist attacks on asylum
seekers too, which were exacerbated by the unification of the two
Germanies and the resulting unemployment in the East – people were
looking for a scapegoat. However,
it’s not just Germany that may still suffer from the danger. In this
country in the 1980s I witnessed a very ugly attack on some black people
by skinheads. There is still the danger of the British National Party;
their leader Nick Griffin, who claims that the holocaust never happened.
One of the most influential proponents of these views has been British
‘historian’ David Irving, who, using his brilliant command of
German, went to Germany to spread his poisonous views, which have,
fortunately, been discredited. Also,
in France there have been desecrations of Jewish cemeteries coupled with
the well-known popularity of the ultra-right. Ironically, the latter
spreads its message against the large immigrant population, including
those of Arab origin, who in turn form an anti-Semitic faction due to
the Palestinian-Israeli issue. (People
also form liaisons of convenience (see third link below)).
This leads on to the second song from the album ‘Happiness?’
on which I’ll write a few words – ‘Foreign Sand’. (Lyrics
below). Relevant
links about Neo-Nazism: http://www.rickross.com/reference/neonazis/neonazis15.html http://www.searchlightmagazine.com/stopthebnp/uncovered/pg03.htm Some background to the song itself: http://www.brianmay.com/roger/press/nazis1994.html Foreign Sand by Roger Taylor and Yoshiki Here we go - ain't it
grand I
love this song – it’s a beautiful melody, carrying a really great
message. ‘Why do we fear what we don’t understand?’ The answer to
this question may lie in the prejudices we build up over the one-sided
view we may develop over foreigners we encounter at home. I think it’s
fair to look at the theme of travelling to learn about others and our
treatment of immigrants in tandem. My
first big trip abroad was to China when I was nineteen. The nine months
I spent there were unquestionably life-changing. Not only did I gain
first hand experience of China, but I also met students from other
countries. For example, Arabs in London in the seventies received a very
negative press. There were instances of Arabs who had gained wealth
through oil who were shoplifting from London shops despite having lots
of cash on their person. But when I was in China, I made a very good
friend with an Arab student from North Yemen* – from him and a
Pakistani student I learned a lot about Islam. Similarly,
the other time I spent abroad as a student – in East Germany was
educational in the sense that I met people (either workers or students)
from countries which were aligned with the eastern bloc – as the world
was divided along those lines at the time – such as Vietnam, Algeria,
Cuba, South Yemen* and other eastern European countries. I have happy
memories of conversations with all of them. It was only the students
from North Korea who were not allowed to speak with us. They were
dressed in blue ‘Mao-style’ suits, each with a badge of the leader
on the lapel. In
the midst of the continuing debate about asylum seekers in the UK,
it’s people who stand out as being foreign who attract attention. But
it’s often ignored that most immigrants come from ‘white’
countries with similar cultures to ours such as Ireland and Australia. One
thing I’ve tried to do to reach out is to make a point learning how to
say ‘Do you speak English?’ in the language of the country I’m
travelling to. Sometimes my
knowledge of other languages, such as German and French, has helped me,
but I obviously can’t learn every language. However, I think it’s
rude to assume that others can speak English and that we can walk into
their country and use it automatically. This
song progresses from using our eyes to our mind and finally our heart
when we travel to other places, and it shows that there can be
understanding and unity with others despite differences. *Yemen
was divided at the time. Staying with the Happiness? album, the next commentary is on another song about travels:
For the next commentary, we stay with the same album but break off our travels to deal with Roger’s appraisal of a particular aspect of the state of the British press: Dear Mr Murdoch by Roger Taylor Dear
Mr Murdoch, what have you done I was interested and delighted to find that Roger had written this song. I have been concerned for the best part of two decades about press domination in Britain. When talking about this song, Roger complained that there’s no news in the papers. Nothing has changed since this album was released in 1994. There is still sensationalism rather than reporting about things that matter. I remember when I was living in Germany from 1990-91, on one of my visits home I noticed that the tabloids were headlining with stories about footballer Paul Gascoigne’s knee. This was at the time when the historic unification of the two Germanies was taking place, important for the whole of Europe, but nobody cared. But then again, Murdoch is widely believed to be ‘Europhobic’, not to mention his ‘jingoist lingo’ which Roger mentions here. During my stay in Germany, the press had to ‘poke and pry’ into Freddie’s private situation. ‘I think what made me very angry personally was when they were hounding Freddie when he was very sick, in fact dying’ as Roger put it, and that ‘the Murdoch press were a major part of that’. When Roger says ‘they go straight for the lowest common denominators’, one of the habits he must be referring to is that of splaying the bedroom happenings of even the moderately famous across centre spreads, not to mention that he’s ‘king of the tits’. An echo is found here of some lines of a John Lennon song that Roger recorded for his next album, Electric Fire, ‘Working Class Hero’: ‘Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV And you think you’re so clever and classless and free But you’re still fucking peasants as far as I can see…’ Another thing Roger mentions is how the ‘rules don’t seem to apply to Murdoch – that he appears to be able to buy what he likes; ‘getting hard to tell if you’re a Yank, Oz or Pom’ refers to the acquisition of US citizenship by the Australian-born Murdoch in order to extend his media empire in America. Since Roger wrote this song, the media has, of course, developed in many different directions, all of them global. In a way it is good to have cross-border news available, giving different slants on the news and not so much bound by any national government controls on broadcasting. However, it’s all controlled by media barons instead. Furthermore, it all still matters little in a one-party state. Murdoch would put his politics, generally recognised to be right wing, aside for the sake of opportunism; his publishing firm Harper Collins refused to publish Chris Patten’s book about his governorship of Hong Kong because of its criticism of the Chinese government at a time when Murdoch was trying to gain a foothold in China. In 1998 (the same year Patten's book was published by another company, Macmillan) on the Cyberbarn video, Roger talks about the visit Tony Blair made to Murdoch to win over his support. This must refer to the July ’95 visit Blair made with his aides after being elected Leader of the Labour Party to the Australian resort of Hayman Island where Murdoch and his senior executives were holding a conference. ‘The government is absolutely terrified of him’ Roger said. Records certainly show that the ‘Soaraway Sun’ can have a decisive effect on election results if the paper reports negatively against a certain party and/or politician. ‘Dear Mr Murdoch, you’re a dangerous chap’ is certainly true with regard to the power Murdoch holds which has grown over the years – much of the media in Australia is controlled by him and about a third of it in the UK, not to mention his interests in the US and other countries, he has been recognised as the top media giant – even ahead of Bill Gates! But Murdoch is an unapologetic fellow who is
oblivious to criticism. He talks about being ‘libertarian' – What
does libertarian mean? "As much individual responsibility as
possible, *Rupert Murdoch quoted in
Time Magazine interview with William Shawcross, published in the Oct 25
1999 edition. (My comments are ©2005 Now-Im-Here.com)
This page is nowhere near finished! The next song is to be notified!
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