Counter-Currents
5,097 words
In this article, I will be listing my ultimate fantasy rock and roll band.
However, this will be different than your usual fantasy rock band list where people create a theoretical supergroup composed of who they think are the best and/or their favorite musicians on each instrument: “I’d have Eddie Van Halen on guitar, John Bonham on drums, Geddy Lee on bass….” For my fantasy rock band, musical talent will not be a criterion I will be using. Nor will I be taking musical chemistry into consideration (i.e., how well the musicians on the list would musically mesh). For my fantasy rock band, the only criterion that I will be employing is how racist the musicians are.
Let me restate that racism is the only criteria I will be using. There are a lot of musicians who are generally right-wing like Dave Mustain of Megadeth, Johnny Ramone of The Ramones, or Mark E. Smith of The Fall. There are a lot of musicians that are anti-vaxers and some who have criticized wokeness. That is not good enough. If you want to make it into my ultimate fantasy rock and roll band, you must be full-on racist.
I also note that I will only be listing people from mainstream acts. Don’t come after me in the comments about so-and-so from this or that National Socialist Black Metal or white power punk band. Not only would that be cheating, it would be no fun. This is a list of musicians whom the average person might have heard of and who are known racists.
Lead Vocals: Morrissey
First off, my racist rock band needs a good front man. Lead singer is the most important position as they are the “face” of a band. There are several options.
Some might suggest David Bowie. A few years after retiring his Ziggy Stardust persona, Bowie created a new character called the Thin White Duke, and he played this character from 1974 to 1975 during his Station to Station era. Whereas Ziggy Stardust was an alien rock star, the Thin White Duke was a fascist rock star. In a 1974 interview, Bowie in his Thin White Duke persona said “Britain is ready for a fascist leader… I think Britain could benefit from a fascist leader. After all, fascism is really nationalism… I believe very strongly in fascism, people have always responded with greater efficiency under a regimental leadership…”
However, in 1976 interview with Playboy, Bowie blew minds with his statement that “Rock stars are fascists. Adolf Hitler was one of the first rock stars.”
Bowie elaborates:
Think about it. Look at some of his films and see how he moved. I think he was quite as good as Jagger. It’s astounding. And boy, when he hit that stage, he worked an audience. Good God! He was no politician. He was a media artist. He used politics and theatrics and created this thing that governed and controlled the show for 12 years. The world will never see his like again. He staged a country […] People aren’t very bright, you know? They say they want freedom, but when they get the chance, they pass up Nietzsche and choose Hitler because he would march into a room to speak and music and lights would come on at strategic moments. It was rather like a rock ‘n roll concert. The kids would get very excited – girls got hot and sweaty and guys wished it was them up there. That, for me, is the rock ‘n roll experience.
David Bowie presenting a Roman salute to his fans.
That’s all good and well, but Bowie was playing a character. He spent the rest of his life apologizing for this phase of career and insisted that it was the cocaine that made him say and do all those things. Not only that, but he went on to marry a black woman in the 1990s.
For the purposes of this article, I am excluding people who use racist or fascist imagery ironically, artistically, or just to be provocative. To make it into my ultimate fantasy racist rock band, I must be convinced that the rock star in question is genuinely racist.
For that reason, I am disqualifying Siouxsie Sioux of Siouxsie and the Banshees from contention for the lead singer position. While she was famous for wearing swastika armbands in early performances and the original unreleased version of her debut single “Love in a Void” included the line “too many Jews for my liking”, she dropped that fascist shtick after her swastika armband got her beat up in Paris. She has since claimed that she only wore it to troll the older generation. Siouxsie has never been an overtly political rock star, and for all I know, she might be an authentic fascist who is hiding her power level. Her music is extremely white, and she’s never done anything cringe like bring a black gospel choir into the studio for a song. If she were a shitlib, there’s nothing stopping her from saying so, and she hasn’t said so. But absent a clear declaration, I will take her at her word that her fascist arc was simply a troll.
Another contender for the lead singer position is Marilyn Manson. In 2021, Manson’s ex-girlfriend Evan Rachel Wood took to social media and accused him of being not only abusive but also a raging antisemite. “He would draw swastikas over my bedside table when he was mad at me,” Wood claimed.
Wait. It gets better. She also implied that Manson is also a race realist who knows that Jewishness is not just a religion. “Because [my mom] converted and wasn’t of Jewish descent he would say things like, ‘that’s better’ because I wasn’t ‘blood Jewish.'” There are also claims that Marilyn Manson has some tattoo that vaguely resemble Nazis symbols.
Not bad. But even if I were to take the words of a bitter ex-girlfriend at face value, I still have to deduct Manson points for the rest of his creative output. Whatever his opinion of Jews, Manson’s music and public persona are just as subversive and degenerate as anything the small hats in Hollywood ever thought to cook up. I’ll give Marilyn Manson an A for effort, but I think we can find someone better.
A strong contender for the frontman position is Phil Anselmo of Pantera who has got himself into hot water a few times for racist hijinks like onstage Roman salutes and screaming “white power” in the middle of a song for no apparent reason.
Unfortunately, I have to deduct Phil some points on a couple grounds. First, Anselmo cucked in the face of the media backlash and claimed it was a joke or a troll or something. I couldn’t bring myself to watch it because I knew it would be painful. The toughest guy in the whitest and most macho of all music genres having to bend the knee beg to ZOG and beg the Jews to allow him to continue having a career? Just a gentile humiliation ritual. Although, I think I read somewhere that he said he wasn’t serious but… I don’t know.
Second, it should be noted that Pantera had produced some cringe anti-racist songs in the past. I’m not sure I would even want Phil Anselmo on my side anymore. Look, I’m willing to welcome a new convert no matter where on the political spectrum, and I’m all for second chances, but brother, I ain’t giving you three. You posted cringe. Whatever. Everyone has a past. Then you dip your toe into being based, but then fold like the clothes laid out by your mommy once the Jews start yelling at you. Clearly, this racism thing ain’t for you. Phil Anselmo may have big muscles and have an intense voice, but for all his tough guy posturing, he is lacking in a different kind of strength: moral strength. That is why he could never become a successful racist.
OK, we’re about a thousand words in. I’ll stop wasting your time and announce the winner. I’m handing the lead singer position in my racist band to a man who I’m pretty sure needs no introduction to those of us within Dissident Right: Morrissey.
Morrissey himself would probably object to being described as “racist,” and I can believe him when he says that he feels no animosity towards any other race. He has fans all over the world and probably has friends of all races. I believe him when he says he is not racist. At the very least, he’s never done anything as flamboyant as Roman saluting or waxing poetic about the merits of Hitler.
However, in common parlance, a “racist” is someone who believes things about race that would hurt someone’s feelings if you said it out loud. It doesn’t matter if it is true. It doesn’t matter if there was no malice behind it and in fact, it might even make it worse if there wasn’t because that means you don’t even realize that you are racist. You could get called racist for quoting government statistics if doing so might hurt someone’s feelings. If you take “racist” to mean “believes things about race that would hurt people’s feelings if you said it out loud,” then yes, Morrissey is very racist.
A 2007 quote from Morrissey explains his general attitude on race:
Although I don’t have anything against people from other countries, the higher the influx into England, the more the British identity disappears. So the price is enormous. Travel to England and you have no idea where you are. It matters because the British identity is very attractive. I grew up into it, and I find it very quaint and amusing. Other countries have held on to their basic identity, yet it seems to me that England was thrown away.
In 2024, it’s quite fashionable for British right-of-center pundits to talk about migrants eroding traditional British culture (as long as they do it in the right way), but Morrissey was talking about it during the George W. Bush years.
As far back as the 1980s, Morrissey noticed a strange negrophilia creeping into pop culture and correctly identified that it was politically motivated and being forced on the masses by the elites. In a 1986 interview with Melody Maker, Morrissey said:
I don’t think there’s any time anymore to be subtle about anything, you have to get straight to the point. Obviously to get on Top Of The Pops these days, one has to be, by law, black. I think something political has occurred among [television producer] Michael Hurl and his friends and there has been a hefty pushing of all these black artists and all this discofied nonsense into the Top 40. I think, as a result, that very aware younger groups that speak for now are being gagged.
The interviewer shit tests Morrissey: “You seem to be saying you believe there is some sort of black pop conspiracy being organized to keep white indie groups down.”
Morrissey passed the shit test: “Yes. I really do.”
This was incredibly farsighted on Morrissey’s part. Many interpreted these cultural shifts as the result of an organic change of public tastes and/or a desire for novelty, but Morrissey saw that there hidden hand at work.
After leaving The Smiths, Morrissey’s first solo album Viva Hate featured a song entitled “Bengali in Platforms” in which he tells an East Asian immigrant “Life is hard enough when you belong here” (the implication being that Asians do not belong in England!).
The song hurt a lot of people’s feelings.
In a 1992 interview with Q, Morrissey famously said, “I don’t think that white and black people will ever really get on and like each other.” That statement is not racist in and of itself, but it is an attack on the liberal worldview which promises you the multiculturalism of television where everyone gets along with each other.
Lefty journalists howled at the quote, but 32 years later, has Morrissey been proven wrong yet? Are blacks and whites any closer to getting along and liking each other now than they were in 1992?
The same year, Morrissey released Your Arsenal which included the song “National Front Disco”, an ambiguous but not-totally-unsympathetic song about the British white nationalist movement which included the line “England for the English” in the chorus.
That song ruffled some feathers.
And of course, there was the infamous Finsbury Park gig wherein Morrissey unfurled a Union Jack in front of a backdrop of two female skinheads.
Then there were Morrissey’s 2019 escapades during which he endorsed For Britain, an immigration restrictionist party led by Anne-Marie Waters which has been labeled “far right.” I wrote extensively about this at the time. See here, here, and here.
It is rumored that either Morrissey, Morrissey’s nephew (who runs his websites) or both is a lurker in the Dissident Right sphere. On his 2019 tour, Morrissey shouted out two Dissident Right (and adjacent) personalities.
At his 2019 Montreal show, Morrissey asked the crowd if they knew who Styxhexenhammer666 was.
At his 2018 Toronto show, Morrissey name dropped Faith Goldy.
And then there was the Morgoth’s Review affair. I don’t know for sure, and I wouldn’t expect him to admit so if he were, but Morrissey may very well be lurking in these corners.
In the 1980s, Morrissey was associated with the Left. I mean, The Smiths participated in Red Wedge for Pete’s sake! The 1990s skinhead movement never fully embraced Morrissey. However, in the last five years, Morrissey has become something of a folk hero in the RW internet. Many in the RW sphere use Morrissey as their avatar, most notably the popular Twitter account Future Moldova Citizen. A couple years ago, VDare auctioned off tickets to a Morrissey concert as a fundraiser as they believed he was an artist who represented the values of VDare.
So, for four decades of saying true things about race that hurt a lot of people’s feelings, I am making Morrissey lead singer of my fantasy racist rock and roll band!
Backup Vocals: Nico of Velvet Underground
Now that we have our lead singer taken care of, we need a backup vocalist. Preferably a female who can add a little sex appeal. This one was easy. I’m going with Nico, the Hall of Fame racist and vocalist for the legendary 1960s counter-culture rock band, Velvet Underground.
Born in Nazi Germany in 1938, Nico acquired a lifelong hatred of blacks after being raped by a black American serviceman when she was 13 (note: researchers have had difficulty substantiating this claim).
Nevertheless, there is a story from the early 1970s wherein Nico allegedly smashed a wine glass in the face of Black Panther, Emmaretta Marks, while yelling “I hate black people!” There is some dispute as to the details, but according to one friend,
Nico was, I dunno, feeling neglected, or drunk, but suddenly she said ‘I hate black people,’ and smashed a wineglass on the table and stuck it in the girl’s eye. There was lots of blood and screaming. Fortunately, she just twisted it around her eye socket, so the glass never reached [the eye] but it’s not like she was being cautious.
In 1975, Nico was dropped by her label Island Records for being racist about blacks. She was unaware that the “Island” in “Island Records” was Jamaica. As Nico recalled:
I made a mistake. I said in Melody Maker, to some interviewer that I didn’t like negroes. That’s all. They took it so personally. I had no idea that Island was a Jamaican company. They took it very personally, although it’s a whole different, entirely different race. I mean, Bob Marley doesn’t resemble a negro, does he? He’s an archetype of Jamaican … but with the features like white people. I don’t like [negro] features. They’re so much like animals.
People who knew her personally agree that Nico was also casually antisemitic in private, particularly when talking about her manager. In a 2007 Guardian article, her friend Danny Fields said Nico was “Nazi-esque.” “Every once in a while, there’d be something about Jews and I’d be, ‘But Nico, I’m Jewish,’ and she was like ‘Yes, yes, I don’t mean you.’ She had a definite Nordic Aryan streak, [the belief] that she was physically, spiritually and creatively superior.”
However wise Nico maybe have been to the Jews, it did not stop her from dating Jewish musician Lou Reed, although after he started becoming possessive of her, she dumped him and said, “I cannot make love to Jews anymore.” According Nico, Reed “never really liked me because of what my people did to his people.”
One friend said, “In Nico’s mind, almost any kind of suffering would have paled by comparison to what she saw and experienced during her early years in Nazi Germany.”
Nico’s in the band. Now, let’s get a couple guitarists.
Lead guitar: Eric Clapton from the 1970s
My fantasy racist rock band needs a proper guitar hero for the lead position. No, I don’t mean a legendary plays guitar. I mean someone who both plays guitar and takes racism to heroic levels. Well, lucky for me, I found someone who is both a legendary guitar player who took racism to heroic levels and it was a no-brainer: Eric Clapton from the 1970s.
On August 5th, 1976, Eric Clapton performed a concert in Birmingham, hometown of Enoch Powell. Part way through the show, an extremely unsober Eric Clapton stepped to the microphone and gave an epic white nationalist rant.
Do we have any foreigners in the audience tonight? If so, please put up your hands. Wogs I mean, I’m looking at you. Where are you? I’m sorry but some fucking wog…Arab grabbed my wife’s bum, you know? Surely got to be said, yeah this is what all the fucking foreigners and wogs over here are like, just disgusting, that’s just the truth, yeah. So where are you? Well, wherever you all are, I think you should all just leave. Not just leave the hall, leave our country. You fucking (indecipherable). I don’t want you here, in the room or in my country. Listen to me, man! I think we should vote for Enoch Powell. Enoch’s our man. I think Enoch’s right, I think we should send them all back. Stop Britain from becoming a black colony. Get the foreigners out. Get the wogs out. Get the coons out. Keep Britain white. I used to be into dope, now I’m into racism. It’s much heavier, man. Fucking wogs, man. Fucking Saudis taking over London. Bastard wogs. Britain is becoming overcrowded and Enoch will stop it and send them all back. The black wogs and coons and Arabs and fucking Jamaicans and fucking [indecipherable] don’t belong here, we don’t want them here. This is England, this is a white country, we don’t want any black wogs and coons living here. We need to make clear to them they are not welcome. England is for white people, man. We are a white country. I don’t want fucking wogs living next to me with their standards. This is Great Britain, a white country, what is happening to us, for fuck’s sake? We need to vote for Enoch Powell, he’s a great man, speaking truth. Vote for Enoch, he’s our man, he’s on our side, he’ll look after us. I want all of you here to vote for Enoch, support him, he’s on our side. Enoch for Prime Minister! Throw the wogs out! Keep Britain white!
That speech broke my scanner when I tried to read the power level.
Two months after the incident and in the face of press backlash, Clapton initially tried to claim that it was all a comedy bit. You know. Performance art. “I thought it was quite funny actually. I don’t know much about politics. I don’t even know if it would be good or bad for him to get in. I don’t even know who the Prime Minister is now. I just don’t know what came over me that night. It must have been something that happened in the day but it came out in this garbled thing… I thought the whole thing was like Monty Python. There’s this rock group playing on stage and the singer starts talking about politics. It’s so stupid. Those people who paid their money sittin’ listening to this madman dribbling on and the band meanwhile getting fidgety thinking ‘oh dear.’”
To be fair, parts of the rant were funny. I laughed out loud the first time I read “I used to be into dope. Now I’m into racism. It’s much heavier, man”. Still, I have a hard time believing that the rant was totally ironic. I think it was probably what he truly believed and being in Enoch Powell’s home town and high on God-knows-what, he might have thought it was a good idea. I’ll give him credit that his first instinct was not to apologize.
Nevertheless, no matter how much Clapton has tried to distance himself from the speech it continues to haunt him. Just as you cannot “unsuck a dick”, you cannot unrant a rant that awesome. There will always be people who suspect that his words in Birmingham are what he really believes and they probably are. That is why Eric Clapton from the 1970s wins the lead guitar position in my ultimate fantasy rock band.
Rhythm guitar: Ace Frehley of KISS
KISS were a New York-based rock band that was half Jewish and half gentile. Singer Paul Stanley (real name Stanley Bert Eisen) and Israeli-born bassist Gene Simmons (real name Chaim Witz) were Jewish while guitarist Paul “Ace” Frehley was of Dutch/German stock and drummer Peter Criss (real name George Peter John Criscuola) was Italian.
In 2014, Paul Stanley released his autobiography Face the Music: A Life Exposed wherein he accused the two gentile members of the band of being antisemites. “Ace and particularly Peter felt powerless and impotent when faced with the tireless focus, drive and ambition of me and Gene. As a result, the two of them tried to sabotage the band — which, as they saw it, was unfairly manipulated by [us] money-grubbing Jews.”
The Jewish narcissism really jumped out of the page. In addition to this, Stanley has claimed that Frehley is an avid collector of Nazi memorabilia.
At first, Frehley took the accusation with the good humor characteristic of his gentile genetics and said that Stanley was only saying that to help sell his book and that he didn’t take it personally. Then, in an interview with the New York Post, Stanley was given the opportunity to walk back his accusations but instead he doubled down that his former bandmate was a Jew-hater. When asked if he really believed that Frehley and Criss were antisemites (like, really?), Stanley responded “Yes, I do. It’s based on years and years of interactions. It’s not pulled out of thin air.”
I mean, it’s not like a Jew ever pulled an accusation of antisemitism out of thin air before!
Obviously, there are reasons to suspect that Stanley is lying. First, he’s a Jew. Second, Jews say everyone is an antisemite and half the time, they believe it. Third, all KISS fans pine for a reunion of the classic KISS lineup and Stanley has to give them a reason for why he won’t do that. Of course, the reason is that Frehley and Criss would want too much money and Stanley could pocket a few more shekels touring with a couple of who-gives-a-shit session musicians filling their shoes than if he actually gave the fans what they want. But of course, he can’t say that so he has to call his former friends Jew-haters.
For his part, Frehley has denied accusations that he is antisemitic but I don’t believe him. I don’t believe him because I don’t see how anyone can spend as much time around Gene Simmons as Frehley has and not turn into a raging antisemite. I think if you forced Tommy Robinson to play in a band with Gene Simmons for a year, by the end of the year, Tommy would be talking like Lucas Gage.
Gene Simmons at the Anne Frank House.
We got our six-strings set. On to the four.
Bass Guitar: Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols
Bass guitar was a pretty a hard category for me to fill. Bass players tend to be less outspoken than singers and guitar players and so finding a racist bass player was tricky.
Honorable mention goes to Devin Ruben Perez, former bassist for the shoegaze band DIIV who in 2014 was exposed as being the prolific and extremely racist 4chan poster known as Devin-Chan. It came out that he had referred to electronic musician Zomby as a “nigger” and on the topic of Jews said “I’m a good goyim. Every time a Rabbi gets close, I shout out for my friend Burnstein and tell him to leave me alone unless they want to break their shmageggi, oy vey.”
Unfortunately, I feel that shoegaze is too niche of a genre and Devin Ruben Perez not well known enough for inclusion on this list.
I’m giving the spot to Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols. Of course, Sid Vicious was known for wearing swastika t-shirts but many people in the 1970s punk era employed Nazi imagery for shock value. As I said earlier, using racist imagery ironically is not grounds for inclusion in my band on its own. Rather, I am including Sid Vicious on the list for the heroic act of kicking a girl out of his band for not hating black people.
Before he was bass player for the Sex Pistols, Sid Vicious was the lead singer of a band called Flowers of Romance. Flowers of Romance is one of those bands that is legendary not for their music, but due to a freakishly high percentage of their members going on to achieve fame in other bands (short-lived Liverpool punk band Big In Japan is another such group). The band’s lineup fluctuated but throughout the year of its existence, it included future Slits members, Viv Albertine and Palmolive; Kenny Morris who was drummer on the first two Siouxsie and the Banshees albums; founding member of both Public Image Ltd and The Clash, Keith Levene; and Marco Pirroni, who would become Adam Ant’s guitarist through his glory days. Last but not least, there was future Sex Pistol, Sid Vicious.
In a recent interview, original Flowers of Romance drummer Palmolive explained how she was kicked out of the band:
We were practicing in my house. We finished practice. Everybody left… [Sid Vicious] didn’t. He’s hanging out… I was like ‘Why is this guy still here?’ I had my miniskirt and he was trying to act all macho and he goes ‘I hate blacks’. He looks at me and says ‘I hate blacks’. I go ‘I hate people who hate blacks’… Then I heard from someone ‘you’re out of the band’. I go ‘What do you mean I’m out of the band? Why?’ He goes, ‘You’re just not right’.
For his glorious deed of kicking a girl out of his band for not hating blacks, I am awarding Sid Vicious the coveted bass player position in my ultimate fantasy rock and roll band.
Drums: Hilary Jones (Session Musician)
Drums was the hardest spot to fill for my band.
The easy thing to do would be to just use Peter Criss of KISS who, in addition to Ace Frehley, was also accused of being an antisemite in addition to being rude to Chinese waiters. However, I’m totally arbitrarily limiting my list to one member per band. Plus, if I put two KISS members on the list, people might think I’m some kind of KISS fan when I am most certainly not!
I very much wanted to make Keith Moon of The Who my drummer. Moon was known to occasionally go out drinking dressed in a Nazi uniform to freak out the squares. He also made Nazi jokes and his favorite comedian was Murray Roman who did a lot of spicy racial humor. However, Keith Moon was known as a prankster and I never saw harder evidence than that. He could just have an edgy sense of humor. Ironic racism is not enough, damn it! *slams fist on desk*
I took a look at Zac Hanson, drummer for Hanson of “MMMBop” fame. In 2020, his Pinterest account was leaked and it turned out he was a hardcore conservative. The accusation of racism was thrown at him and the band but upon looking at the evidence, the accusation boils down to the band’s refusal to repeat the phrase “Black Lives Matter.” They disavowed racism but simply refused to incant the three magic words which the band rightly identified as a trap. For a mainstream band that was still a bold move, but as far as I can tell, Zac Hanson is a normie conservative and not racist. Not good enough to make my list.
I had to resort to googling “racist drummer” and that’s when I learned of jazz session drummer Hilary Jones. She’s worked with Lee Ritenour, Dave Grusin, Scott Henderson’s Tribal Tech, Eric Marienthal, Doc Severinson, Brazilian guitarist Badi Assad, and Robben Ford. I don’t know who any of those people are but they all have Wikipedia pages. OK, so she has played with people that at least someone has heard of.
I found this video of her drumming and she’s really good.
She’s also totally redpilled
The story is that during the 2020 Summer of Floyd, Hilary Jones took to social media to give the blacks of the world a piece of her mind in a series of incendiary and 100% correct posts. The posts are now deleted and all I can find is this quote which was circulated around anti-racist social media.
I sent this quote through the Counter-Currents fact checking department and they found no falsehoods. There were other posts including one where she apparently called Africa a “shithole.”
As a result of her social media excursions, Jones lost her endorsement deals with DW Drums and Zildjian. However, what she lost in endorsement deals, she more than made up for in glory and a spot in my ultimate fantasy rock and roll band.
So that rounds out my ultimate fantasy racist rock and roll band. Feel free to dispute my choices in the comments but if you do, come up with someone more racist, not merely more talented.
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36 comments
Thank you for this very original article.
I knew about Eric Clapton even though he’s not from my generation.
And I think he’s always been sincere. Even recently, he was one of the few to speak out against the Covid vaccination and not give in to the uproar.
Clapton is one of the best guitarists of all time, right up there with Manuel de Falla. I have no idea what he’s doing with that fuzzy-wuzzy chick, though. Seems he lost his resolve.
This is genuinely funny, Trav.
One great guitarist who should at least be discussed is Frank Zappa, who was not really a racist per se. For example, he loved playing with black musicians, including the great George Duke and Napoleon Murphy Brock. He even had a Mexican and an American Indian in the group at various times.
But Zappa loved to send up people, and the more fragile and protected they were, the more savage he was. That basically meant that he targeted all the members of the Left diversity coalition: blacks, hippies, Jews, gays, feminists. They all got their lumps.
In “You Are What You Is,” for instance, Zappa attacks both oreos and whiggers for inauthenticity, and authenticity was different for each race.
“Jewish Princess” is good fun, and and the vals mocked in “Valley Girl” were disproportionately Jewish as well.
If you don’t like Zappa, as a Zappa fan, I can tell you that you just haven’t heard the right album yet.
Frank Zappa’s music is not for me. I mean, I get it. He was a musical genius and the complexity of some of his arrangements impressive. He had a very strange sense of rhythm. The guy was, if nothing else, original.
That said, I will always appreciate Zappa for introducing the world to Steve Vai who I am a big fan of.
Vai is a fantastic musician.
Just curious Greg, what are your favorite albums or era of his?
1. Freak Out is one of the great debut albums in rock history.
2. Hot Rats is largely instrumental, with beautiful melodies and superb musicianship.
3. One Size Fits All is the best album from my favorite Mothers incarnation from 1973 to 1975. Whimsical songs and amazing muscianship.
4. The Shut Up and Play Your Guitar series spotlights Frank’s improvisatory skills.
5. Sheik Yerbouti has some of his most obscene and hilarious parody songs and amazing musicianship.
My least favorite period of Frank’s work is with Flo and Eddie, which has too much of a Borscht Belt feel.
All great albums with One Size Fits All hard to top. I would add We’re Only In It For The Money, Chunga’s Revenge, The Grand Wazoo, Apostrophe(‘), Roxy & Elsewhere and Jazz From Hell from the ‘80’s. Pretty much everything he did in the ‘70’s is gold to me, even the Flo & Eddie stuff, though I must admit I wasn’t much of a fan when I was a teenager listening to my dad’s albums.
If you don’t already have it, do yourself a favor and buy Roxy The Movie.
One of my favorite songs from Zappa’s later output is his mocking of Jesse Jackson on Rhymin’ Man.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UqXlS2q_zP0&pp=ygUWcmh5bWluIG1hbiBmcmFuayB6YXBwYQ%3D%3D
Tall and tan,
Rhyme or reason,
Play your hand —
Rhyme on this — rhyme on that
Oh, you naughty Democrat!
Jesse hatched an evil plot,
Dipped his hands in the Doctor’s blood,
‘N rubbed his shirt like playin’ with mud
Looked around for all the press
‘N said: “Check me out, my name is Jess!
I’ll be known from towns ‘n farms —
Doctor King died in my arms!”
Tall and tan,
Rhyme or reason,
Play your hand —
Rhyme on this — rhyme on that
Oh, you naughty Democrat!
Rhymin’ man made a run for Prez
Farrakhan made him a clown,
Over there near Hymie-Town
Said he was a diplomat —
Hobbin’ an-a-knobbin’ with Arafat
Castro was simpatico,
But the U.S. voters, they said: “No!”
Tall and tan,
Rhyme or reason,
Play your hand —
Rhyme on this — rhyme on that
Oh, you naughty Democrat!
Rhymin’ Man says he’s your friend
Any fool can make a rhyme —
Cowboys do it all the time
People say: “Now he’s mature!”
Cowboys rhyme that with horse manure
That’s for sure!
You been cheatin’ —
Are you “this”?
Or are you “that”?
Oh, you naughty
Democrat!
Yes, Zappa was a top-notch guitarist. For those who aren’t keen on some of his other, errr, lyrics, there’s a three-album series, with the first one called “Shut Up and Play Yer Guitar,” which has good stuff.
I got to see him many decades ago– very impressive performance.
Enjoyed this article very much.
“Hi, boys and girls – I’m Jimmy Carl Black, and I’m the Indian of the group,”
I was a big Zappa fan back in the day. Let’s not forget “He’s so gay” and “Bobby Brown.” I got to see his son Dweezil play live and I think Moonunit was also there.
Zappa also made a movie “200 Motels” which was pretty cool. While Zappa didn’t have the popularity of the Beatles I think the fact that Ringo Starr stared as Zappa shows the clout that he had.
As well as Keith Moon as the suicidal nun.
Great idea for an article Trev! I had fun the whole time. What would be the name of your band? White lives matter or Hollywood racist?
Ace of Based.
https://x.com/dwdrums/status/1268297014703464449
They do condone rioting and looting and, as Jones rightly points out, the total destruction of our legal system and traditions. If a group wants to destroy your legal system, aren’t they full of prejudice and hate? That would be too sophisticated for scared little businessmen to reason through.
Jones is an incredible drummer as well. Good reference.
Nice takedown of Anselmo. He’s a poser.
Nico has also recorded a haunting version of “Das Lied der Deutschen”.
As a drummer I’ve been well aware of Hilary’s technical mastery, impeccable musicality, and girl-next-door good looks for decades.
I did not know she was a courageous and clear-eyed race realist.
I liked her before.
Now I’m in love.
While I certainly applaud his right-thinking views on race, Clapton was never my favorite guitarist. I always found him to be just okay. I always thought Page was a far better musician.
Also, I’ve never heard of Hilary Jones but I think I’m in love.
I never really understood the hype around Eric Clapton either but there are enough people whose intelligence I respect that rate him highly that I assume that there’s something there that I’m just not connecting with.
For example, Eddie Van Halen always said that Clapton was his favorite guitar player which is weird because they sound nothing alike. Point is that EVH knows a thing or two about guitar playing and if he says Clapton is great, I’ll assume the problem is me.
I’m far from a musical expert, and I’m sure that others here can elaborate much further than I could about Clapton’s proficiency and appeal. Anyway, one thing that impresses me about him is his consistent skill across some different genres of rock. And I think a lot of rock guitarists found him very influential as they were picking up their skills. I suppose a lot of this is subjective. But way back in the days when I read rock critics, Clapton, Page and Hendrix were often grouped together at the top of the heap, by writers who seemed to know what they were talking about.
The hype about him being the greatest guitarist ever (“Clapton is God”) began, I believe, as he gained a reputation of being one of the best blues guitarists around London. Straight blues don’t appeal to me much, but in listening to some of his earlier stuff I can’t deny his ability. I preferred it when he mixed in psychedelic or artsy or folksy bits to the standard blues sounds. I tend to like music with a lot more melody and harmony than blues, but top blues people seemed to respect Clapton too. I’ll admit that some of his reputation might be due to that hype which took off, as these things tend to do–most people who liked to see themselves as anti-establishment back in those days certainly were very much followers too–sheep in their own fashion.
For comparison’s sake, it might be worth listening to Clapton in a few songs that are some of my Clapton favorites, at least: “White Room,” “Badge,” “Can’t Find My Way Home,” and “Promises.” For some reason “Layla” doesn’t do much for me, but a lot of others feel differently.
Just my two cents.
I really like “The Core,” which Clapton did on a late 70s album. It was a duet with Marcy Levy, who was really talented. He and she might have just had a professional relationship.
With all due respect to Sid’s contribution to the image of Punk, he could not, in fact, play bass guitar; at gigs, his amp would be turned down or even off (“This goes to -11”). (*)
If the bass player doesn’t have to actually play bass, why not expand your choices? I’d suggest Enoch Powell, or Jonathan Bowden.
(*) This might be actually referenced in Spinal Tap, when Chris Guest is showing off his guitar: “You hear that reverb?” “No” “Well, you would if I were playing it.”
Sid could play bass, just not very well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0O0XAC9zzE
I agree with Travis in that I never quite understood Zappa’s appeal. For example I believe his Stairway to Heaven cover works in spite of him not because of him. Anyway about 15 years ago I cleave FZ a chance but was turned off by this lyric in “Trouble Every Day” and never gave him another chance:
“Hey, you know something, people?
I’m not black but there’s a whole lots a times I wish I could say I’m not white.”
Is there nuance I’m missing here?
Morrissey and the Smiths are not really rock n roll as I understand the term. There are some provocative.figures in various subgenres emanating from indie and alternative music, from Death in June on…
Although I can certainly respect Morrissey’s opinions, I could never get into his music. A little to soft for my taste. If I had to pick a singer, Billy Milano from S.O.D. and M.O.D. would be a no brainer. He gives zero fucks about who he offends and is about the only openly far-right singer I can think of. With such titles as Speak English Or Die, Imported Society, Monkeys Rule, Jose Can You See and the infamous Aren’t You Hungry?(criticizing USA For Africa with lyrics that I should probably not print here) he’s about as based as you will ever get. A close second to Seth Putnam from Anal Cunt. Imported Society should be the theme song for those opposed to The Great Replacement.
They came from the other side
In bunches at a time
Crowding up the neighborhood
To raise the rates of crime
Some of them got money
Most of them got shit
All they do is come here
To take from our pockets
Import, import, imported society(x4)
Don’t you fucking see
That you bother me
Genocide
You can’t hide
So go home now
Don’t come back
Take your goat
Get on your boat
I hate imports
I don’t want to hear their shit
I hate imports
Cause I’m just so sick of it
I just want to
Live my life without you fucking assholes
And I want to
Never see your ass again
Import, import, imported society(x4)
Hindus and Ethiopians
You know they’re all the same
A huck a buck of Indians
They’re all so fucking lame
Ditto to Speak English Or Die
I would need to see stronger evidence that Billy Milano is not merely ironically racist. I know Stormtrooper of Death also included (((Scott Ian))) and Charlie Benante of Anthrax who are an explicitly anti-racist band. I don’t think Scott Ian would work with someone who was unironically racist.
Considering that S.O.D. was meant to be tongue in cheek, fair enough. But listening to his M.O.D. stuff, especially his most recent albums he seems pretty sincere in his disgust with America turning into a third world shithole. Also, the fact that Scott and Charlie will have nothing to do with him these days is a pretty good sign as well.
Ron Asheton of The Stooges/Iggy and the Stooges got some attention for wearing German military insignia and paraphernalia on stage and in photos in the early 70s. He said he thought it looked cool and he had collected it since he was a kid. I’m not sure if any aggressive journalist asked him more about it. It was a simpler, less antiwhite time, and maybe no one even cared! When I saw The Stooges play big arenas in 2003 he did not wear any of that, just camo hunting clothes, which today is probably considered almost as offensive and suspicious as Wehrmacht stuff.
Very funny. Kudos. Gene Simmons famously/infamously riled the feathers of buttoned up NPR host Terry Gross. She is the old school NPR type that inspired Sat Night Live bits like the ‘Delicious Dish’. While both are Jewish, Simmons likened her pronunciations as ‘gentile’ before insinuating she couldn’t handle what he packed behind his codpiece.
There’s a frequently retold story where Mark E Smith/The Fall were shopping around for a new label in the early 80s. A big USA record company was out searching for UK talent and The Fall sent a copy of Hex Enduction Hour. It turned out a staff Fall fan was trying to sign them to soul-focused Motown records, whose executives quickly lost interest upon hearing the n-bomb in the first song in their boardroom (arguably more provocation than explicitly racist).
Probably everyone and anyone were an annoyance to Mark E Smith, who churned through band members like wearing holes through immigrant produced socks. Though he reserved special abuse for mainstream tastes and leftist excess. The prescient “Prole Art Threat” seems to be a paranoid rant about hiding from pinko commies (the ‘pink press threat’) and standing up to weak liberals (‘wet lib’).
The NWRA (the North Will Rise Again) could be a theme song around here. Dense with impenetrable references to Lovecraft, Philip K Dick and others, it suggests a northern UK rebellion against the southern elites.
Gent: get out and apply the wet lib file
Vs. this new prole art threat
Safehouse, safehouse time
I can’t believe no one has mentioned Ted Nugent. He once referred to Barack Obama as a “subhuman mongrel”.
On the subject of black South Africans, he opined that:
“The preponderance of South Africa is a different breed of man. I mean that with no disrespect. I say that with great respect. I love them because I’m one of them. They are still people of the earth, but they are different. They still put bones in their noses, they still walk around naked, they wipe their butts with their hands. And when I kill an antelope for ’em, their preference is the gut pile. That’s what they fucking want to eat, the intestines. These are different people. You give ’em toothpaste, they fucking eat it…I hope they don’t become civilized. They’re way ahead of the game.”
Yes, but Nugent got really bizarre in the last 15 years or more. He would say MLK was a conservative hero. He’s like a senile Kid Rock now, it’s really bad. A home should be built for these aging rockers who have totally lost it, like they used to have for aging indigent merchant mariners.
Great article.
This version of “Bengali in Platforms” is much better, the one you linked is slowed down, probably to foil youtube’s anti-piracy robot algorithm:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpjdbiGIEYE
In the book 20 Years of Rolling Stone, 1967-1987, the Sid Vicious interview has the newly-minted bassist describe his earliest encounters with the pre-Rotten Johnny (I’m quoting from memory): “‘E told ’em the niggers had ‘air on the roofs of their mouths and they believed ‘im!”
Then there was some paperback on The Sex Pistols I bought back then which quotes Rotten calling Malcolm McLaren untrustworthy since he is a Portuguese Jew.
The Gen X musos on YouTube have talked with outrage about how Gene Simmons buys his famous battle axe basses for (I believe) $600 then sells them at concerts for (if memory serves) $18,000. Way to avoid the greedy Jew stereotype!
There has been endless speculation about Morrisey’s sexuality, which he has daftly used to keep his name abuzz in the press. But like many aok LGBs he has steered queer of hot button topics like hormones for teens and trans advantages in sports.
Many rock bands will do a country number or two, so perhaps Johnny Rebel could sit in for a song in your supergroup.
Outlaw country musician, David Allan Coe, also had two unofficial albums of X-rated ‘racial’ material.
But its especially funny when groups usually given some sort of under-representation privilege are caught getting racial. Elton John is usually seen championing progressive causes and forbade Trump from using his music at rallies. His “Island Girl” song was a #1 hit in the 1970s and portrays a “black as coal” Jamaican prostitute in NYC whom some dude wants to take back to Jamaica, “What you wanting with the white man’s world?”. Given that the “Jamaican honey” is 6 ft 3, ‘she’ may be packing.
Israeli violinist, Pinchas Zuckerman, riled Asian musicians during a master class. First he suggested an Asian student spice up their playing with some “Soy Sauce”. Then after suggesting making their instrument sing, he said Koreans don’t typically sing, to which the students said they were Japanese. Careful to make sure he stepped in as much shit as possible, Zuckerman then began to mimic an Asian sing-song vocal stereotype. The full video was never posted so we will never know if he went full on Cara Waldman on them.
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