Podcast No.1 - May 25, 2006
Tracklist and Notes: Gilbertlive at Telluride Festival, June 2005 Quattro
live at Berlin Arena, July 2005 - full show available on dimeadozen Passing Away by Paul Mounsey.
I felt that 'Quattro' is a song that deals on one level with people being dispossessed of their identity via the encroachment of the modern world in violent or not-so-violent ways. One of the classic ploys of a conquering country or culture in establishing supremacy is to suppress the language of the indigenous inhabitants. This can be in brutal ways, such as the forcible removal of Aboriginal children from their homes and into 'native schools' where they were forced to speak only English, to a more gradual yet no less sad decline of local tongues under overwhelming pressure from incomers. I am fascinated by language, and although I am ashamed to admit I can only really speak one, nonetheless I feel it is a great loss to the richness of the world as older dialects and forms of speech die out at an ever-increasing rate. I found this melancholy song on a Scottish folk compilation called 'Folk 'n' Hell' (geddit??) and thought it blended in very well with the sentiments of 'Quattro'. Across the Wire
With Mariachi Luz de Luna, live at the Barbican, London 2002. You really must go and buy the 'World Drifts In' DVD if you don't already own it. Crystal Frontier
live at Berlin Arena, July 2005 El Manicomio Esta En Manos de Los Locos - by Los De Abajo.
There's a connection here! Live performances of 'Crystal Frontier' often include a brief riff from The Specials' 'Ghost Town'. From The Specials sprang Fun Boy Three, who did 'Lunatics Have Taken Over the Asylum'. Which is covered here en espanol by the excellent Los De Abajo Guns of Brixton
Live radio session on KCRW's 'Morning Becomes Eclectic', April 2006 Guns of Brixton
The original version from The Clash All Systems Red
live at Berlin Arena, July 2005
The soundclips are taken from the audiobook of 'The Tortilla Curtain' by TC Boyle, read by the author.