Magnificent Seven

I was originally doing some light research about another Clash song ("Ghetto Defendant") for a music blog I write for, when I came across this performance of "Magnificent Seven". It, too, has been on my mind lately as I wrote a short screenplay a few months ago that used it in a scene. But this live version is so, um, alive that I decided to write about it instead -- especially because it nicely bookends the other song from 1981 I wrote about the other day.

"Magnificent Seven" was apparently the first rock/hip-hop song recorded and released, beating out "Rapture" by a few months. The lyrics were a stream of consciousness doing by Joe Strummer, and in that the song is pretty amazing by itself. The recorded version on Sandanista! is a great dancey-punk number, and I suppose the funky bass and beat were the first to hook me on it.

In this live version, recorded for the Tom Snyder Show in 1981, many more themes and influences play out. There's a heavy dub flavor with the guitars. The lyrics are delivered with more of a punk growl. It's less night club-oriented and more rock-club oriented. Above all, this is a rock band, and they could/should (have) give(n) lessons on TV performance.

But addressing the lyrical content: this song is about the post-modern urban rat race.

Ring! ring! its 7:00 a.m.!
Move yourself to go again
Cold water in the face
Brings you back to this awful place
Knuckle merchants and you bankers, too
Must get up an learn those rules
Weather man and the crazy chief
One says sun and one says sleet.

It's about consumerism, superficiality, and the silent toil of the masses. And then there's a little economics lesson about opportunity costs:

Wave bub-bub-bub-bye to the boss
Its our profit, its his loss
But anyway lunch bells ring
Take one hour and do your thaanng!
Cheese-boigah!

But ultimately, it is not rich versus poor. It attacks what lurks for all of us. After it describes the hollowness of the salary man, it preaches about the emptiness of the workingman:

So get back to work and sweat some more
The sun will sink and we'll get out the door
It's no good for man to work in cages
Hits the town, he drinks his wages
You're frettin', you're sweatin'
But did you notice you ain't gettin' anywhere?



There's also a video for the ensuing interview, but it's a little disappointing. They are all kinda nervous without guitars in their hands, and for the first two thirds they resort to Sex Pistols-style rhetoric.

Giants and Toys (1958)

This film, made roughly 50 years ago, could easily be remade now and be relevant.

It takes place in post-war Japan, where society is trying to adjust to a modern, American way of life. This means a fascination with space toys, candy, and convertibles. But it also means getting cutthroat in business. Rivals are now treated with malice, not honor, and a man (or woman) must work restlessly in the rotten pursuit of money.

The plot outlines several relationships -- business, mentor, romantic, friendship -- and tests them all. There is a great dichotomy between the old feelings of being faithful to one's country and the new, individualist culture. What's interesting is that one gets the sense that these characters have swapped company for country, and, still loyal, the Japanese are now less honorable.

If remade, it could evoke great films like Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) and Wall Street (1987) and explore the moral landscape that brought us to the current economic situation we all find ourselves in.

The end of Giants and Toys is bittersweet and wonderfully ambiguous; it leaves the viewer to make sense of it for himself. That is what we all will be doing in a few years.

A Super Idea

I really don't have anything more to add to this idea, but it really merits posting. Adding supermarkets in dense city cores is such a no-brainer solution to increased nutrition, neighborhood walkability and economic vitality.

(link courtesy of The City Fix/ New York Times)

The Bookseller

I recently returned from a trip to Spain. Among other places, I went to Valencia. It was during my semi-drunken wanderings there that I saw this bookstore and met its owner. The store was delightfully unorganized and smelled absolutely wonderful. The man eyed me somewhat distrustfully and actually discouraged me from looking around. I asked him if he had any books on economics. He replied he only had books on art, poetry and philosophy, and perhaps I should go to another bookstore. I suggested that economics is very much like a philosophy. He warmed to that, and we began to chat. I told him how important his store was in the face of Valencia's "Disney-fication", and he let me know he was closing in two months. No one wanted to buy books anymore.

We talked for a good while, though I didn't understand everything he said in his mixture of Spanish and Catalan. He told me a bit about life during Franco's regime and mentioned JFK's name a few times. He repeated "freedom's not the same then as it is now" a few times as he recalled the past. I was sorry I couldn't buy an armload of books from him on the spot.