Guest post by Nathan Arizona
When Michael Stipe first sang “Exhuming McCarthy” with R.E.M. in 1987, the title alluded to the early ‘50s right-wing, commie-hunting, fear-mongering U.S. senator Joseph McCarthy. But the band was really talking about political repression in its own time, which it compared to McCarthy’s crusade. It was like the government was digging McCarthy out of his grave to offer advice.
Now that things are even worse, it might be useful to exhume McCarthy again. But a much different McCarthy — McCarthy the band.
The group spent its whole late-‘80s music career ripping the government more fiercely than R.E.M. did, with a breezy Byrds-like jangle that contrasted with the aggressive words.
A band member later described the group as “just four oiks from Barking,” which would be tip-off that their government target was super-capitalist Margaret Thatcher. Only in Britain would a town be called Barking and a scruffy layabout an oik. Maggie and her Tories could have given Trump a few pointers.
McCarthy targets the economic system in “The Procession of Popular Capitalism.“ At the head of the gang/were top civil servants and captains of industry/with well-manicured hands/and greasy smiles enticing the populace.” “The Home Secretary Briefs the Forces of Law and Order,” sung in the voice of authority, could be out of the Ice playbook. “When you catch them/pump them full of lead/tear them limb from limb/for the law will be on your side.” The album titles themselves announce the agenda. “I Am a Wallet,” “The Enraged Will Inherit the Earth,” “Banking, Violence and the World Today.”
Musically, McCarthy was part of a movement critics and fans called C86 after the name (and year) of an anthology that featured many of the bands. Most groups associated with the C86 style had nothing to do with politics. The Hit Parade, the Orchids, the Field Mice. The Shop Assistants, the Railway Children. the Chesterfields. They favored melodic no-frills guitar pop over the punk, metal, hip-hop, synth and New Romantic pomp that preceded them. Some critics have found them too limited to be interesting. The records came out on small labels; the bands had fanzine champions and an audience that made up in enthusiasm what it lacked in numbers. The movement is often seen as the start of indie.
The band has a niche following even now, but it won’t be exhuming McCarthy. Singer/lyricist Malcolm Eden lost interest in the whole idea. “I’m sorry to say I stopped following what was going on in music at some time in the early 1990s,” he later told an interviewer. Besides, he added, “pop music probably peaked sometime in early 1966.”
Soon after McCarthy broke up, 12-string guitar player Tim Gane went for something completely different. He co-founded the eclectic, lounge-influenced art-pop group Stereolab.
Here’s “The Procession of Popular Capitalism.” It’s badly captioned, as so many videos are. The second and third lines are “I strolled around, penniless/But there’d be pockets to pick.”
“Governing Takes Brains” is sung in the voice of a smug official not nearly as smart as he thinks he is. This sounds familiar too.
