Old Timers: Crass - "The Feeding of the 5000"

Hello again, fiends of the Belly. I know the Spleen just did an Old Timers, but I had been meaning to get this one up for awhile and never got to it. But don't worry, because I am bringing it to you now.

For many, this album will come as no surprise, and really, I think it would have made a good first entry to this section. I don't know why it wasn't. I guess I just wasn't using the old noggin earlier. And for those of you that are confused as to why I am making such a big stink about this little gem, let me explain. The Feeding of the 5000 is the first album released by one of punk's most important bands: Crass. These guys (and girls) were one of the greatest examples of a DIY band ever. They were also at the forefront of the anarcho-punk movement, although some have said, and I tend to agree after careful attention to their lyrics and lifestyles, that the band represented a view more closely related to libertarian communism. Either way, they were extremely political both in music and action.

So why The Feeding of the 5000 and not Christ: The Album, for example? Well, as I said, this was their first album, and that is pretty important with a band like this, since the sound was pretty new. Not only that, but it has one of the best anti-religion songs ever as its opener. In fact, the original release (1978) was not able to actually carry the aforementioned song, entitled "Reality Asylum," because the plant pressing the records refused to make them since the lyrics were considered to be blasphemy. Crass pulled the song and initially left the first 2 minutes of the record blank, with the song title being "The Sound of Free Speech." It was not until Crass set up their own label and re-released the album in 1981 that the song made it to pressing. The track is called "Asylum" on this pressing.

But beyond this, all the music carries a message that still holds true today in our world of ideological politics and the world's laziness in any sort of reaction to the problems presented by the egotistical nutjob politicians and the corporate, asinine bullshit fed to mainstream consumers everyday, although I guess it's peoples' own fault for being the said mainstream sheep and eating up the slop they are presented with. Crass were all about anti-religion, feminism, gay rights, environmentalism, anti-consumerism, and peace, and you can get a good dose of all those themes on this record. But also, the music is just, plain good.

So if you have never listened to this album, do it now. Otherwise, re-listen to it. It's killer, man.