How Much Longer
1980 · Rough Trade ROUGH 9 · Bristol, UK: England
- Artist
- The Pop Group
- Title
- How Much Longer
- Release
- For How Much Longer Do We Tolerate Mass Murder?
- Year
- 1980
- Label
- Rough Trade # ROUGH 9
- Format
- LP · Album
- Country
- Bristol, UK: England
- Genre
- Punk · Post-Punk · Art Punk
- Primary theme
- Post-War
Annotation
Post-Punk & Art Punk album from The Pop Group, formed 1978 in Bristol, UK, featuring Mark Stewart (vocals), Gareth Sager (guitar, saxophone), Bruce Smith (drums, percussion), John Waddington (guitar, 1978-81), Simon Underwood (bass, 1978-80), and Dan Catsis (bass, 1980-present). This album contained a couple anti-war songs referencing the Vietnam War. The first song "How Much Longer" (Rough Trade Records # ROUGH 9), criticised apathy towards war: "what's pathetic is our apathy", wondering why "we tolerate mass murder". The lyrics looked at the economics of war, noting "hell of a lot of money to be made from wars". Direclty-related to Vietnam, the song called the US incursion into Cambodia in 1970 a war crime: "Nixon and Kissinger should be tried for war crimes for the secret bombing of Cambodia" - of course a reference to President Richard Nixon and his National Security Adviser / Secretary of State Henry Kissinger at the time of the incursion.
Annotation by Justin A. Brummer
Lyrics
English: Just one question / For how much longer do we tolerate mass murder? / Tolerance is a mask of apathy / Attrition is a daily policy / There's a hell of a lot of money to be made from wars / What's pathetic is our apathy in the face of the misery of others / Our inaction in the face of their murder and enslavement / Is a violent crime / There is guilt and there is action / All that we ask for is our very own garden of Eden / Nixon and Kissinger should be tried for war crimes for the secret bombing of Cambodia I wake up every day / And look at my country / This is what the blind man sees / Does it look like justice to you / It doesn't look like justice to me / They've got to protect their property / Better phone up the police / Call up corruption / Who killed Blair Peach? / Political prisoners caught at Southall / And tried by kangaroo courts / A man had to have his balls removed / After being kicked by the S.P.G. / It doesn't look like justice to me / Have your heard the rumours / You've got 2 years till conscription / Do you want to go fight Zimbabwe / Do you want to go fight in Ireland / Soon it's got to be you and me / Who guards the guards / Who polices the police / What happened at Red Lion Square / Who killed Kevin Gately / Jimmy Kelly arrested in Liverpool / And later died in custody / And they'll bring in the army / To break up the strikes / And they'll bring the legal terrorists / To control civil disorders / Ireland is their practice ground / To control civil…
About the artist
Post-Punk and Art Punk group, formed in 1978 in Bristol, England, UK, disbanded in 1981 and reformed in 2010; members included Mark Stewart (vocals), Gareth Sager (guitar, saxophone), John Waddington (guitar), Simon Underwood (bass), Dan Catsis (bass) and Bruce Smith (drums, percussion).
Themes
From the release For How Much Longer Do We Tolerate Mass Murder?