Even more pertinent today than when released in 1981 as a track on Crass' album 'Penis Envy'. 'What the Fuck', scripted by Penny Rimbaud and performed by Eve Libertine, is an uncompromising howl against the madness of war. Forty years on, Rimbaud reflects –
'I was born in 1943, the World was at war, Auschwitz was at its most active, Hiroshima and Nagasaki were yet come, but following these barbaric acts of destruction criminal acts of desolation we were told to rejoice, war was over. It was the first of many great lies that have hounded my life. No, one war simply led to another. Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, on and on, right through to modern times; Afghanistan, Iraq, Ukraine, Palestine, and plenty more to come. This, we are assured by the ruling elites, is civilisation.
Throughout my life, I have actively opposed war and now, in my eighties, I might have expected something better than this, but no, it seems that the horrors are set as a default. Will love ever prevail against these obscenities? John Lennon and Yoko Ono wrote ‘War is over if you want it.’ The writing is still on the wall. Look to it and move out into a love supreme. No one else can do it. Peace is ours if we want it.'
lyrics
What now, now you would destroy the earth,
dry the river beds?
What now? Now in your control, birth and death,
dry the bodies, incandescent in the heat.
Your fire is melting both soil and soul,
in plan maybe, is that not enough?
Your war and raving of it is so total,
you're consumed by it as you'd consumed us.
Would you see the fire from your sanctuary of death?
What terrible pain you need to hide.
In your hatred you'd seek to destroy the earth,
what is it that you have been denied?
Your mind and its rantings are so barren.
What the fuck are you thinking? What the fuck?
Your eyes and their vision, empty, staring.
What the fuck are you seeing? What the fuck?
What now? Now you would destroy the earth,
dry the riverbeds.
What now? Now in your control, birth and death,
dry the bodies, incandescent in the heat.
So singular your motives, yet impossible to define.
How finely lined my destiny in the cobwebs of your crime.
So insular your future, so alien your plan.,
Take all of this if you will and I'll take what I can.
A town that is no more,
"My god", you say, "What have I done?"
But you won't heed what's gone before,
"What pity?", you say, "There is none."
And so you drive the world to war,
but this war will not be lost or won.
The desolation that you've seen, but never saw
is the lesson that you teach, but never learn.
But would you see the fire in the world where you exist?
Will your hard eyes register the pain?
Are you so cold that there is no distress?
Where there's death would you give death again?
No flowers in your landscape, some withered rose
kicked amongst the corpses where they lay,
halted where all hope died, froze
by the horror of your acts compelled to stay.
What now? Now you would destroy the earth?
Dry the riverbeds.
What now? Now in your control, birth and death,
dry the bodies, incandescent in the heat.
Unnoticed all this in your lusting after death,
how determined that your darkness should be shared.
Unnoticed in your blindness, this miracle of breath,
what element of beauty attracts your cruel desire?
Would you see the burning? Is that your delight?
Would you have me see it in your stead?
Would you feel my yearning? Peace, life, light,
body, breath. Would you take all this?
What now? Now you would destroy the earth,
dry the river beds.
What now? Now in your control, birth and death.
Dry the bodies, incandescent in the heat.
What is it that you're seeking, so cold and so deprived?
What is it that you dream of in your empty, eyeless head?
Why must I share your lust of death? Can you not die alone?
Why must I share your fear of breath, light, life, PEACE?
Crass were an Anarcho-punk band formed in 1977. They popularised the anarcho-punk movement, and were advocates for such
matters as direct action, animal rights, anti-facism, feminism, and environmentalism. From the word go, their career's ending was set to be 1984, and they lived up to this intention, splitting up following a miners' benefit gig in Wales in July that year....more
supported by 24 fans who also own “What The Fuck?”
Just such a great early Hardcore Punk album, literally has aged unbelievably well as most of the songs are more true today as when it was first released. simiche
Scratchy DIY punk from Philadelphia with an impeccable list of inspirations. Think Crass, Flux of Pink Indians, This Heat, and Chronophage. Bandcamp New & Notable Jun 22, 2023
This taut, punchy 2015 anarcho-punk EP from Istanbul's Ugly Shadows gets a worthy cassette re-release through A World Divided. Bandcamp New & Notable Sep 21, 2021
Brutal dark punk from the excellent New York group Pawns fuses razorlike riffs with pitch-black vocals to chilling effect. Bandcamp New & Notable Jul 24, 2017
