Ocelopotamus

As a follow-up to my Roddy Frame post from a week or two back, here’s Roddy teaming up with Mick Jones from The Clash and Big Audio Dynamite to do something energetic, political, and way danceable: the ever-fabulous “Good Morning Britain,” from Aztec Camera’s album Stray, released as a single in 1990. And this is a song that absolutely evokes that year; you can almost see the Berlin Wall falling down when you hear it.

DJ Dave Roberts is a big fan of this one and has been known to play it at Planet Earth Chicago now and again. Caution: Listen to it three times in a row and it’ll be stuck in your head for a week. But you’ll love that, and it’ll make you a better person! I promise.

 
From the Tyne to where to the Thames does flow
My English brothers and sisters know
It’s not a case of where you go
It’s race and creed and colour.
From the police cell to the deep dark grave
On the underground’s just a stop away
Don’t be too black, don’t be too gay
Just get a little duller.

… The past is steeped in shame,
But tomorrow’s fair game,
For a life that’s fit for living
Good morning Britain.