Music Notes: September 2023
Hiatus or not…a number of people wrote to me to make sure everything was OK after last week’s announcement. Thank you. Truth was, I was just a little overwhelmed with some other things, and if I can’t do something well, I’d prefer not to do it at all. No, I’ll probably try to put out posts, but at a slower rate for now. In anyevent, Music Notes will continue.
1 The Who – Who’s Next (Super-deluxe edition)
Now, Who’s Next, make no mistake, is a great record. Beyond “Baba O’Riley” and “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” there are plenty of amazing things. Still, this edition is nuts – 11 discs including the original album, 2 CDs of demos, 2 CDs of sessions, four live discs, and a blu-ray. I’m sure if you are the ultimate Who fan this is a dream, but after shelling out $400 for this behemoth, you have to quit your job in order to find time to listen to the whole thing. Maybe the 2 disc edition…
2. The Replacements – Tim (Let It Bleed Edition)
Having just dissed the Who for a bloated release, I come to the Replacements deluxe version of Tim. Am I a hypocrite? I can see myself getting this one – a remastered original, an amazing Ed Stasium mix, demos, and live stuff. Brilliant.
3 Joe Strummer & the Mescaleros – Live at Acton Town Hall
It’s hard to listen to this without conflicting emotions. It’s a Clash heavy set of prime Strummer material and featuring Mick Jones on three songs. I’m always glad the Clash never reunited as it would likely have soured the memory of that brilliant band (I’m deliberately leaving out Cut the Crap here), but to hear Mick and Joe together for a final time, well. But that’s the flipside. It was the final time. A month later, Strummer was gone. And you know that as you listen.
4 Black Country, New Road
I’ve seen a lot of shows at Toronto’s Concert Hall – The Cramps, Billy Bragg, the Beastie Boys, Ice-T, Echo and the Bunnymen, the Replacements, Pearl Jam, Sonic Youth, the Violent Femmes, and the Jesus and Mary Chain, and likely more. Good size venue where the sound was crisp and the slightlines were good. But then it closed and was a TV studio for a while. Now, it’s back and it’s exactly the same. The other week I saw Black Country, New Road there in a sold-out show. Pretty good show despite the fact having to stand all night is getting harder and harder. The band was in good form and sounded great to me despite me being unfamiliar with this album, and the switch up of the band following the departure of singer Isaac Wood. Someone asked me to describe the band and I replied avant-garde post-punk folk-jazz. Dunno if that’s entirely accurate, but the band went through most of those styles, much to the delight of the Toronto audience.
5 The Feelies – Some Kinda Love
New Jersey’s the Feelies are in good company – bands inspired by the Velvet Underground. For me, they’ve always reminded me of the third Velvets album (feel free to disagree, it’s cool), and that’s entirely a compliment. This live album, which will be released in October, it is a pretty amazing thing; a live Velvets cover album drawing from all four albums. You can hear two songs on Bandcamp and pre-order there. A fitting homage.
6. The Velvet Underground – The Velvet Underground
And speaking of the Velvets. Since my August trip to the Warhol Museum, the Velvets have been higher in the rotation. I usually alternate between the first two albums as my favourite, but this third is really amazing too:. From the rockers of “What Goes On ” and “Beginning to See the Light,” to the prettiest song Lou Reed ever wrote, “Pale Blue Eyes.” Even “The Murder Mystery” is worth a listen (though it didn’t entirely work). I’m working my way toward the live stuff.
7 Margo Cilker – Valley of Heart’s Delight
OK, I’m plugging a record I haven’t listened to yet (though the last one was great, and the reviews from this are very good as well). The real reason I’m looking forward to this is she’s playing the Monarch Tavern in Toronto in a couple of weeks. Never been to the Monarch, but its capacity of 120 makes me very excited. Watch for a review.
8 The Rolling Stones – “Angry”
On a certain level, my feeling is what’s the point? Is it even the Stones? It’s Mick, Keef and Ron. The announced album, Hackney Diamonds, is packed with friends and celebrity cameos (Gaga, Elton John, Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney, even Bill Wyman), which is usually a sign of flagging interest,but you know, the single isn’t half bad. Punchy, and with a great guitar sound.
9 Sleaford Mods – “Big Pharma”
New Mods, nuff said.
10. Teenage Fanclub – Nothing Lasts Forever
A somewhat ironic title as despite comings and goings, TFC does seem to be lasting forever. The band has that rare ability to have a sound that is at once familiar, but always different. A truly classic pop band who deserve to me worshipped around the globe.
Till next time.
Labour Day
Today was Labour Day, and I didn’t go to the parade. But you know who was there? Monte McNaughton, Ontario’s minister of Labour.
Normally, I wouldn’t quote a capitalist politician, but here’s what he tweeted along with a video:
Happy Labour Day to all the incredible #EverydayHeroes making Ontario the best place to live, work, and raise a family. Our government will continue #WorkingForWorkers to ensure better health & safety protections and more opportunities for everyone to earn a bigger paycheque.
This is the same Minister of Labour who voted for Bill 124 limiting public sector workers to 1% raises and after the law was declared unconstitutional supported his government’s decision to appeal the ruling; the same Minister of Labour who voted to deny CUPE workers their constitutional rights. I could go, but instead I’ll just call Bullshit!
Still, you’d think that with the crowd of protesters, some people might have suggested the Minister get the fuck out.
Crisis, What Crisis?
Over the decades, I’ve talked, read, and written about the idea of crisis. Marxists talk about the economic crisis, the unemployment crisis, the environmental crisis, and the crisis of capitalism. And more. When I was a Trotskyist, I spent a lot of time talking about the “crisis of leadership,” a perennial obsession of Trotskyists. At this moment though, it seems relevant to recall Winston Churchill’s comment that you should never let a good crisis go to waste.
In 1995, high-school dropout and then-current Ontario education minister John Snobelen was memorably recorded talking of the need to bankrupt the education system creating a “useful crisis” where radical changes could be carried out. (Essentially the theme of Naomi Klein’s book The Shock Doctrine). And so, in subsequent years, crisis, rather than being the purview of the left has become the playback of the right.
In 2018, Doug Ford led the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party to a majority government, handily defeated Kathleen Wynn’s Liberals. Ford, a college dropout who inherited a labels business from his father, was a one-time city councillor alongside his brother Rob, Toronto’s infamous crack-smoking mayor. (To get a sense of Doug Ford as comic relief please enjoy this clip of John Oliver’s Last Week This Week from 2014) Despite a sort of inherited buffoonery seemingly endemic to the Ford family, Doug displayed a tactical savvy by courting and then dumping Tanya Granic Allen, an Islamophobic and anti-LGBTQ contender for the Tory leadership, in order to become Conservative leader (It is also widely believed that Ford had a hand in the ouster of previous leader Patrick Brown, who Ford detersted)
In opposition, Ford spoke of two crises: The financial crisis created by the corrupt Liberals (a theme he would refer to repeated even in his second term of majority government five years after defeating the Liberals) and the health care crisis including a vow to end hallway medicine.
As it turned out, the $15 billion deficit was in reality about half that, but that didn’t stop the PCs from cancelling projects they didn’t like, scrapping plans to raise minimum wage laws (until shortly before the 2022 election) as well as passing laws (now deemed unconstitutional) limiting public sector raises to 1% for the next three years.
To no one’s surprise, Ford’s government did not end hallway medicine. Despite endlessly promoting the odd hospital wing here and there in Conservative held ridings, the most common outcome has been the closure of emergency wards on weekends (although not the one closest to the Ford family cottage) . A government spokesperson denied these were closures, but rather relocations of resources. Ford’s approach was two-fold. Underspend what it had planned to spend, while declaring a crisis – the solution? Privatization.
Despite reports of Canada’s “socialist” medical system, private clinics have long existed. Each province has its own public system, and which varies from province to province (the system in Ontario is called OHIP – Ontario Health Insurance Program). In the past, the way around public healthcare was that private clinics were allowed to offer services not provided by public medicine. Previous Conservative, but also LIberal and NDP (the self-proclaimed defenders of public medicine) governments simply delisted services, and voila! Clinics could offer them.
Nevertheless, for most people, the idea of private healthcare conjures up the experience to the south. Ford declared that while public health care dollars would now be going to private clinics, no one would ever be out of pocket and treatments could be paid for with an OHIP card (this has already proven to be untrue with numerous reports of hidden service fees and upselling for “the best service” becoming more and more frequent).
The current crisis is housing. According to government figures, Ontario’s population has grown by 500,000 in the last year. But it’s the nature of the crisis which is important. While housing and accommodation may be scarce, it is affordable housing that is most sorely needed. Conservative politicians provincial and federal have railed against the cost of housing, all of them have opposed measures which could provide accommodation for those who truly need it. You want a condo? Plenty being built. Office space? Downtown in most cities are empty. Affordable housing?…er.
The solution was to open up the Greenbelt. The Greenbelt was created in 2005 by the governing Liberals. It was intended as a permanent area free from development to protect farmlands and prevent urban sprawl. In the two decades since, small parcels of land were moved in and out of the Greenbelt, but the idea of the greenbelt reamined a sacred cow.
Prior to the 2018 election, Ford, who was later to describe the Greenbelt as a “scam,” announced that if elected he would open up large parts of the Greenbelt to development. Public reaction was swift and negative. Ford backed away saying the people had spoken and he wouldn’t touch the Greenbelt. But in 2022, after winning re-election, Ford changed his mind. Citing the need for new housing his government proposed moving over 7,000 acres out of the Greenbelt, while moving some part land in (of course the land which was moved in was undesirable for development).
As public anger continued to build, more dubious details came to light. Large areas of the greenbelt had been purchased shortly before the decision to move land out of the Greenbelt was announced. As a result, developers who owned the land stood to profit by over $8 billion. Further, it turned out that some of the same developers had been at a stag and doe party for Ford’s daughter and were encouraged to donate cash fro the couple. Ford claimed the developers were personal friends although during an investigation by Ontario’s Auditor General, he claimed he didn’t know any of them. Finally, it was discovered that Ontario Housing Minister Steve Clark’s chief of Staff had received “packages” from several developers stating their preferences for land to be removed from the Greenbelt shortly before the decision was made. Needless to say they were. Ford and Clark have conceded mistakes were made (“We moved too quickly”) but defended their actions because of the “housing crisis.” (Ford has claimed to have been involved and not involved with the decision making process). A subsequent report by the Integrity Commissioner found that Clarke had broken the rules, but instead of resigning, Clarke blustered he was responsible without actually taking any responsibility. This story continues to unwind, but all of the opposition parties seek only the removal of the minister and a return to the status quo. Unfortunately, they seem happy to waste a good crisis of the government’s own making.
Finally, in two weeks, Ontario students return to the classroom. It can only be a matter of time before Education Minister Stephen Lecce announces a crisis in Education. As it stands, teachers have been without a contract for almost a year, and there is a shortage of teachers. Last year, the Ministry announced it would be allowing students studying for their teaching degree to supply teach in Ontario classrooms (it has always been that case that student teachers completing their practice teaching were never to be left unsupervised). Still, Ontario has not yet moved to the depths of Quebec, which, facing a short of 5,000 teachers, announced that some classrooms in the province will have adults without any training at the front of the room. Minister Bernard Drainville also mused that inexperienced teachers should start in kindergarten because it was easier – spoken like a man who hasn’t been in a classroom in decades. Last week, Lecce announced the government and the teaching unions had struck a deal to continue negotiating until the end of October, but then both would submit to binding arbitration. We shall see how the government will attempt to turn this to its advantage as the unions cry for them to play fair.
The origins of the word crisis is Greek. The word has its roots in decision. A choice. For the right-wing and conservative forces, a crisis has become an opportunity. A chance to force change, to further shift power, resources and wealth to themselves and their allies. For those opposed to capital, crisis must become more than an analysis of what is wrong with the world, although it should not abandon this idea either. But for anti-capitalists, for revolutionaries, crisis must always become an opportunity, a moment to cast off chains and reshape the world into the one we deserve.
Doppelganger
Many people have travelled across the political spectrum: ex-Trotskyists Max Shachtman and James Burnham, Ramparts editor David Horowitz , and former RAF founder turned neo-Nazi Horst Mahler to name only a few. To go from right to left is probably less common, but I’m sure it happens. The question which fascinates me is always why? We’ve probably all had this experience where a friend or comrade who once shared our ideas evolves in such a way they are unrecognizable. I was a social democrat. I became a Trotskyist, then a left communist. Quite an evolution, but in each there was a core belief in that something called socialism would be a good idea (even if the content of what constitutes socialism has changed for me and I look back in horror about somethings I once proudly believed)
Naomi Wolf burst to fame in 1991 with her first book The Beauty Myth. She worked as an adviser to Al Gore and was viewed as a prominent public intellectual. By the late 2000s, this label began to be replaced by another, “Conspiracy theorist.” She was permanently banned from Twitter (although she is back on X) as she went deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole. Still, she wasn’t someone who I really followed, so no big deal.
Then a few days ago I read a piece in the Guardian by Naomi Klein about Wolf entitled “Doppelganger.” (an excerpt from a forthcoming book). Klein is a few years younger than Wolf but is often mistaken for her: Both public intellectuals (Klein for No Logo and The Shock Doctrine), both 50-something Jewish women named Naomi (actually Wolf is 61) with brown-blonde hair. And so it goes. Klein says she actually used to find the confusion amusing, but since their political divergence (she’s a left left social-democrat) , it’s become less so. And so she did what writers do: wrote a book about it.
Klein’s mix of anti-globalisation, environmentalism, neo-Situationist ideas, and smidgen of Marxism has never been to my taste although her books are interesting. Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World is out in September
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PS The New York Times ran a similar article in the magazine this week
Notes from Underground 