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London

by The Four Fathers

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about

In the wake of the entirely preventable inferno at Grenfell Tower in west London, our latest online single, ‘London’, deals largely with the housing crisis, as part of a love song to the city going back to the 1980s, with lead singer Andy Worthington, who moved to Brixton in 1985, providing his personal take on how the wild and chaotic capital of the 1980s and 1990s has been overtaken by a focus on greed and the dull, soul-sapping, materialistic values of “gentrification.”
In this dysfunctional new world, the vibrant dissent of the 80s and 90s has largely been silenced, and those in charge of housing - endlessly putting profit before the needs of people - pursue their aims by razing neighbourhoods to the ground and giving the capital city a lobotomy.
For Grenfell, see Andy's article, 'Deaths Foretold at Grenfell Tower: Let This Be The Moment We The People Say “No More” to the Greed That Killed Residents': www.andyworthington.co.uk/2017/06/16/deaths-foretold-at-grenfell-tower-let-this-be-the-moment-we-the-people-say-no-more-to-the-greed-that-killed-residents/

In December 2017, marking six months since the entirely preventable Grenfell Tower fire that killed 71 people, The Four Fathers released 'Grenfell' on video, a song Andy wrote remembering the victims and calling for accountability. The video is here: youtu.be/BLehKWOhMyY
And on Facebook here: www.facebook.com/fourfatherslondon/videos/1864445086917529/

Review

"What a great song London is. Wonderful lyrics. Definitely worth a listen."
C.J. Stone, author of 'Fierce Dancing: Adventures in the Underground', 'Last of the Hippies' and 'The Trials of Arthur'

lyrics

London (Andy Worthington)

London, you were like a lover to me
Drunk and disorderly and full of honesty
In your wild pubs and squats we broke all the rules
We decided that playing it safe was a game just for fools
And though we lost many along the way to heroin and AIDS
It was better to have loved and lost than to have let our passions fade away

Yeah yeah yeah yeah

London, they tried to stop you being free
By selling off your culture and through the death of industry
But you came bouncing back with your pills and your all-night raves
In those glimpses of giddy utopia when millions misbehaved
And you were like the earth mother on drugs from the M11 to Reclaim the Streets
Though they hit us with the CJA and that ban on repetitive beats

Yeah yeah yeah yeah

London, you were my impetuous wife
Always out and out of it with a voracious appetite
But oh my darling, the end came with the men in suits
Whose enthusiasm for the super-rich meant they sold you like a prostitute
And when you still weren't silenced and laughed at their dull complacency
They razed your neighbourhoods to the ground and gave you a lobotomy

No no no no

London, you're on a life support machine
In the basement of one of those hundreds of towers being built for a foreign elite
And oh my baby, I hope that you rise again
And throw off these rich parasites like you have every now and then
And I'll keep fighting against the dying of the light
But without some kind of revolution the future doesn't look too bright to me

Yeah yeah yeah yeah

Line-up:

Andy Worthington (lead vocals, guitar)
Richard Clare (guitar, backing vocals)
Bren Horstead (drums and percussion)
Andrew Fifield (flute and harmonica)
Louis Sills-Clare (bass)

credits

released June 23, 2017
Written by Andy Worthington.
Recorded at Perry Vale Studios with Pat Collier, July 2016.

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about

The Four Fathers London, UK

Militant, melodic rock & roots reggae band, based in SE London, mostly playing original protest music. Journalist and activist Andy Worthington (lead vocals, electro-acoustic guitar), Richard Clare (electric guitar, vocals), Bren Horstead (drums, percussion), Andrew Fifield (flute, harmonica), Paul Rooke (bass). ... more

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