Public Enemy

I recently put my new CD burner to use and slapped together a CD with tunes that, well, I probably shouldn’t admit I like and that I certainly won’t ever own the full albums from which they were lifted. Anyway, I had to drive over to the hospital last night where a friend was having an emergency appendectomy, and I had the CD playing… man, Public Enemy could jam. Fight the Power is like nothing else. The music, the agenda, the lyrics, the attitude, it all gels into this incredible groove of anger and pride. Now, I’m not saying that everyone out there should like the lyrics/agenda/attitude/music, but it is incredible to behold.

10 Replies to “Public Enemy”

  1. I was always partial to the old-school stuff myself. Particularly, PE’s _It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold us Back_, De La Soul’s _Three Feet High and Rising_, and A Tribe Called Quest’s _Low End Theory_.

  2. I never was a big PE fan but I did the love _Bring The Noise_ with Anthrax.

    And if it makes you feel any better Jay, I burned a CD of 80’s hair band ballads not too long ago!

  3. This is great! Not long ago your brother and I were commenting on my site of our mutual like of RJD. Good taste, Jay, good taste!

    I must also add here, to uphold what little bit of credibility I may have left after my first comment, … the burned hair band cd was purely for nostalgic laughs only!

  4. I haven’t looked at the liner notes in probably 12 or 13 years, but I seem to recall that Vivian Campbell was the guitarist on Holy Diver (and perhaps other RJD albums as well, I don’t know). Anyway, IMO that guy put together some of the most lyrical, technical, beautiful guitar solos out there for Dio. They rank up there with the Randy Rhoads live solo on Mr. Crowley for Ozzy (on the Tribute album). I think he did a stint with Whitesnake after that (on that album that hit big), but I still get a rush out of the Holy Diver solo. [full disclosure: I play electric guitar].

    And don’t feel too bad. I had already downloaded some old Def Lepard and Ratt to put together my own hair band CD.

  5. I also enjoyed/enjoy these bands as well as Metallica and Rage Against the Machine, Primus, and Lenny Kravitz. But as I grew older, got married, and studied, and struggled more with the sin in my life, I took the easy way out and have avoided it(the music of my youth). What is your approach to music/film/art? How do you interact with the music? Any good resources you’ve come across for someone who doesn’t want to end up in a cultural ghetto of Christian kitsch?

  6. Good question Travis, and a tough one too. RJD’s *Holy Diver* LP would be a great example: excellect music with both quality & horrible lyrics and undesirable visual art.

    I personally don’t have an answer. I have guidlines for myself but to say I’m always conscious of them as I go through my LP’s or buy a new CD would be innacurate.

  7. Travis, I’ll have to confess that I tossed about 120 tapes my freshman year in college. Now, I didn’t sort through my collection and pick and choose. I just tossed it… Anthrax, Dio, Police, Phil Collins, you name it.

    Now, I can’t say I recommend such an approach, but I felt that I had lacked discretion and wanted a fresh start. Since then, I’ve bought this or that album, but I generally (not always) stay away from ones that raise questions or prick my conscience. And I smile when I hear some tune come on the radio that I enjoy but no longer own.

    That’s why burning the CD was like a carnal pleasure to me… it was a bunch of tunes I’ll never buy (the full CD, that is), but that I really enjoy for whatever reason.

  8. Hopefully rap music will reform itself. The mack-daddy, playah-hatin’, cap-bustin’, ho-callin’, coast-dissin’ stuff is so five minutes ago.

    Good news—The Roots. Imagine- a rap group that actually play their own instruments (!) and disavow sampling!

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