Chumbawamba Correction

I didn’t expect Kyla Scanlon to bring up Chumbawamba during this recording. She was making a point about their song math (re: song writing, particularly for a hit). I had to go and bring up their political affiliations.

I pointed out that Chumbawamba were socialists. That got an appropriate, “Ok. Wait, wat?” Seeing as it was the end of a conference panel discussion, I couldn’t really clarify. It’s been haunting me. One might call it a vibe.

I feel the need to correct/clarify the point. Plus, the rabbit hole I went down - it’s just so interesting.

Not because Chumbawamba aren’t sort of socialists, but because they were also a bit more anarchist, and probably some other stuff too.

It fit in with our conference conversation, especially since Kyla was talking to Scott Bradlee and I about the nuance of nostalgia, and previously - at the same conference, she had some killer points about the nuance of nihilism. 

But the conversation ended and we didn’t get back to Chumbawamba so here’s your official footnote.

Chumbawamba and their smash-and-grab hit “Tubthumping” remains a 90s touchstone. Not just because it’s funny when right-leaning politicians use it to this day (and it really is), but for a ton of other reasons. 

You can get a lot of those reasons by listening to Rob Harvilla about it on 60 Songs that Explain the ‘90s, but I have a few to highlight. 

Identity labels are as silly as record labels at the end of the day.

They exist and serve a purpose, but selling art is always going to get awkward eventually. You can be as socially-anarcho-activist as you want, but at some point you have to build community, and that usually means money is involved. 

This makes Chumbawamba worth looking back on. Band mate Alice Nutter is still crushing it for example. As a thinker, and as a creative. This line from an interview with her in 2019 for The Guardian nails everything I wish you knew about Chumbawamba 27-years post-Tubthumping:

“I don’t think it matters what you call yourself. What you need to do is align yourself with what’s most useful for change.” - Alice Nutter

“Tubthumping” represented an alignment for the band with pro-active cultural criticism AND pro-active cultural change in 1997. Yes, it was a hit. But also, it was the band’s attempt to break out of the underground without abandoning all of their personal values. Go read that Alice Nutter 2019 quote again.

Did they use song-math to make a perfect pop song? I can’t find that info, but maybe. What they did do was take their normal socialist-songwriting style of giving everybody a fair shake to do the bit where they list the names of drinks people like, the bit where they make fun of the neighbor who would come home drunk singing “Danny Boy,” and the bit where they make a very Oi/pub singalong FUN.

Was it also a kind of an annoyingly curious song that overtook everything when it came out too? Yes. But “life is consecutive” and it’s more interesting to see what happened to Chumbawamba in the moment and then after. Remember, they were anarcho-punks - if you look past this sell-out phase, you can look deeper into what happened to them as people.

So look back at it now without losing the present with me for a nother minute.  

Where do anarcho-punks go when they haven’t died yet? (That’s a Meat Puppets reference, sort of, but the question stands). 

Rewind the clock for another Alice Nutter quote. This one is from Rolling Stone in 1998, not long after the song came out, 

What I hated about Blur was the way the music press said it was social commentary about England in the '90s," says Nutter. "I just thought they were looking down on people. I hate the idea that Blur talk in really condescending tones or about people who play bingo and watch telly. Well, we play bingo and watch telly, and it doesn't mean we're stupid."

If you’re going to talk about common people, do it with some dignity (Pulp, I see you, but that’s entirely too much for this post right now). 

“Well, we play bingo and watch telly, and it doesn’t mean we’re stupid.”

That’s a line I can get behind. In their cultural moment, they were defending the folks in their neighborhood. They were defending regular, ordinary, boringly wonderful people.

What if socialist really was more of a pro-social thing? Isn’t that even better than the anti-social too-cool-for-everybody Blur-vibe?

It reminds you of folk almost. “Danny Boy” and the drink without brand name checks suddenly take on a new meaning.

Chumbawamba made folk music, and folk music is about regular folks singing along to get through the common experiences of life. 

And just when I thought I was onto something, I found this. From band member Boff Whalley. Oh sweet confirmation, let’s give Boff Whalley the final word. From his Guardian opinion piece from earlier this year, 

Tubthumping belongs to the guests at the wedding who sing it in celebration. It belongs to the Italian anti-fascists who sing it in defiance on a demonstration. It belongs to cancer patients going through chemotherapy, seeing every successful bout of treatment as a personal victory. I know that all these people have taken the song as theirs, because they write to tell us. This is how songs become “folk songs”: songs that belong to our shared histories, not to a single version performed by a single artist.

Were Chumbawamba hit song-mathing socialists?

I don’t exactly know and I don’t exactly care. I’m holding onto this sentiment.

Chumbawamba was a folk band. They had one major hit. We still all get it stuck in our heads from time to time.

And they were singing the songs of everyday people, for everyday people, which is one hell of a way to remind us, more than whatever identity or label we want to throw on ourselves, that we are still human, when we remember to be human at least.

I’m so happy I came looking for this correction. 

Here’s all the energy I need for a Tuesday morning:

Ps. If you missed Kyla Scanlon with Scott Bradlee and I, stay tuned to the end for the question that spawned this post -