Sunday Music: Gang Of Four (And The Importance Of Influence)

Kurt Cobain explained early Nirvana as “A Gang of Four and Scratch Acid ripoff.”

Flea heard the Gang of Four song, “Not Great Men” and immediately wanted to start a band.*

Michael Stipe called Gang of Four one of R.E.M.’s chief influences when they formed.

These aren't casual name-drops - these are artists crediting a fundamental influence.

Great art has a way of standing out, always at some fundamental level. What provides the floor for the new level - sometimes requires construction, and other times it requires deconstruction. To that effect, Gang of Four were a wrecking ball of an artist.

For starters - Gang of Four had next level reach across music. Especially rock music. I’m scratching the surface with these three I cherry picked out of one Brooklyn Vegan article giving example after example of just how influential they were.

I’ve been on a kick after my essay, “The Compression of America: Why Live Experience Is All That's Left” got shared this week.

I’m talking about the Minutemen a lot in the post. And E-40. But Minutemen and Gang of Four go hand in hand to me.

As a teenager fascinated by Red Hot Chili Peppers, I could trace their obvious influences - Hendrix, Stevie Wonder, Sly Stone, but I knew I was only getting halfway there. Discovering Minutemen and Gang of Four at the record store was like completing a puzzle I didn't know I was solving.

I gave Minutemen and the entire jam econo way of life a lot of shine in my essay, so it’s time to give Gang of Four some extra love.

In the late 70s, in a post-punk wave of “what else can we do and still be new” - 4 friends from Leeds started making music together. UK music was in a funny spot. It wasn’t worth trying to be The Beatles, and being a Sex Pistols knock-off was also unappealing.

The Pistols, and the Clash, had done something in giving people permission to be their weird selves at high volume, and that’s the water in which the Gang of Four were swimming. They drew from all their influences. They piled, mixed, and smashed them up.

They pulled from Dr. Feelgood (especially in the guitars). This is where the “angular” sounds come from. It’s an elasticky and percussive approach.

They pulled from dub reggae which was regionally very present in Leeds (and most people still don’t understand the overlap between Jamaican music and working class UK music). This is almost a selector-style compositional element. They’d have bass and drums and then no bass (or no drums). They’d bring sounds in or out, or up or down, or pan them. You won’t find this much outside of dub done to this extreme (or this well).

They pulled from The Meters (even if they weren’t Meters funky). The Talking Heads would do some of this too - the white boy funk stuff - but Gang of Four hit it on a different level. The key is, it’s very danceable. It’s very inspired by body movement. Even if the movements were a little awkward (see the live video below).

And, the real trick making great art, you can hear all those influences and yet the combination sounds nothing like any of them.

It just sounds like Gang of Four.

Their albums Entertainment and Solid Gold are rightfully considered classics. They were embraced in the moment too. But the era didn’t make them rock stars at the Elvis level or even the R.E.M. level.

And did it matter?

Because they stayed authentic. They stayed themselves. They stayed committed to not repeating the past and not becoming cartoons of themselves, just like the Minutemen did too, and just like so many others who never tried to force it.

When other bands found them, or Tom Morello from Rage, or St. Vincent, or Big Black, or… they all said, “WHAT IS THIS?!” Your favorite artist’s favorite artist is an indication of the presence of a pure, uncut, raw musicality.

Gang of Four smashed the walls, creating the foundation that bands like the Chili Peppers, Nirvana, R.E.M. and so many more built their sounds on. They showed how you can be dancey. You can rock. You can play with genre to push and defy boundaries, for the people later discovering you to take even farther.

You don’t have to chase trends. You can be a trend. All it takes is figuring out how to knock down a few walls while you stay standing.

Take a moment and play a few of these songs. See if you can spot the influences they were drawing in. See if you can feel the influences others picked up on and copied later.

*BONUS - here’s Flea and John Frusciante doing a cover of “Not Great Men". Flea said this about the project it was for, “It was a beautiful opportunity for me to connect with my friend, the innovative guitarist Andy Gill, before he shockingly passed away shortly after the recording was made. This was an act of love for him. Me, John and the kids, (directed by SJ Hasman) went and knocked it out in a couple of days raw style. John and I hadn’t recorded together in about twelve years. It was fun as fuk. Long live the Gang of Four, long live Andy Gill.” Beautiful.