Poem Transcription: "Sounds Like Resistance" transcribed from the academic essay Mutualism, massive and the city to come: Jungle Pirate Radio in 1990s London by Tom Cordell, Malcolm James, pages 109-120
The academic essay was essential reading for the module 'Urban Multiculture, Sound and the city' taught by Malcolm James at Sussex University. This poem transcription was added to the curriculum and the modules reading list, as well as performed and discussed in class.
The motivation behind my poem transcriptions was to present alternative ways for students and academics to interact with curriculum material, particularly traditional academic essays. I hoped to cater to different learning styles and offer potentially a more accessible, engaging and dynamic way of intaking information.
If possible, it is recommended to listen to the poem while reading it simultaneously for the best experience.
Listen to the poem here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hugSI0JvXq_EDZwgSUUAxWvbD0t0d5RA/view?usp=sharing
Sounds Like Resistance - Erin James
It’s early 80s England,
The capital and the kingdom
Seek lower-class extinction
Of all these alt delinquents
Thatchers in her early days
Oh Brittania please behave
Privatisations on the way
As democracy decays
Neoliberalism prevails,
And if you don’t know the concept
Here's what some of it entailed;
Nationalised industries and utilities were privatised
Meaning profit was promoted over actual peoples lives
Businesses across the country faced deregulation
Meaning a more profit-led ethos was felt across the nation
Deregulation means removing state control from market industries
Leaving those most disadvantaged open to financial injury
A new economic model is paved
That betrays
Marginalised peoples day to day existence
There's anger in the air
Something’s coming, sounds like… resistance
The decade of the 80s
Could be described as more than shaky
No equality
More poverty
Mass melancholy
For the majority
England's metropolis feels disembodied
Like a dead body
And the autopsy
Reads ‘Thatcherism’
Learned behaviours and legacy from Enoch Powell bled through
He was a conservative MP famous for his
Anti-immigration / Save the Nation / Prevail Caucasian
“Rivers of Blood” type-speech
Maybe I’ll sample it and lay it over a “Problematic White Man” type-beat
The right-wing hysteria was calculated and concentrated
Onto suburban and middle-upper-class dominant areas
What’s scarier
Is how they fell for such criteria
The economic oppression
Matched with police aggression
State surveillance obsession
Incarceration possession
These racist perceptions
With corrupted suggestions
No tolerated acceptance
Felt like moral recession
But the people riot
They fight back
They don’t stay quiet
They stay on track
They are defiant
Even in cracks
They face the crisis
They have the knack
Fast forward ten years later,
Early 1990s and state resistance has arguably been defeated
Things look glum but things still stay heated
The lower classes don’t give up, they evolve and stay ceaseless
Resistance looks different now, its often done in secret
Council houses stay standing, and some benefits remain
Allowing some Londoners some life to reclaim
There’s a culture that's been brewing, one the police cannot detain
And it sounds like jungle, have a listen, press replay
London tower blocks - a symbol of all the “problems” in Britain
Got recovered by their residents as they planned their pirate vision
They hacked their way into the airwaves and rules of radio were re-written
They bypassed commercial stations
To speak to the underclasses of the nation
And musical migration
Was their mission
Through unlicensed land-based transmissions
Wires, antennas and new traditions
They realised their new vision
And the people, well… they listened
Their ethos and their music were able to enter new spaces
Their sounds were heard in bedrooms, cars, on walkmans, streets and places
A digital reassembling of urban society through beats and bases
Shoutouts to ‘the Massive’ yeh as their audience would shapeshift
Then of course came laws and policies to suppress this anarchic movement
The 1990 Broadcasting Act encouraged more capitalist radio recruitment
Later the state demolished the council houses; their intentions translucent
Regeneration was on its way to reshape the nation and redirect “pollution”
Pirate shows could be taken off or censored which also caused a nuisance
But Jungle Pirate Radio just stayed new with new low-cost production improvements
If you’re still not sure on Jungle let me sum it up like this
Key players like Paul Chambers, Congo Natty, Grooverider and DJ Hype
Provided new life
To the Reggae, Dub, Hip Hop, Rave, Soul and Funk music types
So side by side
And mixed together
Jungle was these sounds' successor
But the states' hate continued
Weekend Rush FM was raided by police in hasty intrude
They narrated that this pirate was a front for drugs and misuse
But, suprise! Met Police were the ones caught supplying,
Then denying
Fitting up innocent Black residents
And making sure they remained dying
That’s the issue
Yet community still prevailed
Through raves and occupying buildings jungles power scaled
And ecstasy - either the drug or the feeling
Was healing
In dealing
With the state's incessant stealing
As coexistence was inhaled
Rhythms of catharsis
Beats of existence
Sweat smelling of joy
Ears ringing with resistance
And I wish the story could end there, in an infinite moment of bliss
But Tony Blair came next with gentrification on his lips
Yet despite the displacement and appropriation of the inner city’s grip
Let it be known that jungle and pirate culture still and will always exist
Cultural memories lived on and the scene as always evolved
The stories of these times can be heard through rap and music told
So let this be a lesson to the right wing and the state as whole
You can move and mine the people but you can never steal their soul
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