Every week, we’ll be posting a new illustration by David Lester. The Mecca Normal guitarist is visually documenting people, places and events from his band’s 43-year run, with text by vocalist Jean Smith.
Back in 2013, British pop icon Robbie Williams (formerly of the boy band Take That) evidently bemoaned the lack of protest songs, saying there should be more artists like Billy Bragg and the Clash.
Not quite sure how to get my head around this sentiment coming from a guy who, possibly by his own admission, is a 35-year participant in fairly vacuous entertainment.
The main takeaway from a couple of docs about the guy is that he went through the wringer in Take That, the creative limitations of which propelled him into a solo career before he had the basics of being an adult. The toll this took appears to have been excruciating, yet might be hard to empathize with since he was a pop star living beyond anyone’s wildest dreams.
Being a North American (who was recording and on tour quite a bit in the ’90s), I’d never heard of Robbie or Take That, so processing the nearly-50-year-old’s supposedly hellish life, was, as a DIY band member, alienating.
Now, in an era when the protest song is re-emerging due to a heightened awareness of injustice everywhere, wouldn’t it be fantastic if the Robbies of the industry joined The Boss and released music to support boots-on-the-ground protesters or to bolster democracy through educational lyrics?
Robbie expressed the need for more protest songs more than 10 years ago. We’ve since got a Billy Bragg in Jesse Welles, but we could use some “combat rock.” Maybe Robbie’s working on it. He must be tired of writing about the inner-workings of his mind, but I’m probably barking up the wrong star. Punk is synonymous with little-or-nothing left to lose as reflected in a song like “Labour” by fellow-Brit Paris Paloma leading the live chanting of her lyrics to her 99-percent-female audience. I dunno; maybe Robbie could test the waters by slipping in the chorus of “Labour” during a concert to thrill his female fans or ask them to sing it. I’m sure they know the words. Personally, I can’t get them out of my head “all day, every day.”
“Fight For A Little” from Mecca Normal (Smarten Up!, 1986) (download):
