Chumbawamba: More Whitewashing

Yesterday’s selection was the new Water From Your Eyes cover of “The Good Ship Lifestyle” by Chumbawamba. The original version was released on Chumbawamba’s breakout 1997 album Tubthumper. For most people, Chumbawamba are a one-hit wonder for the song “Tubthumping,” and most people either love or hate that song. It is an iconic ’90s pop hit, but there is a lot more to the band than their 1997 success. To be honest, I only learned about their early material a couple of months ago, and I am now a fan. Although “Tubthumping” is a mainstream pop song, the band began in the early ’80s as an anarcho-punk band. Their early releases offer scathing attacks on the British government, the commercialism of music, and dozens of other social and political issues that provide endless fodder for any self-respecting anarcho-punk. Their third album is an a cappella collection of English protest songs. The rest of their ’90s output, prior to the Tubthumper album in 1997, is post-punk fueled anarchist material that did not in any way prepare the world for the success of “Tubthumping.” I’ve selected a track from their 1986 album Pictures of Starving Children Sell Records, an attack on the Band Aid and Live Aid movements of the ’80s.

To learn more about Chumbawamba, check out their Wikipedia page or watch the video for “Tubthumping.”

To listen to all of the songs of the day, check out the Radio Faux Show Song of the Day playlist.

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