A funny thing happened on the way to researching and writing today’s post. Even though I have never talked about this song or this artist before, I have mined this song’s inspiration for three (five?) separate posts already. The inspiration for the song “Electric Avenue” by singer Eddy Grant is exactly the same as it was for Clash member Paul Simonon when he penned “Guns of Brixton” back in 1979. It is also a story connected to the movie soundtrack of the film The Harder They Come from which I wrote a post about the title track as sung by Jimmy Cliff, along with a second soundtrack song called “Pressure Drop” by Toots and the Maytals. *(You can read those three posts here, here and here). The dots that connect “Electric Avenue” and all three of those songs together was a dark chapter in UK history known as the Brixton Race Riots in 1981. I have described the history of how the Brixton Race Riots came to be in the afore-mentioned posts so feel free to read/re-read those posts for further details (*You can also gain insight from two other Clash-related posts about “White Man at Hammersmith Palais” and “White Riot” which you can access here and here). In order to give Eddy Grant his due, let me add a few extra wrinkles to the story. Prior to WWII, Brixton was one of the UK’s biggest retail centres. The Brixton Market was the centre of that retail trade. It encompassed several streets worth of shops and other street vendors who all operated under a glass-domed roof that allowed shoppers to stroll at their leisure regardless of the weather. It was on one of those thoroughfares that gas street lamps were first replaced by electric street lights. Because this was such a novel and, ultimately successful experiment, the street that bordered the Brixton Market was renamed as Electric Avenue. That street and street name still exist today as you read these words.
Much of Brixton’s housing was destroyed as a result of German bombing raids during WWII. In order to house Brixton’s citizens as quickly as possible, new council tenancy buildings were erected. These buildings were drab and devoid of character. As the 1940s ended and the 1950s began, Brixton saw an influx of immigrants. Many of these immigrants were coming from the Caribbean. Once settled in Brixton, many of these immigrants sought to establish their own cultural identity in the region. As a result, Caribbean music and art and fashion came to be a common cultural theme that was woven into the fabric of everyday life. When festivals and celebrations were held, they often took place in and around the Brixton Market near Electric Avenue. A big uptick in cultural pride happened during the 1970s when Bob Marley and the Wailers brought reggae to the world’s stage. Needless to say, reggae music found a home in Brixton. It was also at the same time that a Jamaican film called The Harder They Come was released. This film starred Jimmy Cliff and featured a soundtrack that included many of Jamaica’s top singers and musical acts. Again, it was no surprise that The Harder They Come was very popular in Brixton. The successful establishment of Caribbean culture in Brixton would have been a feel-good story had it not been for the fact that Brixton had become overcrowded with immigrants, poverty and crime were on the rise, as was unemployment, too. As the 1970s progressed, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher took a hard line against the rising rates of crime in Brixton, which she squarely blamed on the Caribbean immigrant population there. In order to restore what she considered to be order in Brixton, Thatcher passed laws that gave the police in Brixton unprecedented authority when it came to search, seizure and arrest without trial of anyone they suspected of being involved in crime. Race relations being what they often tend to be, the police shared Thatcher’s view that the black Caribbean population in Brixton was not to be trusted. A crackdown ensued. Life became dangerous and intolerable for many in Brixton and throughout England. In this environment, people felt helpless to do anything except to fight back for their basic survival. Thus, the 1981 Brixton Race Riots took place. Many were injured and jailed during the riots. There was much property damage, too. To get a sense of the times, take a moment and listen to a song called “Black Boys on Mopeds” by Sinead O’Connor. This song is not about the violence in Brixton specifically but it touches on a racially-motivated police shooting of an innocent black teenager who was suspected of having stolen the moped he was riding on when, in fact, he was the lawful owner. O’ Connor namedrops Margaret Thatcher during the opening verse. *(You can watch/listen to this haunting song by clicking here). In any case, “The Harder They Come” by Jimmy Cliff and “Pressure Drop” by Toots and the Maytals came before the Brixton Race Riots took place, as did “White Riot” and “White Man at Hammersmith Palais” by The Clash. “The Guns of Brixton” came in response to the conditions that existed just prior to the riots. That song was written by Clash member Paul Simonon who was born and raised in Brixton. “Electric Avenue” by Eddy Grant came in response to the riots after they had ended. All in all, there were plenty of passionate, talented artists and bands who took pen to paper and documented the feelings of those who were there during those troubled times.
Eddy Grant was born in Guyana and lived there for much of his childhood. He moved to England as a teenager. He developed the desire to enter the world of music after watching Chuck Berry perform. His first band was a racially mixed band called The Equals. They had a hit with a song called “Baby Come Back”. But not long after, Grant developed health problems with his heart and he voluntarily retired from active touring and performing, concentrating instead on the production side of things in the 1970s. Eddy Grant also dabbled in acting and appeared in many smaller stage productions throughout the London area during the 1970s as well. This is what he was doing as racial tensions began building in nearby Brixton. As a person of colour, Grant certainly knew what it felt like to be a black person in England during a time when no less of a public figure than the Prime Minister was denigrating an entire race and blaming people of colour for all that ailed them. When Brixton exploded, the intensity of the violence was shocking to many, including Grant who, at his core, was a believer in the dream of racial harmony. Prior to the riots, he had written a song with The Equals called “Police on My Back” which gave some hints as to the experiences with authorities that he had as a black person in those days. So, when the Brixton Riots occurred there (and in many other areas of the UK), Eddy Grant figured that it was time to find a new home. In 1982 Grant relocated to Barbados and opened a new recording studio. Even though he was in a much more peaceful environment, Grant couldn’t shake the emotions that were coursing through his veins. As many artists and creative types do in situations like that, Eddy Grant exorcised his demons by writing an entire album’s worth of new material that included eventual No. 1 hit song “I Don’t Wanna Dance”, as well as Top Ten followup, “Electric Avenue”. Because the song lyrics don’t specifically mention the Brixton Race Riots, many people assume that the song’s lyrics are simply about how hard it is to get by in life. But make no mistake, Electric Avenue is a real place that exists in the heart of a new world that was considered to be a safe place and a source of pride for the many Caribbean immigrants who came to the UK in search of a better life and ended up settling in Brixton. It is not for nothing that the Brixton Marketplace was essentially spared during the rioting that took place.
Since I became interested in really listening to popular music, I have been impressed, again and again, by those artists who have the skills to create anthems and the courage to sing them aloud in the face of oppression from authority figures who wield all the power and share none of those same views being expressed in song. I wish that the time would come…and remain…in which songs such as “I Want To Teach The World To Sing” would be the anthems leading us all forward. But as history keeps showing us, we need songs like “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “Change is Gonna Come” and “Fortunate Son” and “Sunday, Bloody Sunday” and “Do You Hear the People Sing?” and “Ohio” and “Hind’s Hall” today, more than ever. There is a need in this world for the voiceless to be heard. In 1981 in Brixton, those people were spoken for by the likes of The Clash, Jimmy Cliff, Toots and the Maytals, Sinead O’ Connor and, of course, by Eddy Grant. It saddens me that the list of protest songs throughout modern music history is so long and so easy to assemble. I wish it were different but, unfortunately, it is not. Because of that fact, it makes me wonder where today’s musical activists are? Where are the poets? (And, I don’t mean Taylor’s Version here). Where are the courageous tunes containing the seeds of hope to see the rest of us through these troubled times? Mackelmore and “Hind’s Hall” can’t be all the resistance that there is, can it? Singers, poets, musicians, lyricists…to paraphrase Paul Simon, our world turns its lonely eyes to you.
The link to the official website for Eddy Grant can be found here.
The link to the video for the song “Electric Avenue” by Eddy Grant can be found here. ***The lyrics version is here.
For those who want to know more about the Brixton Race Riots, a link to a news article can be found here.
***As always, all original content contained within this post remains the sole property of the author. No portion of this post shall be reblogged, copied or shared in any manner without the express written consent of the author. ©2024 http://www.tommacinneswriter.com
To key on your question, I’ll get to the music tomorrow hopefully, I am sure the poets and questioners of society are there — they always are — but there is a new enemy in today’s world conservative populism, that is adhered to by the “rulers” of the world. I’m talking about all the money-hoarders and their cronies who are attacking freedom through the schools. In our day, schools turned out free thinkers, people who could think for themselves and decide what they wanted to do and be in life. That is changing, and not in good ways. Where our schools turned out lions, tigers, and wolves, today’s schools are turning out wage-slave sheep.
By controlling the high prices on comsumer goods, but especially on necessities, and telling us what those necessities are, and by controlling the wages we make — which are too low to buy those necessities without going into hopeless debt, those brought up as sheep remain as sheep. An empty belly seldoms thinks of anything but food.
And for the poets and social chroniclers of the time, the “rulers” are using their power to hold them voiceless, or at least contained in small areas despite the world-availability of the internet. The internet is so flooded by TikTok and other such megasites where free thinking is not encouraged.
Now, about the music. With tjat beat I never duspectedthis dong was sbout riots in London. In fact, I never psid it enough attention,ad I only heard it occasionally on the car radio. It just dounded vool, rocking on Electric Avenue. I can be such a putz sometimes. Thanks to whomever requested it, and to youfor your usual deep dive.
I just wish I had more time to devote to your other work. Maybe someday.