Muhammad Idrees Ahmad

Illegal Attacks – Ian Brown (feat. Sinead O’Connor)

So what the fuck is this UK
Gunnin’ with this US of A
In Iraq and Iran and in Afghanistan

Does not a day go by
Without the Israeli Air Force
Fail to drop it’s bombs from the sky?

How many mothers to cry?
How many sons have to die?
How many missions left to fly over Palestine?
‘Cause as a matter of facts
It’s a pact, it’s an act
These are illegal attacks
So bring the soldiers back
These are illegal attacks
It’s contracts for contacts
I’m singing concrete facts
So bring the soldiers back

What mean ya that you beat my people
What mean ya that you beat my people
And grind the faces of the poor

So tell me just how come were the Taliban
Sat burning incense in Texas
Roaming round in a Lexus
Sittin’ on six billion oil drums
Down with the Dow Jones, up on the Nasdaq
Pushed into the war zones

It’s a commercial crusade
‘Cause all the oil men get paid
And only so many soldiers come home
It’s a commando crusade
A military charade
And only so many soldiers come home

Soldiers, soldiers come home
Soldiers come home

Through all the blood and sweat
Nobody can forget
It ain’t the size of the dog in the fight
It’s the size of the fight in the dog on the day or the night
There’s no time to reflect
On the threat, the situation, the bark nor the bite
These are commercial crusades
‘Cos all the oil men get paid
These are commando crusades
Commando tactical rape
And from the streets of New York and Baghdad to Tehran and Tel Aviv
Bring forth the prophets of the Lord
From dirty bastards fillin’ pockets
With the profits of greed

These are commercial crusades
Commando tactical raids
Playin’ military charades to get paid

And who got the devils?
And who got the Lords?
Build yourself a mountain – Drink up in the fountain
Soldiers come home

 Return of political pop.

One of the more improbable partnerships in the anti-war movement delivered its message last night when a video featuring Ian Brown, the former Stone Roses singer, and the Irish pop star Sinead O’Connor was screened.

The video, Brown’s creation, is entitled Illegal Attacks and tells the story of a British soldier in Iraq who gets caught up in a night operation in which a mother and father are taken hostage. Directed by Colin O’Toole, it will be posted on the Stop the War Coalition website.

In true Brown fashion, the lyrics of the single are even more forthright than the accompanying video. “So what the fuck is this UK, Going in with the US of A in Iraq and Iran and Afghanistan,” Brown sings. “There’s hardly a day goes by, How many sons have to die?… These are illegal attacks so bring the soldiers back.” Brown has always had plenty to say about the occupation of Iraq and has been seen at Stop the War marches against the occupation. “I thought if we went to war there would be terrorist attacks,” he said last year. “Bush and Blair are nutters, just like Bin Laden. They are equally trying to indoctrinate millions. I don’t have the same values as them and I can’t stand being a 42-year old guy with three kids, being spoken to like I’m 12.” Of O’Connor’s involvement in the single, Brown said: “The song is about the Iraqi and Afghan wars. I needed a woman singing the line, ‘Soldiers come home’, to give it gravitas.” The other track featuring O’Connor is “Some Folks Are Hollow”.

Brown’s haunting record “So Many Soldiers”, with its refrain: “Only so many soldiers come home…” was his first articulation of his views on war. His thoughts on British foreign policy have also been influenced by his experience of Islam. He is believed to have converted to the religion while he was serving a prison term in 1998 for an air rage attack.

The new single, which features a guest vocal from Sinead O’Connor, is due to be released on 17 September. It is the first single from Brown’s new album, The World Is Yours, released on 24 September.

In the Guardian blogs, Dave Simpson writes:

Ian Brown has always been outspoken. In the Stone Roses, he explained that he always thought that when he became famous he’d make a statement wanting “Camelot to stop.” Thus, lo and behold on the first Stone Roses album was the deceptively sweet Elizabeth, My Dear, a song which sounded like Simon and Garfunkel but called for the cessation of the Royal Family and “curtains” for the Queen. Five years later, the Roses’ Love Spreads made the similarly eye-catching pronouncement that God was actually a female.

Well, 18 years later he’s finally topped both of them. King Monkey’s new single – Illegal Attacks, accompanied by a reportedly hard-hitting video unveiled on Channel 4 tonight – is, as the title suggests, a not-veiled-at-all attack on the Iraq and Afghan occupations and Israel’s raids on Palestinians.

Occasionally vocally aided by Sinead O’ Connor – no stranger to controversy herself – Brown goes for the jugular from the opening salvo: “So what the fuck is this UK / Gunnin’ with this US of A / In Iraq and Iran and in Afghanistan…” although the F-word won’t be heard on the versions played on the radio (otherwise it would not be played, thus negating the point.)

“Does not a day go by / Without the Israeli Air Force / Fail to drop its bombs from the sky?” he continues, before adding a more humanist tone. “How many mothers to cry? / How many sons have to die? / How many missions left to fly over Palestine?”

Musically, the track is built around sampled use of hypnotic violins – similar to the FEAR single – which gives the music an appropriate sense of passion, urgency and foreboding.

It’s brilliant, uncompromising, stuff, one of his best ever singles, leading onto Brown’s insistence that “these are illegal attacks”,” complaining about the various wars’ illegality under international law, “contracts for contacts” and finally laying it squarely on the table with an insistence that we should “bring the soldiers back.”

He’s not entirely flying in the face of popular opinion, but – with the possible exception of some of Damon Albarn’s lyrics on The Good, the Bad and the Queen and George Michael’s jokey quips about Blair and Bush on Shoot The Dog – this is the first time a major UK pop star has made such a direct statement on a record … certainly on a single surely bound for the top five.

And I wonder why? Why has everyone else been afraid to say what so many of us – judging from the protests against the bloody wars in the first place – so plainly believe? What is pop afraid of?

When I was a kid, I learned more about politics from records by bands like the Gang Of Four and the Clash than I ever did in school or college, and Brown’s opus brings that feeling back. If someone was confused about the issues surrounding the various invasions, Brown’s lyrics make them crystal clear – even dissecting the greed for oil zones and effect on the Dow Jones – with a simplicity and directness that is brutally effective. There are those who will say he’s only doing this for effect, to court controversy, get in the tabloids and land in the charts. And maybe he is – but he’s usually in residence there anyway. His motivations – like his aim – at least seem true, and his track record defends him. So shame on the rest of pop for hiding from this issue for so long. And well done Brownie.