23 January 2009

Turns Out Every Adam Ant Song is About Nazis . . .

Tweet from Lileks upon the occasion of watching Downfall:



Hitler sorta answered Adam Ant's question - "Don't smoke, don't drink - what *do* you do?"

Combine his observation with my previous post about the ethics of sexual relations with Nazi chicks, and seems that two points make a line.

Other Adam Ant songs that are actually about Nazis (and/or Hitler):

Place in the Country: All about Berghof

Crackpot History and the Right to Lie: All about Mein Kampf (nothing but a load of lies and crackpot history)

Puss 'N Boots: (Nazi officers were a bunch of preening nancies who loved to shine up their leather boots)

I'm sure there's more, but a clear pattern does seem to emerge if you peer closely enough to the subtext of Antmusic.




Did you really think I'd mention Downfall, Twitter, post a YouTube clip, and not embed the Downfall parody about a Twitter outtage?


4 comments:

bill said...

recommendation: Rip It Up and Start Again, postpunk 1978-1984, Simon Reynolds.

Fascinating how many bands during that period used nazi paraphernalia.

McLaren astutely perceived that after punk there would be a return to swashbuckling glamour and heroiuc imagery as an inevitable backlash against punk's "no more heroes."

Then McLaren get Adam Ant out of his own band and Adam ramped up the imagery. And until reading the book, I'd always heard the song was about Kevin Rowland.

bill said...

kicked out

Karen S said...

Uh, Tabletalk actually is about Hitler, yes?

XWL said...

Tabletalk, yes, it's about Hitler, but that'd be too easy now, wouldn't it?

The early punk scene did delve into Nazi imagery way too much (early Siouxsie one of the biggest offenders), I think mostly under the guidance of that freak McLaren.

Julien Temple's Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle throws in plenty of Nazi crap, and Derek Jarman's Jubilee makes with the Nazi stuff, as well (and Adam Ant has a role in the pic to bring this full circle)

It didn't seem to be about the racism, just a way to shock their parents who actually fought the Nazis, the usual puerile teen rebellion and art school student stuff.