365 DAYS PROJECT

2003   JANUARY 6   #006




Red Shadow (The Economics Rock & Roll Band) - Understanding Marx

"Read Marx and Lenin it will really turn you loose!" Nothing like a groovy now sound take on Marxism. Happy-go-lucky singers with spoken stories. Classic.

- Otis Fodder

TT-5:05 / 4.66MB / 128kbps 44.1khz
from LP, "Live At The Panacea Hilton" (Physical Records 21-005, 1975)

Ev Ehrlich (Beta hat) member of Red Shadow writes:
News of your discovery -- rediscovery? uncovery? -- of Red Shadow (JANUARY 6) has reached Red Shadow via a friend who reads the Guardian. We salute you for appreciating the one enduring value of our work of almost 30 years ago -- the fun we were having. Best to you.

Eric Wonderman found band member Ev Ehrlich here:
http://www.twbookmark.com/authors/37/1324/index.html
""Ehrlich wrote his first novel, Big Government, in a series of furtive moments and late night somnambulisms over the past 15 years, intent on capturing the culture and values of politics before they captured him. He has also written radio plays, been an aspiring comic book artist, and was cofounder of Red Shadow: The Economics Rock & Roll Band, an all-economist, political band that sounded as bad then as the idea does now."

Irwin Chusid writes:
As Ronald Reagan, my favorite statesman, once said, "How do you tell a communist? Well, it's someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It's someone who understands Marx and Lenin."

Forksclovetofu writes:
This might be a given, but I was surprised to see that there was no note to accompany the "Understanding Marx" track to comment that it was a take on the great '68 Ray Charles track "Understanding". Anyone else find it a bit off-putting that this up-with-the-proletariat ditty has its roots in a song where a man threatens to bury a "double blade axe" in his loving woman? Wasn't this where communism eventually led us anyway? Here's the lyrics courtesy of: http://www.thepeaches.com/music/raycharles/Understanding.txt

Carl Howard writes:
So while listening to all these angry young go-getters getting turned loose and getting their heads straightened out, and basically whatever else it takes to become an angry young libertarian (and future kneejerk right-wingers, if history's taught us anything), I began to wonder, where in all of this jaunty, peppy screed was the name Friedrich Engels? Well let's just forget about that because... apparently they all did. This is probably the jauntiest, peppiest screed I've come across since Neil Diamond's fabled "Pot Song."

DJ Princess Wendy writes:
Are you aware that the backup singers in the Marx song sound too much like the female backup singers in Lou Reed's (annoying) song "Walk On The Wild Side". Do you think they shared the same session singers? Now I'm gonna go snowmobile my way to the forest of inner peace...

Patrick B writes:
I'm convinced "Understanding Marx" was the inspiration for Schoolhouse Rock:
Manufacturing injunction, what's your function?
Giving the workers control of the means of production.