• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • About
  • Archives
  • Contact

Medialoper

We're Not Who You Think We Are

Anthem

Certain Songs #67: Black Uhuru – “Solidarity”

January 4, 2015 by Jim Connelly

image

Album: Anthem.

Year: 1984.

Oy, those mid-1980s synths. And double oy, those fucking syndrums, somehow taking a dub track that is basically a sparse bass, guitar, drums & synth  and making it sound overproduced.

But wow, this song.

Steven Van Zant has long had one of the most interesting and varied careers in all of popular culture, but one of the most fascinating was his short mid-80s stint as “Little Steven, political songwriter.” And “Solidarity” is pretty much the epitome of that time, tying the name of a freedom-oriented political movement with a lyric that could be a cousin to Sly’s “Everyday People:”

Everybody wants the same things don’t they
Everybody wants a happy end
They just want to see the game on Saturday
They wanna be somebody’s friend

As deconstructed by Black Uhuru on their Grammy-winning album Anthem, “Solidarity” gains a key element not found on Little Steven’s version – actual singing.  With Puma Jones and Duckie Simpson coming in on the choruses, and that damn synth weaving in and out and during the dub sections, when Michael Rose starts chanting “what we need! what we need!!” it feels like no one in the world is going to be able to keep him from getting it.

Official video for “Solidarity”

My Certain Songs Spotify Playlist:

Every “Certain Song” Ever

Filed Under: Certain Songs Tagged With: Anthem, Black Uhuru, Little Steven, Solidarity

Primary Sidebar

Lopy

Search

Previously on Medialoper

  • Certain Songs #2542: Sugar – “The Act We Act”
  • Certain Songs #2541: Sufjan Stevens – “Too Much”
  • Certain Songs #2540: Sufjan Stevens – “Djohariah”
  • Certain Songs #2539: Sufjan Stevens – “Heirloom”
  • Certain Songs #2538: Sufjan Stevens – “Casimir Pulaski Day”

Copyright © 2023 · Medialoper