30 May, 2009

Don't Even Know Which Day It Is

from the LP Edgar Broughton Band, Harvest Records, 1971



Subtlety was not something the Edgar Broughton Band was known for, hence the cheeky and metaphorical, Where’s Waldo-esque cover photo (“Waldo” in this case being Broughton brother Steven, hanging amidst the slaughtered cattle carcasses); if you happen to be a vegan that’s easily nauseated, I’d advise you to skip the search for Steven and just avert your eyes altogether. Perpetual cynics and skeptics, they made a reputation for themselves based mainly upon playing free gigs and shows for radical anarchists and revolutionaries; at first glance, this song would appear to be about drugs and being wasted, but it’s really a statement on collective behavior and identity formation, “…who’s the lad who’d kill his dad for the sake of the right to belong to the new confusion?...do you trust in a world that turns about when another mother’s sons are being borrowed?...can you laugh aloud while you’re crying inside for the years that you tried to belong to the old confusion?...”