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Justin Currie "No Surrender"

Dave Amitri's picture

Sometimes a piece of music misses the mainstream and vanishes and you don't understand why. This is from Justin Curries (ex Del Amitri)album "What Is Love For" from last year. Just a great, unique piece of work please enjoy and then hunt out the album.



Big Macs for the fat, lo-cal wraps for the call centre battery hens,
Japanese snacks for the choice-spoilt citizens, caviar kickbacks for the citadel denizens.

Airport shoeshines servicing the suits among the little silver stereos and hand-rolled cheroots,
First class passengers file on last after the scum are packed in with their tax-free loot.

Checkout calamity, you're cheated out of loyalty points, ten more years at this joint you'd be home & dry,
Beggars beat round the cash machines but you just slip between them with the usual lie.

Terrible tales of kidnapped kids keep you focused on the family and filling up the fridge,
Neighbourhood watchers shop dole dodgers, stick their semis on the market & start racking up the bids.

Should you stand and fight, should you die for what you think is right
So your useless contribution will be remembered?
If you're asking me I say no, surrender.

Constant growth the cancerous cure, a swarming race of profiteers ensure
Cheap cars for the rich, cheap lives for the poor, cheap weeks in the sun, free drinks at the door.

Puerile propaganda plugs up the TV, keep folk following the money so they'll never be free
Keep them swallowing the swill, the celebrities, the paedophiles, the immigrants invading from the
camp over the hill.

War talk, the big debate, footsoldiers in the capitol liberating new kinds of hate
Cum-shots of human dots caught in the spotlight's glare; he dies who dares.

Fatuous fast-trackers sneering at the shelf-stackers, little Middle-Englanders can't stand the backpackers,
Fortress Freedom, come on in, take your chances-you might win.

Should you stand and fight, should you die for what you think is right
So your useless contribution will be remembered?
If you're asking me I say no, surrender.

Sunset beaches security patrolled, keep out the undesirables who won't accept the code
Equal opportunity to live in total poverty, execute the ignorant incarcerate the slow

Car caressing managers choking up the avenues, brain dead patriots standing in salute
Paperwork raining again and again so that billionaires can claim there's an enemy to shoot

Pill pushers, doorsteppers, personal goal shoppers, lifestyle trendsetters, meditating mindbenders,
Hare-brained share sellers pumping out stocks til you're choking on a chain-letter avalanche of dross.

God squads crawling through every country tracking down fools who are bullshit hungry
Blinded by divinity followers fall into the man-traps set along the Wailing Wall.

Athletes compete in grand charades while tanks flatten streets and a nation laughs,
Visa holders gape at the changing guards while creeps bribe bums to take their photographs.

Film fans flock to the latest schlock, blockbusters block out even the vaguest thought
Bankrupt schools grind out fool after fool then feed them to a system where idiots rule.

Polling booths, phone votes, bogus questionnaires, you get a say as if anybody cares
Joe Public doesn't want to play so liquidate his life as he looks the other way.

Don't get sick, don't get wise or they'll gut you with a jistice where everything is lies
March down Main Street, complain if you want but it's twenty years straight for the losers at the front.

If you're asking me I say no, surrender

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Justin Curry?

oh..and i always thought his name was Derek Amitri. Live and learn, I guess, Live and learn.

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simontyler | 9 August 2009 - 12:48am

"Grumpy Old Men"...

..the musical.
(Quite like it though)

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shane pacey | 9 August 2009 - 3:46am

If I Ever Loved You ....

from that album, what a fabulous melody.

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adze thuggery | 9 August 2009 - 7:53am

Blur put it more succinctly...

modern life is rubbish.

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Patrick Crowther | 9 August 2009 - 8:49am

So just a couple of minor gripes, then..

Other than those, Justin feels quite positive about life today.

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Hosskins | 9 August 2009 - 9:39am

The subtext of that song is undoubtedly...

"Why weren't Del Amitri huge?! Don't they realize I'm a genius?!"

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Patrick Crowther | 9 August 2009 - 9:44am

I like it a lot

but I suspect it wasn't a hit (are things still hits?) because he pretty much has a pop at everyone in the whole world.

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Leedsboy | 9 August 2009 - 8:56pm

Stalled comeback

A few years ago I hear Delboy Amitri on the Radio 2 drive time show: I think with Johnny Walker at the helm. They gave a big spiel about a comeback. The DJ gave them the build up, and away they went. Half way through it yer man forgot the words and hummed for a bit. He apologised at the end. I sensed a loss of momentum

Did anyone hear Loudon Wainwright do something similar a few weeks ago on R2 drivetime, after Simon Mayo gave him the complete "You're the Daddy" build up and talked up his new album? LW3 came completely unstuck during his live performance of the title track and had to abandon it. A teensy bit cringeworthy

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Vince Black | 9 August 2009 - 9:07pm

Self-aware

Might be more appropriate on the 'How much do pop stars earn?' thread but this is a great rumination on the fortunes of a musician living in reduced circumstances, although hardly penury - I can assure you that sandstone tenements in Glasgow's West End aren't going for a song *groans*


For those interested, type 'Justin Currie' into YouTube. Quite a few interesting little promos like this to peruse.

To be fair, the Dels have been featured quite a bit on this blog - 'Del Amitri - now there was a band' for one.

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DougieJ | 9 August 2009 - 9:20pm

Better late than never for The Massive to discover his greatness

Great song from a great album.

Also try out the Del Amitri back catalogue for much more of the same!

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Uncle Wheaty | 10 August 2009 - 12:19am
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