Let's Start a War

Last updated

Let's Start a War
ExploitedLetsStartAWar.jpg
Studio album by
Released1983
2001 (reissue)
StudioRevolution Studios, Cheadle Hulme, Cheshire
Genre Street punk, hardcore punk
Length34:36 [1]
Label Pax
Captain Oi! (reissue)
Producer Wattie Buchan, Marcus Featherby
The Exploited chronology
Troops of Tomorrow
(1982)
Let's Start a War
(1983)
Horror Epics
(1985)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svg [1]

Let's Start a War, or Let's Start a War... (Said Maggie One Day), is the third album by Scottish punk band The Exploited, released in 1983 through Pax Records. The title refers to Margaret Thatcher's decision to go to war over the Falkland Islands in 1982, suggesting that she did so almost on a whim. [2] [3] The controversial war was fodder for many protest songs in the punk movement. It was reissued on Captain Oi! Records in 2001, which featured three tracks from their Rival Leaders EP.

Contents

Lyrical themes

Being The Exploited's most politically-charged album, the lyrics on the album talk about subjects such as Margaret Thatcher's decision to go to war over the Falkland Islands, anti-war, police-driven riots, war, unemployment and hopelessness. [1] [2]

Despite the album's lyrics questioning the Falklands War, The Exploited later announced on stage at a gig in Argentina that the Falklands were British forever. [4]

Track listing

Side one

  1. "Let's Start a War (Said Maggie One Day)" – 3:13
  2. "Insanity" – 4:19
  3. "Safe Below" – 2:17
  4. "Eyes of the Vulture" – 4:01
  5. "Should We, Can't We" – 1:41
  6. "Rival Leaders" – 2:43

Side two

  1. "God Saved the Queen" (Buchan) – 5:43
  2. "Psycho" – 2:01
  3. "Kidology" – 2:09
  4. "False Hopes" (Buchan) – 1:39
  5. "Another Day to Go Nowhere" (Buchan) – 2:31
  6. "Wankers" (Buchan) – 2:37

Personnel

The Exploited
Production [5]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Margaret Thatcher</span> Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990

Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the first female British prime minister and the longest-serving British prime minister of the 20th century. As prime minister, she implemented policies that became known as Thatcherism. A Soviet journalist dubbed her the "Iron Lady", a nickname that became associated with her uncompromising politics and leadership style.

<i>Yes Sir, I Will</i> 1983 studio album by Crass

Yes Sir, I Will was the fifth and penultimate album released in March 1983 by anarcho-punk band Crass. The album is a virulent attack on then-Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Margaret Thatcher and her government in the aftermath of the Falklands War and was set nearly wholly over a raging and an almost free-form improvised backing provided by the group's musicians.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Exploited</span> Scottish punk rock band

The Exploited are a Scottish punk rock band from Edinburgh, formed in 1979 by Stevie Ross and Terry Buchan, with Buchan soon replaced by his brother Wattie Buchan. They signed to Secret Records in March 1981, and their debut EP, Army Life, and debut album, Punks Not Dead, were both released that year. The band maintained a large cult following in the 1980s among a hardcore working class punk and skinhead audience. Originally a street punk band, the Exploited eventually became a crossover thrash band with the release of their album Death Before Dishonour in 1987.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wattie Buchan</span> Scottish punk rock singer

Walter David "Wattie" Buchan is a Scottish punk rock musician. He is the lead vocalist for the punk rock band the Exploited.

Thatchergate was the colloquial title of a hoax perpetrated by members of the anarcho-punk band Crass during the aftermath of the 1982 Falklands War. Using excerpts from speeches by Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, a recording was spliced together which purported to be a telephone conversation between the two leaders. During the course of the tape Reagan seems to state his intention to use Europe as a battle front to show the Soviet leaders the US's resolve in a nuclear conflict, whilst Thatcher appears to imply that HMS Sheffield was deliberately sacrificed in order to escalate the Falklands war.

<i>Troops of Tomorrow</i> 1982 studio album by The Exploited

Troops of Tomorrow is the second album by Scottish punk rock band The Exploited, released in 1982 through Secret Records.

<i>Horror Epics</i> 1985 studio album by The Exploited

Horror Epics is the fourth studio album by Scottish punk rock band The Exploited, released in 1985. It was reissued on Captain Oi! Records in 2004.

<i>Death Before Dishonour</i> 1987 studio album by The Exploited

Death Before Dishonour is the fifth studio album by the Scottish punk rock band The Exploited. It was released on 15 April 1987 through Rough Justice Records. With this release, The Exploited moved to a more crossover thrash direction. This album was re-released on 19 June 2001 on Spitfire Records and contained an additional seven tracks. A music video of the band playing live with a woman was released for the song "Sexual Favours". "Sexual Favours", a single from the album Death Before Dishonour, was released in 1987. The album ranked in the top 200 of the Britain Alternative Music list.

<i>The Massacre</i> (The Exploited album) 1990 studio album by The Exploited

The Massacre is the sixth studio album by Scottish hardcore punk band The Exploited, released in 1990 through Rough Justice. It is the second crossover thrash album by The Exploited and is the band's most successful album so far.

<i>Fuck the System</i> 2003 album by The Exploited

Fuck the System is the eighth album by Scottish hardcore punk band The Exploited, released on 17 February 2003 by Dream Catcher Records. Fuck the System was available in the United States in a "clean version" with its anti-authoritarian title censored to F*** the System and edits made to the tracks themselves. The production value of this album is much higher than The Exploited's earlier work.

<i>Punks Not Dead</i> 1981 studio album by The Exploited

Punks Not Dead is the first studio album by the Scottish punk rock band The Exploited, released in April 1981 on Secret Records. Working class and loyal to the first impulses of the 1970s punk movement, the album was a reaction to critics who believed the punk rock genre was dead, and went against popular trends such as new wave and post-punk. It contains the double A side singles "Army Life/Fuck the Mods" and the later follow up "I Believe in Anarchy". "Army Life" details the experiences of Wattie Buchan when he was a 17-year-old squaddie on a tour of duty in Belfast in the 1970s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maggie's Farm</span> 1965 single by Bob Dylan

"Maggie's Farm" is a song written by Bob Dylan, recorded on January 15, 1965, and released on the album Bringing It All Back Home on March 22 of that year. Like many other Dylan songs of the 1965–66 period, "Maggie's Farm" is based on electric blues. It was released as a single in the United Kingdom on June 4, 1965, and peaked at #22 on the chart. Dylan only needed one take to record the song, as may be heard on the exhaustive 18-disc Collector's Edition of The Bootleg Series Vol. 12: The Cutting Edge 1965–1966, which includes every alternate take recorded during Dylan's 1965–1966 sessions but only the one version of "Maggie's Farm".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crass</span> English punk rock band

Crass were an English art collective and punk rock band formed in Epping, Essex in 1977, who promoted anarchism as a political ideology, a way of life, and a resistance movement. Crass popularised the anarcho-punk movement of the punk subculture, advocating direct action, animal rights, feminism, anti-fascism, and environmentalism. The band used and advocated a DIY ethic approach to its albums, sound collages, leaflets, and films.

The cultural impact of the Falklands War spanned several media in both Britain and Argentina. A number of films and television productions emerged from the conflict. The first Argentine film about the war was Los chicos de la guerra in 1984. The BBC drama Tumbledown (1988) tells the story of a British officer paralysed from a bullet wound. The computer game Harrier Attack (1983) and the naval strategy game Strike Fleet (1987) are two examples of Falklands-related games. A number of fictional works were set during the Falklands War, including in Stephen King's novella The Langoliers (1990), in which the character Nick Hopewell is a Falklands veteran. The war provided a wealth of material for non-fiction writers; in the United Kingdom (UK) an important account became Max Hastings and Simon Jenkins' The Battle for the Falklands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">I Can't Let Maggie Go</span> 1968 single by Honeybus

"I Can't Let Maggie Go" is a song by the British pop group Honeybus from early 1968. Written by band member Pete Dello, it was released as a non-album single.

Street punk is an urban working class-based subgenre of punk rock, which partly emerged as a rebellion against the perceived artistic pretensions of the first wave of British punk. Street punk emerged from the style of Oi! and hardcore punk bands. A key band in defining the aesthetic was the Exploited. Street punks generally have a much more ostentatious and flamboyant appearance than the working class or skinhead image cultivated by many Oi! groups. Street punks commonly sported multi-coloured hair, mohawks, tattoos, heavily studded vests and leather jackets, and clothing, especially plaids, adorned with political slogans, patches, and/or the names of punk bands. In the 1990s and 2000s, a street punk revival began with emerging street punk bands such as the Casualties.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cultural depictions of Margaret Thatcher</span>

Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990. Her portrayal in the arts and popular culture has been mixed. In the words of one critic she attracted "musical opprobrium like no other British political leader". Such opinion is divergent from mainstream opinion polling which tends to place her as the most popular British prime minister since Winston Churchill.

<i>Balboa Fun*Zone</i> 1988 studio album by the Adolescents

Balboa Fun*Zone is the third studio album by the American punk rock band the Adolescents, released in 1988 on Triple X Records. Titled after the Balboa Fun Zone amusement area of Balboa Peninsula, Newport Beach, it is the band's only album recorded without singer Tony Brandenburg, who had left the group the prior year. Electing not to replace him, guitarist Rikk Agnew and bassist Steve Soto alternated lead vocals on Balboa Fun*Zone. The album also features the return of original Adolescents guitarist Frank Agnew, who had been absent from their prior album, 1987's Brats in Battalions. Balboa Fun*Zone is also the final Adolescents studio album to include Rikk Agnew and drummer Sandy Hanson. The band broke up in April 1989, reuniting in later years with different lineups.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">I'm in Love with Margaret Thatcher</span> 1979 single by The Notsensibles

"I'm in Love with Margaret Thatcher" is a 1979 single by the English punk band Notsensibles. It was originally written as a tongue-in-cheek comment on Margaret Thatcher, and following her death in 2013 was part of a social media campaign to get it to number one on the UK Singles Chart. The song charted at number 35 on the chart on 12 April 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Free Range (The Fall song)</span> 1992 single by The Fall

"Free Range" is a song by British post-punk band the Fall, written by vocalist Mark E. Smith with the band's drummer Simon Wolstencroft. It was released on the band's 1992 album Code: Selfish, and as a single, reaching number 40 on the UK singles chart and becoming the highest-charting single of any of the Fall's original songs. The single and album versions differ as the album version includes part of a different take.

References

  1. 1 2 3 https://www.allmusic.com/album/r36976
  2. 1 2 "The Exploited". markprindle.com. Retrieved 13 June 2016.
  3. "Top 5 Songs Hating On Margaret Thatcher". Radio.com. Archived from the original on 12 September 2015. Retrieved 20 August 2015.
  4. http://www.the-exploited.net/history.htm History of The Exploited, Written by Morat. January 2003. Retrieved 13 August 2017
  5. 1 2 "Let's Start a War... Said Maggie One Day - The Exploited | Credits | AllMusic". allmusic.com. Retrieved 13 June 2016.