Author: Jon Hamblin

The biting irony comes right out at the listener as soon as they notice the title. “Law and Order” certainly does not agree with Stiff Little Fingers’ depiction of the police force emasculating and attacking the locals and friends portrayed in the song. Through this improper use of emasculating violence comes a feeling of isolation, constant berating causing discomfort an alienation on one’s own home turf.

The ‘law’ here does not really uphold law, order or justice. They dispense anarchic violence; the police spend their time abusing those that do not have the status and power they hold: “I had a friend who was lifted by the law… They treated him like shit / Kicked him in the head and laughed when he bled / spat in his face and pulled his hair.” Whereas the violence portrayed in Kendrick Lamar’s tracks like ”Sing About Me” and “m.A.A.d City” revolves around guns, the violence portrayed here seems personal and vicious from the proximity. This is not pulling a trigger anymore but getting your hands on someone else. The street justice of Compton is not even this disordered, even though those that carry this out are supposed to be the figures of law and order – this is the critique that Stiff Little Fingers makes.

Through this violence comes feelings of not being welcome, consequently creating feelings of isolation. The same situation occurs in Bernard MacLaverty’s Cal with the titular character being burned out of his home and threatened by people who are on both sides of a war Cal wants no part of. Cal often feels alone due to these outside forces, this sense of unfairness and Stiff Little Fingers orate this struggle with confidence. “I don’t think like you” and “you’re just a pawn in their game / just another number you aint got no name” describes an individual struggling against the situation around him, not really fitting into the system.

Violence is forced on Cal just as it is forced on the innocents of “Law and Order” and the man in “No More of That.” All of these characters are isolated by their horrible situations. Stiff Little Fingers does not offer a solution to this isolation caused by unfair violence; they only offer their view that the situation “isn’t fair”, that with the current situation “there’s o justice in it / None!”

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“White Noise” is the most troubling track on “Inflammable Material.” The song is made up of several racial epithets, each verse targeting a specific group of oppressed individuals. However, the song should not be understood as a racist outpouring but, rather, a tongue-in-cheek act that exposes the absurdity in the language used to oppress individuals. “White Noise” also roots this language to White, Anglo-Saxon narratives–the Brits. Irony, therefore, is a key feature in punk.

The first verse of “White Noise” draws on the language and ideas discussed in “Backseat Freestyle,” describing the virility of black men and the necessity to lynch these individuals to protect white masculinity: “Black golly gob. Big horny monkey / Pimp pusher coon. Grinning piccaninnies. Send him home soon. Back to the trees.” The second verse deals with the Islamic, Paki experience in the United Kingdom and Brits’ xenophobia: “Ahmed is a Paki. Curry coffee queer…/…Tax-sponging canker. Smelly thieving kids. Ponce greasy wanker. Worse than the yids.” Lastly, the third verse draws on language used against Irishmen: “Paddy is a moron. Spud thick Mick. / Breeds like a rabbit. Thinks with his prick. / Anything floors him if he can’t fight or drink it. / Round them up in Ulster. Tow it out and sink it.” The fear of virility that emasculated African-Americans was used against Irishmen. Stiff Little Fingers, most importantly, exposed how language universally effected oppressed individuals. Irishmen and blacks were believed to be sexual deviants, and arabs were thought of as dirty effeminate figures. Language solidified these stigmas and provided a vehicle to distribute and permeate oppressive thinking.

Listeners may be upset or disgusted by this language but that is Stiff Little Fingers’ intention. As was referenced in the discussion of “Here We are Nowhere,” punk was a reaction to the over saturation of post-modern living. Post-modernity conflated certain ideas and aesthetics that over stimulated individuals, causing them to misunderstand their own individuality. This framework caused peoples to assess the language they used to comprehend reality. Racialized language, thus, exposed how individuals were hegemonically defined as deviant. Stiff Little Fingers, by sarcastically exposing and shouting this language, subverted their meanings and exposed the absurdity behind language as it debilitates one’s thinking. These words are giving meaning and value when they are used against certain communities. Stiff Little Fingers expose universality in their music by appropriating and subverting language. Stiff Little Fingers claim that the tactic of shouting this language is the only way to destabilize society’s oppressive ideology–the basis that normalizes and accepts oppressive systems. Simply by turning “up the white noise!,” the language of white-male supremacy, can individuals realize its absurdity.

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When considering Stiff Little Finger’s music, it is important to note their punk origin. Being punk, there is a level of tension with the society they live in. Being from Northern Ireland, the society Stiff Little Fingers are in tension with is highly divided and sectarian. What they are most opposed to are ideological extremists, who tend to proliferate violence. The song, “Closed Groove,” shows Stiff Little Finger’s as a band resisting a “Do what you’re told to be free,” mentality, while searching for identity.

The lyrics from “Closed Groove” decidedly dismiss what Stiff Little Fingers perceive as tired ideological rhetoric. The chorus mocks pre-existing forces fighting for their ideals: “Beep Beep, I’ve got very strong views, Plug in any tape you choose.” This establishes both Catholic and Protestant ideology as poignant but interchangeable, as both sides use the same violent means. Stiff Little Fingers also aptly address the rigidity in the extremes of sectarian Northern Ireland with the unassuming line, “Think what you like – if you agree with me.” This distance between ideological extremes is described by John Conroy in Belfast Diary, as a no man’s land. Because the numerous negative connotations, an insistence for the superseding of extremist ideology is called: “Nostalgia is past its prime, History’s a thing of the past.”

Stiff Little Fingers search for their own voice amidst antiquated rhetoric by rejecting established sectarian views – “I’m changing my views constantly.” The last lines in “Closed Groove” are a cry for autonomy and self-identity. “Speak whenever you hear this tone, Scream whenever you hear this tone” –literally a cry for like-minded people who aren’t indoctrinated by extremist ideology. Stiff Little Fingers refuse to identify with either extremes in Northern Ireland and react the only way they can. Singer Jake Burns in an interview states that “Inflammable Material,” “Reflects what we sounded like at the time – Raw, raucous and full of anger” (Louder than War).

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Like “Here We are Nowhere,” this Stiff Little Fingers track is short, but the succinct nature only supports and strengthens a clear argument purported through the lyrics. In just over two minutes Stiff Little Fingers delivers a powerful message on how violence defines masculine identity, forces it to become based primarily in this violence.

The message of this song comes in its final verse:

The man who pulls the trigger’s not to blame 

He’s only playing their deadly game

And he knows he just can’t win 

Or someone else will pull the trigger on him.

While this message echoes strongly in the tale of the first character of Lamar’s “Sing About Me,” it also operates fine all on its own. Here Stiff Little Fingers is almost excusing the man himself for the killing and violence he perpetuates. They blame the misguided actions of individuals on the situations they have been forced into. If someone is put into a violent culture, it is not their fault when forced into violent action. The man is alone; he has no choice, no free will as the situation has forced his hand. The man has no control over his own identity – it has been decided by the situation. It does not matter what his thoughts on violence are; the situation has forced the violence onto him, as it did for Cal in Bernard MacLaverty’s novel and the characters of “Law and Order.” The man has been isolated by the situation, and his masculine identity has been chosen for him. His fate has been sealed, and much like the other Stiff Little Fingers tracks there does not seem to be an offered reprieve form this eventuality. The band rarely seems to have the answers to the problems they bring to light, but with “No More of That” they come to that conclusion quicker than usual.

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In their song, “Wasted Life,” Stiff Little Fingers explore the heritage of violence that they find themselves confronted with living through The Troubles. The song title itself, “Wasted Life,” is aimed at individuals who choose to use violence to achieve their ideological ends. The first lines in the song, “I could be a solider, Go out there and fight to save this land, I could be a peoples soldier, Paramilitary gun in hand,” indicates a sense of mockery, again aimed at violent ideologues fighting to “save the land.” Here the band clearly pushes back against the violent history of their homeland as well – opposing the views of the first verse character of Lamar’s “m.A.A.d. City“.

The issues of heritage and violence are mixed in “Wasted Life” as seen in the chorus – “They wanna waste my time, They wanna waste my life, and They’ve stolen it away.” Emphasis is added on ‘They.” A heritage of violence fostered by The Troubles is caused by the extremely divided sectarian population of Northern Ireland. Being approached by paramilitary groups as a form of recruitment would not be something unheard of for the young band members of Stiff Little Fingers. Band members interviewed for Kicking Up a Racket and discussed threats of violence from paramilitary groups for singing about and exposing their fallacies – “There’s no doubting that such encounters with the Provisional IRA and the Loyalist paramilitaries were, potentially, highly dangerous.”

The last stanza in Wasted Life also brings to focus the cyclical heritage of  violence seen not only in Lamar’s “Money Trees” but the first verse of “Sing About Me” as well. “Still they come up to me, With a different name but the same old face, I can see a connection, With another time and a different place.” This is an allusion to the constantly changing and fragmenting of paramilitary groups. The IRA is the best example of this, splitting multiple times in its history, with each new split claiming to have the correct ideological standing.

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Stiff Little Fingers’ track “Here We are Nowhere” is the shortest track on “Inflammable Material.” The song captures the boredom experienced by Northern Irish youths. It is a quick and succinct track whose rapid-fire lyrics ask for a third space to alleviate Northern Irish tedium. Stiff Little Fingers’ influence come from their ambiguity. The lyrics refer to a generalized youth experiencing Northern Ireland’s tedium, not drawing on the differences between Catholics and Protestants. Bandleader Jake Burns shouts, “Is it a crime to be young / Cause’ every time we have some fun / They put us down and tell us we’re wrong / Every time they sing the same old song / Here we are nowhere that’s where we belong.” Thus, Northern Ireland’s conditions–most notably its innocuous and authoritative structures–is a consequence experienced by all Northern Irishmen, regardless of religion or political affiliation.

Grappling boredom is a significant theme in punk music. Several academics frame punk as a response to post-modern capitalism that globalized markets and over saturated individuals with media and technological overhauls. The post-modern world transformed domestic space and related it to the transnational sphere. This expansion and over saturation of information caused individuals to lose the ability to think freely and creatively. Burns feels these effects in Northern Ireland when he shouts “Nothing on the telly, there is no late-night show / No shows in town, there is no place to go.” Stiff Little Fingers and punk demand to find a new  space and form of entertainment that can excite the Northern Irish experience. Therefore, not only was it violence that effected how Northern Irishmen functioned, but the overall structure of the post-modern world. Violence may have been a normal function of Northern Irish living, but outside of violence, in one’s daily routine, they still felt a hollowness and lonesomeness that was carved by post-modern living. This consequence was experienced by all Northern Irishmen and expressed a universality in the way Stiff Little Fingers understood Northern Irish life and audiences.

Stiff Little Fingers, like Lamar, demanded an authenticity and a community that challenged the structures that deprived individuality. While hip-hop music developed its own sector of African-American culture, using specific references and sampling black artists, Stiff Little Fingers and punk examined the world with a much larger scope. The consequences of African-American living were concentrated and targeted specifically on black individuals. However, boredom was a result of much larger structures at work that effected all individuals, independent of race, ethnicity, or social community. Punk, therefore, sarcastically and sometimes nihilistically re-appropriated the spaces and bodies they believed post-modern living repressed. Hence, the piercings, tattoos, dress, and hairstyling associated with the punk aesthetic. These new bodies and new spaces–spaces that held punk shows and contained audiences’ bodies–were a visceral reminder to individuals that they have the agency to alter their bodies and their spaces. Punk was a realization and a hyperbolic response to reclaim the structures that global capitalism altered. Songs like “Here We are Nowhere” articulated this idea using quick, visceral shouts, unconsciously reminding peoples they’re capable of making their voices heard, and implored individuals to reexamine their spaces.

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