May 11 - Alternative Ulster

Like I said yesterday, I think one of the first punk rock bands I got exposed to was Stiff Little Fingers. I had a great friend in Stig Erik when I was growing up. We used to play with our Star Wars action figures, our wooden, homemade light sabers, and our bikes were the best x-wing fighter this side of the galaxy. But we also listened to a lot of music. His brother was building quite the record collection, and I am assuming that is where the tape of a compilation by SLF called All The Best came from. About 30 years later I still remembered some of the songs - 78 RPM, Suspect Device, and the song of the day, Alternative Ulster.

SLF came from Belfast in Northern Ireland, and they became very political very quickly. This was the time of The Troubles in Northern Ireland, when the British really made a heavy handed military approach to the Northern Irish resistance.  In the time before Al Quaida and Isis, terrorism was performed in Spain by ETA (Basque separatists), in Germany by Rote Armee Fraktion (radical left wing communist/socialist group), and in the UK by the Provisional IRA, the Irish Republican Army, which fought for a united Ireland (no, I am not trying to whitewash them here, but that was their stated goal). Ireland is still divided, with Northern Ireland (Ulster) belonging to the United Kingdom, while the majority of the island comprises the Republic of Ireland. When I was growing up, The Troubles was described as a conflict between the Catholics of the Republic of Ireland and the Protestants in Northern Ireland, but it is my belief that religion became the banners to rally behind more than the root of the conflict. I believe that still was all about power and who holds it, but even though Wikipedia agrees with me, I find it important to note that I am no scholar of The Troubles at all.

Stiff Little Fingers' debut album was called Inflammable Material and was released in 1978 following the release of the singles Suspect Device and Alternative Ulster. Listening to their lyrics, you get a very grim picture of life in Belfast - and that to me is punk rock at its best. Social commentary with a clear edge both musically and lyrically. If watch the video on YouTube, you will even get the lyrics to Alternative Ulster, one of my absolute favorite songs by Stiff Little Fingers.