Crass James Stanfield

“…his cross, his manhood, violence, guilt, sin. He would nail my body upon his cross. Suicide Visionary. Death Reveler. Rake. Rapist. Life-fucker. Jesu. Earthmover. Christus. Gravedigger. You dug the pits of Auschwitz. The soil of Treblinka is your guilt - your sin. Master. Master of Gore. Enigma. You carry the standard of our oppression. Enola is your gaiety. The bodies of Hiroshima are your delight. The nails are your only trinity. Hold them in your corpsey gracelessness - the image I have had to suffer. The cross is the virgin body of womanhood that you defile. You nail yourself to your own sin. Lame arse Jesus calls me sister. There are no words for my contempt. Every woman is a cross in is filthy theology - in his arrogant delight. He turns his back upon me in his fear. He dare not face me. Fear-fucker. Share nothing you Christ. Sterile, impotent, fucklove, Prophet of Death. You are the ultimate pornography. in your cunt-fear, cock-fear, man-fear, woman-fear, unfair, warfare, warfare, warfare, warfare, warfare, warfare, warfare, warfare. JESUS DIED FOR IS OWN SINS, NOT MINE.”
- Crass from the song Asylum

And with these lyrics from the first song on the first Crass record that I ever laid eyes on, I fell permanently in love with Crass. I was in junior high or early high school, and, since Nirvana was being played on MTV, punk rock was infiltrating my small town. I got hold of Nevermind and Bleach, then came some Mudhoney and Dinosaur Jr. records, and not long after that Sonic Youth and Minor Threat, and then some Bad Brains and Black Flag, and on and on and on. But of all these punk rock creatures it was Crass – probably least musical of the above-mentioned bands – that really stuck. Crass’s Feeding of the 5000 was the first time I encountered left-leaning politics stated directly, a well defined DIY punk ethic, and – looking back - also served as my introduction to artwork with avant-garde pretensions.

When I finally got my own copy, I remember bringing it to someone’s house – a girl that I considered to be really smart – and asking her to go through it with me. She tried to entertain my enthusiasm, letting me pick passages from the liner notes to read to the beat, but obviously considered my infatuation juvenile. Nearly 15 years later I’m still just as juvenile because I still love Crass. I read the lyrics – and though some are kinda’ trite – I believe in the direction they’re pointing.

Now that the internet is around I’m able to look them up and find out a little more about them. It seems they became confused towards the end. You can read about them on Wikipedia. Here’s an excerpt:

“In 1983 and 1984 they were part of the Stop the City actions that can be seen as fore-runners of the early 21st century anti-globalisation protests. Explicit support for such activities was given in the lyrics of the band's final single release "You're Already Dead", which also saw Crass abandoning their long time commitment to pacifism. This led to further introspection within the band, with some members feeling that they were beginning to become embittered as well as losing sight of their essentially positive stance. As a reflection of this debate, the next release using the Crass name was Acts of Love, classical music settings of 50 poems by Penny Rimbaud described as ‘songs to my other self’ and intended to celebrate ‘the profound sense of unity, peace and love that exists within that other self.’”