Gerry Hannah (Subhumans): Songs From Underground (tape, 1985)

While serving sentenced to a ten-year prison sentence for his role in the various politically-motivated bombings of the group that became known as the Squamish Five (more HERE), former Subhumans bassist/song-writer, Gerry Hannah did not just learn to whittle. Rather, Hannah kept trying to fight the "Holy American Empire" but without the 550 kg of dynamite. 

As for the sound of this still-radical 12 song cassette recorded behind bars, it's acoustic-folk with a bit of that seventies consciousness-raising coffee-house vibe (especially when that flute chimes in!) It works outstandingly on the more finger-pointin' Dylanesque "Livin' With the Lies" but moves a bit into singer-song-writer-John-Denver territory on tracks like "Summertime". In-between those two places there a lot of stoic dignity and an audible refusal to knuckle under even in brutal circumstances.

In the Glen Sandford short film, Useless which followed Gerry Hannah after leaving prison, Hannah still seems bitter and angry. However, in Bloodied But Unbowed (more HERE and HERE)  film-make Susann Tabata caught Hannah in a different place. In the more recent film he explains that political violence can be a tool of your enemies and so he cannot support it. While he many not yet be the Canadian Gandhi (my countrymen admire Gandhi but often only seem to remember the civil part of civil disobedience) there's clearly been a change in his understanding of the world. Of course, I could just be projecting my own long-standing distrust of political violence onto the man.

So what do you make of Hannah's underground songs? And while were asking questions, what do you make of politically-motivated violence? Let us know your views on either of the above (or anything else for that matter) in the COMMENTS section (where you'll find the Songs From Underground link).

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