The Clash - Career Opportunities (1977)

The Clash's debut album is still impressive in the ferocity of its attack and arguably unparalleled in its polemic. A wall of cacophonous sound from punk guitars provides the backdrop for the great, late Joe Strummer's lyrics. The music's rawness and cheapness (metaphorically and literally: the album cost just 4000 pounds to make) only enhances the album's lyrical content. The Clash can very well be the quintessential punk rock record - even more than Never Mind the Bollocks - and its influence is immeasureable.
Strummer left nothing untackled: boredom and television-induced apathy in "London's Burning"; the americanisation of UK culture in "I'm So Bored with the USA"; the anesthetised white British youth (as opposed to the rebellious black youth) in the rallying cry that is "White Riot"; and the lack of jobs - or the grimness of those available - in "Career Opportunities".
"They offered me the office, they offered me the shop. They said I'd better take anything they got" Strummer sings in the latter. He then starts counting the possible career opportunities: "Do you wanna make tea at the BBC?" or "Do you really wanna be a cop?" asks Strummer angrily, before shouting "I hate the army and I hate the RAF". Career prospects: not looking good at all.

Recession Years: a soundtrack

The current recession in Greece is likely to bring back lots of bad memories to a part of the British public, since Britain suffered similarly from a hard recession during the 70s and the 80s.
In the mid-70s, the atmosphere in Britain was grim and grimey. Urban development plans for the war-stricken cities created grey concrete futuristic fortresses where once were rows of Victorian houses; the cities' architectural character was forever altered and the sense of community was lost. Furthermore, the plight of British industry resulted in steadfastly rising unemployment throughout the country. And finally, the Labour government was collapsing, making way for the Torys and their Iron Lady.
The economic policy of the Thatcher government (a close relative of what became known as Reaganomics in the U.S.) aimed primarily to reduce the inflation and the public spending. In doing so, many inefficient industries were forced to close down, the social services had to endure significant reductions, and taxation was increased. As a result, unemployment rate exploded; manufacturing output plummeted; trade unions were crushed; education and the welfare state were faced with unprecedented cutbacks of funds. The recession left deep scars into the fabrics of the British society for years. The musicians of the punk and post-punk era of the late 70's and early 80's responded with some of the greatest examples of unabashed and uncompromising sociopolitical songwriting ever recorded.
The songs that will be presented the next days are thus sadly topical and provide a bitter soundtrack to what us Greeks are going through now. As one of the featured songwriters wrote, it's "struggle after struggle, year after year". These are the recession years.