The speed with which Oliver Anthony’s Ballard of working class pain has sped around the internet is proof positive of the incandescent rage of the working classes left behind by a rigged capitalism that benefits the wealthy.
The middle class woke clutch at their pearls and cry fat phobic at Oliver Anthony’s song of pain and anger at a neoliberal free market system he can never beat.
The middle class woke fear his words because the power of them challenge the same neoliberal free market middle class comfort they enjoy, the way the Wellington Maoists screamed Nazi at the Parliament Lawn Protestors.
Anthony strikes the same chord as Tennessee Ernie Ford’s 16 Tons or Johnny Paycheck’s Take This Job And Shove It or Billy Bragg’s Which Side Are You On?
Compare the raw working pain against the rigged game of the rich channeled by Oliver Anthony’s Ballard with our own great Waa Waa of the North, Shane Jones…
Watch: Shane Jones appeals to voters with rendition of rock classic
NZ First candidate Shane Jones has posted a TikTok belting out a rock classic.
Appealing to Northland voters, Jones sings Journey’s Don’t Stop Believing, swapping the original lyrics to focus on him and his achievements.
“I took the PGF (Provincial Growth Fund) then gave the funds to our people,” sings a disembodied Jones floating above a Northland landscape.
Jones managed the $3 billion Provincial Growth Fund during his tenure as Minister for Regional Economic Development.
“I took a billion trees and planted everywhere,” he sings.
“Croatian Māori, from Awanui.
“I’m back and making Northland great again,” closing his eyes as the music swells.
“Shane Jones! Believing!” he belts, giving Journey’s lead singer a run for his money.
“Taking Far North to the ceiling,” he sings raising his finger to the sky.
“Put the K back in the iwi, oh yeah!”
The video has received over 500 likes and 50 comments in the seven hours since it was uploaded.
…y-e-a-h.
Not the incandescent rage of the working class so much as the smug hand in pocket contempt for anyone under the age of 60 stylings of a man who refers to himself in the third person so much he has become 3 dimensional:
“Shane Jones is very Shane Jones about being so Shane Jones”, said Shane Jones.
Look at the pain and the emotion of Oliver Anthony’s Ballard with the graceless imitation of a NZ First candidate whose casual half arsed attempt is somehow cultural mana from heaven.
Nothing manages to sum up where we are in the West better than the juxtaposition between those two songs and the ocean of need and desperate anger in between them at a rigged system of capitalism the working classes have no power to change.
Rich Men North Of Northland and woke wets south of Wellington.
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Martyn – Shane Jones needs to put a sock in it if he wants NZ First to do well.
I don’t think there were any “Wellington Maoists screaming Nazi” at Parliament House, because there’s probably about three actual supporters of Mao left in all of Wellington Province.
Back when the headquarters of the pro-Mao Communist Party was still based in Wellington, the members would probably have quite enjoyed ‘Rich Men North Of Richmond’, much like how they lauded ‘Reedy River’. But mass politics doesn’t really exist in Wellington today; it is a thoroughly elitist and mostly Third Way Liberal affair, with barely any public participation (beyond election day).
Very Seinfeld from Jones…”Shane’s getting frustrated!”
And sorry where has the fat phobia angle come from? I saw that on the RNZ website. “People living in larger bodies”. Some, granted by no means all, weren’t originally living in larger bodies. They got there by letting things go ( speaking from personal experience), and simply going for a walk can make a huge difference.
Nice post Martyn.
North of Richmond is a brilliant song and a fine contrast to the worthless tripe pumped out by Hollywood.
In the USA this resonates with Trump’s base, because despite his personal failings, Trump was in it for the working class like neither the Democrats and Republicans were.
the irony that the working class would turn to a wannabe grifter like Trump is definitely lost on me – would you like fries with that?
I’m sure the dude who gave Saudi Arabia and other Arabian nations a $8,100,000,000 weapons deal, despite the rest of government vetoing it, and passed a tax break that screwed working people while benefiting the top 1% is really looking out for the average guy. Don’t defend a war criminal man.
ha ha ha ha ,,,, trump is a union busting, trades-people shafting, investor scamming, all-round con artist and serial bankrupt ,,,, https://youtu.be/VhZ6ukIlt1M?t=780
He’s nearly as bad as that hair-sniffing dementia exhibiting war criminal ‘Joe NeoCon Biden’ https://youtu.be/XebVbLBZ39g?t=1317
The big Eye in 5eyes is Bung…. NZ is looking to emulate the ‘rules’ of their shit-show
Shane Jones: I am very wary of people who talk about themselves in the 3rd person
This is just another reason why i will never vote Nzf while Shane (don’t like my principles, i have others) Jones is a part of it.
Bomber – you nailed it. The gap between ‘people like me and people like you’ and those who run the country has never been greater. Great song by Oliver that will resonate on both the Right and the Left because most New Zealanders are finding it hard to comprehend what has become of this great country.
Jones is a pompous twat and has no class. none. nada. zilch.
Agreed
Landlords are the enemy.
Jonesy must of been at the buds and the piss before he made the video?
How to butcher an Anthem.
Rich people get richer while their prey sing songs of exploitation and hardship.
Here’s what needs to happen comin’ from a feller what narrowly missed the Appalachian’s and got Southland AO/NZ instead.
Farmers need to become United, as in a United work force and co-join with Maori.
Or…
National party deep state confederates are driving our economy into the dirt to prove a crooked point sharpened by lies while the hand-wringer sub parties look blank while they bank their outrageous salaries for as long as they can before they’re sprung. Well, fuckers! You’re sprung.
If we people don’t do something very, very quickly we’re fucked. We’re about to become someone else’s. The national party know their days are numbered, they will know that writers like me are coming after them and sooner or later the penny will drop on the general population. AO/NZ will come to realise that the fat criminal elite who inhabit the national party and ACT etc have done so for generations are cynically exploiting AO/NZ. They’ll come to understand that the truth has ripped the kitchen door off its hinges and now The Beast is inside the Ramparts, Halls and Towers and it’s sniffing out the Boys. Aye Boys? Ask yourselves? How else 14 multi-billionaires, 3118 multi-millionaires with wealth exceeding $50 million each and did you, as a citizen of AO/NZ agree to have four foreign owned banks take $180.00 a second in nett profits 24/7/365 while 480 whanau live in fucking cars! Did you say “ The kids are hungry and cold in the van and they have to shit in the bushes but yeah. Go the Banks!” Did you say that? No! Then what the fuck are you thinking then? Too busy trying to get through another winter’s night huh?
Following the rise and rise of the national party is fascinating to me. You can clearly see their paddled pathway through our economy and our politics.
The national party started when two sub right wing Auckland parties coalesced to become Criminal Primes breathing hotly over free, exports derived, farmer money.
Wikipedia:
“National formed in 1936 through amalgamation of conservative and liberal parties, Reform and United respectively, and subsequently became New Zealand’s second-oldest extant political party. “
The truth is, that after roger douglas slipped neo-liberalism under the door from within Labour the national party is THE ONLY PARTY WE HAVE. Yes. It is.
I see today’s national party more resembling an airplane with one wing shot off thanks to the internet. It’s spiralling towards the ground as the crew jump for it.
Jonky was the first to go then others like National MP Michael Woodlouse.
‘Reactionary Neo-liberal Zeitgeist’ aka RNZ.
National MP Michael Woodhouse announces departure from politics after low list ranking.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/496162/national-mp-michael-woodhouse-announces-departure-from-politics-after-low-list-ranking
If AO/NZ doesn’t rise above the *chaff the msm chuck at us and take shit seriously we’re going to have the sovereignty of our country sold to the highest bidder.
Farmers and @ Maori? You really do need to have a barbi together after popping an E while passing a joint around. ( I pray you come to understand just how serious I was about that comment. )
*Chaff “Modern armed forces use chaff (in naval applications, for instance, using short-range SRBOC rockets) to distract radar-guided missiles from their targets.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaff_(countermeasure)
Jones is a pompous twat and has no class. none. nada. zilch.
Fucking great song, so powerful and so poignant.
Let the pompous muddle class woke shake and shudder in there shoes by the virtues of this little tune.
That could become an anthem if a political part could get behind it.
They are all claiming him in the US – Right and Left – poor bugger doesn’t know what a hornets nest he has stirred up just by releasing a good song.
It is a fair enough whinge from Mr Anthony–he does not propose class left organising though, and even finds time for a bit of good ol’ Bennie bashing…
“And the obese milkin’ welfare
Well, God, if you’re 5-foot-3 and you’re 300 pounds
Taxes ought not to pay for your bags of fudge rounds
Young men are puttin’ themselves six feet in the ground
‘Cause all this damn country does is keep on kickin’ them down”
Sure it is a fine line really, working class people in this country have been encouraged to resent beneficaries also–until they turn 65 and then are transformed into pensioner heroes of the nation.
Anyone can bleat, it is about the way forward from a class position.
Oliver Anthony’s song is trying to turn the working classes against those on Welfare. He and his knuckledragging buddies need to realise that if we dont have a welfare system, wages and conditions would be way worse than they are now.
Exactly millsy, some Americans do tend to be a bit dim.
The key question for the working class for ever has been “who is the main enemy?” hint: it is not other working class or vulnerable people–it is the ruling class elite and their enablers.
Agreed he knows this and that’s why he talks about the rich man’s $ is worth shit and taxed to the max. He talks about this if you listen carefully to his song. He is talking about the elite.
The lyrics about beneficiaries and obesity were unnecessary but other than that Oliver’s song is actually kinda based
Saying, “it’s aiming in the right direction but gets the details wrong” could not be more insufficient. Fascism proper grew out of the workers’ movement; therefore, to fail to separate bastardisations that only(!) fail the final hurdle is to confuse reaction with progress.
Agreed he knows this and that’s why he talks about the rich man’s $ is worth shit and taxed to the max. He talks about this if you listen carefully to his song. He is talking about the elite.