Stiff Little Fingers : Wasted Life : Live 2007

A taut, explosive Belfast-based punk band, Stiff Little Fingers (named after a Vibrators song) had the dubious distinction of being referred to as "The Irish Clash".


What must have seemed like a compliment at the time did little to help their career, only because it made comparisons between the two bands inevitable. Granted, there were many similarities: both bands debuted playing revved-up late-'70s punk rock, were politically inclined, featured pissed-off lead singers, had a love for reggae, and possessed a near-palpable sense of isolation and desperation.

But as we all know, the Clash offered complexity, panache, and a consistently breathtaking body of work. Stiff Little Fingers, on the other hand, were simply a very good punk rock band. With sandpaper-throated frontman Jake Burns leading the way, SLF did release an auspicious, if badly produced, debut album, Inflammable Material, that featured the band's two best songs, "Alternative Ulster" and "Suspect Device." Both were passionate, ferocious songs dealing with the harsh, deadly realities of growing up in the middle of two decades of Northern Ireland's violence.

These songs thrust SLF into the limelight and got them loads of enthusiastic press, which led to a contract with the decidedly anti-punk Chrysalis label in 1980. After that, SLF released a handful of pretty good records (including a terrific live album, Hanx), but their unregenerate fast and loud punk style started to sound stale.

In 1982, the band released their most non-punk record (Now Then...), which was greeted by general apathy. In a musical rut, dogged by the facile Clash comparisons, and with punk rock running out of steam, Burns pulled the plug on SLF.

This is a Double LIVE album released in 2007
(All music)

Disc: 1

1. Straw Dogs
2. Wasted Life
3. At The Edge
4. Hope St.
5. You Can Get It (If You Really Want)
6. Drinkin' Again
7. Harp
8. Gotta Getaway
9. Last Train From The Wastelands
10. Forensic Evidence
11. Race You To The Grave
12. She Grew Up
13. Tin Soldiers
14. All The Rest

Disc: 2

1. Listen
2. Doesn't Make It Right
3. Barbed Wire Love
4. Piccadilly Circus
5. Roots, Radics, Rockers And Reggae
6. Suspect Device
7. Alternative Ulster
8. Can't Believe In You
9. Silver Lining
10. Listen
11. Wasted Life
12. Shake It Off
13. Not What We Were (Pro Patria Mori)
14. Alternative Ulster

WASTED LIFE LYRICS

I could be a soldier
Go out there and fight to save this land
Be a people's soldier
Paramilitary gun in hand
I won't be a soldier
I won't take no orders from no-one
Stuff their fucking armies
Killing isn't my idea of fun

(Chorus)

They wanna waste my life
They wanna waste my time
They wanna waste my life
And they've stolen it away

I could be a hero
Live and die for their 'important' cause
A united nation
Or an independent state with laws
And rules and regulations
That merely cause disturbances and wars
That is what I've got now
All thanks to the freedom-seeking hordes

(Chorus)

I'm not gonna be taken in
They said if I don't join I just can't win
I've heard that story many times before
And every time I threw it out the door

Still they come up to me
With a different name but same old face
I can see the connection
With another time and a different place
They ain't blonde-haired or blue-eyed
But they think that they're the master race
They're nothing but blind fascists
Brought up to hate and given lives to waste

CD Rip
Size :
Bitrate : 320

Take it HERE CD1
Take it HERE CD 2