Meltdown (1986)

Explosion in reactor four

Two men dead, maybe more

    We gotta deny

    There’s nothing wrong 

Don’t let the people know the score

 

Fight the fire, regain control

Irradiate two hundred souls

    Forget the heat

    Close the town

Secrecy’s the only goal

 

You can keep a lid on it

You can seal it off

You can tell your stories 

But in the end

IT’S A MELTDOWN!

 

The world explodes, the roof comes off

We can’t contain what’s not enough

    Tell the world

    It’s all contained 

But you can’t contain ... THE TRUTH!

 

You can keep a lid on it

You can seal it off

You can tell your stories 

But in the end

IT’S A MELTDOWN!

Lyrics: Clem Media. Music: The Fuggers

 

“I’m not here to talk about my Pa or my Ma. I’m here to promote the album. I don’t know anything about my Pa’s work. I can’t fill you in on that. He was nearly fifty when I was born and he left my Ma when I wasn’t even one. My Ma dragged me around for a while on her films. But I was tiny, man. Just a tiny kid. I never took it in.

Yeah I lived with him in the Seventies for a while, but I wasn’t into what he was up to, you know what I mean? I was too busy being a kid, doing my own thing. That’s all the past, nothing I can remember.  Our album is about now. Right now. Take a look at the tracks - ‘Big Trouble in Cairo’, ‘Dead President’, the title track ‘Meltdown’ - these songs are about what’s happening right now, things that actually happened this year - assassination, riots, people telling lies. You get me?

We decided we needed to get real and relevant. So that’s what we did.  I don’t know why you wanna ask me about what my Ma and Pa got up to twenty, thirty years ago. What’s that got to do with me? Maybe there’ll be a time when I’ll want to figure out where I came from, put the pieces together - but this isn’t that time. You’d be better talking to my sis, Isabella. She’s the holder of the family truth. Not me. The only track here that’s anything to do with all that is ‘Accident/Afterthought’. I don’t have to explain that. Just listen to the song. Let’s talk about the music.

Honestly I can’t remember the last time I watched anything my Pa was in. Apart from the Duran Duran video, and I watched that just cos MTV was on. I know he was friends with Dennis Hopper once cos he told me that, and I like Dennis Hopper movies. 

That’s what I mean. He comes from another time. From before I was even born. He hung out with old movie stars like - I dunno - I don’t even know their names. Ursula Andress? Donald… someone. Like I told you. I’m not into films. Someone said there are some Vincent Price movies from the 1960s that he’s good in, but I wouldn’t know. I honestly wouldn’t.

No, I never watched ‘The Body In The Woods’ either, even though I was in it. I never wanted to be an actor. It was just something Pa made me do. I always wanted to be in a band. So I could make albums like this one. 

Do my parents like the album? My parents aren’t so bothered about what I do. They’re busy with their own shit. My Pa is based in the UK now. I’m in America most of the time. And Ma is into theatre tours so I don’t see her. Jeez, if I thought this interview was gonna be all about my parents I’d have boned up . There must be a filmography in a book you can look up. It’s got fuck all to do with me. Can’t we just talk about the album?”