I mentioned The Joke on another thread about bands I used to love but just don't listen to any more.

This is true, but I feel I should make it clear that the reason I don't find myself wanting to listen to them any more is because I hear their influence ALL THE TIME; reproduced, corrupted, distorted and diluted in every pompous, over-blown goth-rock / industrial band that's spewed out it's ill-conceived drivel in the last 20 years.

It's easy to mock them as a combination of metal and punk - but let's not forget that Nirvana have been put on a pedestal for doing PRECISELY THAT, a full 10 YEARS later (I defy anyone to listen to "Bleach" and deny the Killing Joke influences at work there, presumably before Mr Cobain had encountered The Pixies!).

The influence of Killing Joke is enormous and largely unheralded.

Fwiw, I don't listen to Nirvana these days either, because of the hordes of unisnspired second-rate they too have inspired.

More important point - isn't it odd to avoid a band *because they inspired some crap*. I mean, why not avoid the crap instead? Someone start a thread!

It's not that I'm consciously avoiding KJ, just that I very seldom find myself actually wanting to listen to them any more.

I think the issue is that my taste for that type of music has been diminished by all the crap.

HA! HA! HA! - That's farfuckingoutasite funny. And to think I always thought that band had all the earthshaking power of the last time Noel Coward went on a bender, smudged his lipstick and smashed a Waterford goblet or two. Thanks for the correction.

Jawohl, dem Nordic pagan fire eaters, dey so visceral extreme, nicht wahr? And dat Jaz Boorman mit der dingdang fiery spear of destiny: no mark begets a lineage of village oaf no marks. Big fucking deal.

Roll Over Adorno ... and tell Tanya Headon that lines like this inspire me to hate all music too. If not that, well, hating all music fans is a good place to start.

But to contribute to this very constructive thread, I hasten to mention that my favorite Killing Joke songs have always been "Saucy Jack", "Deutschland über alles", "My Ding-a-Ling" and "We Didn't Start The Fire" - in that order. Leni Riefenstahl I find to be the sexiest member of the group. She so visceral extreme to the utmost methinks; not to mention being approximately half the age of Jaz Boorman.

I cant speak for Cheap Trick, but Pixies lyrics are some of the best in rock history.

http://216.127.66.72/a/albums/albun09/aab.sized.jpg

yes, no, maybe so -- and that's an important part of what makes them good.

I'll take even midly evocotive nonsense over almost anything too pat and linear.

Please....I don't know where these allegations come from, but Killing Joke are **NOT** Aryan white supremacists. Maybe they're not the nicest guys in the world, but they're not racist rabble-rousers. You're thinking of Skrewdriver.

The only possible reason I can think of off hand is a rather unfortunate photo shoot for one of the weekly music papers around the time "Revelations" came out, which involved the paraphernalia from certain freemasonry rituals....

http://music.dartmouth.edu/~dupras/kj/d.gallery/d.band/d.lrg/KJ.NME.1982.lrg.jpg

Maybe I don't know enough about Freemasonry, but I gathered it had more to do with the occult than with Aryanism/white supremacy.

Honour The Set Square And Compass.... and those nice little little aprons!

With the weather like it is at the moment - I'm busy honouring the fire.

Editor place acronym for LAUGHING OUT LOUD here.

Paula G., meanwhile, has done nothing of the sort, and continues to spout whistle-headed nonsense (not least accusing the Joke of being Goths), so PISS OFF!

ooooooh stop me

I just got Psychopharmacology though, Alex. I love it.

Killing Joke wise, I'm not going to get all winded about it. Seek out the first album......

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drc300/c309/c309332s0t8.jpg

....and if that doesn't grab ya, don't bother pursuing it further.

If I'd only heard the version _without_ he rap I'd probably have liked it.

I've heard the rap. Aaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrgggggggghhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!

And what Alex said about the first album, even though I prefer the second one myself.

KILLING JOKE ACTUALLY MENTIONED IN THE N.M.E!!!!!

http://www.nme.com/news/103951.htm

Whoohoo!

Tom chirped: "And is it just me or are they not anywhere near as heavy-sounding as they're made out to be." I dare say that without
Killing Joke, most of your precious "heavy sounding" bands wouldn't even exist. Killing Joke have indulged in a myriad of different
musical styles and sounds well beyond the monochromatic "heavy," yet when they choose to go that route, there is no one mightier.
To judge Killing Joke by one or two tracks is an excercise in blind-sighted stupidity. Do your homework before submitting an
opinion! Moreover, if you're put off by the conceptual/lyrical content of Killing Joke, why not toddle home and slap on a Pixies or
Cheap Trick album and celebrate the meaningless and banal. At least Killing Joke have something to say. You may not like it, agree
with it...or even understand it....but at least there something of substance there. Killing Joke credit their audience with higher
standards and a modicum of intelligence. Try getting that from Korn.