‘The Biggest Brother’ is the last song on my Life Line album – released in 2009.
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Lyrics
This paper’s all I need to read
When will some strength spring from the text, it squirms around within
Just give me five or ten minutes
A sense will come to tie us all to history, Our hands behind our backsHis independence masquerades before us
Rupert’s bull makes like hell to charge usIt was a brave attempt to try
To write it down to make sense of his lies, His ugly lies
But words are not enough it seems
When no desire to compromise his views, Was ever in his mindHis independence masquerades before us
Rupert’s bull makes like hell to charge usAnd will Winston Smith feel colder now
Now that Rupert’s here, to comfort us, to print for us, to think for us.His power’s clear for all to see
Excepting those who sit around to govern us, And lead us from all evilMy cocoon can hardly take the strain,
It starts to crack at the barrage I am taking.His independence masquerades before us
Rupert’s bull makes like hell to charge us,
To charge us, to charge us.Copyright 2009 Graham Armfield
Song history
The Biggest Brother was written in early 1984 around the time I was with a band called The Aviators and we used to perform the song regularly with Laura Fudge singing it.
In the early 80s, there was a lot of focus on George Orwell’s 1949 book called ‘1984‘ which documents life under an oppressive totalitarian regime. Many commentators at the time wrote about how much Margaret Thatcher (the prime minister in 1984) was like a Big Brother character – the dictator in the book.
I’d also just read a book called ‘Good Times, Bad Times‘ by Harold Evans, who had been the Editor of the Sunday Times newspaper, and then the daily ‘Times’ newspaper for a short time. The second part of the book describes his tenure under the ownership of Rupert Murdoch – who owned both titles as well as The Sun and other newspapers.
It occurred to me that Rupert Murdoch had even more power than Margaret Thatcher, and so he was a closer fit to Big Brother than she was.
The song refers obliquely to a lot of the incidents that Harold Evans describes within his book. There are also a few references to the book ‘1984’ within the song.
Musically, the song is inspired by my love of music by the Beatles and the Byrds – particularly George Harrison’s ‘If I Needed Someone’ and ‘I’ll Feel a Whole Lot Better’ written by Gene Clark. Hence the use of the 12 string electric guitar.
