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The Siege of Madrid

from 8 songs about anarchism by Robb Johnso

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about

There were a lot of starting points for this song.

We were in Paris in 1998, the 30th anniversary of les evenementes. There were police on every street corner of the Place de La Republique. The next day they stormed a church where sans papiers were claiming sanctuary. I wrote a song that started off “Death, you old fascist, I see you grinning on street corners”.

Jules was one of the Year Two teachers. She said that when shed been in Madrid, she’d been pleased to see Generalissimo Franco’s tomb covered in graffiti.

My dad had just come out of intensive care. I took our son Hari to visit him. Hari was not quite two, I carried him into the ward. In every bed was an old boy, close to looking the Generalissimo in the eye. Hari waved happily to each one of them as we passed their beds.

& I did make a clay clenched fist once in Primary school. No idea why I did that.

We recorded the song originally with Miranda Sykes & Saskia Tomkins, the RJ3, on the album “21st Century Blues” - the same album “Dear Andy” originally came out on.

& more recently….

I was in Paris in May 2018. The graffiti on the walls by the Seine read “The Commune draws breath”.

The photo used for the cover of this collection is from a street in Dieppe in 2023, a street decorated with graffiti opposing Macron’s pension reform.

credits

from 8 songs about anarchism, released April 7, 2023

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Robb Johnso Hove, UK

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