"Burn the Bastards" is a 1988 song by

Bill Drummond William Ernest Drummond (born 29 April 1953) is a Scottish artist, musician, writer, and record producer. He was a co-founder of the late-1980s avant-garde pop group the KLF and its 1990s media-manipulating successor, the K Foundation, with wh ...

and

Jimmy Cauty James Francis Cauty (born 19 December 1956), also known as Rockman Rock, is an English artist and musician, best known as one-half of the duo The KLF, co-founder of The Orb and as the man who burnt £1 million. He is married to artist and mu ...

The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu The KLF (also known as the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, the JAMs, the Timelords and other names) are a British electronic band formed in London in 1987. Bill Drummond (alias King Boy D) and Jimmy Cauty (alias Rockman Rock) began by releasing h ...

(The JAMs), from their second, and final before changing names, album '' Who Killed The JAMs?''. The "bastards" of the title are copies of The JAMs first album, ''

1987 (What the Fuck Is Going On?) ''1987 (What the Fuck Is Going On?)'' is the debut studio album by British electronic band The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu (the JAMs), later known as the KLF. ''1987'' was produced using extensive unauthorised samples that plagiarised a wide ...

'', which Drummond and Cauty burnt on a bonfire in a

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

field after a copyright dispute with the Swedish pop group

ABBA ABBA ( , , formerly named Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Anni-Frid or Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Frida) are a Swedish supergroup formed in Stockholm in 1972 by Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. The group's ...

. The song (which is based upon Sly and the Family Stone's " Dance to the Music") was released as a single, along with a separate single of remixes titled "Burn the Beat". Both singles were credited to

The KLF The KLF (also known as the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, the JAMs, the Timelords and other names) are a British electronic band formed in London in 1987. Bill Drummond (alias King Boy D) and Jimmy Cauty (alias Rockman Rock) began by releasing ...

, marking a change of name and with it a change of musical genre, from The JAMs' sample-fuelled political hip-hop to The KLF's upbeat and uptempo

house music House is a music genre characterized by a repetitive Four on the floor (music), four-on-the-floor beat and a typical tempo of 120 beats per minute. It was created by Disc jockey, DJs and music producers from Chicago metropolitan area, Chicago' ...

Conception

Background

Early in 1987,

and

formed a musical outfit, The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu (The JAMs), later to also be known as The Timelords and, more famously,

. The JAMs deliberately invited controversy by spending a year producing incendiary electronic music that was built around plagiarised samples of other artists, underpinned by

beatbox Beatboxing (also beat boxing) is a form of vocal percussion primarily involving the art of mimicking drum machines (typically a TR-808), using one's mouth, lips, tongue, and voice.

rhythms and political raps. The song "Burn the Bastards", which was the duo's final single in this mould, was inspired in part by the legal backlash of their provocative output. Their debut album, ''

'', had been investigated by the

Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society The Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society (MCPS) is an organisation that collects royalties and protects rights for music publisher, song writer and composer members, when their music is reproduced, in any format – including online, physical a ...

, who in August 1987 ordered The JAMs to recall and destroy all unsold copies of ''1987'', for its illegal use of extensive samples from ABBA's "

Dancing Queen "Dancing Queen" is a Europop and disco song by the Swedish group ABBA, released as the lead single from their fourth studio album, ''Arrival'' (1976). It was written by Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus and Stig Anderson. Andersson and Ulvaeus al ...

". The JAMs journeyed to Sweden—with their unsold LPs and an ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

'' journalist in tow—in an attempt to negotiate with ABBA. When this failed, The JAMs made a bonfire in the Swedish countryside and burnt the LPs. Back in the UK, they continued with their plagiaristic productions, which culminated with a second LP, ''Who Killed The JAMs?''. Its sleeve depicts the ''1987'' bonfire, and it contains "Burn the Bastards", a sample-heavy celebration of the fire set to

Ritual A ritual is a sequence of activities involving gestures, words, actions, or objects, performed according to a set sequence. Rituals may be prescribed by the traditions of a community, including a religious community. Rituals are characterized, b ...

istic burnings became a recurring aspect of Drummond and Cauty's work, including the burning of a 60-ft (18-m)

wicker man A wicker man was purportedly a large wicker statue in which the druids (priests of Celtic paganism) Human sacrifice, sacrificed humans and Animal sacrifice, animals by burning. The main evidence for this practice is a sentence by Ancient Rome, Ro ...

during the 1991

summer solstice The summer solstice, also called the estival solstice or midsummer, occurs when one of Earth's poles has its maximum tilt toward the Sun. It happens twice yearly, once in each hemisphere ( Northern and Southern). For that hemisphere, the summer ...

('' The Rites of Mu''), and, as the

K Foundation The K Foundation was an art foundation set up by Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond, formerly of The KLF, in 1993, following their 'retirement' from the music industry. The Foundation served as an artistic outlet for the duo's post-retirement KLF inc ...

in 1995, their burning of £1 million.

Release

On 5 March 1988, Drummond and Cauty released The KLF's debut single "Burn the Beat", an instrumental house music version of "Burn the Bastards", on their own

KLF Communications The KLF (also known as the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, the JAMs, the Timelords and other names) are a British electronic band formed in London in 1987. Bill Drummond (alias King Boy D) and Jimmy Cauty (alias Rockman Rock) began by releasing h ...

label. The single also featured instrumental remixes of other tracks from ''Who Killed The JAMs?''. All 5,000 pressed copies of the single—catalogue number JAMS 26T—were exported. On 18 April 1988, another single, "Burn the Bastards", was released in the UK, to fill the hitherto overlooked catalogue number KLF 002. This single, also by The KLF, featured the LP version of "Burn the Bastards" alongside another instrumental version, "Burn the Beat (Club Mix)". The single releases marked a change in direction of Drummond and Cauty's music, to an upbeat and uptempo house music tone. Indeed, the printed label of "Burn the Bastards" stated, "This is a transition record". Neither "Burn the Bastards" nor "Burn the Beat" entered the UK Singles Chart, although the release peaked at number 15 in the UK Indie Singles Chart.

Composition

"Burn the Bastards" is a celebratory house music song based upon Sly Stone's " Dance to the Music": a trumpet

break Break or Breaks or The Break may refer to: Time off from duties * Recess (break), time in which a group of people is temporarily dismissed from its duties * Break (work), time off during a shift/recess ** Coffee break, a short mid-morning rest ...

and drum line are sampled, and the lyrical structure of that song is also mirrored. Whereas "Dance to the Music" vocally introduces the instruments used, so "Burn the Bastards" has Drummond sing of The JAMs' methods, such as "All we need is a beatbox, for people who only need a beat". The choral line "Dance to the music" is modified to "JAMs have a party". Referring to the fate of the ''1987'' LPs, Drummond sings "Build a fire, stoke it good, throw them on, and watch the bastards burn", accompanied by a stark, ring modulated chorus, "Mu Mu!". A later portion of the lyrics alludes to

New Year's Eve In the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Eve, also known as Old Year's Day or Saint Sylvester's Day in many countries, is the evening or the entire day of the last day of the year, on 31 December. The last day of the year is commonly referred to ...

1987: "Five to twelve, almost gone. 1987, what the fuck have we done?". A driving 4/4 rhythm and a sampled

Roland TB-303 The Roland TB-303 Bass Line (also known as the 303) is a bass synthesizer released by Roland Corporation in 1981. Designed to simulate bass guitars, it was a commercial failure and was discontinued in 1984. However, cheap second-hand units were ...

loop provide

acid house Acid house (also simply known as just "acid") is a subgenre of house music developed around the mid-1980s by DJs from Chicago. The style is defined primarily by the squelching sounds and basslines of the Roland TB-303 electronic bass synthesiz ...

overtones. These elements are brought further to the fore in "Burn the Beat", which dispenses with Drummond's vocals. Most of The KLF's work was highly

self-referential Self-reference occurs in natural or formal languages when a sentence, idea or formula refers to itself. The reference may be expressed either directly—through some intermediate sentence or formula—or by means of some encoding. In philosop ...

: lyrics were usually enigmatic narratives of The KLF's real and fictional exploits, and vocal samples were re-used in a variety of musical contexts. The signatory "Mu Mu!" refrain, which first appeared on this song, recurred throughout the duo's music, including " What Time Is Love? (Live at Trancentral)" (1990), " Last Train to Trancentral (Live from the Lost Continent)" and " America: What Time Is Love?" (1991), and "

Fuck the Millennium "Fuck the Millennium", sometimes spelled "***k the Millennium", is a protest song by the band 2K—Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty—better known as the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu (the JAMs) or the KLF. The song was inspired musically by Jerem ...

" (1997).

Reviews

Announcing a change of name in January 1988, Bill Drummond had said "We might put out a couple of 12" records under the name The K.L.F., these will be rap free just pure dance music, so don't expect to see them reviewed in the music papers". As predicted, "Burn the Beat" and "Burn the Bastards" attracted little attention from the music press. Reviewing ''Who Killed The JAMs?'', ''

Sounds In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave, through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid. In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by the ...

'' described "Burn the Bastards" as "a JAMs manifesto" which "assumes a sinister edge alongside the pile of blazing copies of ''1987'' pictured on the sleeve", citing the track as evidence that The JAMs were "defiant, outspoken, still a wily step ahead".

Formats and track listings

"Burn the Beat" was originally a

12" limited to 5,000 copies exported from the UK. In 1989, it was released in the US by

TVT Records TVT Records (Tee-Vee Tunes) was an American record label founded by Steve Gottlieb. Over the course of its 24-year history, the label released 25 Gold, Platinum and Multi-Platinum releases. Its roster included Nine Inch Nails, Ja Rule, Lil Jon, ...

. "Burn the Bastards" was released by KLF Communications for a UK audience. Key *L - "Burn the Bastards" (LP version) (6:28) *J - "Burn the Bastards (JAMs Have A Party / LP edit)" (4:11) *J2 - "Burn The Bastards" (censored LP edit / 7" edit) (3:52) *C - "Burn the Beat (Club Mix)" (4:51) *M - "Burn the Beat (Mu Mu Mix)" (4:43) *P - "The Porpoise Song (Instrumental Remix)" (5:09) *G - "Prestwich Prophet's Grin (Instrumental Remix)" (4:14)

Notes and references

{{authority control 1988 singles KLF Communications singles The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu songs The KLF songs TVT Records singles Song recordings produced by the KLF Songs written by Sly Stone Songs written by Jimmy Cauty Songs written by Bill Drummond 1988 songs