Sound of Our Revolution | February 2023: Healthcare Is A Right

New year and the 13th year of Tory rule in a row makes Jonny Collins fucking rage.

We’re in a weird limbo with politics in this country right now. At the risk of speaking too soon, the Tories have well and truly fucked it.

Not the country, that was done years ago. But they’ve fucked their own reputation and popularity amongst the few strategically placed and manipulated people who did actually vote for them over and over again to this day, so we might genuinely be living through the death rattle of at least this particular flavour of Tory government for the foreseeable future.

That is cause for optimism, scepticism, and outright terror. Optimism due to better days ahead, scepticism at how quickly Keir Starmer is going to drop the ball and open the doors for a new Tory Government, and terror in that a Tory Government who knows its days are numbers are if, anything, more dangerous than a strong Tory government.

A large number of tory MPs will be out of a job in a year or two – so you can bet their ass that they’re going to squeeze through as much bullshit to allow them to abuse the system to enrich themselves and ensure a comfortable retirement no matter how many citizens they murder in the way.

There’s already no conceivable way that Rishi Sunak can win the next election – there’s no other viable leader for the party. So what we’re experiencing now is the Tory government antagonizing strikers, fucking the economy beyond repair, and (most relevant to today’s list) hurrying through the complete privatisation of the few publicly funded services left.

Specifically, and most worryingly, the NHS.

I think many have become desensitized to “Save Our NHS” as a slogan. It’s been around for at least the last 8 years, and to the casual observer, they probably don’t see why we’re worrying. But since 2010, the Tories have been subtly outsourcing NHS contracts to private companies – selling off assets to the highest bidders whilst not ‘technically’ changing the funding system, but making the model increasingly inefficient, reducing the service the NHS can offer, leaving them both perpetually understaffed and on the verge of running out of money – to convince the public that the NHS just isn’t working or sustainable, and that private healthcare is the only way forward – giving them the go-ahead to ditch the NHS entirely before anyone realizes that they already had years ago.

It might be too late to reverse this now, and it’s genuinely terrifying. Privatizing the railways was a nuisance and set us decades behind the developed world’s transport networks, making our contributions to irreversible climate change worse. But the NHS being private will result in death numbers rivalling Covid’s peaks, and almost entirely from preventable causes.

Coincidentally, I actually ended up in the hospital for emergency treatment during the course of compiling this playlist after I’d already chosen the theme for the month. (Next month I’m definitely doing a playlist centred around trans girls with massive dicks who buy me pizza. Worth a try.)

I’d never actually been in a hospital as an in-patient for more than a few hours before. Whilst I knew what the state of it was, it was jarring to first-hand experience the dichotomy between some of the hardest working, empathetic, and caring Doctors and Nurses, operating under conditions that all but completely prevent them from doing the work they’re paid pittance to do.

Waiting 13 hours in A&E because they don’t have the staff to see to everyone and have to prioritize, not having a pillow for the first few days of my stay because there was a shortage, my bedside table being propped up with rolled up cardboard. This is what Tory privatization has done to the NHS. It is testament to the workers here that they’re even operating a healthcare system at all. The Doctors, Nurses, Cleaners, Administration, Caterers, everyone there deserves better. We as a society deserve better. But this is what we’re stuck with.

I don’t have the answer – we need to get rid of the Tories, but we can’t do that until they call an election, and they won’t do that until they constitutionally have to at the end of 2024.

So to vent frustration this playlist is all around the theme “Healthcare is a Human Right.”

This actually made me more frustrated, as it turns out it’s really hard googling songs against Private Healthcare or advocating for Universal. 49% of references I found were just songs loosely connected to medical imagery which weren’t actually saying anything, 49% were songs celebrating the NHS on a very surface-level ‘clap for the NHS for working hard during a crisis without wanting to touch politics as “IT’S NOT THE TIME” despite the political situation being one of the main reasons covid hit us so hard, due to inaction and a decade of gutting the NHS of all its capacity’.

And the last 2% being an article I found that said Private Healthcare in America was good actually because Doctors deserve to be paid lots of money and they wouldn’t get that under a public system, ignoring the fact that Private Healthcare organizations have to pay off shareholders and CEOs, meaning prices are inflated way above the cost of the service and actual labour – and that Doctors deserve to be paid more and healthcare should be free for anyone to use at the point of entry and taxpayer funded CAN BE TRUE AT THE SAME TIME.

Sorry, this playlist was very stressful to research for.

In the end I found about 22 songs, some of which were a bit of a stretch, but all of which I think do broadly cover the feelings I have about the threat of a private health model in this country, both from a UK perspective of losing it, and US perspective of being saddled with it forever.

If you’re not interested in why I’ve picked the tracks I’ve picked and just want to listen to the tracks you can do so here:

Deezer: https://deezer.page.link/zympm9hWBxonRZmZ8
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/777FYFThM6UghpusVKINvo?si=vsHReDz-QeebCP61GSyzKw&utm_source=copy-link
Tidal: https://tidal.com/browse/playlist/4b2d5c3b-f638-4385-8a59-dddedcca130d
YouTube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGv_OFvoeqQuTtXYcNxAUMHVG5xZpuRJ1 (Missing 1 track)

And if you want to read more about each pic and why it’s on this list, I’ve broken down all 22 of them below!

1: Anaesthetist – Enter Shikari

The Mindsweep – 2015 – Electronicore

“You sold us short
You will not profit off our health
Step the fuck back”.

I already mentioned how hard this playlist was to research as no one seems to have done an easily accessible collection of explicit Universal Healthcare supporting songs before. Thankfully this song I already knew and was actually the inspiration for this theme.

Anaesthetist is one of the best tracks off of Enter Shikari’s 2015 record “The Mindsweep”. The message isn’t hidden, the imagery is clear, this is their stand against the camouflaged NHS privatisation the Tories were doing whilst claiming they’ve put record funding into the service.

Short, and absolutely not sweet. “Illness is not an Indulgence which you should pay for, nor is it a crime for which should be punished”. Powerful stuff from the best boys of British political-electro-rave-core yet again.

2: American Healthcare (Glitzy) – Penelope Scott

Public Void – 2020 – Indie Folk

https://penelopescott.bandcamp.com/album/public-void-2

“I wanted to help people
I thought that I could save the sick
And if it’s all the same to you
There’s one more thing I gotta do
‘Cause with God as my witness
You corporate fucking prick
I did not become a doctor just to suck the devil’s dick”

Penelope Scott is an artist I discovered a few months ago and was looking for a way to shoehorn her onto a playlist for a while. I nearly included “Rat” on the Eat the Rich playlist, but it ended up getting cut for time. Thankfully the perfect opportunity presented itself this month – as she literally has a song called “American Healthcare”.

It’s sung from first person about a doctor character despairing at the American healthcare system whilst doing their all to help people despite it, giving a nice internal perspective on the system from the actual workers, not the insurance suits.

As far as I can tell, this specific character is fictitious and isn’t based on Scott’s own experience, as far as I can tell she was never a doctor. But she sings with such authentic emotion and really puts her finger on the crux of the issues that you could be forgiven for feeling it was autobiographical.

Her point being throughout the song that she sees people in pain and wants to help – and having to suck up to corporate investors and capitalists in order to do her own job is the worst part of it. The fact is the system is set up that despite working hard to follow her own dreams of helping the sick and needy, she isn’t able to because the system deliberately bars out those who need access to healthcare the most.

All of this delivered in her trademark unique brand of indie folk electro cabaret that hits all the right buttons of weird music I enjoy. I promise some of these songs won’t be weird blends of 12 different genres, and you will get some more by the numbers tracks soon.

3: We Can Afford It (The Single Payer Song) – Joe Messina

Rageonomics – 2020 – Acoustic Rock

https://joemessina.bandcamp.com/album/rageonomics

“There’s a great new policy out there,
It’s called single payer healthcare
And if you don’t like it then I hope you die
‘cause I don’t give a shit anymore”

Ah here we are, finally some by the books acoustic modern folk! Joe Messina (Not to be confused with the late guitarist of the Funk Brothers of the same name) is a musician/comedian and socialist, and a brief look at his Twitter and YouTube he seems pretty based. Go give him a follow: https://twitter.com/joe_messina

This song goes fucking hard. From start to finish the upbeat jangly guitar cards and cheerfully delivered angry as fuck lyrics I knew this had to be on the list. “The streets will run red with the blood of Republicans if I don’t get to see a doctor” is another favourite line of mine.

There are probably artists who more eloquently breakdown the arguments for Universal Healthcare, but sometimes you just need a guy who’s had enough swearing at all politicians who refuse point blank to entertain the idea of actual Universal Healthcare. Even Obamacare was only marginally better than every other private health insurance company out there – Democrats aren’t exactly on the ball with this either.

Here in the UK, we’re in a state of terror and anger at losing this 75 year old institution which began the shift into post-war Britain. In America they’ve never had anything even resembling the NHS at now it’s most dysfunctional state ever, so they’re just fucking done. Poor people dying needlessly and in debt for generations, insurance companies making record profits whilst people die at their whim.

You’ve kinda gotta laugh or the gravity of how fucked everything is really sinks in, and you’ll need mental health treatment you also can’t afford on top of all the other medical treatment you’re in debt for.

4: NHS (National Health Simpsons) – Boom Boom Racoon

NOW That’s What I call Boom Boom Racoon Vol.1 – 2018 – Ska Punk

https://boomboomracoon.bandcamp.com/album/now-thats-what-i-call-boom-boom-racoon-vol-1

“Prioritising profits while so many people die,
only those with money have the right to stay alive.”

What a great sample into a song. National Health Simpsons – as you can probably guess, is a song about the privatization of the NHS book-ended with the classic “DENTAL PLAN – LISA NEEDS BRACES” scene from The Simpsons – you know The Simpsons? That show that was really good once and has been coasting on its first 8 seasons ever since and is now been renewed up to season 36?

Well anyway – this song samples that scene then goes straight into Folky Ska Punk riffs to deliver a dire message about the state of our own healthcare here in the UK with vocal stiles that wouldn’t be out of place in a Hardcore song.

Truly this is a Universal Healthcare song for the generation of Jaded millennials, tying in everything great about the 90s. The Simpsons, Ska Punk, and a less privatised NHS than we have now. (There was nothing else good about the 90s.)

5: No Profit in Pain – Gruff Rhys

No Profit In Pain – 2018 – Indie Rock

“From cradle to grave,
From the moment I was born you patched me up to stay strong,
Don’t rip it apart,
For some bastard bank to make some money, ripping out your heart.
So if civility is helping out
Then civilisation is what I’m all about
Forget capital
It’s not about profiting on pain,”

Slowing down a bit now, we have Welsh music legend Gruff Rhys and his impassioned ode to the NHS and lament of its likely future. Written for the NHS’ 70th birthday, this track puts me in mind of some of Pulp’s best work. It’s got a slow, catchy but not distracting melody that drives the soulful lyrics and singing to the forefront to best get the message across. And the Message is delivered possibly most completely and powerfully here on this track over any others on this list (certainly from a UK Perspective at least).

I’ve picked out the chorus to spotlight, but every single verse is expertly crafted to paint a picture of what a wonderful service the NHS used to be, and can be again, and what certain politicians that shall not be named (clue: it’s most of them) are determined to not let it be. Absolutely worth a listen – one of the finest political protest songs I’ve ever heard.

6: Healthcare is a Human Right – Mike Stout

Selected Works: Songs of Resistance (1985-2005) – 2015 – Rock

“Soaring costs and less access is where we evolved
From infant mortality to shorter life span,
We’re 37th in the world, I think we need a better plan.”

Back over to the US again, we have this rocking tune from American activist singer/songwriter Mike Stout.

If you’re like me you, probably find all American Rock of this calibre cheesy and hard to take seriously. While it puts me in mind to something my Dad would listen to (affectionately), it does what it’s trying to do well – taking elements of Blues and Country to create a real old school Rock ‘n’ Roll sound with unambiguous lyrics sung with conviction, like your Uncle doing karaoke but if he was actually good.

You could argue this song doesn’t need to go on for nearly 6 minutes, as it definitely makes its point by the 4 minute mark, but the song’s heart is very much in the right place, and if you like this style of rock music, it’s definitely a solid tune. And hell – you know I’m a sucker for Rock music that actually says something. Seems a lot of legacy rockstars have forgotten that these days, decrying mixing politics with rock and roll, even though it’s literally in its blood from Blues. But that’s a rant for another day.

7: Fired Up! – Holly Near

Edge – 2000 – Folk Cabaret

“Can’t just focus on kids with wealth
Can’t pick and choose who gets the health care
Take an honest look at the great divide
Looks dangerously similar to genocide”

Wow, 7 tracks in and already getting to the loosely fitting ones. As I say – It was hard compiling a decent length playlist with songs explicitly and solely about universal healthcare. But plenty of songs touch on it in a verse in a song with more general Socialist/revolutionary/progressive themes.

Fired Up! is a fairly generic call to revolution song about the way society treats our children and the expectations thereof. But it does have a line as above focussing on the fact that only allowing rich kids to access healthcare is basically eugenics adjacent genocide. And that verse alone is powerful enough to warrant inclusion on this list. Plus it’s a short song, with most of it being taken up by that catchy as hell chorus that I find a great motivator when life (see: Tories) is getting me down.

8: American Healthcare for All – Zach Thomas

Not Just For The Rich – 2018 – Country

“The French, the German, Japanese and the Swiss
Enjoy health care without financial risk.
But if you live here in the U. S. of A.
Who’s gonna care for you, if you can’t pay?”

Back to something more concrete now, we’ve got this little Country ditty. Country music has a reputation for being generally right wing, and that stuff certainly exists, but it’s not universal at all. There’s loads of left leaning Country. Heck, Johnny Cash famously performed in prisons and was a huge advocate for Native American liberation.

This is a simple tune – and at just under 3 minutes is the perfect length for a song like this. It doesn’t outstay its welcome, and it gets its point across concisely, unlike another song on this list. (I like all of these songs, I don’t know why I’m being so shitty to the Dad rock one.)

Not much else to say really – catchy sing-along chorus and while the lyrics might not be the most provocative on this list, they all make the point, and they don’t mince words either.

Also turns out there’s more than one Country singer named Zach Thomas – so to clarify, this isn’t the one who was a contestant on American Idol twice. This one only has 7 Monthly listeners on Spotify – so let’s give him some love yeah?

9: Unbelievably Bad – Marcus de Mowbray

Unbelievably Bad – 2020 – Folk

“You’re totally self-centred
You care for nobody else
You’re splitting up the Kingdom’s Union
And destroying our National Health”.

This is another track that only really has the one line referencing the NHS – but is also short enough that I think it still qualifies.

From the first couple of lines, it’s fairly obvious who this is about. I mean, it can apply to pretty much Every Tory ever, but given it was released in 2020 and the specific traits it lists are very clearly about Boris Johnson. By no means the only tory to privatise the NHS – but one of the loudest about claiming to care about and want to save the NHS, basing his whole Brexit campaign around that, before diverting the promised money to private accessories through the NHS, and not actually to the NHS itself. Sneaky bugger.

Also I don’t care, this chorus fucking slaps. I don’t know much about Marcus de Mowbray – but damn he’s got a good flow. (Gosh I’m white.)

10: Universal Healthcare – Ziwe

Generation Ziwe – 2021 – Spoken Word

“What the fuck is a deductible!?
Arghh!
This current system is dysfunctional
They overcharge me like I’m gullible
They squeeze my wallet like it’s huggable”

You’ll notice a lot of these songs have “Universal Healthcare” in the title. This is because it was one of the few sure-fire ways I’d have of knowing what the song was about given how hard it was to find examples through other means.

Ziwe is a late night talk host and comedian in America – so I’m not quite sure what the story us behind this track, as unlike Joe Messina from earlier, this song is pretty light on the humour. (That being said, the scream after “What the fuck is a deductible” is pretty great.

To clarify, that’s not a criticism, just an observation. This song foregoes explicit humour apart from the odd mannerism and turn of phrase, and feels more like a righteous expression of anger that America doesn’t have universal healthcare, and honestly? It hits hard.

Hard to know what kind of music this falls into – it’s kind of spoken word over a slow dirty electronic beat. There’s probably a name for that genre – but I don’t know what it is, all I know is I love it. Great track – also Ziwe seems pretty cool – you should check out her various shows, they’re pretty good.

11: Lynch Your Leaders – Bob Vylan

We Live Here – 2020 – Grime/Punk

“Had this toothache for a month now
But the dentist wants me to pay
Auctioned off the NHS
They’re fucking giving it away”.

Okay yeah, this one is a stretch as well. It’s only really that one verse that references the NHS – the rest of the song is about the experience of Bobby growing up poor in Britain and the hardships he’s had to face – and the chorus is about…well yeah, you can guess from the title.

But even before I was compiling this playlist, that verse always stuck out as one of the best in the song for me. All of it is good – but I don’t think I’d really heard any artists explicitly talk about the actual privatisation of the NHS before.

Sure, songs alluded and referenced it less directly, but for a song to have the line “Auctioned off the NHS / They’re fucking giving it away” just gave me fucking chills.

And by the looks of it, not many other bands have done that since then either. A few of them have, and are on this list, and there’s probably some I’ve missed. But yeah, it seems rare for artists to namedrop the NHS and say “Yeah it’s being sold for profit” is something I’ve only really heard from journalists, commentators and the odd comedian previously. So I’m happy to discover music that broaches the issue in that way as well.

Also this song just slaps, and I am determined to include at least one Vylan track on every list I do, so here we are.

12: Fuck Everybody Who Voted Tory – Oi Polloi

Fuaim Catha – 1999 – Punk

“Disastrously, the following saw Margaret Thatcher installed as Prime Minister and ushered in the nightmare scenario of years of right-wing Tory government. Since then we’ve seen the systematic erosion of civil liberties, the destruction of the trade union movement and the wholesale dismantling of the welfare state and National Health Service”

Yet another stretch of an inclusion – the NHS is only referenced in the opening monologue before the song actually starts, but it’s Oi Polloi saying fuck the Tories. There isn’t a single playlist I am going to make for this series where that song isn’t relevant. It’s my playlist, I get to decide the criteria and rules on a whim.

Also this is just a very solid lefty “Oi!” track from the masters of the genre, so quit whining.

13: Eat The Rich – Slightly West

Assimilate! – 2020 – Alternative Rock

https://slightlywest.bandcamp.com/album/assimilate

“Tax cut your teeth
You could end world hunger
Make healthcare universal
You could end poverty
Give the homeless housing”

This was a nice deep cut I found, and has joined a long line of my favourite songs with the title “Eat the Rich”.

Slightly West is the solo project of an independent Pennsylvania-based musician, Colin McCaulley. A self-described “Angry Little Boy” this comes across in the very punk lyrics of his work – particularly this song which takes a dreary depressed tone, singing the title not just as a revolutionary idea, but almost a resigned fact that this is literally the only way to put us back on course. Angry definitely, but in an understated way that kind of hits harder.

You know when a loved one says they’re not angry, just disappointed with something shitty you’ve done and that cuts 1000x deeper than any shouting they could do? That’s the one I get from this independent alternative punk jam. Good shit.

Oh yeah, and one of the verses talks about all the things the rich could do with their wealth instead of hoard it, and one is making healthcare universal. That’s enough of a link, right? It’s a short song with very few lyrics that aren’t “Eat the Rich” so I think it counts.

Also the album is “Name Your Price” on Bandcamp, and they only have 1 monthly listener on Spotify (presumably me). So let’s show him some love, if you like this song; give the EP a listen!

14: Fuck The Tories – The Kunts

Fuck The Tories – 2022 – Punk

https://kuntandthegang.bandcamp.com/track/fuck-the-tories-single-mix

“They fucked up the economy
They fucked the NHS
They fucked up the environment
We’re in a fucking mess
They fucked up public services
They fucked us through and through
It’s time to stand up for ourselves
And say ‘FUCK YOU!’”

I promise you some more of these songs have more substantial relevance to the theme. I purposely put a lot of the looser ones in the middle as. As they say in stand-up – you should always start and end with your best and second best respectively.

In any case, I’m still riding high on the rage that this absolute Christmas classic only got to number 7 of the UK charts as nearly every single radio station in the country (including Kerrang) refused to give it any coverage, most media outlets either didn’t mention it outright or just alluded to it without saying its name or the band, and that sausage roll cunt LadBaby is somehow still a media darling despite being an obvious conman who became a millionaire off of “charity” singles over the last 5 or so years. The songs themselves are grating at best, if not actively bootlicking – having precisely 0 staying power and only existing to give LadBaby clout and money. The profits might go to charity, but you can define “profits” very creatively if you never talk about what you’re classing as “expenses”.

LadBaby is by no means the first person to take advantage of this con – but he is the most obnoxious with it, and I can’t wait until I can forget what his name is and get back to enjoying sausage rolls without feeling gross inside.

Oh yeah, this song.

Again, it’s The Kunts singing “Fuck the Tories” for 2 minutes, with verses talking about all the things the Tories have fucked up in their time, including the NHS. If you want to argue with me about this inclusion, then you’re wrong and probably fuck sausage rolls while listening to LadBaby music. (You probably don’t, I’m sorry, that was mean, but I mean it when I say it was really hard researching this playlist, so I’m taking anything I can.)

15: Thatcherites – Billy Bragg

William Bloke – 1996 – Folk

“You privatise away what is ours, what is ours
You privatise away what is ours
You privatise away and then you make us pay
We’ll take it back some day, mark my words, mark my words
We’ll take it back some day, mark my words”.

This is an interesting inclusion I think, because instead of being a song that just mentions the NHS once and then moves on, this song doesn’t even talk about the NHS at all, at least not directly.

As the title implies this song is about political Thatcherites – i.e. Conservatives who follow Margaret Thatcher’s ideology, which is just slightly less intense Reganomics (but still fucking bad).

Thatcher really was the death of any hint of socialism and true Labour power in the country. She changed the political landscape to what we know today as Neoliberal Capitalism. Now believe it or not I’m not a political expert, but if I can recommend JohntheDuncan’s entire YouTube channel – he explains the details a nuances of this system, and specifically all of its flaws and consequences for the last 40 odd years.

So this song by veteran protest artist Billy Bragg is about these politicians and supporters following in the footsteps in the worst thing to happen to British Politics of the present era. This one verse in particular I think really inspired its inclusion on this list “You privatise away what is ours, and then you make us pay, we’ll take it back some day, mark my words.”

Thatcher really kickstarted the trend of Governments selling off public services and infrastructure that we’d spent the previous 40 years building. And while from what I understand the NHS isn’t something she really touched all that much, her legacy directly led to where we are today. Deliberate underfunding, funnelling funds through the NHS to private providers, and playing the long game to choke the service to convince us all that Universal Healthcare doesn’t work, and we need to go back to private insurance based models.

It might already be too late to save the NHS as it is today. And it’ll take a long time to bring it back. But we will. The fight is not over even if we’ve lost this one battle. Mark my words. We are at a turning point – we’ve just gotta put pressure on and ensure it turns the right way, and far enough.

Come on Starmer, prove me wrong about you.

16: Dandruff – Hans Gruber and the Die Hards

With A Vengeance – 2022 – Ska Punk

https://hansgruberandthediehards.bandcamp.com/album/with-a-vengeance

“At least when I’m dead there will be no bills”

Okay, back to more solidly themed songs now. Hans Gruber and the Die Hards (great name) are a fairly small Ska Punk band I don’t know a lot about. Dandruff is a short and sweet little track from their 2022 album about trying to diagnose a problem when you have no health insurance and the pressure and stress it causes, through the premise of having persistent Dandruff, itching and rashes you can’t get rid of.

It’s kind of hard to compare the sound to any other band I’ve heard before. It’s definitely Ska, but has a very unique vocal delivery that really makes it stand out, and a great sense of rising tension over the short runtime as the narrator tries as many different options as they can before just wishing they were dead so they didn’t have to worry about the bills. Fucking chilling.

17: God Bless The NHS – Mark Handley And The Bone Idols

Greatest Hats – 2017 – Folk

“Politicians open up your eyes it’s not yours to privatize
you don’t own it now realize it’s “our” NHS
try to sell off what’s not yours to sell and it’s for sure we’ll all rebel
take this advice now please pray tell save our NHS”

Finally, an explicitly anti-private NHS song! Found some in the end.

Once again this isn’t an artist I know a lot about, but he’s done a few of these songs over the years, which have impressively both worked as celebration of the NHS and all its workers, and a protest against government handling of it.

Musically, it’s very upbeat and catchy, with a nice folky chorus to sing along to, but that’s not to the detriment of lyrics which are unambiguous in their intent. The NHS is a wonderful service, and the fact that it continues to be despite being on its knees is testament to the drive of the workers who want to heal and help people, and are not profit driven in the slightest. So the fact that they need to strike to get a ‘living’ wage is absolutely a disgusting indicator about the conditions they work under.

The NHS is one of the last leftovers of any remotely socialist policies we ever had in this country, it belongs to us. Selling it off is theft, plain and simple. Never forget this come every other election day you live to see.

18: Divide and Conquer – Idles

Brutalism – 2017 – Punk

https://idlesband.bandcamp.com/album/brutalism

“A loved one perished at the hands of the barren-hearted right”

I’ve poked fun of Idles before for being very by the numbers anarcho-punk that often don’t quite have the authenticity to pull off the lyrical content they try to achieve. But Divide and Conquer is definitely one of their better efforts and is a solid punk track that could go toe to toe with some of the all time greats.

The reason I think this works so well is free Healthcare is kind of a no-brainer of a cause to advocate for, so it’s easy to be passionate about it. And also because from an interview with Talbot – this was clearly a very personal issue for him.

He says that under no uncertain terms, the mishandling and privatization of the NHS made his Mum die earlier than she should have. This hits hard as recently a family member died, and we weren’t informed of his condition until very close to the time due to the NHS losing scan results, as a direct result of stretched to breaking point capacity due to Tory policy. His life probably wouldn’t have been saved if these scan results had been given to us in time, but we would have had more time to prepare.

It’s easy to talk about this in academic and theoretical terms, but let’s not forget, healthcare is needed to keep people alive and well. The moment it becomes inaccessible, or loses capacity to fulfil its role – there are very real human consequences to this.

The Tories have blood on their hands, and Talbot and Idles clearly realize this, and channel that into a series of cryptic yet powerful lyrics tearing apart the damage the Tories have done to its own citizens in this way.

Kudos Idles, this is genuinely an outstanding track.

19: Hospital Radio – Mystery Jets

A Billion Heartbeats – 2020 – Indie Rock

“Our blood is not for sale”

Getting to the last 4 now. These are all some of the best tracks on this theme I think – kicking off with Hospital Radio by A Mystery Jets.

This was a very late addition to this playlist, as I once again had never heard of this band before and this was one of the few tracks I was actually able to find in my research.

This is a song that is directly inspired by frustrations and fears over the state of the NHS, as well as the volunteers that keep titular Hospital Radios alive. Lyrically the song is a bit obtuse and hard to crack, being stream of consciousness, and being, according the songwriter, a compound of different unrelated lyrics he wrote whilst facing a long stay in Hospital.

But the core of the song is clearly fears of how the Country is treating the service, and at the time when Donald Trump heavily implied that the NHS would not be off the table for trade negotiations with America after Brexit. At least now we can sell it to Joe Biden instead, so, hooray, what a win for democracy.

Musically it’s not exactly my cup of tea, but the vibes are still immaculate and the story behind the song is very relevant. Also he supports the Attitude is Everything charity, which works with UK music venues to make gigs accessible for disabled people. Seems like a pretty cool dude.

20: U.S Healthcare Explained – Captain Ska

U.S. Healthcare Explained – 2012 – Ska

https://captainska.bandcamp.com/album/greatest-hits

“When Billy had just turned 23
She slipped and fell upon her knee
And as the blood drained slowly from her skin
She saw the executive’s face begin to grin
Her broken bones were a pot of gold
The more she bled the more she owed
Thirty grand she would have to pay
For being poor and uninsured”

I mean, if you call your band Captain Ska, of course I’m going to love them.

The title speaks for itself.

This is a Ska/Reggae track about the woes of American healthcare, mourning different people’s plights who have had accidents or illnesses and how America capitalizes on this at the expense and often death of ordinary citizens.

It’s a very authentic, almost bluesy outpouring of tragic stories sung with gusto yet tonally still suitable. Usually you’d expect songs of this nature to be more sonically depressing and heavy – but the music…it’s not upbeat as such, but it is kind of funky and definitely something you could dance to if you could ignore the explicit tragedy of the lyrics. I’m a sucker for dichotomies between the sound and content of songs when pulled off right, and this is absolutely no exception.

21: Healthcare – The Taxpayers

Exhilarating News – 2007 – Alternative Rock

https://taxpayers.bandcamp.com/album/exhilarating-news-2007

“There is no healthcare for the millions of unhealthy dead, only healthcare for wealthy men”.

The penultimate song on this list takes a tonal shift back to the anger. DIY band The Taxpayers take a kind of mixture of Indie Rock, and Hardcore Punk to sing/shout/scream this explosion of righteous anger and frustration of how healthcare is only available to wealthy people, and mourning the millions of deaths that could have been prevented or at least delayed or made less painful if they had access to proper healthcare.

The vocals have all the power of Hardcore/early emo slightly off-key emotion, atop a funky frantic and melodic instrumental which contrasts nicely. I struggle with Hardcore punk often due to the quality of the instrumentals being kind of grating and overwhelming – whereas this style manages to maintain the franticness of Hardcore without it being overpowering and taking away from the lyrical content.

Definitely checking out more of their stuff, I love this.

22: Circling The Drain – Faintest Idea

Increasing the Minimum Rage – 2016 – Ska Punk

https://faintestidea.bandcamp.com/album/increasing-the-minimum-rage

“Dismantling protections
Constricting out the life
Building up the straw man while you run the well dry”

And finally, we have an old favourite from Faintest Idea. I considered having this at the beginning and Anaesthetist at the end, but I opted to swap them around because I think the Anaesthetist is a bit thematically stronger and a better way to open.

That being said, Circling the Drain is an absolute onslaught of Brutal Ska Punk (coining that) – opening with disembodied brass sections over a sample talking about Karl Marx and communism (not sure where it’s from, if anyone knows lmk), then breaking into one of the heaviest opens I’ve ever heard in Ska. When I first heard this song live, I was nearly murdered in that mosh pit. Seriously – Faintest Idea have some of the most brutal mosh pits I’ve ever witnessed – and I’ve seen a lot of Death Metal bands.

The lyrics are a little bit cryptic and open to interpretation, but the band have confirmed Circling the Drain is about NHS privatisation, and the protections of our right to healthcare being at risk. Well, 7 years on, and it’s basically extinct. Nothing has gotten better yet. The fact that this song is just as relevant as ever is frankly depressing.

At least the song ends on a fucking banging breakdown to bow out. God, when I first heard this song I had no idea Ska could be so heavy, and I fucking love it.

There we are, after weeks of painstaking research, there is just about an acceptable length playlist about protecting the human right to accessible healthcare. I refuse to believe there aren’t more songs on this subject, and I wouldn’t be all that surprised if this stuff was deliberately suppressed in google searches to be honest.

And after you’ve listened to this, why not book tickets to our next live show on February 13th with: Jonathan Mayor, Sam See, Ben Lund-Conlon & Kyle Bedder at Gulliver’s NQ – via Outsavvy: https://www.outsavvy.com/event/11660/blizzard-comedy-live-featuring-jonathan-mayor