I can’t believe it, all these bands are coming back… Many times it’s not completely welcome, but sometimes it is. And I love seeing this clip of Poly Styrene and (some of) her band X-Ray Spex, apparently shot very recently (like just a few days ago):
Back in February, I posted a video of what X-Ray Spex were like doing this same exact song 30+ years ago (though not naming them, I merely referred to “Another Proper British Girl from a Long Time Ago).” But here’s another, even better clip from just about exactly 30 years ago:
Actually, what’s surprising is how little she’s changed. If some of the old-style feminist followers of this band will forgive me for saying this, I think she was a cutie, and still is. But it’s amazing that we’re seeing her again at all, because for a while she seemed to have completely disappeared. And the rumors spread quickly – confirmed, to our disbelief – that she had left X-Ray Spex to join the Hare Krishnas!
Though it may have not been completely like that… Many people assumed back then that you couldn’t join the Hare Krishnas and remain a punk rocker; you had to become a total hippie. But as it turns out, there was a whole Hare Krishna hardcore punk movement that built up, with Poly as a sort of godmother.
Looking into that strange phenomenon a little more, I found an article in Techgnosis, originally published more than a dozen years ago in Spin, detailing the growth of a Hare Krishna hardcore punk movement that seemed to have reached quite a peak by the 1990s. Personally, though I myself was once a punk rocker (back in the original days of X-Ray Spex), I don’t understand the idea of joining the Hare Krishnas and staying loyal to punk rock. If I joined the Hare Krishnas, that would provide me with a good excuse to delve even more into all the wonderful Indian devotional music that’s out there – not continue bashing away in some latter-day hardcore punk scene. But some of this Hare Krishna punk music isn’t that bad. There’s one band (or was – I think they’ve broken up in recent years) led by a Hare Krishna devotee singer named Sri, which even might be worth posting here… They’re called Baby Gopal, and this is their song “Shiva”:
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P.S. Oh, yeah, I should mention, the Bollywood clip that I included is “Dum Maro Dum,” from the movie Hare Rama Hare Krishna, which came out in 1971, starring Dev Anand and Zeenat Aman. The singer is Asha Bhosle.
Dances on the Footpath 
I think that Poly is a gem in early Punk. Its not overwhelmingly surprising that she Joined such a non-conformist faith. Much of X ray specs music was giant F U to modernism, consumerism, the whole industrial canned conformity. She’s an early post mod and she always new what she wanted. Glad to see shes back and lookin good. ;)
Hey Richard, Here’s a little more on that “Dum Maro Dum” tune, or really just some talk surrounding it:
Hi, Sitaji. I had glimpsed your post on this before, but on second, more careful reading, I see that you had a wonderful analsyis related to visual cues and the shape and color of eyeglasses… Time is short at the moment, but I may offer more comment (here or at your post) a little later.