Hey, War Pig!

I made a ton of compilation tapes back in the 1980s, most of the songs coming from my - at the time - extensive record collection. Even these days, amidst all the new digital formats and online downloading that has overwhelmed us, I still occasionally dust off an old tape and play it. The beauty of those tapes is that I'm always surprised by something I hear. Thinking: why don't I have that song on CD? Well, in many cases, it just doesn't exist on CD.

Today I was listening to one of my old tapes when one of those elusive classics grabbed my attention: "Hey, War Pig" by Kimberley Rew. This song came from The Bible of Bop, an obscure 1982 EP that Rew recorded just after he left the Soft Boys (Robyn Hitchcock's old band) and before he joined Katrina & The Waves (remember "Walking on Sunshine" ?). In fact, both Hitchcock and Katrina play on the record. Anyway, "Hey, War Pig" was a great, punchy, anthem of a song. The lyrics weren't much, but they were pretty damn powerful. And with the ongoing debacle in Iraq, the words seem very topical twenty-three years later:
"Hey, War Pig / Hey, War Pig / Don't Kill My Kid"
And that was it; the same lyrics over and over again, with a driving beat and ringing guitar propelling the song along. Such a cool song and I don't think anyone has ever covered it. But the good news is that the Bongo Beat label plans to re-issue Bible of Bop on CD (with bonus tracks) later this year.