Tribe is the New Green: But What If...

via youtube.com

Remember what "Frankie Say" ? The iconic Two Tribes release T-shirt marketing campaign in 1984 featuring such slogans as "Frankie Say War! Hide Yourself" and "Frankie Say Relax Don't Do It!".

The song's title derives from the line "when two great warrior tribes go to war", from the film Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior. see Wikipedia:

The first 12-inch mix ("Annihilation") started with an air-raid siren, and unfolded as a ground-breaking extended deconstruction and reinvention of the basic track, including Allen's starkest advice about how to tag and dispose of family members should they die in the fallout shelter (taken from the public information film Casualties).

The "Carnage" mix was, by comparison, altogether more conventional, featuring enhanced string treatments, a percussive midpoint flurry of vocal samples (from Allen and the group's B-side interview), but broadly following the prevailing instrumental/vocal 12-inch structural paradigm. The eventual album version ("For The Victims Of Ravishment") would derive from the "Carnage" mix.

The "Hibakusha" mix was originally released in a very limited edition, and appears on the Japanese-only Bang! album from 1985, even though the Japanese liner notes admit that the title is not pleasant to the Japanese readers. This mix was musically based on the "Annihilation" mix, but with a unique middle section comprising orchestral samples and percussive breaks that have much in common with the work of fellow ZTT act Art of Noise.

The Godley & Creme-directed video depicted a wrestling match between Reagan and then-Soviet leader Konstantin Chernenko for the benefit of group members and an eagerly belligerent assembly of representatives from the world's nations, the event ultimately degenerating into complete global destruction. This video was played several times at the 1984 Democratic National Convention.

A longer version of the video (based on the "Hibakusha" mix) included an introductory cut-up monologue by Richard Nixon ("No firm diplomacy... No peace for America and the world"), plus similar contributions from other world leaders, including Lord Beaverbrook, Yasser Arafat and John F. Kennedy. The complete soundtrack to the extended video was eventually released as "Two Tribes (Video Destructo)" on the German version of the Twelve Inches compilation. A third version of the video, included on the band's compilation of videos, retains the introduction, but loses most of the inserted clips in the main wrestling sequence.

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