Gang of Four are a British post-punk group from Leeds, England. Original pe… Read Full Bio ↴Gang of Four are a British post-punk group from Leeds, England. Original personnel were singer Jon King, guitarist Andy Gill, bass guitarist Dave Allen and drummer Hugo Burnham. They were fully active from 1977 to 1984, and then re-emerged twice in the 1990s with King and Gill. In 2005, the original lineup reunited.

The group had a single in the British Top 60 with "At Home He's A Tourist" in 1979, which was blacklisted by Top Of The Pops for its use of the relatively innocuous term "rubbers". Storming, Doc Marten-booted and fueled by a heady cocktail of Gramsci, Marx and lager, out of the Leeds art-school scene that produced The Mekons and Delta 5, they played a stripped-to-the-wire, funk-fueled permutation of punk rock. This is best exemplified by the dry production and forceful polemic of debut effort Entertainment! - Gang of Four's later albums (Songs Of The Free and Hard) found them softening some of their more jarring qualities, and drifting towards disco.

Critic Stewart Mason has called "Love Like Anthrax" (their first single, later re-recorded as "Anthrax") not only the group's "most notorious song" but also "one of the most unique and interesting songs of its time"; it's also a good example of Gang of Four's social perspective. After a minute-long, droning, feedback-laced guitar intro, the rhythm section sets up a funky, churning beat, and the guitar drops out entirely. In one stereo channel, King sings a "post-punk anti-love song", comparing himself to a beetle trapped on its back ("and there's no way for me to get up") and equating love with "a case of anthrax, and that's some thing I don't want to catch." Meanwhile in the other stereo channel (and slightly less prominent in the mix), Gill reads a deadpan monologue about public perception of love, and the prevalence of love songs in popular music: "Love crops up quite a lot as something to sing about, 'cause most groups make most of their songs about falling in love, or how happy they are to be in love, and you occasionally wonder why these groups do sing about it all the time." The simultaneous vocals are more than a little disorienting, especially when Gill pauses in his examination of love songs to echo a few of King's sung lines.

Allen left after Solid Gold and was replaced briefly by Buster Jones (who never recorded with the group), then by Sara Lee; Allen later co-founded Shriekback, Low Pop Suicide and The Elastic Purejoy.

Their angular, slashing attack and liberal use of dissonance had a significant influence on their post-punk contemporaries in the States, including Mission Of Burma. Gang Of Four went on to influence a number of successful funk-tinged alternative rock acts throughout the 80s and 90s - even, arguably, many rap-rock and nu metal groups who were "not in touch with their ancestry enough to realize it" (Andy Kellman, on allmusic.com) - although few of their followers were as arty or political. Michael "Flea" Balzary of Red Hot Chili Peppers has stated Gang of Four were very influential on his band's early music.

Gang of Four can also be credited as one of the early influences on techno or electronic music; they released dance remixes of several later singles.

Recently the band has enjoyed a resurgence in popularity, initially due to emergence of new post-punk influenced bands such as The Rapture and Radio 4 and then the rise of Franz Ferdinand and Bloc Party, which led to the renewed patronage of the NME. The original Burnham/Allen/Gill/King lineup reformed in November 2004. In October of 2005, Gang of Four released a new LP featuring new recordings of past songs, entitled Return The Gift.

Dave Allen also co-hosts a twice-weekly "New Music Hour" radio show with Portland, Oregon's 94.7 alternative radio station.

Andy Gill died on 1st February, 2020 from, according to reports, a respiratory illness caught on the group's tour in Asia the preceding year. He was the only original member still playing in the Gang Of Four.

A Piece of My Heart
Gang of Four Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

A piece of my heart cries out loudly
For the funeral of innocence
To tell the truth, this elaborate story
Of goodness not so plausible
Stay at home at night
The mark of Cain is upon you
There's a sign on your forehead
There's no way you can stay out

A piece of my heart eyes the wheel in motion
With suspicion of coincidence
It don't grab me now, to swallow the notion
Of accident that no one meant
Stay at home at night
The mark of Cain is upon you
While we look for solutions
It's not safe when you go out
Burning up the night up the night
The heat is on
Do you do what you can do?
It looks like to me that you are only playing a part

Do you do what you can do?
Talk slow, in a trance

Overall Meaning

In Gang of Four's song "A Piece of My Heart," the singer's heart is crying out for the loss of innocence that seems to be pervasive in society. The story of goodness seems too elaborate to be true, and the singer suspects that there are no such things as accidents. The mark of Cain is upon those who go out at night, and it's not safe to do so. The singer's heart eyes the "wheel in motion" with suspicion, suggesting that there are larger forces at work that are responsible for the chaos and destruction that surrounds them.

The lyrics are filled with biblical allusions, including the reference to the mark of Cain, which is a symbol of guilt and retribution in the story of Cain and Abel. The singer seems to be suggesting that those who go out at night are marked and must suffer the consequences of their actions. The lyrics also reference the heat of the night, suggesting that things are coming to a boiling point and that some sort of reckoning is on the horizon.

Overall, "A Piece of My Heart" is a song about the loss of innocence and the chaos and destruction that result from it. The lyrics are cryptic and somewhat elusive, leaving plenty of room for interpretation and analysis.

Line by Line Meaning

A piece of my heart cries out loudly
A strong emotion inside me is expressing itself

For the funeral of innocence
For the loss of purity and naivety

To tell the truth, this elaborate story
Honestly, this detailed narrative

Of goodness not so plausible
Of the unlikelihood of goodness

Stay at home at night
Remain indoors in the nighttime

The mark of Cain is upon you
You bear the sign of shame or guilt

There's a sign on your forehead
Your guilt is visible to all

There's no way you can stay out
You cannot avoid the consequences

A piece of my heart eyes the wheel in motion
A part of me is watching events unfold

With suspicion of coincidence
Doubting the occurrence is accidental

It don't grab me now, to swallow the notion
It does not convince me to believe the idea