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.

We Live as We Dream Alone
Gang of Four Lyrics

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Everybody is in too many pieces
No-man's land surrounds our desires
To crack the shell we mix with others
Some lie in the arms of lovers

The city is the place to be
With no money you go crazy
I need an occupation!

You have to pay for satisfaction

We live as we dream, alone
To crack the shell we mix with the others
Some flirt with fascism
Some lie in the arms of lovers

We live as we dream, alone [Repeat: x5]

Everybody is in too many pieces
No-man's-land surrounds me!
With no money we'll all go crazy
(we apologize)

Man and woman need to work
It helps us define ourselves
We were not born in isolation
But sometimes it seems that way

We live as we dream, alone [Repeat: x5]

We live as we dream, alone
The space between our work and its product
Some fall into fatalism
As if it started this way

We live as we dream, alone [Repeat: x3]

We live as we dream, alone
(We live as we dream, alone)
We live as we dream, alone
(We were not born in isolation)
We live as we dream, alone
(But sometimes it seems that way)

(The space between our work and its product)

We live as we dream, alone
We live as we dream, alone
(As if it always must be this way)
We live as we dream, alone
We live as we dream, alone

We live as we dream, alone
(With no money we'll all go crazy)

Overall Meaning

The lyrics to "We Live As We Dream Alone" by Gang of Four detail the struggles of modern society and the fragmentation of self in the midst of it. The first stanza describes the feeling of being torn apart and stranded in a no-man's-land with our desires. To combat this disconnection, we try to join with others, whether that be through romantic relationships or other social connections. The second stanza discusses the societal pressure to have an occupation and how we often feel like we have to pay for satisfaction. The repetition of "We live as we dream, alone" throughout the song emphasizes the isolation we feel even when we attempt to connect with others.

The bridge of the song discusses the need for work to give us purpose and shape our identity. Despite being born into a society with other individuals, we can feel like we are alone in our struggles. The final stanza describes the space between our work and the product of it, hinting at the futility and emptiness of our modern working lives. The chorus is repeated several more times before the song ends with the line "With no money we'll all go crazy."

Overall, the song speaks to the dissatisfaction, loneliness, and disconnection that can be felt in modern society. It touches on how we attempt to combat this by trying to connect with others and working, but ultimately we still feel isolated and alone. The repetition of the chorus drives home the theme that we are all living out our dreams and struggles alone.

Line by Line Meaning

Everybody is in too many pieces
Most people are disintegrated into a thousand pieces

No-man's land surrounds our desires
Our desires are trapped in a no man’s land

To crack the shell we mix with others
To break out of this situation, we need to interact with others

Some lie in the arms of lovers
Some choose to seek solace in love

The city is the place to be
The city is where it all happens

With no money you go crazy
Without money, people tend to go insane

I need an occupation!
I need something to do!

You have to pay for satisfaction
To be satisfied, you have to pay a price

We live as we dream, alone
We live and dream in solitude

Some flirt with fascism
Some tend to get attracted towards fascist ideologies

Everybody is in too many pieces
Most people are disintegrated into a thousand pieces