West Coast punk in the early 80s differed from a lot of late-70s UK punk in that there seemed to be a strong political dimension to it, and a spirit of activism which could help to explain the reasons for this cover version. I’ve lost my stomach for ironic cover versions which do nothing but go to prove how ‘funny’ a band can be and without adding anything interesting to the material. Yet, D.O.A is pretty convincing here, respectful of the subject matter where they could easily just have taken the piss. And dare I say that D.O.A lead singer Joey Shithead sounds downright soulful in his delivery here? Punk rock is often held together in people’s minds as associated with a nihilist worldview. The point here is that the heart of the material is pretty intact. Check out her website at, and her blog at She continues her work as a rock photographer, and as a blogger. Bev took this picture of the band circa 1980, and last year made a calendar of all her shots of the West Coast punk scene here in Vancouver, of which D.O.A were instrumental in enlivening. War is still good for absolutely nothing (unless you’re an arms dealer or a politician whose favour in the polls is slipping…), whether it’s brassy soul-funk, or crunchy Vancouver punk rock. And sometimes, as in this case, the stylistic context doesn’t change the meaning at all. But by this I mean I love the idea of the cover version, because the best of them takes a song out of its original context and quite often brings new meaning out of it. Īs has been roundly proven on this blog of mine, I love the cover version. Who’d have thunk it? Good God, eh? The song is taken from the band’s 1982 album War on 45. It’s “War”, a cover version of the 1970 Edwin Starr signature tune (written by Motown songwriters Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong), and despite a view textural differences, it remains pretty much unchanged. Listen to this song by West Coast Canadian punk institution D.O.A.
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