“Conspiracy (You’ll Be All Right)” (1986) – The Jazz Butcher * Written and produced by the Jazz Butcher * Label: Glass Records
There’s a type of British ’80s indie rock that’s appealing to American listeners precisely because of its fuzzy and exotic phrasing, wit, and eccentricity. This track by Oxford’s Jazz Butcher is a good example. The attach-a-rap at the beginning, the sort we heard too much of in those days, distinguishes itself by talking about egg-to-potato ratios (sorry, can’t help), while later in the song we hear about the BBC’s Channel 4 and feeling as “sappy as the late George Brown,” a Labour party politician who’d died in 1985 and who bore the Monty Python-esque full title of George Alfred George-Brown, Baron George-Brown.
After the opening rap, though, this song has the power to sink deep into your psyche and do actual healing duties. The main gist is that, in spite of “big questions,” you will inevitably, whenever [choose a doomsday scenario] happens, be all right. You can play ethical ping pong with this – are you receiving this message from a standpoint of privilege, or are they delivering it from one? Do they minimize the potential for misery from any given doomsday scenario? Perhaps, but the healthiest philosophical or religious outlooks will assure that, regardless of what may happen, you will be all right.
“Conspiracy (You’ll Be All Right),” with an emphasis on the “big questions” section, served as the opening theme for Rich Hall’s Onion World, a talk show that ran on the Comedy Channel from 1990-91. The E.P. it appeared on was billed weirdly to the Jazz Butcher v. Max Eider, alluding to an apparent rivalry between band leader Pat Fish and band member Eider, who would depart after the two came to blows at the end of 1986. But it was all right – they later reunited. After this release, the band would sometimes bill itself as the Jazz Butcher Conspiracy.