It's week 3 of Heavy Metal History. This week, the topic is homelessness. Months before Phil Collins looked angst-filled in the video to
"Another Day in Paradise," the metal band
Anthrax was attempting to shed light on the problem, give information and even a way to volunteer to help with
the video of its song "Who Cares Wins." Of course, MTV would have none of it -
the music video channel actually refused the video because it said the content was too depressing, at least until Phil Collins gave the topic a hummable hook a few months later. Find out what truths the boys from NYC tried to spread, and take a look at what the current state of homelessness is.
MORE ON THE FLIP...
Anthrax was formed in New York City in the mid 1980s. While it often used
Stephen King novels and comedic concepts as basis for song lyrics, the lyricists in Anthrax (guitarist Scott Ian and vocalist Joey Belladonna) usually found a way to get profound at least once every record.
On 1988's "State of Euphoria," the song "Who Cares Wins" was a look at the state of homelessness in America during the Reagan years. Let's look at the song's lyrics, the controversy it caused at MTV when released, and what has happened to the homeless in the almost two decades since the song was released.
While Bobby McFerrin was singing "Don't Worry, Be Happy" and Katrina and the Waves were "Walking on Sunshine," heavy metal of the mid 1980s was showing the dark side to the Reagan Revolution. While hard core bands like D.R.I. and the Dead Kennedys were more direct in their lyrical approach, there was much to be learned from metal bands like Anthrax.
The video for the song opens with a filmed interview with a homeless man in NYC - "You know, it's survival of the fittest sort of thing. If you're weak, you're a victim. If you're not weak, you become a victimizer..."
Who Cares Wins
Close your eyes to the horror
Close your eyes to the pain
When you live in a box
No one knows your name
Living in the street
Moms and kids with nothing to eat
Welfare hotels
Who says there's no place called hell
I can't see you
I can't hear you
You don't see me
You couldn't be me
Who cares wins
There but for the grace of god
There but for the grace of god
Who cares, who cares, who cares, who cares
There but for the grace of god
There but for the grace of god...
Go you or I
Open your eyes
You don't see me
You couldn't be me
Invisible could be my name
Your excuses are so lame
Real pleas fall on deaf ears
Look away when I am near
Freezing cold in winter's heat
Burning up can be a treat
Blisters breaking on my feet
At least I get a subway seat
I can't see you
I can't hear you
You don't see me
You couldn't be me
Who cares wins
There but for the grace of god
There but for the grace of god
Who cares, who cares, who cares, who cares
There but for the grace of god
There but for the grace of god...
Go you or I
Open your eyes
You don't see me
You couldn't be me
Who cares wins
Self help and preservation
Not now I'm on vacation
Priority is you
And screw all those around you
Now's the time for you to share
Indifference you have to care
Deep inside you know it's true
How do I get through to you
Open your eyes to the horror
Open your eyes to the pain
When you live in a box
No one knows your name
I can't see you
I can't hear you
You don't see me
You couldn't be me...
By 1988, homelessness was finally being recognized as an issue worthy of attention in America. Mitch Snyder of the CCNV in Washington had gone on two hunger strikes to call attention to conditions of the homeless, and federal help was dwindling:
SOURCE: http://www.commondreams.org/...
Overall Reagan cut federal assistance to local governments by 60 percent. In 1980, federal dollars accounted for 22 percent of big-city budgets, but when he left office, it was down to 6 percent.
Reagan's most dramatic cut was for low-income housing subsidies. Soon after taking office, he appointed a housing task force dominated by developers, landlords and bankers. Its 1982 report called for "free and deregulated" markets as an alternative to government assistance. Reagan followed their advice. Between 1980 and 1989, HUD's budget authority was cut from $74 billion to $19 billion in constant dollars. The number of new subsidized housing starts fell from 175,000 to 20,000 a year.
One of Reagan's most enduring legacies is the steep increase in homeless people. By the late 1980s, the number of homeless had swollen to 600,000 on any given night and 1.2 million over the course of a year.
Defending himself against charges of callousness toward the poor, Reagan gave a classic blaming-the-victim statement. In 1984 on "Good Morning America" he said that people sleeping on the streets "are homeless, you might say, by choice."
Anthrax let the images of the homeless do the speaking in the video - that, and the statistics that showed the extent of the problem in just New York City, their home base. As the guitar solo played and just before Joey belted out the final bridge and chorus, the scroll graced the bottom of the screen during the video:
VIDEO SCROLL: It is impossible to get an exact count but according to the National Coalition for the Homeless estimates range from 60,000 - 80,000 homeless men, women and children in New York City. 29,000 are in shelters, the rest are on the streets. 10,600 are singles adults without children. 85% men. 15% women. 30% of the men are veterans. 19,000 are members of families with children. 15,000 are children. Half of the children are under six.
Just as that last statistic scrolls, Joey begins again:
"How do I get through to you?
Open your eyes to the horror,
Open your eyes to the pain..."
The last image of the video is a smiling homeless man trying to stay warm over a fire as these addresses dominate the screen:
If you care write to:
Westside Cluster of
Centers and Settlements, Inc.
"The Open Door"
402 West 41st Street
New York, N.Y. 10018
FADE TO:
National Coalition for
the Homeless
105 East 22nd Street
New York, N.Y. 10010
Yet MTV would not play the video - a network exec at the time said the subject matter was "too depressing" for a music video. Yet, less than 6 months later, Phil Collins dominated the channel's airwaves with his ballad. I guess homeslessness is OK if you don't sing too loudly or have guitars.
SO WHAT ABOUT NOW?
Good figures are hard to find. About a decade after the song's release, the following groups made up the homeless population of the U.S. , according to the 1996 National Survey of Homeless Assistance Providers and Clients:
Family Status
* 61% Single Men
* 15% Single Women
* 12.2% Women with children
* 4.6% Other Women
* 5.3% Other Men
* 2.3% Men with children
The National Coalition for Homeless Veterans estimates that 300,000 veterans experience homeless on any given day and over 500,000 at annually.
In 2000, according to National Alliance to End Homelessness, between 2.5 and 3.5 million people experienced homelessness for some period of time (days to months) within the past 12 months.
It's not enough to even have a good job. As Alternet.org shows, the problem can get worse while the economy seems to improve:
SOURCE: http://alternet.org/...
The New York Times reports that more and more people are now living in their cars:
The number of "mobile homeless," as they are often called, tends to climb whenever the cost of housing outpaces wages, Dr. [Kim Hopper, a researcher on homelessness] said. Last year was the first year on record, according to an annual study conducted by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, that a full-time worker at minimum wage could not afford a one-bedroom apartment anywhere in the country at average market rates.
So what has Pres. George W. Bush done? Taken a page from the playbook of his idol, RWR:
President George W. Bush, who often claims Reagan's mantle, last month proposed cutting one-third of the Section 8 housing vouchers - a lifeline against homelessness for 2 million poor families. In this and many other ways, the Reagan revolution toward the cities continues. SOURCE: http://www.commondreams.org/...
Few, if any, other major bands of the era dared take on the topic. And sadly, two decades later, we still need a 18 year-old Anthrax video to really show the effects of homelessness in this country.
A FEW NOTES:
The "Open Door" shelter still exists - it's listed on the United Homeless Organization list of shelters in NYC.
The coalition's preferred address is now
National Coalition for the Homeless
2201 P St NW
Washington, DC 20037
Ironically, it's not the last time MTV has refused an Anthrax video. The video for "What Doesn't Die" was refused just last year due to images of zombies on fire and other zombie death scenes.