Five on Friday: Christina Ward of Feral House

I love music, but I’m not a musician. I was the “drummer”— and yes, I was so bad that it definitely deserves air quotes — in a feminist art-punk band (Fistful of Bimbos) that was more performance art than anything else. I quit to make way for an actual drummer. So back to my first and true love, BOOKS! I love to publish books about music and musicians. About overlooked artists and forgotten scenes that often have outsized influence on what’s happening today and often, what will be happening ten years from now. My love of language and writing draws me to songs that tell stories or have something to say about real things.

My taste, like most true heads, is expansive and genre-less. I’m often frustrated because I don’t have enough time to listen to all the bands folks recommend to me. My desert island list is everything I haven’t heard yet! Yet choosing a favorite is difficult, as I feel that people’s favorites change over time and reflect both their internal landscape and whatever the societal zeitgeist is. There’s always a place in my heart for loud, raucous garage-y howling and screeching, but I find myself going back to songs with political themes. These are songs I’ve loved and are in the car’s five-disc CD player right now.

‘Shangri-La’ (Arthur, Or the Decline of the British Empire) by The Kinks

I love the Kinks. People talk about having a “heart dog”; the Kinks are my heart band. Ray and Dave Davies (and yes, always full credit to Dave; he’s the ying to Ray’s yang) have written and recorded some of the best songs of the 20th Century. “Shangri-La,” on the surface, is a song about the post-War suburbanization of London, but on listening, it is a melancholic indictment disguised as a recitation of middle-class dreams. And listen to Dave’s blood-harmony background vocals, Mick Avory’s intrepid and jazz-inflected drums. And a fucking French horn. “You’re in your place, and you know where you are, in your Shangri-La…”

‘Coffin for Head of State’ by Fela Kuti

I grew up, thanks to my dad, fascinated with the African liberation movements that attempted to root out European colonialism. (Fun fact: Dad seriously considered joining a mercenary group for the liberationists after Vietnam.) The music of liberation featured so many great, important, and forgotten artists, but Fela broke through the Western consciousness to bring his multilingual, political anthems to the world. “Coffins for Head of State” is a personal song about the Nigerian government killing his mother, but like all great songs is still relevant today. I was too young to see Fela, but I swear his son, Seun Kuti, channels his spirit in every performance. If Seun comes to your town: GO. And in lieu of that, watch Soundtrack for a Coup d’etat, just watch it.

‘Pleasures of the Harbor’ by Phil Ochs

Ochs is another touchstone for me, and yes, his political songs are brilliant, yet Pleasures of the Harbor is a very different Ochs. Quieter with lush string arrangements, the song is still political as he sings about sex workers and merchant marines finding release with humanity and pathos. I prefer the live recordings of Phil playing a delicate guitar, singing with a keening voice. I never heard the song as a romanticization of prostitution, but like Kurt Weill’s “Mon Ami, My Friend” (best version ever by Marianne Faithfull on 20th Century Blues, 1996), the song is a reminder that sometimes it's hard to be human.

‘Fenian’ by Kneecap

If it’s not obvious by now, I’m partial to political songs. When a band with a message, with a point-of-view gains ground, I’m listening. Irish band Kneecap wears its politics on its balaclava and doesn’t back down. (See the recent terrorism charges brought, then dropped, by the British government against member Mo Chara for making pro-Palestinian remarks at 2025 Glastonbury.) And yes, lots of ‘protest’ music is in the folk tradition, but on “Fenian”, Kneecap answers the eternal question: can you dance to it? Yes, yes, you can dance. (See also: Fela Kuti.) To paraphrase Sun Tzu, a people fighting for its survival cannot be defeated.

‘If There Is Something’ by Roxy Music

I could have chosen any Roxy song, but this one always stays with me. Ferry is underrated as a lyricist, creating entire worlds in a single song. It begins as a jaunty “I like you” song that morphs into something intense as the tempo and time changes, then Eno’s synth strings darken the mood. At the near halfway point, Ferry gets to the point and declares in one of the most beautiful triplets in rockdom:

I would do anything for you
I would climb mountains
I would swim all the oceans blue

I would walk a thousand miles
Reveal my secrets
More than enough for me to share

I would put roses round our door
Sit in the garden
Growing potatoes by the score

Yes, Bryan Ferry, yes, I will, yes!