Protest music can come from the unlikeliest places.  German DJ and recording artist Malente came up with the supremely catchy "Open Secret" last year, which turns out to be quite a relevant protest song as well.  The lyrics are clever, offering ironic support for government's lust for ever-increasing search and surveillance powers (all for our "security," of course) and culminating in the chorus of

All the things I do, the things I say
Are an open secret, that's okay
Tell me how to funk, and I'll obey
'Cause I'm an open secret anyway

That's right, if you've got nothing to hide you've got nothing to worry about.  That's the theory.  It's refreshing to find incisive political commentary in a music genre (electronic breaks) littered with lyrics like "Breakbeat suckers, we're the real motherfuckers" (Cirrus) and the like.  So "big ups" to Malente, or whatever we're supposed to give people these days to show appreciation.  (Kudos?  Props?  Two snaps up in a circle?  High-five?  Chest thump?  "Yee-ha!"?  Any ideas?)  (Not that I don't like Cirrus, in spite of the idiotic lyrics.  That's guilty pleasure #422 or thereabouts.)

Malente on MySpace

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This post was suggested by my old partner in record sales, "B.B. on Mars," a.k.a. Platters That Matter Records, who sent me some mp3s he ripped from vinyl.  Sure enough, while I've been concentrating on cop and spy music, I've been overlooking sports show themes.  (Maybe because I never watched sports shows.)  But they fit!  "Score" by Bob's Band was the theme for ABC's NFL Monday Night Football in 1972.  "Bob's Band" was actually composer/ conductor/ arranger/ orchestrator/ songwriter/ record producer Charles Fox, according to blaxploitation.com.  Among Fox's other credits are the theme songs to Love, American Style , Laverne and Shirley, and The Love Boat; Jim Croce's "I Got a Name" and Roberta Flack's "Killing Me Softly With His Song;" and a whole slew of movie and TV scores, including the hysterical Strange Brew, Barbarella, and... "lesser-known films" would be the polite way to put it.  He is still active, having written the score for a Zorro ballet (!) in 2003.  Here, then, is "Score," which gets my vote as his crowning achievement:

02 score

Bob's Band

That reminded me that I was a big fan of another sports theme; a fake sports theme, actually.  In 1986, British studio wizards (and 4A.D. odd men out) Colourbox took a shot at coming up with a new World Cup Theme for television.  It wasn't accepted (officially), but it made one heck of a dance platter:

01 - The Official Colourbox World Cup Theme 12'

Colourbox

And then they disappeared.  Reminiscing back to college radio days (again), I remember the sports guys asking me for some "energetic" music to lead into their lacrosse coverage.  This song hadn't come out yet, but I did hook them up with extended-version intros from Blue Zoo's "Cry Boy Cry" and The Puppets' "The Way of Life."  Must look for those...

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