Noppie Clarke and the Protesters–”White House Soup Kitchen Blues”
This 7″ sounds like it comes straight from the Woody Guthrie catalogue, but it’s actually a relatively contemporary record. Simple, earnest, thoughtful songwriting about injustice and governmental responsibility, “White House Soup Kitchen Blues” seems like it could be a Depression-era tune until you see that the B side is called “Amy Goodman” after the host of the liberal radio show Democracy Now!
SIDE A
Noppie Clarke is a fictional character created by Lydia DeShultz, a sociology professor living in London who was arrested in a protest against the Tony Blair administration shortly after the U.S. and U.K. led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
From Belmarsh prison Deshultz wrote a political tract decrying the corporate agenda of her government and urging citizens to camp outside parliament gates and outside private arms companies like BAE, and other like companies in England and whom’s addresses were conveniently listed at the end of the pamphlet. The small pamphlet was printed up in the thousands and brought DeShultz a small measure of national recognition.
Within prison she wrote two or three political songs: simple, sparse instrumentals on guitar with occasional whistling. The songs were released onto the internet freely and DeShultz enjoyed a second wave of public notoriety. Despite her cult success as a recording artist, DeSchultz regards herself primarily as a political activist, working against British companies like the National Extremism Tactical Co-ordination Unit (NETCU) and the National Public Order Intelligence Unit (NPOIU), both of which “spy on, target, brutalize and imprison ‘domestic extremists’ – a clever title for protesters.”
Due to the peculiar nature of DeSchultz’s recording career, it’s unclear if we’ll be getting any more records from Noppie Clarke and the Protesters, but DeSchultz will occasionally play at protests and marches around the country.
