Entertainment!

Entertainment! has been recognised as a seminal post-punk album,{{cite web |url=https://www.popmatters.com/best-post-punk-albums-5-2495402671.html?rebelltitem=10 |title=The 50 Best Post-Punk Albums Ever: Part 5, Joy Division to Gang of Four |website=PopMatters |date=10 April 2020 |access-date=7 June 2020 |last=Fitzgerald |first=Colin}}{{cite web |url=https://www.pastemagazine.com/music/the-50-best-post-punk-albums/#5-gang-of-four-%E2%80%93-entertainment- |title=The 50 Best Post-Punk Albums |website=Paste |date=13 July 2016 |access-date=7 June 2020 |last=Ham |first=Robert |display-authors=etal}} and an example of dance-punk,{{cite web |url=https://www.avclub.com/all-that-sass-the-albums-that-define-the-00s-dance-pu-1798248825 |title=All that sass: The albums that define the '00s dance-punk era |website=The A.V. Club |date=22 June 2016 |access-date=7 June 2020 |last=Warwick |first=Kevin}} art punk{{cite web |url=https://www.slugmag.com/lifestyle/reviews/book-reviews/book-reviews-39/ |title=Book Reviews |website=SLUG Magazine |date=31 August 2014 |access-date=7 June 2020}} and funk-punk.{{cite web|url=https://www.nme.com/photos/the-500-greatest-albums-of-all-time-200-101-1426258|title=The 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time: 200-101|last=Barker|first=Emily|date=25 October 2013|website=NME|access-date=17 October 2024}} The album was co-produced by Jon King and Andy Gill along with Rob Warr, the band's manager at the time. King's lyrics were heavily influenced by Situationism, the work of philosophers Michel Foucault and Jacques Lacan, feminism, and Marx's theory of alienation; a unifying notion is that "the personal is political". Topics include commodification ("Natural's Not in It", "Return the Gift"), proletarian life ("At Home He's a Tourist"), great man theory ("Not Great Men"), the treatment of Special Category Status prisoners at Long Kesh during The Troubles ("Ether"), and the impact of media reporting on acts of terrorism and Maoist guerrilla warfare in Latin America ("5.45"). A number of songs apply these themes to subvert love song tropes, challenging traditional concepts of love ("Anthrax", "Contract") and sex ("Damaged Goods", "I Found That Essence Rare"). In his 2014 monograph on the album, Kevin J. H. Dettmar likens the album to James Joyce's Ulysses, saying: "both are concerned with the importance of narrative, of storytelling, as a mode of experiencing the world... that the stories we tell ourselves about "the way things are"—a body of stories that in another context we might call ideology—profoundly shape our experiences of the world.{{cite web |url=https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/gang-of-fours-entertainment-9781623560652/ |title=Gang of Four's Entertainment! |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |access-date=28 October 2020}}

The album's cover artwork, designed by King, shows the influence of the Situationist International, a left-wing organization which became famous for inspiring the events of May 68 in France. It depicts an "Indian" shaking hands with a "cowboy" in three heavily processed versions of the same image, based on a still from one of the Winnetou films starring Lex Barker and Pierre Brice, which had once been popular in East Germany as narratives critical of capitalism. Their faces are reduced to blobs of red and white: that is, to their stereotypical skin colours. A text that winds around the images reads: "The Indian smiles, he thinks that the cowboy is his friend. The cowboy smiles, he is glad the Indian is fooled. Now he can exploit him." In this way, it approaches themes of exploitation, but may also criticize simplistic popular depictions of ethnic, social or political conflicts as "cowboys and Indians".{{cn|date=April 2024|reason=A source is needed for the interpretation of the cover art in this last sentence.}}

The album's back cover depicts a family whose father says, "I spend most of our money on myself so that I can stay fat", while the mother and children declare, "We're grateful for his leftovers". On the album's inner sleeve, designed by Gill, small photographs depicting scenes shown on television are interlaced with text illustrating what the band suggests are the misleading subtexts of media presentation: "The facts are presented neutrally so that the public can make up its own mind"; "Men act heroically to defend their country"; "People are given what they want".

"At Home He's a Tourist" reached number 58 in the UK Singles Chart, the highest position of any Gang of Four song.{{cite web |url=https://www.officialcharts.com/artist/17765/gang-of-four/ |title=Gang of Four |publisher=Official Charts Company |access-date=5 September 2019}} The band were originally asked to perform the song on Top of the Pops. However, when the show's producers heard the line "And the rubbers you hide in your top left pocket" they asked the group to change the word "rubbers" to "rubbish" for fear of causing offence; the band refused, and the appearance was cancelled.{{cite news |url=https://www.boston.com/ae/music/articles/2004/03/03/his_gang_days_are_behind_him/ |title=His Gang days are behind him |newspaper=The Boston Globe |date=3 March 2004 |access-date=29 April 2010 |last=Pothier |first=Mark}}{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2005/jan/07/1 |title=Jerky, punky, funky |newspaper=The Guardian |date=7 January 2005 |access-date=29 April 2010 |last=Simpson |first=Dave}}

In 2005, the band performed the album live in its entirety as part of the All Tomorrow's Parties-curated Don't Look Back concert series. In 2009, King wrote a track-by-track commentary on the album for Clash.{{cite web |url=http://www.clashmusic.com/feature/gang-of-four-track-by-track |title=Gang of Four Track By Track |website=Clash |date=10 September 2009 |access-date=11 July 2013 |last=Murray |first=Robin}} Hugo Burnham's memories of making the album were published in 2014, on the 35th anniversary of its release.{{cite web |url=http://caughtinthecarousel.com/entertainment-turns-35-gang-four-drummer-hugo-burnham-remembers/ |title=Entertainment! Turns 35: Gang of Four Drummer Hugo Burnham Remembers |website=Caught in the Carousel |year=2014 |access-date=28 October 2020 |last1=Cantrell |first1=Dave |last2=Gleason |first2=Paul |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714223735/http://caughtinthecarousel.com/entertainment-turns-35-gang-four-drummer-hugo-burnham-remembers/ |archive-date=14 July 2014 |url-status=dead}}

{{Music ratings

| rev1 = AllMusic

| rev1score = {{Rating|5|5}}{{cite web |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/entertainment%21-mw0000645285 |title=Entertainment! – Gang of Four |publisher=AllMusic |access-date=3 August 2012 |last=Kellman |first=Andy}}

| rev2 = Blender

| rev2score = {{Rating|5|5}}{{cite magazine |url=http://www.blender.com/guide/reviews.aspx?id=3383 |title=Gang of Four: Entertainment! |magazine=Blender |access-date=6 July 2016 |last=Power |first=Tony |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051123013824/http://www.blender.com/guide/reviews.aspx?id=3383 |archive-date=23 November 2005 |url-status=dead}}

| rev3 = Christgau's Record Guide

| rev3score = A{{sfn|Christgau|1990}}

| rev4 = Encyclopedia of Popular Music

| rev4score = {{Rating|5|5}}{{sfn|Larkin|2011}}

| rev5 = Entertainment Weekly

| rev5score = A+{{cite magazine |url=https://www.ew.com/article/1995/02/03/latest-reissues |title=The latest in reissues |magazine=Entertainment Weekly |date=3 February 1995 |access-date=6 July 2016 |last=Flaherty |first=Michael |archive-date=6 November 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161106101213/http://www.ew.com/article/1995/02/03/latest-reissues |url-status=dead }}

| rev6 = Pitchfork

| rev6score = 9.5/10{{cite web |url=https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/3389-entertainment/ |title=Gang of Four: Entertainment! |website=Pitchfork |date=11 May 2005 |access-date=3 August 2012 |last=Harvell |first=Jess}}

| rev7 = Q

| rev7score = {{Rating|5|5}}{{cite magazine |title=The 100 Best Punk Albums of All Time – Gang of Four: Entertainment! |magazine=Q |edition=special |date=May 2002 |page=138}}

| rev8 = Record Mirror

| rev8Score = {{Rating|5|5}}{{cite journal|title=Albums|journal=Record Mirror|date=6 October 1978|page=18|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/UK/Record-Mirror/70s/79/Record-Mirror-1979-10-06-OCR.pdf|access-date=4 March 2021}}

| rev9 = Rolling Stone

| rev9score = {{Rating|4.5|5}}{{cite magazine |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/entertainment-20050519 |title=Entertainment! |magazine=Rolling Stone |date=19 May 2005 |access-date=3 August 2012 |last=Walters |first=Barry}}

| rev10 = The Rolling Stone Album Guide

| rev10score = {{Rating|5|5}}{{sfn|Considine|2004|p=[https://archive.org/details/newrollingstonea00brac/page/321 321]}}

| rev11 = Spin Alternative Record Guide

| rev11score = 10/10{{sfn|Kreilkamp|1995|p=163}}

}}

Entertainment! was ranked the fifth best album of 1979 by NME.{{cite web |url=https://www.nme.com/bestalbumsandtracksoftheyear/1979-2-1045405 |title=1979 Best Albums And Tracks Of The Year |website=NME |date=10 October 2016 |access-date=15 November 2016}} Reviewing the album in Rolling Stone in 1980, David Fricke regarded Entertainment! as "the best debut album by a British band – punk or otherwise – since the original English release of The Clash in 1977".{{cite magazine |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/artists/gangoffour/albums/album/304420/review/5943091/entertainment |title=Gang of Four: Entertainment |magazine=Rolling Stone |date=7 August 1980 |access-date=3 August 2012 |last=Fricke |first=David |author-link=David Fricke |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090224220849/http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/gangoffour/albums/album/304420/review/5943091/entertainment |archive-date=24 February 2009 |url-status=dead}} Creem{{'}}s RJ Smith, looking back on Entertainment! in 1984, found it to be "the most difficult Gang album, because it's so damn hard to find the front door to the thing. The ugly emotions Entertainment! dredges up are almost freakish, and all the more unsettling for the way they poke unexpectedly through the record's detached, architectonic front."{{cite magazine |url=https://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/gang-of-four--hard-men-in-good-cars |title=Gang of Four = Hard Men in Good Cars |magazine=Creem |date=March 1984 |access-date=5 September 2019 |last=Smith |first=RJ |url-access=subscription |via=Rock's Backpages}}

In 2004, Pitchfork listed Entertainment! as the eighth best album of the 1970s.{{cite web |url=https://pitchfork.com/features/staff-lists/5932-top-100-albums-of-the-1970s/10/ |title=The 100 Best Albums of the 1970s |website=Pitchfork |date=23 June 2004 |access-date=14 January 2013 |page=10 |archive-date=15 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130415064956/http://pitchfork.com/features/staff-lists/5932-top-100-albums-of-the-1970s/10/ |url-status=dead }} In 2003, Rolling Stone ranked the album at number 490 on its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, raising the album's rank to number 483 in their 2012 update of the list, saying that its "stiff, jerky aggression... invented a new style that influenced bands from the Minutemen to LCD Soundsystem".{{Cite web|url=https://genius.com/Rolling-stone-the-500-greatest-albums-of-all-time-2003-annotated|title = Rolling Stone – the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (2003)}}{{cite magazine |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/500-greatest-albums-of-all-time-156826/steve-earle-guitar-town-45778/ |title=500 Greatest Albums of All Time |magazine=Rolling Stone |date=31 May 2012 |access-date=2 September 2019}} In their 2020 reboot of the list, Rolling Stone ranked the album number 273. In March 2005, Q placed the track "At Home He's a Tourist" at number 52 on its list of the "100 Greatest Guitar Tracks". As of 2009, Entertainment! has sold more than 100,000 copies in the UK.{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/andy-gill-meets-andy-gill-1789194.html |title=Andy Gill meets Andy Gill |newspaper=The Independent |date=18 September 2009 |access-date=29 April 2010 |last=Gill |first=Andy}} The album was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.{{cite book|first=Chris|last=Shade|editor-first=Robert|editor-last=Dimery|chapter=Gang of Four: Entertainment!|title=1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die|title-link=1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die|publisher=Universe Publishing|year=2006|isbn=978-0-7893-1371-3|page=[https://archive.org/details/1001AlbumsYouMustHearBeforeYouDie/page/n219/mode/1up 440]}}

The album has also attracted praise from rock musicians. Kurt Cobain of Nirvana listed it as one of his 50 favourite albums of all time.{{cite book |title=Nirvana: The Complete Illustrated History |last1=Cross |first1=Charles R. |author-link1=Charles R. Cross |last2=Gaar |first2=Gillian G. |last3=Gendron |first3=Bob |last4=Martens |first4=Todd |last5=Yarm |first5=Mark |publisher=Voyageur Press |year=2013 |isbn=978-0-7603-4521-4 |page=37}} Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers stated that the first time he heard the record, "It completely changed the way [he] looked at rock music and sent [him] on [his] trip as a bass player."{{cite AV media notes |title=Entertainment! |others=Gang of Four |publisher=Infinite Zero Archive/American Recordings |edition=reissue |year=1995 |id=9 43047-2 |type=liner notes}} Michael Stipe of R.E.M. has stated, "Gang of Four could really swing. I stole a lot from them."Gang of Four - Entertainment 1995 EMI Records CD issue

"Natural's Not in It" plays over the title sequence of the 2006 film Marie Antoinette. In 2010, Microsoft used it in advertisements for the Kinect.

"Anthrax" was used in the 2004 remake of The Manchurian Candidate and in the 1986 film Dogs in Space, which featured Michael Hutchence in the lead role; Hutchence cited Gang of Four as a major influence on his band INXS. In 2016, Frank Ocean would sample the song on "Futura Free" from the album Blonde.{{Cite web |last=Maine |first=Samantha |date=2016-09-06 |title=Gang of Four respond to Frank Ocean sampling 'Love Like Anthrax' |url=https://www.nme.com/news/music/gang-of-four-1202410 |access-date=2023-12-17 |website=NME |language=en-GB}}

In 2014, Kevin J. H. Dettmar wrote a monograph on the album for Bloomsbury's 33⅓ series.{{cite web |url=http://333sound.com/2013/07/11/the-33-113-author-qa-kevin-dettmar/ |title=The 33 1/3 Author Q&A: Kevin Dettmar |website=33⅓ Sound |date=11 July 2013 |access-date=3 July 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714181906/http://333sound.com/2013/07/11/the-33-113-author-qa-kevin-dettmar/ |archive-date=14 July 2014 |url-status=dead}}

{{Track listing

| all_writing = Gang of Four (Dave Allen, Hugo Burnham, Andy Gill and Jon King).

| headline = Side one

| title1 = Ether

| length1 = 3:52

| title2 = Natural's Not in It

| length2 = 3:09

| title3 = Not Great Men

| length3 = 3:08

| title4 = Damaged Goods

| length4 = 3:29

| title5 = Return the Gift

| length5 = 3:08

| title6 = Guns Before Butter

| length6 = 3:49

}}

{{Track listing

| headline = Side two

| title1 = I Found That Essence Rare

| length1 = 3:09

| title2 = Glass

| length2 = 2:32

| title3 = Contract

| length3 = 2:42

| title4 = At Home He's a Tourist

| length4 = 3:33

| title5 = 5.45

| length5 = 3:48

| title6 = Anthrax

| length6 = 4:23

| total_length = 39:53

}}

1995 bonus tracks

EMI Records CD issue (mastered by Andy Gill and Jon King) includes the following tracks from the Yellow EP:

1. "Outside the Trains Don't Run on Time" – 3:27
2. "He'd Send in the Army" – 3:40
3. "It's Her Factory" – 3:08

Infinite Zero Archive/American Recordings CD issue includes the remaining track from the Yellow EP:

1. "Armalite Rifle" – 2:48

2005 bonus tracks

In addition to the Yellow EP, the Rhino release adds four previously unissued tracks:

1. "Guns Before Butter" (alternate version) – 4:25
2. "Contract" (alternate version) – 2:48
3. "Blood Free" (live at The Electric Ballroom, London) – 3:17
4. "Sweet Jane" (live at the American Indian Center) (Lou Reed) – 3:20

Gang of Four

• Jon King – lead vocals (1–3, 7–9), co-lead vocals (1, 4–6, 10, 12), backing vocals (11), melodica (1, 3, 11), art design
• Andy Gill – electric guitar, lead vocals (11), co-lead vocals (1, 4–6, 10, 12), backing vocals (2,3, 7–9), art design
• Dave Allen – bass guitar, backing vocals (3, 5, 7, 12)
• Hugo Burnham – drums

Technical personnel

• Edwin Cross – tape operator
• Davy Phee – tape operator
• Rik Walton – engineer

; Album

; Singles

{{reflist}}

;Sources

• {{cite book |chapter=Gang of Four: Entertainment! |chapter-url=http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_album.php?id=1324 |access-date=6 July 2016 |title=Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s |title-link=Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s |last=Christgau |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Christgau |publisher=Pantheon Books |year=1990 |isbn=0-679-73015-X }}
• {{cite book |chapter=Gang of Four |last=Considine |first=J. D. |author-link=J. D. Considine |title=The New Rolling Stone Album Guide |title-link=The Rolling Stone Album Guide |editor1-last=Brackett |editor1-first=Nathan |editor1-link=Nathan Brackett |editor2-last=Hoard |editor2-first=Christian |editor2-link=Christian Hoard |publisher=Simon & Schuster |edition=4th |year=2004 |isbn=0-7432-0169-8 }}
• {{cite book |chapter=Gang of Four |last=Kreilkamp |first=Ivan |title=Spin Alternative Record Guide |title-link=Spin Alternative Record Guide |editor1-last=Weisbard |editor1-first=Eric |editor1-link=Eric Weisbard |editor2-last=Marks |editor2-first=Craig |publisher=Vintage Books |year=1995 |isbn=0-679-75574-8 }}
• {{cite book |chapter=Gang of Four |title=The Encyclopedia of Popular Music |title-link=Encyclopedia of Popular Music |last=Larkin |first=Colin |author-link=Colin Larkin |publisher=Omnibus Press |edition=5th concise |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-85712-595-8 }}

{{Gang of Four}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:1979 debut albums

Category:Gang of Four (band) albums

Category:EMI Records albums

Category:Warner Records albums

Category:Albums produced by Andy Gill