"I acknowledge and respect Steve's right to do this, but I do regard it as a betrayal of the Crass ethos," he says, citing a Crass lyric from 24 years ago that could have been written with such an occasion in mind.
He is now seen as a precursor of Queen or David Bowie – as someone who successfully spliced rock and jazz and classical music and a writer who produced poetic rather than crass pop lyrics (although he also wrote plenty of those in his time).
The record presents Crass's lyrics calmly, often demonstrating how sane and practical they are; it proves once again, and kind of thrillingly this time, that no music is immune to interpretation; and it gives these songs an unreliable narrator, which is just what they deserve.
Like Glue demonstrates Paul's ability to combine incredibly crass and slack lyrics with a rhythmic flow so distracting that listeners are likelier to dance than take offence.
Visitors to MTV's new online music video site can listen to songs with plenty of crass and vulgar lyrics, but may be surprised to find that certain other language had once been deemed too nasty for broadcast — that is, the names of the file-sharing sites Morpheus, Grokster, Limewire and Kazaa, all of which have been the bane of the music industry.
With Crass, the typed lyric sheet that came inside their stencilled record sleeves was essential if you were to understand what was being said above the dissonant racket of open-tuned guitars.
A vegan Buddhist, he was taller, had a deeper voice, and spoke most eloquently about political causes – he organised the first Tibetan Freedom Concert in 1996 and publicly disowned the crasser, more sexist lyrics the band recorded in their reckless youth.
Yes, the lyrics of Crass were a lot to do with "the bomb" or "the State", but what I was saying was "look beneath all that, look beyond it, and where do you find yourself?" If you can do that, if you can find your soul, you connect with all humankind, with all of life.
Even if often wrapped in crass commercialism, or delivered in the lyrics of a particularly corny carol, the sentiments are real, the yearning -- perennial and fervent.
The lyrics, music and imagery of Crass were involved with global politics, but ultimately I think the effect we had on people was more on their personal politics.
