The new version of “Natural’s Not In It“ is the first single from the album The Problem of Leisure: A Celebration of Andy Gill and Gang of Four, set for release in May 2021. It’s a double album of tracks written by Andy Gill and Gang of Four, all newly reinterpreted and recorded by artists whose own unique contributions to music were enriched by listening to Gang of Four. The album features songs from across Gang of Four’s 40-plus year career, each individually chosen by the artists who covered them.
“Andy loved what Tom and Serj did with this song, the fierceness of their attack and the jet-engine scream of feedback” says Gill’s widow, Catherine Mayer. “This was a track Andy always enjoyed performing. He said their version brilliantly captured all the explosive, danceable energy Natural’s Not In It can create in live performance.”
The single, like many on the forthcoming album, first appeared on the band’s extraordinary 1979 debut long player, Entertainment!, an album universally heralded as a classic and as “the fifth best punk album of all time” by Rolling Stone. In 2006, the track gained new audiences when writer-director Sofia Coppola used it for the opening of her film Marie Antoinette.
Says of the single, Tom Morello:
“Andy Gill was one of a handful of artists in history who changed the way guitars are played. His band Gang of Four were just incendiary and completely groundbreaking with Andy’s confrontational, unnerving and sublime playing at the forefront. His jagged plague-disco raptor-attack industrial-funk deconstructed guitar anti-hero sonics and fierce poetic radical intellect were hugely influential to me.”
Further, Serj Tankian says:
“It was a real pleasure to work on this track with Tom and honor the legacy of Andy and Gang of Four at the same time.”
Photo credit Andy Gill and Tom Morello, 2019 (Catherine Mayer)
