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In 2020, ''Entertainment!'' was ranked at number 273 on ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' magazine's list of [[Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time|the 500 greatest albums of all time]].
In 2020, ''Entertainment!'' was ranked at number 273 on ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' magazine's list of [[Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time|the 500 greatest albums of all time]].


==Composition==
==Music==
''Entertainment!'' has been recognised as a seminal [[post-punk]] album,<ref>{{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}}</ref><ref>{{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 (magazine)|Paste]] |date=13 July 2016 |access-date=7 June 2020 |last=Ham |first=Robert |display-authors=etal}}</ref> and an example of [[dance-punk]],<ref>{{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}}</ref> [[art punk]]<ref>{{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}}</ref> and [[funk-punk]].<ref>{{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}}</ref> 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 [[Situationist International|Situationism]], the work of philosophers [[Michel Foucault]] and [[Jacques Lacan]],<ref name=":0" /> 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 [[HM Prison Maze|Long Kesh]] during [[The Troubles]] ("Ether"), and the impact of media reporting on acts of terrorism and [[Maoism|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 Dettmar|Kevin J. H. Dettmar]] likens the album to [[James Joyce]]'s [[Ulysses (novel)|''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.<ref>{{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}}</ref>
''Entertainment!'' has been recognised as a seminal [[post-punk]] album,<ref>{{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}}</ref><ref>{{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 (magazine)|Paste]] |date=13 July 2016 |access-date=7 June 2020 |last=Ham |first=Robert |display-authors=etal}}</ref> and an example of [[dance-punk]],<ref>{{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}}</ref> [[art punk]]<ref>{{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}}</ref> and [[funk-punk]].<ref>{{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}}</ref> 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 [[Situationist International|Situationism]], the work of philosophers [[Michel Foucault]] and [[Jacques Lacan]],<ref name=":0" /> 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 [[HM Prison Maze|Long Kesh]] during [[The Troubles]] ("Ether"), and the impact of media reporting on acts of terrorism and [[Maoism|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 Dettmar|Kevin J. H. Dettmar]] likens the album to [[James Joyce]]'s [[Ulysses (novel)|''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.<ref>{{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}}</ref>


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''Entertainment!'' was ranked the fifth best album of 1979 by ''[[NME]]''.<ref>{{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}}</ref> 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 (album)|The Clash]]'' in 1977".<ref>{{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}}</ref> ''[[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."<ref>{{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]]}}</ref>
''Entertainment!'' was ranked the fifth best album of 1979 by ''[[NME]]''.<ref>{{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}}</ref> 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 (album)|The Clash]]'' in 1977".<ref>{{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}}</ref> ''[[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."<ref>{{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]]}}</ref>


In 2004, ''[[Pitchfork (website)|Pitchfork]]'' listed ''Entertainment!'' as the eighth best album of the 1970s.<ref>{{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 (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 }}</ref> In 2003, ''Rolling Stone'' ranked the album at number 490 on its list of [[Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time|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 (band)|Minutemen]] to [[LCD Soundsystem]]".<ref>{{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)}}</ref><ref name="500-greatest">{{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}}</ref> In their 2020 reboot of the list, ''Rolling Stone'' ranked the album number 273.  In March 2005, ''[[Q (magazine)|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.<ref>{{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}}</ref> The album was also included in the book ''[[1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die]]''.<ref>{{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]}}</ref>
In 2003, ''Rolling Stone'' ranked the album at number 490 on its list of [[Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time|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 (band)|Minutemen]] to [[LCD Soundsystem]]".<ref>{{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)}}</ref><ref name="500-greatest">{{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}}</ref> In 2004, ''[[Pitchfork (website)|Pitchfork]]'' listed ''Entertainment!'' as the eighth best album of the 1970s.<ref>{{cite web |date=23 June 2004 |title=The 100 Best Albums of the 1970s |url=https://pitchfork.com/features/staff-lists/5932-top-100-albums-of-the-1970s/10/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130415064956/http://pitchfork.com/features/staff-lists/5932-top-100-albums-of-the-1970s/10/ |archive-date=15 April 2013 |access-date=14 January 2013 |website=[[Pitchfork (website)|Pitchfork]] |page=10}}</ref>
 
In 2016, ''[[Paste (magazine)|Paste Magazine]]'' named the album as the sixth-best post-punk album of all time. Staff writer Robert Ham said: "At the time of its release, there weren’t many other groups who could pay lip service to Fela Kuti and Siouxsie & The Banshees in the same breath, let alone find a way to stitch those two disparate aesthetics together in any meaningful way. And while this Leeds-based quartet never quite lived up to the foundation-cracking urgency of ''Entertainment!'', their debut album has long since provided a crash course in the post-punk aesthetic where dub and funk find equal footing with minimalism and fury-driven rock topped with lyrics that denounced consumer culture, the salacious press, and the nature of pop music."<ref>{{Cite web |title=The 50 Best Post-Punk Albums |url=https://www.pastemagazine.com/music/the-50-best-post-punk-albums |access-date=2025-06-16 |website=Paste Magazine |language=en-US}}</ref>
 
In their 2020 reboot of the list, ''Rolling Stone'' ranked the album number 273.  In March 2005, ''[[Q (magazine)|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.<ref>{{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}}</ref> The album was also included in the book ''[[1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die]]''.<ref>{{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]}}</ref>


The album has also attracted praise from rock musicians. [[Kurt Cobain]] of [[Nirvana (band)|Nirvana]] listed it as one of his 50 favourite albums of all time.<ref>{{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}}</ref> [[Flea (musician)|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."<ref>{{cite AV media notes |title=Entertainment! |others=[[Gang of Four (band)|Gang of Four]] |publisher=Infinite Zero Archive/[[American Recordings (US)|American Recordings]] |edition=reissue |year=1995 |id=9 43047-2 |type=liner notes}}</ref> [[Michael Stipe]] of [[R.E.M.]] has stated, "Gang of Four could really swing. I stole a lot from them."<ref>Gang of Four - Entertainment 1995 EMI Records CD issue</ref>
The album has also attracted praise from rock musicians. [[Kurt Cobain]] of [[Nirvana (band)|Nirvana]] listed it as one of his 50 favourite albums of all time.<ref>{{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}}</ref> [[Flea (musician)|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."<ref>{{cite AV media notes |title=Entertainment! |others=[[Gang of Four (band)|Gang of Four]] |publisher=Infinite Zero Archive/[[American Recordings (US)|American Recordings]] |edition=reissue |year=1995 |id=9 43047-2 |type=liner notes}}</ref> [[Michael Stipe]] of [[R.E.M.]] has stated, "Gang of Four could really swing. I stole a lot from them."<ref>Gang of Four - Entertainment 1995 EMI Records CD issue</ref>

Revision as of 22:22, 16 June 2025

Template:Use dmy dates Script error: No such module "Unsubst-infobox".

Entertainment! is the debut album by English post-punk band Gang of Four. It was released in September 1979 through EMI Records internationally and Warner Bros. Records in North America. Stylistically, it draws heavily on punk rock but also incorporates the influence of funk, reggae and dub. Its lyrics and artwork reflected the band's left-wing political concerns. Entertainment! became a seminal album in the post-punk movement.

In 2020, Entertainment! was ranked at number 273 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Music

Entertainment! has been recognised as a seminal post-punk album,[1][2] and an example of dance-punk,[3] art punk[4] and funk-punk.[5] 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,[6] 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.[7]

Artwork

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".Script error: No such module "Unsubst".

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".

Release

"At Home He's a Tourist" reached number 58 in the UK Singles Chart, the highest position of any Gang of Four song.[8] 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.[9][10]

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.[6] Hugo Burnham's memories of making the album were published in 2014, on the 35th anniversary of its release.[11]

Reception

Template:Music ratings

Entertainment! was ranked the fifth best album of 1979 by NME.[12] 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".[13] CreemTemplate:'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."[14]

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".[15][16] In 2004, Pitchfork listed Entertainment! as the eighth best album of the 1970s.[17]

In 2016, Paste Magazine named the album as the sixth-best post-punk album of all time. Staff writer Robert Ham said: "At the time of its release, there weren’t many other groups who could pay lip service to Fela Kuti and Siouxsie & The Banshees in the same breath, let alone find a way to stitch those two disparate aesthetics together in any meaningful way. And while this Leeds-based quartet never quite lived up to the foundation-cracking urgency of Entertainment!, their debut album has long since provided a crash course in the post-punk aesthetic where dub and funk find equal footing with minimalism and fury-driven rock topped with lyrics that denounced consumer culture, the salacious press, and the nature of pop music."[18]

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.[19] The album was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.[20]

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.[21] 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."[22] Michael Stipe of R.E.M. has stated, "Gang of Four could really swing. I stole a lot from them."[23]

Use in other media

"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.[24]

In 2014, Kevin J. H. Dettmar wrote a monograph on the album for Bloomsbury's 33⅓ series.[25]

Track listing

Template:Track listing Template:Track listing

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

Personnel

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

Charts

Album
Template:Album chartTemplate:Album chart
Chart (1979–80) Peak
position
Singles
Year Single Chart Peak
1979 "At Home He's a Tourist" UK Singles Chart[8] 58
1980 "Damaged Goods"/"I Found That Essence Rare" US Billboard Dance Club Songs[26] 39

References

Template:Reflist

Sources
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Template:Gang of Four

Template:Authority control

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  9. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  10. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  11. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  12. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  13. ↑ Template:Cite magazine
  14. ↑ Template:Cite magazine
  15. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  16. ↑ Template:Cite magazine
  17. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  18. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  19. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  20. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  21. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  22. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  23. ↑ Gang of Four - Entertainment 1995 EMI Records CD issue
  24. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  25. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  26. ↑ Template:Cite magazine
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