I’ve been recently listening to ‘Even in Exile’ by James Dean Bradfield, a truly fascinating concept album. It tells the story of the life and death of the Chilean communist political activist, singer and poet Victor Jara, who was executed by Augusto Pinochet after the September 11 1973 coup which saw Pinochet, backed by the CIA, overthrow elected socialist present Salvador Allende.

Jara was arrested after the coup, tortured during interrogations and ultimately shot dead, with his body then thrown out on the street of a shanty town in Santiago, an act of cold hate which contrasted with his songs that were often focused on love, peace and social justice. The murder of Jara saw him become a symbol for justice and human rights in Chile during the Pinochet era, where killings by the military junta were common.

Jara’s crime? He admired Che Guevara, and it wasn’t to be until 2016 that a jury in Florida would find former Chilean army officer Pedro Barrientos liable for his murder, with eight retired military officers sentenced to 15 years and a day in prison in July 2018, two years later for his murder.

Even in Exile, based almost entirely on lyrics and writings by the outstanding Welsh poet Patrick Jones (the elder brother of James Dean Bradfield’s Manic Street Preachers bandmate Nicky Wire), tells this story packed in an album of outstanding tracks, including a cover of the Victor Jara track La Partida.

The story of Victor Lidio Jara Martinez (to use his full name) is something that’s become a fascination for me since hearing this album, and I’ve spent many an hour reading all about it. The accompanying podcast series by James Dean Bradfield and Patrick Jones, titled “Inspired by Jara” is also worth a listen and if you find yourself on Youtube, check out two tracks which didn’t make the album due to being finished late – the haunting ‘Verses Echo with Tear Flow’ and ‘From the Atacama Dust’.

Anyway. During one of my listens to this album, just before writing this, I got wondering about songs written about Communism or the Cold War and I came across several that I’d never realised covered this topic.

I knew, for example that Born in the USA by Bruce Springsteen, far from being a nationalist anthem is actually about the Vietnam War and the mistreatment of veterans, but did you know, for example, Breathing by Kate Bush was about a foetus aware of what is going on outside the womb and frightened by nuclear fallout?

Then there was a track I’d never heard before I researched this- What are we making weapons for? By John Denver and Alexander Gradsky; a song which protests government expenditure in weapons instead of their citizens and a track which was the first time an artist from the USA and the then USSR got together to sing about the Cold War?

I was also fascinated that a song I’ve long liked, 99 Luftballoons by Nena is actually about a world where the release of 99 balloons triggers governments to scramble fighter jets to intercept them, leading to total nuclear annihilation.

Give Even in Exile a listen though. You won’t be disappointed.