Che Rotten and Bob Cobain

Riddle me this: what does Bob Marley mean in Moscow in 2013?

 I knew what he meant in England in 1980. He meant hashish, and west Indian immigrants, and the fight against colonialism and amazing grooves, and the songs of freedom he wanted me to help him sing were songs of freedom from me and my country’s unfortunate habit of stealing everybody else’s country. And on top of that he was part of what Sly and Robbie meant, and Viv Richards and Black Uhuru and LKJ in Dub, and if it wasn’t entirely clear then Benjamin Zephaniah would explain. (Yes my Russian friends, Google them all)

 And what does Johnny Rotten mean here? That too was clear back then: it was shitty schools, and recession and an establishment full of public school tossers and having to give a shit about the queen. And it could still mean that with much of that mess still available over there. But I don’t really know what he means here when his glowering face leers at me from some 16 year old’s T shirt and that 16 year old looks at me and sees a fat boring old wanker who has no idea who that person on the t shirt is, coz I’m like old and fucked and stuff.

  And Kurt Cobain, context free icon of cool, what is he saying here?

 Or my flag, that union jack that I spent half of my life disliking coz it was only loved by Tories, Mad Ulster Protestants and people who had cupboards full of princess Di memorabilia and ran tea shops in Harrogate.  Why do I have to look at that 20 times a day on T Shirts and bags, what does it mean? Is it some watered down version of Noel Gallagher’s already watered down version of Pete Townsend’s notion of cool from three years before I was born? Is this what they are trying to tell me about. Or is it all just cool and utterly undefined, devoid of the centuries of meaning it had built up because it’s kind of a pretty pattern.

And finally, and worst of all what the hell does Che Guevara mean in Post Soviet Russia? Why are they naming cool night clubs after a Marxist revolutionary?  Does that iconic poster mean what it meant on my bedroom wall in 1979: “I’m pissed off the world feels unfair and this picture makes my father angry”? Is it just that again?

Answers on a postcard please, no time wasters.