Martha & The Muffins take aim at gun violence in their darkly intense cover of Buffalo Springfield’s classic protest anthem For What It’s Worth — showcasing today on Tinnitist.
With their radical reworking this anti-violence perennial, the venerable Toronto group pay respect to the source material while simultaneously revising it into a bone-chilling lament pertinent to the mortal dangers of today.
“Not only is Buffalo Springfield’s 1966 classic For What It’s Worth timeless in its own right, but Stephen Stills’ poignant lyrics are more relevant than ever,” M+M mainstays Martha Johnson and Mark Gane say. “Gun violence is an ongoing societal blight, a perverse virus perpetuated by hypocrites mouthing their meaningless recitations of ‘thoughts and prayers.’ With this in mind, our interpretation is slower, darker and considers the possibility that events that were once rare and unacceptable are now met with a shrug of indifference.”
How times have indeed changed. When he wrote the song, Stills took his inspiration from nasty altercations between police and kids on Hollywood’s Sunset Strip. Over the years, For What It’s Worth became a sort of all-purpose plea for peace in strife-torn locales from Vietnam to Minneapolis. Johnson and Gane convert into something more sinister: An almost unbearably tense accompaniment to the now-constant spectre of yet another shot-up school or house of worship.
“We wanted it to be seriously dark and dramatic, as though something alarming might happen at any time,” Johnson says. “We decided that Mark should sing the verses with his low, doomy voice, and then I did the choruses and the ‘better beware’ sections, so that there were distinct vocal textures happening throughout the song.” The deliberately unsettling effect is reinforced by atmospheric keyboards and guitar that sound both foreboding and elegiac; you can hear the theatrical instincts Johnson and Gane have honed in their side career scoring films and TV programs.
Shot in stark black and white, the accompanying video shows humanoid figures with literal revolvers for heads wandering from public place to public place, going about their business as if their presence is the most natural thing in the world. Gane came up with the concept, and director Jason Cipparrone brought it to bracing reality. “Gun violence has become omnipresent in today’s society, and its impacts are horrifying,” Cipparrone says. “We made this film to highlight how apathy leads to integration of such themes into daily life, such as buying a bulletproof backpack for one’s child.”
Gun violence hits close to home for the bandmembers and the filmmaker. Tragedy struck close when the band’s accountant of 40 years, his wife and three others were fatally shot in 2022. In a separate but equally unsettling incident, Cipparrone heard a shot in the hallway of his apartment and discovered a gunshot victim lying just outside his door. “It’s particularly haunting to realize that the video’s ‘Gun Heads’ scene took place right where this crime occurred,” Johnson says. “The hallway still bears the marks of this grim event, with a visible dent left by a bullet ricocheting off the floor. The gravity of these incidents amplifies our commitment to addressing the urgent issue of gun violence through our music and advocacy.”
With Johnson and Gane at the helm, Martha & The Muffins have released eight studio records since their 1977 formation, breaking boundaries and exceeding expectations every step of the way. They’ve had five Top 40 hits in Canada and won a Juno for Single Of The Year with Echo Beach. They even introduced the world to superstar producer Daniel Lanois (who co-produced three of their records). The group’s most recent offering, 2021’s Marthology: In And Outtakes, is a compilation of rare and previously unreleased tracks.
That tradition of excellence continues with For What It’s Worth, which Johnson and Gane played and recorded entirely on their own at their home studio, The Web. Mixing was done by Tim Abraham (Grand Analog, Odario).
Watch the For What It’s Worth video above, listen to more from Martha & The Muffins below, and find them on their website, Facebook and Twitter.
