Strength Thru Oi!

Strength Thru Oi!
File:StrengthThruOi.jpg
Compilation album by various artists
Released	May 1981
Recorded	Various
Genre	Oi!, punk rock
Label	Decca

Strength Thru Oi! is a 1981 Oi! compilation album, featuring various artists and released by Decca Records, released in collaboration with Sounds magazine.

The album was the sequel to Oi! The Album (1980), and itself was followed by Carry On Oi! (Oi 3!, 1981) and Oi! Oi! That's Yer Lot! (Oi/4, 1982).

Track listing

1. "National Service" - Garry Johnson
2. "1984" - 4 Skins
3. "Gang Warfare" - The Strike
4. "Riot Riot" - Infa-Riot
5. "Dead End Yobs" - Garry Johnson
6. "Working Class Kids" - The Last Resort
7. "Blood on the Streets" - Criminal Class
8. "She Goes to Fino's" - The Toy Dolls
9. "Best Years of Our Lives" - Barney Rubble
10. "Taken for a Ride" - Cock Sparrer
11. "We Outnumber You" - Infa-Riot
12. "The New Face of Rock'n'Roll" - Garry Johnson
13. "Beans" - Barney Rubble
14. "We're Pathetique" - Splodge
15. "Sorry" - 4 Skins
16. "Running Riot" - Cock Sparrer
17. "Johnny Barden" - The Last Resort
18. "Isubaleene (Part 2)" - Splodge
19. "Running Away" - Criminal Class
20. "Skinhead" - The Strike
21. "Deidre's a Slag" - The Toy Dolls
22. "Harbour Mafia Mantra" - The Shaven Heads

Controversy

When Strength Thru Oi! was released, it was controversial because its title was a play on a Nazi slogan ("Strength Through Joy"), and the cover featured Nicky Crane, a British Movement activist who was serving a four-year sentence for racist violence. Rock critic Garry Bushell, who was responsible for compiling the album, insists its title was a pun on The Skids' album Strength Through Joy and that he had been unaware of the Nazi connotations. He also denied knowing the identity of the skinhead on the album's cover until it was exposed by the Daily Mail two months later. It was not so easy to deny the album cover's glorification of violence and the sinister tone of its sleeve notes:

A mass of boots, straights, and combat jackets, skins and boot boys, grins and hoots and oy-oy's, young blood on the prowl.... Getting nicked for wearing steel caps, a flick blade flashing in the moonlight.

See also

• Oi! The Album
• Carry On Oi!
• Oi! Oi! That's Yer Lot!