Thursday, September 17, 2009

Where's Political Music of the Bush and Obama Eras?

After posting the video on Mary Travers in the previous post, I realized that while there was a reason I posted it, lots of people would have no idea of the significance of Peter, Paul, and Mary and the many other musicians of the sixties. Just posting it without saying anything would mean little. I realized I needed to supply a little context. So here it is.

In the early sixties we had the civil rights movement which overlapped with the anti-war movement which came a bit later. Both these movements were accompanied by an incredible musical score. I almost said background music, but while it was ALWAYS in the background, there were times when it was front and center stage.

Peter, Paul and Mary (Travers of the previous post) were part of this musical rhetoric that kept people inspired through difficult times. They were just a part of a whole army of musicians supplying strong, melodic, and uplifting anthems. So I supplemented my memories of those days with a Google search. Ask.com says:

Civil rights would have been won without the participation of blues, gospel, and folk singers and songwriters, but the participation of musicians and the effectiveness of sing-alongs certainly helped an incredible amount.

The songs on this list don't even begin to capture the hundreds of tunes that have been written about civil rights in America (and around the world), but if you're looking to learn more about music during the civil rights movement, this is a good primer for your journey. [Go to the ask.com link for their list of most important songs.]

PBS had a fund-raiser documentary on Freedom Songs of the Civil Rights Movement with a three CD box set. It looks like it will be on at 10:30 this Saturday night (Sept. 19) in Washington, DC at WETA and again Monday night.

The point though, is that there was an incredible musical back up to the movements. Folk songs were big in the mid-60's and there was something called the 'hootenany' which was folk song singalongs. There was even a hootenany television show.

"MTV Unplugged?" Nope, it's Hootenanny, the ABC-TV series that capitalized on the popularity of folk music during the early 1960's. If it's remembered at all today, it's as the show that blacklisted Pete Seeger, a last gasp of McCarthyism that led to a boycott by Bob Dylan; Joan Baez; Peter, Paul & Mary; The Kingston Trio - practically every folk act that meant anything to the masses.

But when Hootenanny appeared in March 1963, it held a lot of promise. Each segment was taped at a different college campus, the audience consisting of students. Shows ran for a half-hour on Saturday night, and featured four acts. The music was literally non-stop. Host Jack Linkletter (eldest son of Art) would quickly introduce each artist or group, and they all took turns after doing a song. During the thirty minutes a "headliner" act did three or four songs, two supporting acts did two songs apiece, a third act (usually a soloist) did one song, and everybody joined in for the closing number - usually something simple like Goodnight Irene or "Little Liza Jane."[Michael J. Hayde writes More at tvparty.com about many of the acts that appeared - he says his dad audio taped all the shows. ]

As the Vietnam War began to heat up in the sixties, some of these artists crossed over to the anti-war movement and their music, along with the addition of rock and roll protest songs, were important inspiration.

Which raises the point - where are the stirring anti-war anthems of today? Where are the folk songs that call the health care victims to the streets, arm-in-arm? I'm the first to admit being out of touch with today's pop music, so I'm sure others might be able to jump in and tell me where to find it. Clearly rap taps into the kind of urban frustrations that Pete Seeger tapped into, but too often rather than pointing toward ways to overcome, it turns into violent, misogynist rants. It's not that there aren't rappers who have a more positive message, but in the sixties, there was no one in the US who didn't know Blowing in the Wind and We Shall Overcome.

If that kind of music, with that kind of reach and power, exists today, I don't know about it. And we need it. To lift our souls through the nastiness of today's politics, just as the music lifted us above the nastiness of racism and the politics of the Vietnam War. Racism and war? Hmmm, We're still embroiled in those fights today. Where's the inspirational music of today?

3 comments:

  1. Go to www.NeilYoung.com and you will find over 3100 songs inspired by Mr. Bush!!!

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  2. I think it's partly that there's just a gazillion musicians and songs out there, all trying to get the world's attention, that you just don't end up hearing that kind of thing on the radio. And don't forget that the radio stations are being owned by fewer and fewer companies, and it's always safer and more profitable not to rock the boat, and "message songs" can bring in listeners or it can bring boycotts and negative attention.
    But here's a link to The. Best. Anti-Iraq War Song Ever. Or the lyrics anyway.
    http://www.bwishes.com/lyrics_WereAmerica.html

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  3. Steve, I certainly hope at the True Diversity Dinner next Friday, that they give time for singing some of these great songs of hope and protest. Their message is powerful in a room where people have not yet 'arrived'.

    There is a wonderful song written by Alaskan Libby Roderick, "How could anyone..." It's right up there emotionally for me as a sort of LGBT anthem, even though its message is universal. It's one I would love to be in Anchorage, at that dinner, to sing.

    The music is there. The musicians are there. It only takes people to connect to it by embracing its message.

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