Got a Happy Story? Music with a Message Edition
Fri Jan 18, 2008 at 05:08:21 PM PDT
The very first time that I attended a political protest it was accidental. I was in first grade and my parents brought the 5 kids to the State House in Concord, New Hampshire. We joined up with my father's 8 brothers and sisters, and all of my cousins, to attend a ceremony for my grandmother who was being awarded Mother of the Year.
While we were waiting, there was a sit in taking place with a group of college kids. They were singing songs so I zipped over and sat down with them. I remember singing Woody Guthrie's anthem This Land is Your Land. I remember that they were kind to me and that my aunts and uncles were appalled. I remember that my parents were fine with it.
I don't play an instrument and can't carry a tune to save my life but I have always loved political songs. They have gotten me through bleak times and inspired me to keep hoping. I have a long list of the songs I love and I'll bet that you do also.
The end of This Land is Your Land is the part that always gets me. I can picture Woody Guthrie looking out at it all.
In the shadow of the steeple I saw my people,
By the relief office I seen my people;
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking
Is this land made for you and me?
Nobody living can ever stop me,
As I go walking that freedom highway;
Nobody living can ever make me turn back
This land was made for you and me.
In my teens I listened to a lot of CSN&Y, Joan Baez, Neil Young solo, Bob Dylan and Phil Ochs. This was in the late 70s and most of the songs I was listening to were released a decade before. I saw Bonnie Raitt in multiple anti-nuke outdoor concerts.
I loved this Doobie Brothers song when it came out 1976 and still do. I made them play it at my wedding reception in 1994 and everyone thought I was nuts.
Taking it To the Streets
You don't know me but I'm your brother.
I was raised here in this living hell.
You don't know my kind in your world.
Fairly soon the time will tell.
You, telling me the things you're gonna do for me.
I ain't blind and I don't like what I think I see.
Takin' it to the streets, takin' it to the streets,
no more need for runnin', takin' it to the streets.
I discovered the Women's Music scene in the 80's and happily spent time buying albums and going to concerts. The songs were almost always political and many gave me strength during a time when it seemed I was the only one who saw what Reagan was doing.
Ella's Song by Sweet Honey in the Rock
Until the killing of Black men, Black mothers’ sons
Is as important as the killing of White men, White mothers’ sons
We who believe in freedom cannot rest
We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes
...
Not needing to clutch for power, not needing the light just to shine on me
I need to be just one in the number as we stand against tyranny
We who believe in freedom cannot rest
We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes
Struggling myself don’t mean a whole lot I come to realize
That teaching others to stand up and fight is the only way my struggle survives
It Could have been Me by Holly Near
One night in Oklahoma Karen Silkwood died
Because she had some secrets that big companies wanted to hide
There's talk of nuclear safety and there's talk of national pride
But we all know it is a death machine and that's why Karen died
It could have been me, but instead it was you
So I'll keep doing the work you were doing as if I were two
I'll be a student of life, a singer of songs
A farmer of food and a righter of wrongs
It could have been me, but instead it was you
And it may be me dear sisters and brothers
Before we are through
But if you can work for freedom
Freedom, freedom, freedom
If you can work (live, die, sing) for freedom I can too
Testimony by Ferron
There's godlike
And warlike
And strong
Like only some show
And there's sad like
And madlike
And had
Like we know
But by my life be I spirit
And by my heart be I woman
And by my eyes be I open
And by my hands be I whole
The Ones Who Aren't Here music and lyrics by John Calvi, sung by Meg Christian
Telling myself
and the family,
my friends and the folks on the job,
one by one
and it's never been easy
and me and everyone changed.
The hugs and the tears
when they show you their hearts
and some never speak again.
Every pot off the wheel
can't bear the kiln,
every love can't bear the pain.
So let's pass a kiss
and a happy sad tear
and a hug the whole circle round
for the ones who aren't here
for the hate and the fear
for laughter, for struggle, for life.
Let's have a song here
for me and for you
and the love that we cannot hide.
And let's have a song
for the ones who aren't here
and won't be coming out tonight
I was never a big fan of the Moody Blues. They were in that category of guy music to me. I first heard their song The Question during the reign of Reagan despite it being released in 1970. And that hooked me for good.
Why do we never get an answer
When we're knocking at the door?
With a thousand million questions
About hate and death and war.
It's where we stop and look around us
There is nothing that we need.
In a world of persecution
That is burning in it's greed.
Why do we never get an answer
When we're knocking at the door?
Because the truth is hard to swallow
That's what the wall of love is for.
By the late 80s I was starting to sober up and was looking for songs that expressed both my rage at what had happened to this country and my hopes for a new beginning for me and the country. I listened to a variety of music but was totally enamored with U2 for the mix of politics, spirituality, and emotions.
Pride (In The Name Of Love)
One man come in the name of love
One man come and go.
One man come he to justify
One man to overthrow.
In the name of love
What more in the name of love.
In the name of love
What more in the name of love.
One man caught on a barbed wire fence
One man he resist
One man washed up on an empty beach
One man betrayed with a kiss.
In the name of love
What more in the name of love.
In the name of love
What more in the name of love.
Early morning, April four
Shot rings out in the Memphis sky.
Free at last, they took your life
They could not take your pride.
I also wanted songs that seemed to speak my emotions. I needed songs that gave me hope for myself and the world in a time of personal despair.
Higher Love by Steve Winwood
Things look so bad everywhere
In this whole world, what is fair?
We walk blind and we try to see
Falling behind in what could be...
Bring me a higher love
Bring me a higher love
Bring be a higher love
I could rise above on a higher love
Tracy Chapman is a local favorite of mine. Although she no longer lives in the metro Boston area, she did attend Tufts and used to play for change in Harvard Square and in the T stations. Many of her songs mention poverty. My favorite of these is from her first album, released in 1988 at the tail end of the Reagan years.
Talkin' Bout a Revolution
Don't you know
They're talkin' bout a revolution
And it sounds like a whisper
While they're standing in the welfare lines
Crying at the doorsteps of those armies of salvation
Wasting time in the unemployment lines
Sitting around waiting for a promotion
Poor people gonna rise up
And get their share
The Indigo Girls have so many songs that really capture how I feel on a variety of issues. In the very beginning of my current career, some of their songs made it possible for me to hang in there and learn what I needed to learn. This one is one of my favorite voting songs.
Let It be Me
well the world seems spent
and the president
has no good idea
of who the masses are
well i'm one of them
and i'm among friends
we're trying to see beyond
the fences in our own backyards
i've seen the kingdoms blow
like ashes in the winds of change
but the power of truth
is the fuel for the flame
so the darker the ages get
there's a stronger beacon yet
let it be me
(this is not a fighting song)
let it be me
(not a wrong for a wrong)
let it be me
if the world is night
shine my life like a light
Many Irish songs throughout time have been, and still are, about political issues. My very favorite I heard at the Boston area Irish Festival several years back. It took me forever to track down the song because it was only recently released on records distributed to America. I know it from Irish singer Frances Black. She sings it acappella and it is haunting.
Legal Illegal by Ewan McColl, sung by Frances Black
It's illegal to rip off a payroll,
It's illegal to hold up a train,
But it's legal to rip off a million or two,
That comes from the labour that other folk do,
To plunder the many on behalf of the few,
Is a thing that is perfectly legal.
It's illegal to kill off your landlord
Or to trespass upon his estate
But to charge a high rent for a slum is O.K.
To condemn two adults and three children to stay
In a hovel that's rotten with damp and decay
It's a thing that is perfectly legal.
...
It's illegal to kill off your missus,
Or put poison in your old man's tea,
But poison the river's the seas or the skies,
And poison the minds of a nation with lies,
It's all in the interest of free enterprise,
Nonetheless it's perfectly legal.
I was also introduced to the band Black 47, New York based band of Irish expats, through the Irish Festival. They have a fine mix of political tunes, about Ireland and about here.
Paul Robeson (Born to Be Free)
You can call me a traitor but I love my country
And I will not sell out it because of your hypocrisy
I refuse to hide behind the Fifth, I've no fear of honesty
You always know exactly where I am, so why don't you just
Come on over here and get me
You can tap my phone but there's one thing you will never hear
'Cause the drumbeat of freedom wasn't meant for your slaves' ears
I'll never turn my back on my comrades and my friends
The poor and the dispossessed, the women and the men
The great are only great 'cause we're down on our knees
Rise up, my brothers and sisters, we were born to be free
Born to be free
The Dropkick Murphys are a local band that play a number of political songs with great passion. They formed in a city where I spent years hanging with friends and drinking coffee every day for years. They do a great many union songs and they recently wrote one for a soldier in Iraq who liked their music.
Do or Die
The once steel tough fabric of the union man
Was sold and bartered away
Fed to the money wolves in the Reagan years,
Caught adrift in greedy Nineties' days
So inside this song is our rally cry
Your dreams are in danger,
and "We Must Rise"
Our time has come we are under the gun
"It's Do Or Die"
Last Letter Home
Hey Melissa it's me don't be afraid
I'm in good hands I'm gonna be home soon
It's time to watch the children grow up
I wanna be more than a voice on the phone
Thanks Ma I got your package today
I love "The Fields Of Athenry"
I swear I want 'em to play that song on the pipes
At my funeral when I die
I stand alone in the distance
And the foreground slowly moves
"We regret to inform you that on January 28th Sgt. Andrew
Farrar died while serving his country in the Al-Anbar province
of Iraq words cannot convey our sorrow"
When there's nothing on the horizon
You've got nothing left to prove
If I lead will you follow?
So what do you listen to when you're in the mood for political songs? What's your happy story this week?
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