On my commute home this evening, the universe (well, my iPod) apparently felt it was a good night to serve up two powerful women of color making an interesting musical (and philosophical) contrast. Follow me below the squiggly for explanations, musings, ramblings, and a couple of music videos.
So just as I was packing stuff into my briefcase and grabbing my umbrella to head for the train, the iPod served up a B-side number from Tina Turner's 1984 solo album, Private Dancer:
Steel Claw
(Lyrics by Paul Brady)
The story of the Steel Claw:
It's just a television wonderland
It's one more fairytale about a rich bitch
Lying by the swimming pool
Life is so cool
Easy living when you make the rules
Last Friday was the first time
It only took about a half a minute
On the stairway
It was child's play
The odds come out even when you give up believing in the
Chorus
Cold law, steel claw
Try to get on board you'll find the lock is on the door
Well I say no way, no way
Don't try to get out or there'll be hell to pay
I don't know who's right, who's wrong
It really doesn't matter when you're lying in the gutter
It's a see-saw
A long hot battle with the cold law
Is what you get for messing with the steel claw
The politicians have forgotten this place
Except for flying visits in a black Mercedes
On election time
Across the line
And everybody runs to catch the pantomime
If you could see what's going on around here
So many people hanging on the edge
Crying out for revolution
Retribution
The odds come out even
When you give up believing in the
(repeat Chorus)
Sometimes I think I'm going crazy
Sometimes I do a line, makes me laugh
Makes me wanna take a joyride
On the high tide
Sometimes I'm contemplating suicide
Meanwhile Eddy's on the west coast
I hear he's making out with some sweet senorita
Up in Frisco
You and I know
The odds come out even
When you give up believing in the
(repeat Chorus twice)
I played the song a couple of times because it's been quite some time since it came up on my iPod. I don't remember the last time I heard it, though I do remember liking it quite a lot when the album was new (and people still knew what "albums" were: get off my lawn, by the way!). As I was walking toward the metro station near the office, I was trying to remember when the album had come out, and thinking Tina Turner was waxing a little prophetic, though probably she didn't know it at the time. A lot of the lyrics in that song resonate with what's been in the news for what seems like eons, but in reality has only been the last decade or so.
Fast-forward about forty-five minutes. The train's now approaching the other end of the line, and after one more stop I'm going to be getting ready to put away the dog-eared issue of Science that I'm just about finished with, and pack up the iPod and the headphones. That was when the iPod served up Dame Shirley Bassey belting out this 1960 torch song from the musical Oliver:
(It wasn't this exact rendition; it may have been the one that Dame Shirley recorded in the '60s not long after the song was written; she sings it in a much higher register in the version on my iPod. Anyhoo, it's the words I'm after and less so the music.)
As longs as he needs me
I know where I must be
I'll cling on steadfastly
As longs as he needs me
As long as life is long
I'll love him, right or wrong
And somehow I'll be strong
As long as he needs me
If you are lonely then you will know
When someone needs you you love them so
I won't betray his trust
Though people say I must
I've got to stay true just
As longs as he needs me
If you are lonely then you will know
When someone needs you you love them so
I won't betray his trust
Though people say I must
I've got to stay true just
As longs as he needs me
Two songs, performed by two women of color who've gone through very rough periods in their respective lives, and who both have enjoyed long and fruitful careers in an industry that generally does not sustain such things. For every performer who's been working steadily for 50+ years, there are 10,000 flashes in the pan, one-hit wonders, and never-really-has-beens.
What struck me, though, as I wound up my train ride and walked home, was the contrast between the world-views of the two songs. Themselves written less than a quarter-century apart, the mindsets could not be more different. Turner's anthem, with its driving beat and pounding guitar line, is a brash refusal to live life within the bounds that others set. Bassey's ballad, on the other hand, is lyrical, subdued, and basically subservient. It should be noted that in the musical, the song is sung by Nancy, the girlfriend of villain Bill Sikes, who treats her like a louse--and so she sings this song to him.
As retro programs like "Mad Men" remind us, that was not an uncommon mindset for the 1960s--and in at least a few remaining pockets of antediluvia these days. But even in the '60s, the seeds of the rebellion demonstrated in the later tune were germinating. It's instructive to remember where we started this struggle, and to reflect on just how far we've come in so many different areas. But it's both instructive and imperative to reflect on (and remember) just how far we still have to go. Sure, things are better than they used to be, in many ways, for many people. But until things are as good as they can get, for everybody, we're not done yet. Complacency is just as much the enemy as are the regressives in both of our corporatist parties.