Miscellaneous - April 2010

  by Lisa Torem

published: 27 / 3 / 2010

Article

Two Writers Season One Historic Moment LISA My recent interview with Peter Yarrow inspired me to think about the cultural and political implications of protest songs. I believe a protest song must not only have a message, but must stand on its own as a piece of quality music. Here are some stanzas from ‘The Great Mandala’ by Peter Yarrow, written during the heat of the Vietnam War. “So I told him that he’d better shut his mouth and do his job like a man, and he answered, ‘Listen father.’ ‘I will never kill another.’ He thinks he’s better than his brother that died. What the hell does he think he’s doing? To his father who brought him up right? Tell the people they are safe now. Hunger stopped him, he still lies in his cell, Death has gagged his accusations. We are free now, we can kill now. We can hate now, now we can end the world. We’re not guilty, he was crazy, and it’s been going on for ten thousand year" Take your place on the great Mandala, as it moves through your brief moment of time. Win or lose now, you must choose now, and if you lose you’re only losing your life.” This song could stand on its own melodically, harmonically and structurally, but the brutally honest and heartfelt lyrics make it, what I consider, the classic protest song. How do you define a protest song, Jon? JON It might be rather pedantic but I do think it is worth knowing just exactly what we mean by protest songs. Clearly just about everyone would probably agree that songs like Woody Guthrie’s ‘This Land ss Our Land’ can definitely be filed in that. And music is filled with a strong tradition of protest in it. I’m sure a musicologist could probably come up with a definitive answer but one possible origin of the genre can be found in the African slave songs as they were transported from continent to continent. It’s a bit of a leap but then you get your folky, 60’s acoustic guitar-strumming troubadour railing against The Bomb and miscarriages of justice. Then we have a more sporadic, potted history with the odd indie-guitar band picking up the mantle as well as the likes of Billy Bragg But, for me, the interest lies in those grey areas, where the lines are blurred. For example is Lily Allen’s ‘Smile’ where she has a go at an errant boyfriend. Surely that could be seen as a protest song. Personally, I’m not sure that should really be included in this discussion, if we did that then just about every girl band ever would have to come under that banner. One important aspect of the protest song though has to be a political dimension, and I mean that in the wide sense of being political in the sense of having an interest in something outside of your own personal circle. In that sense I would count a song like Spacemen 3’s ‘Revolution’ as being clearly a protest song. Even though it is so vague you could easily not know they were having a bit of a pop about the drug prohibition laws in the UK. Which also makes it worth noting that songs that just rant, to my mind, aren’t really protest songs either. A lot of hardcore was just little more than shouty young men mouthing off about whatever had got their backs up that particular day. Admittedly it is a fine line between protesting and just ranting – one pulled off by the likes of the Dead Kennedys – and all too often some artists just sounding like they were having a bit of a hissy fit, throwing their toys out of the pram. But I don’t want to get bogged down in terminology as that can all too often detract from the real discussion. Over the years there have been some utterly fantastic protest songs. The list is almost exhaustive – Guthrie and Bob Dylan are perhaps the most obvious and high profile and both those artists could quite easily fill a whole anthology on their own. But then there are lots of other very worthy examples, of a more contemporary nature like the Specials’ ‘Ghost Town’, which for me, compellingly describes just what it was like growing up in the UK under prime minister Margaret Thatcher with mass unemployment. Then there was Elvis Costello’s response to the Falklands War in the form of the stark ‘Shipbuilding’. But lately there has been something of the strange death of the protest song. While I am sure there is some wandering minstrel type singing passionately about the latest injustices of the world (of which there are many) but no one in the public eye seems to be railing against anything nowadays. The best we can muster is seemingly applaud the likes of Cheryl Cole for being “brave” to carry on with her Brit Awards performance despite the whole of the UK knowing about her alleged errant husband. And why is that? Has society just simply become apolitical and just doesn’t care about anything more serious than celebrity gossip? Perhaps the general political outlook of the creative industries – and I am talking very generally here – are more liberal-leaning and so perhaps have less to be angry about than with a hard-line Tory expounding the moral superiority of the individua. Or perhaps, as I’d be inclined, to argue a stronger left-wing opinion is that we have reached what Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci would see as a hegemonic state. Right wing ideology has won the day and the hearts and minds of the populace just simply cannot conceive of an alternative to the status quo. If you have nothing to be angry about, how can you protest? And yet Britain and the United States find themselves stuck in the quagmire of wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the country is in recession, unemployment is rising and the UK’s public deficit is at monumental levels but the silence is deafening. But why is that? Possibly it is because society and particularly the younger generation just aren’t politically motivated any more. Admittedly it is a generalisation but people seem to be far more interested in celebrities than in more ‘serious’ issues. A longer, more deep-rooted element seems to stem from former prime minister Margaret Thatcher’s ideological rejection of the existence of society. There are just individuals with no social responsibility, so why care about anything? Perhaps it is timely to end on some thoughts of what constitutes a good protest song. In no particular order, here are some preliminary thoughts: You’ve got to be angry about something, even if you don’t sound it. Nick Drake’s long-lost song ‘Tow the Line’ is all the more effective by being restrained and is probably as angry as the English folksinger ever got. There has to be a focus for your ire. Bob Dylan’s ‘Who Killed Davey Moore?’ gets right to the heart of things and is successful. Cartoon angry young men Rage Against the Machine just have a general feeling of outrage and despite the swearing and loud, shouty music just come across as being impotent. You have to be able to verbally express your anger. ‘Shipbuilding’ for all its lyrical mystification, for example, still packs a punch even though you could easily listen to it and not be aware it was about the Falklands War. Lisa, over to you. LISA So, has “right wing ideology” won the day? True, both countries remain “stuck in the quagmire of wars in Afghanistan and Iraq,” the recession/unemployment has overwrought both of our countries, but in terms of “the silence is deafening” I started out in agreeance and then…. I also agree that those conflicts mentioned merit lyrical and musical recognition and also about the performer’s expression of anger. But, then we part ways; Jon, the performers and a very anxious audience still exists, but somewhere along the way the media shoved us down the dirty laundry shut. True, the turbulent 60s made excellent fodder for protest cannon. What I define as “protest soft”; ‘Where Have all the Flowers Gone?’ made me wonder ‘Where Have all The Rowers Gone?’, but don’t we all want the same things? Our collective consciousness cries out to be stirred and it has been; it’s just buried too deeply under the radar. I really wanted to brush through Dylan quickly, but I could not.‘‘Masters of War’ is, undeniably, one of the greatest; and I believe, Jon, it contains that perilous jab of anger you’ve demanded: "You’ve thrown the worst fear that can ever be hurled, Fear to bring children into the world For threatening my baby unborn and unnamed You ain’t worth the blood that runs in my veins." Dylan, as does Yarrow, creates a dialogue. This device plays devil’s advocate; forces us to examine our own, plus, opposing views. The background music is drone-like and the repetition is near-hypnotic. The music serves the message and vice versa. In the 80’s Pink Floyd wrote ‘Dogs’ about the decay of society in general, and ‘The Fletcher Memorial Home’ against Reagan and Thatcher and other militarily sophisticated nations and asked, “Is there somewhere safe for kids to live anyway from reality?” They minded mind control in the quirky ‘Another Brick in the Wall'. Springsteen protested middle-America’s plight with ‘Born In The USA’ and Kate Bush reflected a mother’s anguish toward her son cum solider in ‘Army Dreamers’. In the late 80s Patti Smith wrote, “the people have the power/ to redeem the work of fools, upon the meek/the graces shower it’s decreed the people rule” in ‘People have the Power’. The Minutemen spoke about the spirit of McCarthy’s communist witch hunts being kept alive in ‘Joe McCarthy’s Ghost.’ And, even the Clash ketched about government control, “we will teach our twisted speech to the young believers.” But, let’s bungee jump ahead. Green Day’s ‘American Idiot’ muses; “one nation controlled by the media/information age of hysteria/it’s calling out to Idiot America.’ Not much subtlety, there, right? Jim Peterik, singer/songwriter/guitarist, of Pride of Lions, wrote a tribute to the victims and families of a train tragedy in Spain, ‘Black Ribbons’, in 2004, from the ‘Destiny Stone’ album. Now, Jon, in keeping with your mention of the Socratic method (it’s great to have a philosopher on board, too!), I’ll challenge you to think about this: does the protestor, in real life, have to be of a certain class, race, gender or personality to be taken seriously? For example, Lennon wrote ‘Working Class Hero’ when he was already a millionaire. Does that matter? And, let’s get back to that point about the dearth of writing… Secondly, how do we distinguish between a sincere writer and one who is simply jumping on the bandwagon? JON So much great stuff here, Lisa, and I’m sure you have provided so much that I can get my teeth into. As much as it pains me to say this, yes, I do think a right-wing ideology has won the day. There is no significant left-wing party either in the USA or the UK. And by that I mean a belief in equality in opportunity and equality of condition, never mind anything like controlling the means of production. The USA hasn’t had such a party for decades that has been anything more than merely on the fringes of mainstream politics. And our Labour party dumped its left-wing credentials when Tony Blair got Clause 4 dropped from its constitution. Interestingly enough I think that it is called a Labour party and not a Socialist party - it is very telling. To my mind, in terms of general politics, both countries have the main parties that are definitely right of centre with very little to choose from. As such, we have arrived at what Karl Hess would see as ‘The Death of Politics’. The hegemonic power at work in society means that the general populace sees any left-wing ideology as unworkable and redundant. And with the death of the Communist experiment in the USSR and its satellite countries, I can see why people might think that. But both the USA and the UK can’t possibly even entertain any real left-wing policy. It’s got to the point where society can’t even begin to think about a left-wing solution to some of the problems of our societies. But this is a website concerned with music and I don’t want to get too sidetracked in a political debate. But I say all this as an explanation, in my eyes at least, of why I think there has been a dearth of protest music. I take your point about our collective unconscious desires, but only up to a point. I’m not a trained psychologist or psychoanalyst but while I can see Carl Jung’s general point about a human universality I’m not totally convinced that we even have a collective unconscious. On a basic level, and to borrow heavily from Freud, sometimes a wheel is just a wheel (and not a mandala). My own personal associations of a wheel may be very different from yours. Yes, we are likely to have some broad similarities coming from similar liberal-capitalist socio-economic backgrounds but I would warn against reading too much into that. And to your germane questions at the end; No, to my mind, questions of class, gender, background etc, etc, really don’t matter at all. This is all tied in to notions of ‘authenticity’ which have had a stifling stranglehold over ideological notions of ‘rock’ music. These are quite spurious to my mind. In rock music (as opposed to pop music) artists have to be seen to mean it, maaan. The voice of the author, wrongly, has been aligned with the voice of the work of art. In what other artistic medium does that happen? Certainly not in literature where the author subsumes their voice to that of the character. Does anyone criticise Mark Twain for not being Huckleberry Finn or believe that Ishmael is Herman Melville? I really have a lot to say on notions of authenticity in ‘rock’ but perhaps that is best left to another of your discussions. But, really I don’t think it matters. A songwriter can put themselves into the persona of their character and write from their point of view, much like Suzanne Vega’s ‘Luka’. And, while it might grate quite a bit when you get the likes of John Lennon banging on about a “working class hero” when he’s rolling in money, perhaps it’s not as bad as that video for ‘Imagine’ where we get a nice tour around his nice big mansion as he urges us to “imagine no possessions...” Then again Lennon, in those songs, was far from clear cut. Those working class heroes, at the end of the day were still “fucking peasants” according to him. And just because you are the son of a diplomat, just like Joe Strummer was, why should that prevent you from being a rebel and singing against the injustices of the world? Is his protest any less valid because of that? That said though some do run the risk of just sounding like empty gestures and paying lip service to a cause, or just downright patronising. A white, male singing Yoko Ono’s ‘Woman is the Nigger of the World’ would just sound utterly crass and patronising, never mind offensive. But what I detest in a lot of music is when a lot of middle class people do a bit of social tourism and start pretending to be something they are not. All too often, middle class kids, particularly in music, are just desperate to be working class as they have this warped notion that this makes them more real and authentic.. The likes of Damon Albarn are just fraudulent posers. True they can write a protest song, if they want and that’s fine, and that’s just as valid as anyone else’s, but the minute he puts on that faux ‘cock-er-nee’ accent he becomes a sham. So if I can intellectually reject that notion of authenticity in rock music (pop music doesn’t bother with such hang ups and just likes a good tune to dance around to) then I’m afraid I’m going to have to reject those notions of sincerity, too. But I understand the rationale behind it. The best any critic can do is try to distinguish between being sincere or insincere. And one possible indication is honesty. Is the songwriter telling the listener their truth as they see it? And that honesty doesn’t have to just come from the lyrics either. The images and atmosphere created by the music can have a big impact too. That’s possibly controversial enough for now. But throwing in some questions for you, I’d be interested to know if a good protest song has to have a political sense to it? And has a protest song actually done anything constructive in the cause it is promoting aside from merely raising awareness? LISA Political sense? Janis Ian’s ‘At Seventeen’ protested teen alienation and ‘Society’s Child’ shed a light on racism. Neither were overtly political, but ultimately created dialogue. I’d say raising awareness creates fertile soil for political action. That’s the connection, I see. Sometimes the art, the awareness and the resulting politics blur. Songwriter Julie Gold’s ‘From a Distance’ became an anthem for women and families in Northern Ireland during times of political unrest. That may not have been her original plan, but she was overjoyed that the song ultimately brought people together. Anyway, Jon, that was a good and exhaustive row. If this were a television show, we’d have to stop and do a toothpaste commercial. But, it isn’t. Because of the vaccine, most American kids have never heard of Polio. Maybe someday we’ll have a utopia and nobody will write or listen to a protest song. What will we row about then? Imagine.