Cape Cod Acoustics
  • Home
  • Your Lessons
  • Performance services offered
  • About Gene
  • Contact
  • Guitars, Ukes & Accessories
  • Acoustic Guitar Blog
  • Tips for guitarists
  • Guitar Gallery
  • More...

Protest songs

9/12/2015

0 Comments

 
My buddy Tony Obermeit in Australia always has good ideas for this space (maybe I should get him to be a guest columnist?) and he recently suggested an entry about social activism in music. Tony said that he has strong political beliefs but keeps them to himself when playing music with others or performing and I certainly understand that. My experience and observations have confirmed over the years that all you’re going to do is “preach to the choir” or piss off people with opposing views; no one’s mind is going to be changed. So why do it?

Expressing political views through music is nothing new. You can find examples of it going back hundreds of years. But in this country you can pretty much start with Woody Guthrie. Every time I hear “This Land is Your Land” sung by some country artist who usually demonstrates extreme right wing views I have to wonder if he ever bothered to read the third or fourth verses of that great song? Likewise, whenever I play and sing John Lennon’s “Imagine” and I get to the part about “Imagine no possessions, I wonder if you can?” I can’t help but see an image in my mind of Lennon driving his Rolls Royce – or performing that very song on his white Steinway grand piano in his mansion in the idyllic English countryside. Please excuse my cynicism.

Woody Guthrie DID live the words of his songs. So did other folk singers with deeply held beliefs such as Pete Seeger and Oscar Brand. Their legacy was continued into the 1960s with the advent of “protest music.” But staying absolutely true to your beliefs and expressing them in music is not an easy thing. Bob Marley, whose message of universal love and acceptance tempered with the need for change lead to him taking a bullet that almost ended his all-too-brief life. On a slightly lesser plane, the Dixie Chicks were on the top of the country world until they expressed their opposition to the policies of George W. Bush and the ensuing outrage from their right-wing fans all but destroyed their careers.

Dylan is something else again. His early songs of protest are some of the most insightful, poignant and searing of any ever written but before long he stopped writing those types of songs. He basically said: here they are. Do with them what you will. But do not expect me to lead the charge. I have other places to go.

This amazed and even angered many people at the time but Bob couldn’t have cared less. You have to respect that.

But on a personal level as players of music on a much smaller scale, what value do politically charged songs really have? My opinion is that if they make you feel good to play them, fine. Don’t expect to change anyone’s mind. The biggest danger is a “protest song” becoming a thinly veiled ego statement: If you are as smart as me, you will agree with what I’m singing. If not, you’re just not well informed, or dumb, or both.

The bottom line may be that there is a basic human need to let out ALL our emotions, and deeply held political beliefs are a very emotional thing. Some performers and writers of songs just can’t help themselves. Like so many other emotions they don’t know any other way to express those emotions in a way that is both unmistakable and immediate. Some people care about the reaction they get from that expression, some really don’t care at all.

Today is the day after the anniversary of the most tragic event in modern American history. I will never forget the concert that was televised soon after featuring the New York Philharmonic playing Barber’s Adagio for Strings, perhaps the most heart-rending piece of music ever written, in honor of the lives lost. The effect was life-changing, as was the terrible event it framed. On a deeper level, I have to believe that hearing that music helped people search into their hearts to begin to find some meaning in what had occurred. And that is the ultimate and perfect effect of political music.

Peace & good music,

Gene

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Gene Bourque

    Archives

    June 2022
    May 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    November 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed