Only a Pawn in Their Game

[dipsydoodle]

"Only a Pawn in Their Game" is a song written by Bob Dylan about the assassination of civil rights activist Medgar Evers. It was released on Dylan's The Times They Are a-Changin' album of 1964. The song suggests that Evers' killer does not bear sole blame for his crime, as he was only a pawn of rich white elites who incensed poor whites against blacks so as to distract them from their position on "the caboose of the train" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Only_a_Pawn_in_Their_Game

[zeemike]

1. And nothing has changed in all that time.

Poor white people are still a pawn in their game...perhaps even more so now than ever.

[stlsaxman]

2. 'amn! that was good. heard it when i was a kid when it was released.

thank you.

[Surya Gayatri]

3. Bob is humanity's voice of conscience, even though he's indifferent

to the accolades and refuses any labels.

He came out of the harsh north country and brought a poetic message of caring to the world.

[valerief]

4. If only we could hear the lyrics without the god-awful folk music.

I've never liked the music part of folk music. The message, yes, the music, ugh!

[ljm2002]

5. It may be hard to see now...

...given all the changes in music over the last 40 years... but folk music was the voice of the movement well before most rock groups even thought about carrying political messages in their music.

Folk music also includes the haunting melodies of Ireland and Scotland, bluegrass ballads, many other things... not just the mass market folk music of the 50s and 60s in the USA.

It seems a little heavy handed to dismiss folk music as a whole. Some is good, some isn't; some has stood the test of time, some hasn't. But it's the kind of music that folk can sing, and folk can play, and they don't need electric guitars or amps or fancy arrangements to do it. It has simple melodies and harmonies, and simple lyrics that can actually be understood while the music is being sung.

We need music to go with the movement today. Unfortunately, "the movement" doesn't exist as such right now -- to the extend that it does exist, the movement is still atomized, and there doesn't seem to be a thread of music for us to rally around. I'm not sure which comes first, probably it doesn't matter -- either the movement coalesces first and the music follows, or some amazing musician comes along and acts as a catalyst.

Music really has the power to move people and to inspire them to act. Why do you think the British outlawed bagpipes 'way back when...