Music - the Call to Revolution

[juslikagrzly]

For days now, the songs "Ohio" and "Chicago/We Can Change The World" by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young have been running through my head. Like the worst earworms, they are there night and day; while I'm working, while I'm eating, when I wake up. Unlike the worst earworms, they are a pleasant experience, and I believe represent my desire to act, to do, to have an impact on the current state of our country, our world.

I came of age in the mid to late 70's, when the Vietnam era was coming to a close, when hippies and revolutionaries weren't quite as visible. This music was already several years old, but even then it captivated me. It didn't activate me however.

Now that I've exposed my age, let me further expose my ignorance. Since the evolution of my musical taste seems to have atrophied in my 20's, what is out there NOW with the same messages, the same call to action? I have seen eminem's MOSH and really resonate with it (both pre and post election versions), but other than this particular song, I am completely unaware. My kids are not old enough yet to provide me with this education.

Point me in the right direction,musicologists and those in the know.

[fudge stripe cookays]

1. "Talking Bout a Revolution"-- Tracy Chapman n/t

[rman]

2. here's some

"Supa Dubya" - 4o del Tren www.supadubya.com

"Bomb the World (Armageddon version)" - Michael Franti & Spearhead

"Down with US" - S.T.O.P. www.fredwreck.com

"In a world gone mad" - Beastie Boys www.beastieboys.com

[juslikagrzly]

5. I really liked fredwreck

Thanks for the suggestions

[offcenter]

3. System of a Down

Boom! on Steal This Album, video by Michael Moore.

"Every time you drop a bomb
You kill the God your child has borne."

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

"Why must we kill our own kind?"

[Squeech]

4. Prince Myshkins

I talk about them every time a thread like this comes up.

They're two singer/songwriters, playing guitar and accordion, and they write like a cross between Phil Ochs, Tom Lehrer and Stephen Sondheim-- laugh out loud funny, and really intricate rhyme schemes, but with a distinct progressive edge. They just finished recording a full length CD called Total Myshkin Awareness, with 13 songs on it, ranging from an apolitical social satire called "Traffic Jam" to a wonderfully sarcastic reminiscence of the Reagan presidency called "I Don't Remember" to a pointed critique of the BushCo foreign policy called "A War Without an End" to a very somber number, like a fake hymn, called "Ministry of Oil."

They're gay, and I think their partnership is personal as well as professional, and sexual orientation certainly informs their lyrics and their politics. (There's one song called "Freudian Slip," originally inspired by Dick Armey calling a certain Massachusetts legislator "Barney Fag," but it goes on to document the pattern of embarrassing mis-statements by the new ruling class.) They also do things like perform at the School of the Americas demonstration every year (and they have a really clever song about that too). Check them out at http://www.hiddenagendamusic.com/myshkins. BTW, they took their name from the "hero" of Dostoevsky's novel The Idiot.

I also recommend Emma's Revolution, singer/songwriters Pat Humphries and Sandy Opatow (also a committed partnership). They write simpler, more sloganistic stuff, in the mode of Woody Guthrie or Joe Hill, but they also wrote what is in my opinion the best 9/11 song ever, a tune called "If I Give Your Name," which deals with the concept that many of the casualties were undocumented service workers (janitors, food service, elevator operators, etc.) whose equally undocumented survivors can't even talk about them, and therefore they didn't get counted (or honored) properly. Check them out at http://www.pathumphries.com.

[unionmom]

6. Where is the Love by BEP

Where is the Love by the Black Eyed Peas (Performed "Let's Get it Started" finale at convention)

http://www.lyricsondemand.com/b/blackeyedpeaslyrics/whereisthelovelyrics.html

[juslikagrzly]

7. thanks all, some good listening here! eom

[maxsolomon]

8. while political music is & always will be important to me

i'm not sure that it doesn't dissipate the revolutionary impulse by providing a healthy release for its energy.

"capitalism has the ability to turn the very venom spit in its face into a drug, and revel in it" - bertoldt brecht (i think).

[Voltaire99]

9. Public Enemy: "Son of a Bush" and "Make Love Fuck War"

The iTunes Music Store has both of these fiery raps; you can watch the videos for free. "Make Love, etc." is a collaboration with the British electronic composer Moby. These works will set your blood to boiling the way "Ohio," or, I would imagine (since we're roughly the same age) "Eve of Destruction" does.

If rap isn't your thing, try the folk-rock balladeer Steve Earle. On his CD Jerusalem are the chilling "John Walker's Blues" and "Amerika v. 6.0 (The Best We Can Do)," an anthem to our bitter social and cultural decline.

Of gentler provenance is the soulful protest music of Michael Franti and Spearhead, songs such as "Yes I Will" and "Bomb the World".

Give a listen to Amy Goodman's spectacular daily news show at democracynow.org and you'll hear plenty of engaging music played in between her reports.