Playlist – Page 77 – The Wrongologist

Friday Music Break – September 12, 2014

Today’s music break is a reflection on 9/11. It’s still hard to process those events, despite the millions of words written about the attacks. Musically speaking, it was a very creative time. But there were bad calls too. After the attack, a Clear Channel program director took it upon himself to identify a number of songs that certain markets or individuals may find insensitive: No less than 165 songs were purportedly banned, ranging from Peter Paul and Mary’s “Leaving on a Jet plane,” to Sugar Ray’s “Fly,” to REM’s “The End of the World as We Know It”, and all songs (!) by Rage Against the Machine.

The music created in the aftermath of 9/11 documents America reacting to our collective trauma. There is sentimentalism. Anger. Calls to arms. Revenge. This long after 9/11, you already know many of the tunes that, like in church, are played on each anniversary, and you know where to find them, they are not here today.

For the 13th anniversary, here are a few songs (and a short film by Woody Allen) that you may not have heard/seen as much that memorialize how we felt after the attacks.

Among the best songs produced after the attack is On That Day by Leonard Cohen from his 2004 album, Dear Heather. Cohen is simply “holding the fort” for a “wounded New York.” No pointing fingers, no aggression, its a healing number to get you started on your day of reflection:

Here is the key lyric:
Some people say
It’s what we deserve
For sins against god
For crimes in the world
I wouldn’t know
I’m just holding the fort
Since that day
They wounded New York

If there was nuanced reaction to 9/11, it was Springsteen’s 2002 album, The Rising. With “You’re Missing,” Springsteen translates the horror of 9/11 into raw pain:

Lyric:
Pictures on the nightstand, TV’s on in the den
Your house is waiting, your house is waiting
For you to walk in, for you to walk in
But you’re missing, when I shut out the lights
You’re missing, when I close my eyes
You’re missing, when I see the sun rise
You’re missing

Children are asking if it’s alright
Will you be in our arms tonight?

Next, from the British band James, here is Hey Ma. James’ lead singer Tim Booth sings, “Now the towers have fallen, so much dust in the air,” on this title track from the Brit-pop group’s 10th studio album. The song examines the price paid for revenge. Many of us felt a need to avenge the wrong that was done, perhaps by making “choices worse than the fall.” Some images are disturbing:

Next, Juliana Hatfield takes us through the early parts of the 5 stages of grief with her song, “Hole In The Sky”. This is a conversation by the artist and DJ George Bodarky on WFUV, Fordham radio,with her song mostly in background. Hatfield admits that she was terrified about going into New York City after the 9/11 tragedy. She was also too afraid to fly. She talks about creating some of the lines in the song as well:

Finally, a short film by Woody Allen made for the Concert For New York City, 2001. Watch it and laugh:

Best lines:
“I was mugged coming back from the Opera. They took my gas mask, my flashlight, all my Cipro™“.
(You may remember that Cipro™ was for the deeply paranoid who thought that there would be anthrax attacks)

Bebe Neuwirth: “I heard that Rudy Giuliani and Al Sharpton got a house together on Fire Island”

Friday Music Break – September 5, 2014

Labor Day is in the rear view mirror. November, and control of the Senate, should be our focus, not ISIS and Ukraine. In fact, the more we focus on foreign affairs, it is less likely it is that we will discuss domestic issues, and the more likely it is that voter turnout will be low in November.

So, let’s think a bit about food insecurity (and music). Economic times are tough for a great swath of our citizens. From the Wall Street Journal:

On Wednesday the Agriculture Department released the results of its annual Household Food Security in the United States survey for 2013. According to the USDA survey, 14.3% of U.S. households—some 49 million Americans—were “food insecure at least some time during the year in 2013.” The decrease from 14.5% of households in 2012 was “not statistically significant.”

This has been a familiar story for a long time in America. Today, we will listen to only one song, done three ways. The song is “Hard Times Come Again No More”. It was written in 1854 by Stephen C. Foster, America’s pioneer songwriter. Foster was born July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of US Independence. That is the same day that Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died. There was a short, sharp recession in 1854 that saw an 18% drop in economic activity. As in all recessions and depressions, the poor got hit the hardest. Here are some of Foster’s lyrics from 160 years ago:

Let us pause in life’s pleasures and count its many tears,
While we all sup sorrow with the poor;
There’s a song that will linger forever in our ears;
Oh hard times come again no more.
Chorus:
Tis the song, the sigh of the weary,
Hard Times, hard times, come again no more
Many days you have lingered around my cabin door;
Oh hard times come again no more.

Even though it sounds as if it could have been written recently, this is a traditional piece of American music. Food insecurity has been around for a long, long time.

Here are James Taylor and Yo Yo Ma performing the song. It is from the CD “Appalachian Journey“. James Taylor and Yo Yo Ma are joined by Edgar Meyer and Mark O’Connor:

James Taylor and company do a lovely job. The sad part is that it demonstrates that not much has changed in the past century and a half: the poor still suffer in this land of plenty.

Next, Mavis Staples recorded the song in 2004 as part of the CD “Beautiful Dreamer – The Songs of Stephen Foster“:

Finally, a rousing version from Tommy Fleming, who has been called the “Voice of Ireland” and is one of Ireland’s top entertainers. This song is from the “Voice Of Hope” DVD Recorded at Knock Basilica, in County Mayo:

Steven Foster’s prayer, “Hard Times Come Again No More” has not been answered in 160 years.

Labor Day Weekend 2014

Labor Day 2014:

(Sunday Cartoon Blogging will return in earnest next Sunday)

We pause once a year on the first Monday in September to commemorate Labor Day, a celebration of (and by) the American worker. Sadly, we live to work and we work to live, and we complain about it all week.Our real national pastime is bitching about our salaries and our jerk bosses. Here are a few Labor Day songs that are not part of the typical songs you associate with Labor Day.

And before you ask, “Where’s ‘Take This Job and Shove It’”? That’s an ANTI-work song. Despite the Wrongologist’s support for the sentiment, it doesn’t qualify. Remember, wealth does not create labor, labor creates wealth.

So, play ‘em loud, even if you’re in your cubicle.

First, here is “Salt of the Earth” by the Rolling Stones, written by Keith Richards and Mick Jagger. It was on Beggar’s Banquet:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZGPcRyyvc0

The first stanza is the one you remember, but the 4th and 5th are the Wrongologist’s favorites:
Raise your glass to the hard working people
Let’s drink to the uncounted heads
Let’s think of the wavering millions
Who need leaders but get gamblers instead

Spare a thought for the stay-at-home voter
His empty eyes gaze at strange beauty shows
And a parade of the gray suited grafters
A choice of cancer or polio

Next, “Bright Future in Sales” by Fountains of Wayne, recorded in Chicago in 2009:

Best line:

I got a new computer
And a bright future in sales

Next, “Working for the weekend” by the Canadian band Loverboy. This performance is from 1986:

Technically, now that it’s 2014, the difference is that Everybody is Working ON the weekend.

Here is “Factory” by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band on 10/2/09 at Giants Stadium.

Factory is a simple 3 stanza song. The meditation on labor isn’t simple though:

Through the mansions of fear, through the mansions of pain,
I see my daddy walking through them factory gates in the rain,
Factory takes his hearing, factory gives him life,
The working, the working, just the working life.

We close with “Working Class Hero” by John Lennon. This was on his first post-Beatles album in 1970, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. Since the song contains the F-word, many radio stations banned it. The Georgetown University student station, WGTB was investigated by the FCC for playing the song after a Congressman filed a complaint. The station manager, under threat of a $10,000 fine and a year in prison, replied:

The people of Washington are sophisticated enough to accept the occasional four-letter word in context and not become sexually aroused, offended, or upset.

The history of WGTB, a radical-liberal student station inside a conservative, Jesuit university was a great example of the 1970’s counterculture wars. You can read about it here. Now, the video:

The lyric tells the story of growing up to be middle class, back when middle class wasn’t working class:

There’s room at the top they are telling you still
But first you must learn how to smile as you kill
If you want to be like the folks on the hill

Friday Music Break – August 29, 2014

Welcome to the start of the Labor Day weekend. Despite Ukraine, Syria, ISIS, Uzis in the hands of 9 year-olds, and the omnipresent Mitch McConnell, we are here today to listen to songs about the end of summer. The Wrongologist thinks Labor Day feels more like New Year’s, that it is the start of something new. New academic year, the annual budgeting process in corporate America. Oh, and Congress returns from its self-imposed exile in their districts.

First up, The White Stripes “We are gonna be friends” takes you back to grammar school days when it was time to get back to school. It was the opening song in the movie, Napoleon Dynamite.

Here is a sample of their lyrics:

fall is here, hear the yell
back to school, ring the bell
brand new shoes, walkin’ blues
climb the fence, books and pens
I can tell that we are gonna be friends
yes I can tell that we are gonna be friends

Next up, a new band, Echosmith. They are 4 California siblings who make music that critics call alt-pop. Whatever. The songs are lightweight and summery, the ideal indie pop jams for when you’re a teen, cruising around, or getting ready to go out with your friends. This one shows teen angst about not being one of the cool kids. It’s called “Cool Kids”.

Here is the lyric:

I wish that I could be like the cool kids cuz all the cool kids, they seem to get it

Summer doesn’t end without the Wrongologist thinking about “Maggie May” by Rod Stewart, since we all have to get back to something at the end of summer. Here is an acoustic version by the Rodster. Note Ronnie Wood of the Rolling Stones and formerly of Faces along with Stewart, is playing guitar:

Apparently, Stewart wrote this about the first woman he had sex with. It is unclear whether her name was Maggie. Here is the Wrongologist’s favorite stanza:

I suppose I could collect my books and get on back to school
Or steal my daddy’s cue and make a living out of playing pool
Or find myself a rock and roll band that needs a helping’ hand
Oh Maggie I wish I’d never seen your face

While we usually have a set of 3 songs, today it is 4. Can’t close without “Summer Skin” by Death Cab for Cutie. The song is about more than just a summer romance ending, it’s about youth and carefree days ending, and how subtle those endings can be. It is from their album, “Plans”.

Here are the lyrics:

Squeaky swings and tall grass
The longest shadows ever cast
The water’s warm and children swim
And we frolicked about in our summer skin

I don’t recall a single care
Just greenery and humid air
Then Labor day came and went
And we shed what was left of our summer skin

On the night you left I came over
And we peeled the freckles from our shoulders
Our brand new coats so flushed and pink
And I knew your heart I couldn’t win
Cause the season’s change was a conduit
And we’d left our love in our summer skin

Friday Music Break – August 22, 2014

Continuing our national meditation on Ferguson, MO, Here are three songs about guns and state power:

First, “Guns of Brixton”, written by The Clash bassist Paul Simonon. The song pre-dates the riots that took place in 1981 and again in 1985 in Brixton, but the lyrics depict the feelings of discontent that were building due to the heavy-handedness of the police, and the recession at that time in England.

You can see The Clash perform this song all over the web. Here is the great Jimmy Cliff doing his take on their reggae-inflected song. Few remember that thirty years ago, the Clash were booed off the stage at Reggae Sunsplash in Jamaica.

The line we like:

When they kick out your front door
How you gonna come?
With your hands on your head
or on the trigger of your gun?

Next, here is Green Day doing “21 Guns”, an anti-gun, anti-war anthem from their eighth album, 21st Century Breakdown. The line we like is up first:

Do you know what’s worth fighting for?
When it’s not worth dying for?
Does it take your breath away and you feel yourself suffocating?
Does the pain weigh out the pride?
And you look for a place to hide?

Finally, “Ohio” from Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. It was released as a single in June of 1970, about a month after the May 4, 1970 shooting by the Ohio National Guard that killed 4 and wounded 9 students. In thirteen seconds, the guardsmen fired 67 rounds. If it hadn’t only been 3 years after the Newark NJ riot where the Guard killed 26, and if the Guard hadn’t killed white students at Kent State, we might not remember it today. Indeed, few remember that eleven days later, 2 more students were killed under similar circumstances at what was then Jackson State College in Jackson, MS, a historically black school.

Eight of the Ohio guardsmen were indicted by a grand jury. The guardsmen claimed to have fired in self-defense. In 1974, the Judge dismissed charges against all eight on the basis that the prosecution’s case was too weak to warrant a trial. But we still remember: “4 dead in Ohio”.

Friday Music Break – August 15, 2014

With all that is happening this week in Ferguson, MO, we need to reflect on the struggles and violence that were hallmarks of the Civil Rights movement. Here are three songs from America’s Civil Rights era, which some amongst us (that’s you, SCOTUS) think has no relevance to what is happening in America today. They are of course, wrong.

We start with “Keep Your Eyes On The Prize“, an influential folk song during the American civil rights movement. Although the song was composed as a hymn well before World War I, the lyrics to this version were written by civil rights activist Alice Wine in 1956. It is based on the traditional song, “Gospel Plow”, which is also known as “Hold On”, and “Keep Your Hand On The Plow”.

In this version from 2006, Bruce Springsteen starts the vocal, but then Marc Anthony Thompson (with hat) comes in and joins him, it becomes a great soul-stirring duet. Thompson has recorded under the name Chocolate Genius.

Next, “A Change Is Gonna Come” by the great Sam Cooke. It was a 1964 single, first recorded in 1963 and released under the RCA Victor label shortly after Cooke’s death in late 1964:

Here is Pete Seeger singing “We Shall Overcome” live in 1963. You may not know that the words and music were written by Zilphia Horton, Frank Hamilton, Guy Carawan and Pete Seeger.

The story behind the story of We shall Overcome is that the song is based on the early hymn “U Sanctissima.” Charles Albert Tindley, a minister in Philadelphia, added new words in 1901 and called his new hymn “I’ll Overcome Some Day.” In the ensuing decades, the song became a favorite at black churches throughout the American south, often sung as “I Will Overcome.” Apparently, the song was brought to a workshop at the Highlander Folk School in Monteagle, TN. The school’s cultural director was Zilphia Horton. Pete Seeger visited the school and changed “We will overcome” to “We shall overcome.” Guy Carawan, a great folk artist who plays the hammer dulcimer, was then a music director at the Highlander School. He introduced it to civil rights activists during a Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) meeting in 1960. Frank Hamilton was in Seeger’s band. The copyright omits Charles A. Tindley.

Let’s remember these words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr:

“I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. That is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant…In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”

Please don’t be silent.

Friday Music Break – August 8, 2014

Today we feature three songs inspired by New Orleans and the August 29, 2005 Katrina disaster that killed 1833 souls.

We start with Steve Earle and the song he wrote for the HBO series Treme, “This City”. He explains the genesis of the song in the intro:

The recording is from BBC4 and he is accompanied by Diana Jones and Tom Morello, a person with great guitar chops and an even better social conscience.

Next, The subdudes. And yes, that’s a small “s”. Their sound is notable for the band’s substitution of a tambourine player for a drummer. The song is “Poor Man’s Paradise” from the 2007 album, Street Symphony, produced by George Massenberg, who produced with the Wrongologist’s favorite, Little Feat (that would be the Lowell George iteration of the band).

Finally, here is a Treme funeral scene that is followed by a traditional Second Line parade in honor of the dearly departed. Khandi Alexander’s performance in this scene is amazing. The idea of your loved ones dancing down the street after you go is very New Orleans and very comforting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-iZUhHjXi8

Laissez les bon temps rouler mon amis!

Friday Music Break – August 1, 2014

Today we leave geopolitics, power and political economy to concentrate on the power of music. We feature three songs by Lake Street Dive. The band is named after a street in Minneapolis with many dive bars, where band member Mike “McDuck” Olson (trumpet, guitar) grew up. (He grew up in Minneapolis, not in the dive bars or on the street). Rachel Price is the lead vocalist, Bridget Kearney plays the bass and Mike Calabrese is on drums.

The group explores jazz and soul with occasional country or folk. There is something decidedly old-fashioned about them, and not just because of the stand-up bass or Rachel Price’s vintage skirts. It is the “feel” of its music which, as with most jazz, is as important as any solo, lyric, or any one song.

This first song sounds like an old standard, but it was written by Rachel Price:

This song was published in April. The band was formed in 2004, so they are 10 years into their journey. It isn’t completely surprising that the video above is not really Lake Street Dive. It is Rachael Price in studio, backed by LSD. Let’s hope she doesn’t forget the fine horse she rode in on.

Next, Lake Street Dive performs “Use Me Up” at the great WFUV, Fordham University radio, live in Studio A. Recorded on 11/30/12:

Finally, a cover of Michael Jackson’s “I want you back” recorded outdoors in Boston where the band met:

Friday Music Break – July 25, 2014

Today we say hello and goodbye to Black 47. The band got started in 1989 by Larry Kirwan and Chris Byrne. Its name comes from the traditional term for the summer of 1847, the worst year of the Great Irish Famine. They developed a niche, playing a combination of traditional Celtic music infused with Rap and other contemporary rock genres.

B47 is an unblinkingly political band, playing rock ‘n’ roll based on Irish roots, with songs covering topics from the Northern Ireland troubles to US civil rights, Iraq and urban unrest in contemporary New York.

Heart, intellect and a high value on freedom, is what Black 47 is all about. The Wrongologist has been a fan since the early 1990’s. The group will amicably disband on November 8, 2014, exactly 25 years after their first gig in the Bronx.

Right after 9/11, Black 47 appeared regularly at Connolly’s Pub in Manhattan, playing what Kirwan has described as intensely emotional shows in order to provide fans who had lost loved ones an outlet for their grief and loss. Those shows were channeled into their album New York Town.

But let’s go back to an earlier time. Here is “Green Suede Shoes” off their 1996 album of the same name:

Lastly, here is “Downtown Baghdad Blues” from their CD IRAQ. IRAQ came out in 2008 and was popular with troops serving in Iraq and it was written in part, from soldiers’ letters:

Here are the first and last stanzas of Downtown Baghdad Blues’ lyrics:

Got a buddy in Najaf, he’s playing it straight
Prays to the Lord Jesus Christ every night
Got a homey in Samarra goin’ up the wall
Every time he hear an Islamic prayer call
Me, I don’t care much for Jesus or Mohammed
They don’t stop bullets to the best of my knowledge
Later for the both of you, catch you in eternity
Hopefully, towards the end of this century

I didn’t want to come here, I didn’t get to choose,
I got the hup, two, three, four Downtown Baghdad Blues.

Mission accomplished, yeah, up on deck
Got no armor for my Humvee, left facin’ this train wreck
Shia don’t like me, want Islamic Revolution
Sunni say civil war is part of the solution
Maybe someday there’ll be peace in Fallujah
McDonald’s on the boulevard, Cadillac cruisin’
I’m tryin’ hard to keep this whole thing straight
But will someone tell me what am I doin’ here in the first place?

Friday Music Break – July 18, 2014

Tommy Ramone died last Friday, and now there are no more founding members of the Ramones. Most of their contemporaries—the Clash, Sex Pistols, Talking Heads, Television, Blondie—still have living members. Key players from forebears like the Stooges, the New York Dolls, the MC5, and the Velvets are still here, but not Lou Reed. A few Beatles, Beach Boys, and all of the Stones are alive.

Although the Ramones had a great sense of humor, they were no joke. The Ramones were not art rock, or overblown like Yes and Genesis, they were originals. The Ramones never had a hit. But now, their music is played in stadiums, and even babies wear their t-shirts.

Credit Hilly Kristal, founder of CBGB’s for giving them a place to play. The Ramones reminded us that two minutes was long enough for a song, and that first and foremost, rock should be fun. From Bob Lefsetz:

They emerged fully-formed, their debut opened with the legendary ’Blitzkrieg Bop’ and segued into ‘Beat on the Brat,’ that’s what you do with a baseball bat…

And then came their masterpiece, “Rocket To Russia“. “Rockaway Beach” could have been a Beach Boys tune. That album also had “Sheena is a Punk Rocker”. Rockaway Beach was an early haunt for the young Wrongologist. And on “Road To Ruin” was the band’s apotheosis, “I Wanna Be Sedated.”

Here is “I Wanna Be Sedated”:

And a bonus, “Rock ‘n Roll High School” from the album, “End of the Century“, arranged by Phil Spector:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQFEo5pj-V8

The Wrongologist

Geopolitics, Power and Political Economy

Category: Playlist