Shuttin' Detroit down
What do we get when the bards are in bed with The Man? No protest songs, for one. Those we expect to speak truth to power have instead become its cheerleaders so we'll have to look elsewhere for the Woody Guthries of the 21st century. Enter, from right field, John Rich: "I see all these big shots whining on my evening news / About how they're losing billions and it's up to me and you / To come running to the rescue."
"Well that old man's been working in that plant most all his life/ Now his pension plan's been cut in half and he can't afford to die." John Rich wrote Shuttin' Detroit Down in January after watching a television report about the $1.2 million spent by John Thain, CEO of the now-bankrupt Merrill Lynch financial services company, on "remodeling" his office. The video of Shuttin' Detroit Down, which features Mickey Rourke and Kris Kristofferson, will be released shortly.
Comments
Check out the very man that you ironically mention at the end of your article; Kris Kristofferson if you want a Woody Guthrie of the 21st, indeed the 20th Century. He's long been a voice of truth and conviction for the "ordinary" American on the ground as well as for the isolated, the betrayed and the disillusioned around the world. When you want poetry, truthful and powerful, it doesn't get much better than from the pen of KK.
Try these for samples:
Where the young men’s brave new visions
Threaten old men’s selfish dreams
And they try and kill your spirit
With their money and machines
And they call it “Communism”
But they don’t know what it means
In the Third World War
And the rich keep getting richer
And as wrong as they are right
While the poor become the victims
Of the armies of the night
And the odds are never even
And the skins are never white
In the Third World War
Broken rules and dirty warriors
Spreading lies and secret funds
Can't defeat the Campisino
With their money and the guns
For he’s fighting for his future
And his freedom and his sons
In the Third World War
("Third World War" written during and about the Reagan regime
which actually tried to censor Kristofferson)
Burning up the atmosphere and cutting down the trees
And the billion dollar bombing of a nation on its knees
Anyone not marching to their tune they call it treason
Everyone claims God is on their side
(From “In the News” written during the Bush and about the Bush regime)
Hundreds more have come from his prolific pen. All send deep messages but
“The Circle: A Song for Layla Al-Attar and Los Olvidados” , “Mal Sacate” and “Don’t let the Bastards get you down” are particularly poignant when the theme is political.
Check his stuff out, many are on youtube.
Posted by: shoulderghost | April 5, 2009 5:29 AM
A few additions to my last post.
In the late ‘70’s Kris Kristofferon prophetically wrote, in the “Eagle and the Bear”,
“Tonight I pray to God for Nicaragua
And the courage of El Salvador, today
And I’ll say, until the day they free, Mandela
All the world will be in chains”
Eventually no choice remained as the eyes and the moral conscience of the world
eventually got to Mandela's captors.
And again prophetically and very bravely in the mid-80’s KK penned,
“A Ballad to Jesse Jackson” This was when it was easier and far more popular
to try and silence “black” America.
“He was walking with his brothers through the streets of Alabama,
He was marching next to Martin when he died,
Working face to face in Cuba,
In Managua, Nicaragua,
He hasn’t beat the devil but he’s tried
So, hang on there, Jesse Jackson,
There’s better world a coming
Where a man can hope, a man can show some heart,
Just keep write on believing,
In the better side of human,
They ain’t ready for you yet, but it’s a start,
And you’ll nail 'em when you hit ‘em in the heart”
To combine sheer observance with poetic beauty amounts to magic. Perhaps that “better world” hasn’t come but I do believe that the world
has finally got to listen to the likes of Jesse Jackson, whether it’s ready
for it or not. America seems to be ready to listen at the moment. They’re even listening
to the French again…long long time gone!
Oh! Just thank God, for Kristofferson. Shakespeare could neither sing or play music.
Posted by: shoulderghost | April 5, 2009 12:58 PM