Five to One – The Doors

Five to one was the approximate ratio of whites to black, young to old, and non-pot smokers to pot smokers in the US in 1967.  During this time, the hippie movement was in its prime and the Vietnam War was in full force.  Jim Morrison, lead singer of The Doors, wanted to gather the younger people of this time and stand up to the authorities telling everybody what to do.  “They’ve got the guns but, we got the numbers. Gonna win yeah, we’re taking over.” Jim is trying to say that even though the authorities have the power, there are more of us,  younger people and we can make a difference in America if we try.

MBe

Lynard Skynard and Sweet Home Alabama

One of the classical songs of the 70’s, Sweet Home Alabama is a special song that shows the connection between a person and the land that they call home, no matter where you are from sweet home Alabama makes you feel something. But this summer time anthem has a more political message that is easily glossed over in favor of the highly catchy chorus and down home appeal. It features both the entertaining appeal of the music while having hints of social commentary. One political message mentioned is that of former governor, George Wallace. we see this in the sections:

” In Birmingham, they love the governor (boo boo boo)
Now we all did what we could do”

“Sweet home Alabama, oh, sweet home baby
Where the skies are so blue and the governor’s true”

while some in the past interpret this as an endorsement, it was meant as a way to voice the disposal for what Wallace did regarding segregation and his treatment of Blacks in Alabama. Another political point that they bring up within the song is the mention of Watergate and Richard Nixon in the section,

“Now Watergate does not bother me
Does your conscience bother you?
Tell the truth”

This use of juxtaposition shows how the band feels about the issue of Watergate and there interpretation of it from a southern perspective as Watergate unfolded. They approach Watergate with a more laid back political  appeal as they as the question in the lines. Sweet Home Alabama is one of those songs that can easily misinterpreted when we ignore the lyrics in favor of its value of entertainment. Politically it speaks to its time and the perspective of those living in the deep south.

-Ow

Coldplay – Miracles (Someone Special)

In the song “Miracles (Someone Special)” Coldplay is celebrating the bravery of immigrants and the amazing immigrants who have already achieved amazing feats. Coldplay is urging people to stop listening to what others have to say and achieve what you want. The song is supposed to serve as positive reinforcement for those struggling with self doubt and within the song Chris Martin reassures that “You’ve got bright in your brains and lightning in your veins / You’ll go higher than they’ve ever gone / In you I see someone special” and says that following your own dreams will lead to fulfillment.

The song isn’t terribly political but it comes at a time when immigration has become a leading issue within our government. So, Coldplay’s message that immigrants can be the biggest influences and the most brave is a small testimony to the amazing feats these men and women have dealt with to find a new life, and those who are still seeking a new home. The song carries a very positive message and feeling which is why I enjoy it so much and the music video creates a very personal relationship with the viewer through old photographs and imagery.

KAS

American Skin – Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Springsteen is a legend. He’s been performing for about as long as my parents have been alive and that’s a long time. He’s made so many songs that are some of the greatest of all time like “Born to Run” or “Born in the USA“. A lot of his songs however, have great political meaning behind them and there’s no song that better showcases that than “American Skin”. This song came out pretty recently actually. The original release came out in 2001, and the new version came out in 2014. This song was inspired by the police shooting of 23 year old Guinean immigrant Amadou Diallo. Amadou Diallo was an unarmed man who only pulled out his wallet on February 4, 1999 and was shot at 41 times by 4 N.Y.P.D. police officers with 19 of them striking him just outside of his apartment. This death obviously was a big problem for people at the time of this happening as you can see in the image below that it made the cover of TIME magazine.

 

Link to video: Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band – American Skin (41 Shots …

TG

Pride – U2

Growing up I heard mostly eighties music on car rides and whenever we went to family parties. Early on I was introduced to U2, although I never realized who they were, and I came to love their sound even without comprehending the lyrics.

Along with songs such as “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and “New Year’s Day” I also heard “Pride” quite frequently whether my mother or my father was listening to it. Only more recently did I realize the political significance of this song in context to historical events. U2 is writing the song in response to Martin Luther King and his influence within the sphere of the Civil Rights Movement.

The simple lyrics with the powerful repetition of, “In the name of love / What more in the name of love” lends to the idea that MLK’s motivation throughout his life was to fight injustices in order to provide love and security for all people. The inclusion of, “Shot rings out in the Memphis sky. / Free at last, they took your life / They could not take your pride” is an important statement about the courage and sacrifice MLK’s life represents to the American people.

Many of U2’s songs carry a political message within them but “Pride” is one which is not only pointing out an issue but expressing the hope behind such things. The hope that figures can give us in fighting for a cause and the knowledge that out of terrible things there will always be a positive message to gain, or learn, from it.

KAS

Billy Joel- Leningrad

I had mentioned in one of my earlier posts how Billy Joel usually stays away from politics in his songs, well I found another example. This song is based off of Joel’s experience while he was on tour in the Soviet Union. There are two characters in the song, one being Billy Joel and the other, Victor, a Russian native that he met during one of his concerts in the USSR. His lyrics offer insight on what life was life growing up in the Cold War Era both in the United States and in the Soviet Union. Joel writes, “Victor was born /The spring of ’44/ And never saw/ His father anymore /The child of sacrifice /Child of war /Another son who never had /A father after Leningrad”. Victor lost his father in the Seige of Leningrad also knows as the Blockade of Leningrad. Adolf Hitler and the Germans planned on taking over Leningrad for strategic and geographically reasons. Leningrad was the home of Soviet arms factories and Hitler wanted to capture Leningrad so he could weaken the Soviets army. It is considered the longest siege in history along with the most casualties. Life was very tough for Victor growing up without his father and in a German controlled Leningrad.

Billy Joel experienced similar difficulties growing up during the Cold War Era. There was always the threat of a nuclear attack and it put panic in Americans throughout the country. There was a lot of tension between the two countries and no one knew when the attack could come, so the schools practiced “nuclear safety”. Just like how we have fire drills in school, they had nuclear safety drills where the kids would just crouch down under there desks thinking that they would be protected from a nuclear blow, “I was born in ’49 /A cold war kid in the McCarthy times/Stop ’em at the 38th parallel /Blast those yellow reds to hell /Cold war kids were hard to kill /Under their desks in an air raid drill”. Multiple of Joel’s friends would enlist into the Korean and Vietnam War’s and Joel expresses his displeasure with the United States involement in those countries. He is very uncertain why his buddies have to go fight over seas when the wars, in his mind, don’t have any urgent objective, “And in that bright October sun /We knew our childhood days were done /I watched my friends go off to war /What do they keep on fighting for?” Americans were not sure why we keep going to war, they figured wars wouldn’t exist anymore for the US because we were the back to back World War Champs. No one saw any reason to fight anymore.

Leningrad compares the lives of two different people from different cultures growing up during the Cold War. It was a time of tension, uneasiness, worry, and hardships. Children in the US and the Soviet Union lost their fathers at a very young age and when they became teenagers lost some of their friends as well. Joel makes the statement that these wars don’t need to be fought anymore, they are not worth the anxiety or the tragic loses.

BC

Leningrad Music Video

Leningrad Lyrics

Billy Joel- Goodnight Saigon

I consider Billy Joel to be my favorite artist of all time. I love all of his songs and I was very fortunate to see him in concert at Madison Square Garden this past summer. The concert was electric, he played most of his hits, and it was awesome to see the Piano Man live at the Mecca in NYC.

Billy Joel usually stays away from politics in his songs, but he decided to write this one about the Vietnam War and the struggles the soldiers face when they return back home. A lot of people believe that there wasn’t a clear-cut reason for fighting the war in Vietnam, while others believe it was to stop the spread of communism in Southeast Asia. The reason for the war was that if Vietnam feel to communism then it would be a domino effect and all the other countries in Southeast Asia would fall to communism as well. The problem was that a majority of the people did not support the war in Vietnam and viewed the soldiers as villains and not hero’s. This became a major controversy because nobody could quite understand the reason for this war, and the American people showed their disapproval out on the soldiers. When our troops came back home from Vietnam, they weren’t given a welcome home party. Many were harassed, called names, and looked down upon by Americans. It was a difficult adjustment for the veterans and it made life back in the States uncomfortable. Even the soldiers themselves didn’t understand why they were fighting in Vietnam.

Billy Joel had several friends who fought over in Vietnam and when they returned home they were not treated with “Free Hugs” signs or parades. They expected to come home and feel welcomed and appreciated and thankful for their service, but it was just the opposite. Joel uses this song to display his friends stories of the war and how difficult it was, “We came in spastic/Like tameless horses/We left in plastic/ As numbered corpses”. This is a very powerful and moving because it puts into perspective of how tragic the life of a soldier can be. They get shipped off to a foreign country like sardine’s, then some of them return home in plastic and flags laid on top of their coffins. Another thing that I took away from this song is that the soldiers were distracted by our government over in Vietnam to cover up the brutal dangers and realities of war. They were given Playboy’s, cigarettes, beer, food, records to distract them from thinking about the war, “We had no home front/We had no soft soap/They sent us Playboy/They gave us Bob Hope”. Soldier’s lives are as tough as it is while fighting the war, and their lives don’t need be to made tougher when they return home.

I believe that Billy Joel is one of the best lyricists and writers of his time. This songs does a very good job of describing what life was like for a soldier fighting in Vietnam. Even though it isn’t heavily political it still offers insight on what soldiers went through during the Vietnam War.

Lyrics

Goodnight Saigon Song/Video

BC

Creedence Clearwater Revival and Fortunate Son

As one of the most highly protested events in American history, the Vietnam War was attacked and debated due to the American peoples not wanting to be in a war in which they did not understand and likewise didn’t want to fight. It was because of this opposition The Vietnam War that we saw mass demonstrations and protest, as well as music that voices the disapproval and protests the Vietnam War. One of the most popular Vietnam war protest song is that of Creedence Clearwater Revival and Fortunate Son. In the song Fortunate Son, Creedence Clearwater Revival  gives voice to the many people who felt anti-patriotic and opposed the war and the draft as well as what the United States was doing . The song attempts to show the gross inequality between the low classes, who could not buy there way out of the war they were being forced to be apart of,and the high class, who had the means to pay could get out of the draft and the war via college.Creedence Clearwater Revival places themselves in the same grouping as those who are opposed to the war but are likewise forced to fight as a result of the draft. We see this in lines such as “Some folks are born made to wave the flag, Ooh they’re red, white and blue,And when the band plays Hail to the Chief Ooh, they point the cannon at you, Lord” or “Some folks inherit star spangled eyes, Ooh, they send you down to war, Lord, And when you ask them, “How much should we give?”,Ooh, they only answer More, more, more!”. These lines say to me that those who are patriotic have gone beyond what’s right to something more excessive and wrong for the American people. As one of the most popular protest songs of the Vietnam War, Fortunate Son is the representation of a larger American feeling toward the Vietnam War as voiced through Creedence Clearwater Revival. Links for the lyrics and song are provided below 

Lyrics: https://genius.com/Creedence-clearwater-revival-fortunate-son-lyrics

Song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40JmEj0_aVM

Ow

Twisted Logic – Coldplay

Coldplay is my absolute favorite band. I have willingly paid to buy the whole Parachutes album on my phone when I could have simply streamed it on Spotify for free. Amongst my favorite songs by them is “Twisted Logic” because of how catchy it is and the important message being portrayed in the lyrics.

The lyrics are speaking to how everything that is made can be unmade. The lyrics also speak to how things can move forward, advances and discoveries, but then they can move backwards as well due to issues and barriers. This can also be symbolic of a person’s struggles within themselves and their lives, relating to the highs and lows.

There’s also the lyrics:

Created, then drilled and invaded
If somebody made it
Someone will mess it up
And you are not wrong to
Ask who does this belong to?
It belongs to all of us

Which brings into question property and the rights of all people in the world  to resources and riches. What is truly ours? Everything on the planet should be shared between all people but most of it isn’t. So, this song dares to answer that question and to challenge the way people view a country’s foreign affairs.

KAS

Waiting On the World to Change – John Mayer

There are certain songs that not everyone necessarily likes, but everyone knows.  Waiting On the World to Change by John Mayer is one of those songs.  It is such a popular song because along with being catchy, it has a strong message, and that speaks to a lot of people.  That is a strategy that several artists use when writing a song that has a social and/or political message, and Mayer did that successfully.  Even though it was released in 2006, the song still has so much political and social relevance that it could have been written yesterday.  The world of politics today is very controversial, especially since Trump has been in office, and people want to see positive change, just as they did in 2006.

I personally really like this song, and I really respect the message.  It is hard to beat a system that is in many ways corrupt, but it is possible.  Mayer also references the fact that a lot of the news is corrupt, and we only know what they want us to know, and a lot of news is biased so it is even harder to get the truth out of everything that is happening in the world.  All we really want is a peaceful world without war and without government corruption, and Mayer is speaking to that time.  The time when we are finally at a peaceful place in the world, and when the world finally changes for the better.

GT