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Title: 'We Shall Overcome' The comback of protest songs
Source:
Boston Globe
URL Source: http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ed ... 5/06/we_shall_overcome?mode=PF
Published: May 9, 2006
Author: Robert Kuttner
Post Date: 2006-05-09 01:45:21 by Morgana le Fay
Keywords: None
Views: 61109
Comments: 124
''THIS IS our first gig," said Bruce Springsteen. ''I hope it goes OK." With that, The Boss and his 18-piece Seeger Sessions Band opened their set with a rocking rendition of ''Oh, Mary, Don't You Weep." As an act of solidarity with this doubly ravaged city, Springsteen began his homage to Pete Seeger tour here, at ground zero of everything ruinous about the people who now run our country. The 37th annual Jazz and Heritage Festival was playing to a smaller, whiter crowd than usual in half-abandoned New Orleans. It would be hard to imagine a more poignant or uplifting marriage of musician, impulse, venue, and moment. Lately, musicians as diverse as Neil Young, Pearl Jam, Green Day, Paul Simon, and Ani di Franco have followed the same impulse. This is surely the time and the place. Commentators solemnly billed Hurricane Katrina as the flood that laid bare awkward truths of class and race in America. It did -- for a vivid week, and then we turned away. By a fine accident of timing, I came here for a conference on what Katrina revealed -- and found plenty of surprises. Downtown and the tourist French Quarter, which got priority federal attention, look as if Katrina had never happened. But the outlying scale of devastation is far more extensive, and the federal default of government more staggering, than one could imagine. Of 485,000 people who lived here before Katrina, only about 165,000 remain. New Orleans had high rates of black home ownership. But tens of thousands of homeowners are trapped in a horrific Catch-22 because of cascading federal failures. In huge swaths of the city, basic public services are unrestored, so people can't return to viable houses. Mountains of stinking rubbish -- once the stuff of homes and lives -- lie uncollected on front yards. FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, decided to clear inhabited areas first. It just never returned to pick up the rest. Tens of thousands of homes could be renovated and reoccupied. But instead of making emergency rehab grants or loans, FEMA spends $90,000 per trailer, often parked in front yards, while black mold relentlessly ruins structurally sound houses. FEMA was slow to revise federal flood insurance guidelines. Without federal flood coverage, no private insurance flows and people can't get bank loans. So extensive salvageable areas remain unoccupied. Meanwhile, the 2006 hurricane season arrives June 1, but the levees are restored only to withstand a mild category 2 storm. Filling some of the vacuum left by the Bush default, heroic work is being done by volunteers, from Habitat for Humanity, ACORN, and several churches and trade unions. Many live in a tent city -- which FEMA now plans to tear down June 1. Springsteen toured all this, appalled. He composed two new stanzas to the 1929 song, ''How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live?" including, ''[Bush] gave a little pep talk, said I'm with you, then he took a walk." Springsteen elicited loud cheers when he deplored the government's ''criminal irresponsibility." A small plane circled, towing an ''Impeach Bush" banner. New Orleans heroically pulled itself together to bring off this Fest. Held on a racetrack grounds, the fair has nine simultaneous performance spaces going all day, a crafts section, kids' tent, and a food midway where New Orleans's finest chefs serve such specialties as artichoke and oyster soup and gourmet jambalaya ladled from murky oil drums at $5 a bowl. As the field dried out from a drenching rain, I gloriously wandered from Willis Prudhomme and the Zydeco Express to the gospel tent to a medley of everything from brass bands, Dixieland funeral music, back to more zydeco, to blues. By 5:30, when Springsteen strode onto the main stage, following New Orleans legend Allen Toussaint, the sun was shining. Like Seeger's, the Springsteen repertoire included not just political songs such as ''Keep Your Eyes on the Prize," but the whimsical bits of Americana that Seeger loved, like ''(Get Out of the Way,) Old Dan Tucker." And when Springsteen began ''We Shall Overcome," the crowd, both the '60s generation and youngsters who had seen it only on TV joined uplifted hands, swayed, and sang along, without irony. If anyone can reintroduce songs of protest to a new mass audience, making that much-reworked tradition fresh, it is the sunny, exuberant Springsteen. Folk music was, of course, the original popular culture. Sometimes, the borrowings of commercial pop from folk music are cheesy and opportunistic (say, the Byrds' version of Seeger). Other times, the result is a powerful, authentic synthesis, as in the work of Ry Cooder, Bob Dylan, and John Lennon at their best, New Orleans's own Randy Newman, who wrote the original flood anthem three decades ago, ''Louisiana: They're trying to wash us away," and now Springsteen. Like protest music, you never know when protest itself will recur. As Springsteen packed up and our conference began, millions not ''Born In The USA" were assembling across America to declare their dignity as working people and human beings. They also sang. America today is depressing, but music adds energy and spirit to the protest imperative. Song is an inherently collective ritual that reminds us that we are not alone. You may say that I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. Robert Kuttner is co-editor of The American Prospect. His column appears regularly in the Globe. Post Comment Private Reply Bookmark
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Comments (1-40) not displayed.
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#41. To: CapnCarlos (#35)
Lame. The Great Gatsby. And at your age...
Free David Irving!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Free Gotovina!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Free Eric Rudolph!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hook him up with a "My space" account.
Click Here for the "Jhoffa VS Mudboy Slim official fight thread"
You won't believe this, but we've already tried that...
Free David Irving!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Free Gotovina!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Free Eric Rudolph!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
you are not that icky when you are just a voice on the net. it doesn't bother me. anyway, your personality wouldn't fit with someone who was young and attractive.
Go to bed, gramma.. the civilized young adults trying to talk gatsby.
Click Here for the "Jhoffa VS Mudboy Slim official fight thread"
LOL!
Let me put it this way, I'm younger than Tull and Dakmar. And yes, it is very noticeable.
Free David Irving!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Free Gotovina!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Free Eric Rudolph!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
wow, you seem so old and grouchy. find out what tull and dakmar do and copy it.
Dakmar seems to have escaped. I was going to lecture him on why and how Scott Fitzgerald was communist mind-control expert.
Free David Irving!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Free Gotovina!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Free Eric Rudolph!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I prefer, "acerbic." I identify principally with Evelyn Waugh.
Free David Irving!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Free Gotovina!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Free Eric Rudolph!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Are you gonna take that stuff from her? Go on, tell her who's boss.. dammit. Threaten to take away "the vote" That'll show her you're not messing around.
Click Here for the "Jhoffa VS Mudboy Slim official fight thread"
She comes from Bartcop. Can any good come out of Bartcop?
Free David Irving!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Free Gotovina!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Free Eric Rudolph!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i dump on him for hours every day.
ponchy, you are famous. i heard about you way over there.
I don't even lurk there.. I'm very monogamous with regard to the few.. Well, then again, maybe I am a forum tart. But not desperate enough to prostitute myself to them. No way.. That's strictly George Michael shit, afaic. No, no.. no-no-no.
Click Here for the "Jhoffa VS Mudboy Slim official fight thread"
You gonna take that shit from him? Go on! Tell him he's an old man who smells like pee and you'll do whatever you damn well please with your own body. Let him have it.
Click Here for the "Jhoffa VS Mudboy Slim official fight thread"
No you didn't. I post as Continental Op everywhere. I picked the name Pontius Pilate for my PL username in order to keep JT's blood pressure stable.
Free David Irving!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Free Gotovina!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Free Eric Rudolph!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
me neither. i called the mod a swine. she is overweight and took it the wrong way. they won't post my stuff now.
i have my ways.
is ponchy officially bipolar or is he just a kook?
I like a hardcore, free speech forum, you know, some place inhabited by psychos who issue daily threats to your life and limb. I was just discussing old Martin Linstedt with JT, this evening. Old "Lucky" could really keep you on your toes with his predictions of dire bodily harm. Especially as he used to live about twenty minutes drive from me...
Free David Irving!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Free Gotovina!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Free Eric Rudolph!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
inhabited by you?
I don't even lurk there.. I'll talk to myself on FU or beg Goldi for redemption before I lower myself to that.. Why do you waste your time?
Click Here for the "Jhoffa VS Mudboy Slim official fight thread"
I get the same enjoyment out of it, as I do from catching poisonus snakes barehanded.
Free David Irving!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Free Gotovina!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Free Eric Rudolph!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
very Freudian
I knew you'd think so. Really, you do have no clue, whatsoever.
Free David Irving!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Free Gotovina!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Free Eric Rudolph!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
odd fantasies like this go hand in hand with your inability to deal with women. it is not hard to see the correlation. a great deal of your irrational anger and hostility is probably just repressed horniness. you need to get layed soon. it won't be possible if you get much older.
Listen you yuppie bitch, he was taking schrapnel in Cai-san while you were crapping in your diaper and wiping it on your face.. so there.. HA!
Click Here for the "Jhoffa VS Mudboy Slim official fight thread"
i know, that is why i am telling him he doesn't have much time left. i believe that getting layed will cure his condition. if he gets to old to do it however, the condition will be locked in for life.
I think he needs a fifth of Wild Turkey, but that's a non-medical opinion..
Click Here for the "Jhoffa VS Mudboy Slim official fight thread"
i didn't think of that. a temporary solution is better than none at all.
this is a nice forum. someone should go on yahoo and advertise it more. it needs a few more regulars.
Is that how you picked it up? Or do I know you from somewhere, perhaps?
Click Here for the "Jhoffa VS Mudboy Slim official fight thread"
my friend pandora knows christine and zipporah at freedom4um. she told me about this group of forums.
pandora and her daughter run a forum so i guess that is how they know christine.
i am posting a lot, but i like the politics on postliberty and freedom4um. they are in the middle between the 1960s left and the hard nutty right. i don't really support public aid for a billion illegals but i could never become a free republic fasicist either. in either place you have to tip toe around issues that you don't really support.
good night ponchy! don't get tangled up in the blankets and choke to death when you wrestle your poisonous snake.
For the record, catching reptiles is a family tradition and not at all dangerous if you follow the usual precautions. My Grandfather used to supply the San Diego zoo with Texas rattlesnakes. I ought to wear gloves, because there's nothing so filthy as a cornered snake, but there generally aren't any to hand, when I see a snake, so I just grab it. I skinned my last rattlesnake in '90 or '91. Might post some pictures of the various ones I've caught over the years. Snake-catching is a safer hobby than it looks, because even if you are bitten, chances are, the bite will be dry. Hope this clarifies matters, because I didn't mean to make a big deal out of it.
Free David Irving!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Free Gotovina!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Free Eric Rudolph!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Bikers are a rabid group...MUD
Enjoy your 20's and use your 30's and 40's to raise the family...that was my wife and I's philosophy and it's worked out well so far...MUD
Comments (81 - 124) not displayed.
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#42. To: continental op (#40)
#43. To: Jhoffa_ (#42)
Hook him up with a "My space" account.
#44. To: continental op (#33)
What are you doing posting with people twice your age, then?
#45. To: Morgana le Fay (#44)
#46. To: Jhoffa_ (#45)
#47. To: Morgana le Fay (#44)
#48. To: continental op (#47)
Let me put it this way, I'm younger than Tull and Dakmar. And yes, it is very noticeable.
#49. To: Jhoffa_ (#45)
#50. To: Morgana le Fay (#48)
wow, you seem so old and grouchy.
#51. To: continental op (#47)
#52. To: Jhoffa_ (#51)
#53. To: Jhoffa_ (#51)
#54. To: continental op (#52)
She comes from Bartcop.
#55. To: continental op (#52)
#56. To: Morgana le Fay (#53)
#57. To: Morgana le Fay (#54)
i heard about you way over there.
#58. To: Jhoffa_ (#55)
I don't even lurk there..
#59. To: continental op (#57)
No you didn't. I post as Continental Op everywhere. I
#60. To: Jhoffa_ (#56)
#61. To: Jhoffa_ (#55)
I don't even lurk there..
#62. To: continental op (#61)
some place inhabited by psychos who issue daily threats to your life and limb
#63. To: continental op (#61)
#64. To: Jhoffa_ (#63)
Why do you waste your time?
#65. To: continental op (#64)
I get the same enjoyment out of it, as I do from catching poisonus snakes barehanded.
#66. To: Morgana le Fay (#65)
#67. To: continental op (#66)
I knew you'd think so.
#68. To: Morgana le Fay (#67)
#69. To: Jhoffa_ (#68)
Listen you yuppie bitch, he was taking schrapnel in Cai-san while you were crapping in your diaper and wiping it on your face..
#70. To: Morgana le Fay (#69)
#71. To: Jhoffa_ (#70)
I think he needs a fifth of Wild Turkey, but that's a non-medical opinion..
#72. To: Jhoffa_ (#70)
#73. To: Morgana le Fay (#72)
#74. To: Jhoffa_ (#73)
#75. To: Jhoffa_ (#73)
#76. To: Jhoffa_ (#73)
#77. To: ponchy poo (#66)
#78. To: Morgana le Fay, jhoffa (#67)
#79. To: Morgana le Fay (#32)
"...one hotel told me they fill up within three hours of the route being published."
#80. To: Morgana le Fay (#30)
"i just graduated and want some time on my own."
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