Babylon Bee's take on the Beach Boy's - genius! (and yes, I live in CA)

@unreceivedogma  Thanks for the Laura Nyro vid. I might have mentioned this sometime before on this site, but Laura Nyro remains one of my favorite artists.I have all her records (at least I think I do). I saw her live several times, including a couple times at the Troubadour in Hollywood. I have at least one of her songbooks and I got pretty good at copying her style at the piano.

Get ready...Stormtroopers comin'.

Who among us of a certain age can forget this chestnut. With a few changes, it could have been written yesterday  

I don't agree this discussion has to be binary. The silent minority of the 60's did support the outcome of Watergate. They could support the war and relinquish their support of Nixon. Musical artists, while not comparable to the giants of literature and philosophy, can point the way to ideological change. And who was ultimately right regarding the war? Countless suffering and death.  Lies upon lies. But we fail to learn. Music educates us in the experience of joy, dance, the suffering of others, and yes, even political expression. 

 My mind of mush at 16 was still a mind that I often regret leaving on the sidewalk of mortgages and fruitless careers. Somehow age delivered humility to my doorstep while too many others received all the answers in a box of cynicism. 

@mahgister

Likewise.
check out the link to the oral argument in my case that was decided by SCOTUS, Scalia opinion in my favor (yes, dialectical materialists and Originalists  can see eye to eye). Have a good weekend.

Interesting!

You are not a sheep...

Thanks for your interesting postings...

My deepest respect...

@mahgister 

I met both Oppens and Rzewski when I was attending The Cooper Union. Dore Ashton, the highly regarded art history scholar, Dean of the art school, a card-carrying communist and the most important influence on my intellectual development, didn’t need any excuses to veer off topic and bring people like them in to speak to her classes. 
 

I was very blessed. 

You are right!

Thanks...

I think that it is fair to say that all of the artists that I have taken the liberty of posting here are great artists performing at peak form, that all of the work is moving, and that all of it, by intention and design, is implicitly to overtly political (closer to overtly), and that the political views are expressed with intelligence, subtlety, grace, humor, and depth of feeling.

I lied. One more, by the great Laura Nyro. I love the way she curls up her hands into fists and pounds the keyboard at 0:23

@mahgister 

i have all of his work on LP. I have the Oppens performance of People United, but the performance I shared here by a student at SUNY Stonybrook is remarkable. 

The performance of Cottonmill Blues shared here is also insanely good. 

Of course, Rzewski’s performances are not to be missed. Most can be found on YouTube these days. 

I have the performance on an HMV 78 in near mint condition. Hard to find on YouTube in similar shape. I guess I’m lucky: I’ll have to put it online myself.
This is it for today. 

This is a late 20th century masterpiece.
Lyrics, by a leader of the Attica uprising. He was killed.

"I think the combination of age and a greater coming together is responsible for the speed of the passing time. It’s six months now, and I can tell you truthfully few periods in my life have passed so quickly. I am in excellent physical and emotional health. There are doubtless subtle surprises ahead, but I feel secure and ready. As lovers will contrast their emotions in times of crisis, so am I dealing with my environment. In the indifferent brutality, the incessant noise, the experimental chemistry of food, the ravings of lost hysterical men, I can act with clarity and meaning. I am deliberate, sometimes even calculating, seldom employing histrionics except as a test of the reactions of others. I read much, exercise, talk to guards and inmates, feeling for the inevitable direction of my life."

For Rzewski Alas! the composer own interpretation is impossible to beat... Did you listened to it?

I did not own it now and look for it....

Great posts thanks

unreceivedogma

Gorecki symphony is a miracle.... Like some few musical pieces in history....

As someone who is an artist himself, and whose work involved political commentary and often found himself in court over speech and other constitutional issues (see https://www.oyez.org/cases/1994/93-1525), I find this discussion to be impossibly binary. 

Mimi is Joan Baez’s kid sister.
Richard was a beat poet and writer most famous for his only novel that he completed “Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me” before he died in a motorcycle accident in his late 20s.

”It’s a protest song!”

Give it a minute or two. Unless you have good audio, the opening few minutes of notes are barely audible. 
 

God Save the Queen by the Sex Pistols comes to mind.

The entire Blows Against the Empire album by Paul Kantner and The Planet Earth Rock and Roll Orchestra is another, as are Volunteers, Crown of Creation by the Airplane.

Then there’s Gorecki’s Symphony #3. Sorta relevant given the sadness that is Ukraine today:

Words Accompanying
Górecki’s Symphony No. 3
(in translation)

First Movement

My son, my chosen and beloved
Share your wounds with your mother
And because, dear son, I have always carried you in my heart,
And always served you faithfully
Speak to your mother, to make her happy,
Although you are already leaving me, my cherished hope.
(Lamentation of the Holy Cross Monastery from the "Lysagóra Songs" collection. Second half of the 15th century)

Second Movement

No, Mother, do not weep,
Most chaste Queen of Heaven
Support me always.
"Zdrowas Mario." (*)
(Prayer inscribed on wall 3 of cell no. 3 in the basement of "Palace," the Gestapo’s headquarters in Zadopane; beneath is the signature of Helena Wanda Blazusiakówna, and the words "18 years old, imprisoned since 26 September 1944.")
(*) "Zdrowas Mario" (Ave Maria)—the opening of the Polish prayer to the Holy Mother

Third Movement

Where has he gone
My dearest son?
Perhaps during the uprising
The cruel enemy killed him

Ah, you bad people
In the name of God, the most Holy,
Tell me, why did you kill
My son?

Never again
Will I have his support
Even if I cry
My old eyes out

Were my bitter tears
to create another River Oder
They would not restore to life
My son

He lies in his grave
and I know not where
Though I keep asking people
Everywhere

Perhaps the poor child
Lies in a rough ditch
and instead he could have been
lying in his warm bed

Oh, sing for him
God’s little song-birds
Since his mother
Cannot find him

And you, God’s little flowers
May you blossom all around
So that my son
May sleep happily
(Folk song in the dialect of the Opole region)

@jssmith 

But my thoughts are that there are probably no lyricists, or other types of celebrities, with the brainpower of a Thomas Sowell or Jordan Peterson, so people should definitely look elsewhere for their inspirations, political or otherwise.

Well, I haven't found any.

But then I've only been listening for a few decades.

@hartf36 

I respectfully couldn't disagree with you more, but thanks for the GSH mention.

My friend Calvin introduced him to me during our student days and I never forgot.

However, I have to say, the world today is an entirely different place to what it was back then.

The information age has changed almost everything.

What was up is now down, what was right is now left, what could be said then, can't be now, there were 2 genders back then, now seemingly there's 30, rather strangely considering, race is a bigger issue than ever etc.

Division, division, division.

24 hour division seems to be the norm today.

Thankfully we have the likes of Petersen and Sowell keeping it real.

CrustyCoot, Well said. I share your observations on 60's counterculture and the fact that there was an equal and opposing view very active at the time. That view did not cause the outrage that was covered by the press. Nor did that view create coverage and or documentaries like Woodstock.....mainly because they couldn't.

With your opinion you will educate us on what he Trump did to be called a traitor ?

Uhhh....................how about a very blatant, visible, attempted coup to steal the election and thwart the will of We, The People because his ego is so incredibly fragile his tiny mind absolutely cannot countenance even the THOUGHT of losing?  Something never before attempted in the history of the USA, btw.  Are you seriously asking the question now, after the mountain evidence that has been dropped on your head?  Firsthand testimony - not by liberal democrats, or Nancy Pelosi, or Bernie Sanders or AOC - but by right wing members of his OWN administration?  Even that crackpot Eastman admitted he knew it was illegal.  If Michael Luttig's testimony didn't open your eyes, you're hopeless.  All due respect.

That said..............

I can't believe Gil-Scot Heron hasn't been mentioned.

thanks asm007. +1

Green Day....AMERICAN IDIOT......Great song!

@jssmith While I pay little attention to lyrics, they do seem to have an effect on some people. The young and undeveloped seem particularly susceptible to musical propaganda.

This once happened to me in my youth with songs that were backmasked.

In hindsight it wasn’t so much the music that was the source of the propoganda but those who promoted the fine time-wasting art of backmasking.

While I pay little attention to lyrics, they do seem to have an effect on some people. The young and undeveloped seem particularly susceptible to musical propaganda. But my thoughts are that there are probably no lyricists, or other types of celebrities, with the brainpower of a Thomas Sowell or Jordan Peterson, so people should definitely look elsewhere for their inspirations, political or otherwise.

@scott22

With your opinion you will educate us on what he Trump did to be called a traitor ? 1.99 gal gas ?

Closed the S. Border ? Tax Cuts for middle class ?

Stop all wars with Peace around the World ? Record low unemployment for blacks & hispanics !

Please enlighten us with your reciepts on Treason !

Compare the puppet who cant put a couple sentences together oh and takes zero questions. Stomps on the Constitutional rights of Americans everyday !

Im sure waiting on your reciepts !

Happy Listening

P.S Watch for all his reciepts ! Zero

Watch what happens next to this post ?

Blocked or taken down. 

Musical problems deserve musical solutions and political problems deserve political solutions. Musicians at times may use politics, just as politicians at times use music  This doesn’t make musicians experts in politics any more than it makes politicians experts in music. Now where’s that Nation of Ulysses album I was spinning last night?

My 27 year old loves "Ohio". Though I get your point as to a hundred years from now. Beethoven changed his mind about Napoleon,  but the inspiration cannot be overlooked.  Idealism has its place. Our founders were looked upon as radical idealists with no hope of success. A printer, a silversmith, a brewer all "communists" in their day.. And thanks for keeping this thread mostly between the rails.

Mixing politics and music can make music seems relevant and important for the period in which it was written. In that respect, it can support social change and and give voice to things people feel but can’t put into words.

But generally that also makes them irrelevant a few years later. "Ohio" by CSN crystallized a moment, but it doesn’t even get played on the radio anymore and people under the age of 60 have never and will never listen to it..

Contrasted to musicians who are vocal about their politics outside of their work; it doesn’t make sense, musicians have no insight greater than any other people about politics, and you just alienate half your audience.

Consider the reason people still listen to Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and a small set of musicians hundreds of years after they’re dead. People still listen because the music is good. Whatever politics they had or their works represent is largely irrelevant to why we still listen to them.

There is so much easily verified political misinformation being spewed here that it is actually funny. And, appalling. 
 

I try not to let politics influence my musical choices. I cannot say the same thing about ignorant, demeaning music that has become the background for a lifestyle of fatherless children, no personal accountability, homicide, and poor education. 

Music drives an emotional message.  That message can be positive or negative.  I try not to support the negative.

@moonwatcher - I was born in 1951 - how about you?

And no, you understand nothing about FZ. 'Shut Up and Play Yer Guitar' is what people like you would yell at him when he was trying to talk to the audience. This is called 'irony' or 'sarcasm' - look those words up. FZ was all about both.

I will take anybody's opinion over your's. The rest of your foolish post speaks for itself. 

Laughable, insightful or just plain entertaining, I get a kick out of musicians who put their political views front and center in their music. Let a thousand flowers bloom. Just remind yourself that you don't have to sniff them too closely...

@sns This is a good post:

“Your agenda clear, always inculcated belief system based on indoctrination for liberals, truth for conservatives, inevitable zero sum game.

And talk about repugnant, forcing victims of rape and incest to carry child to term.”

Well said.

Yes, I do "get" Frank Zappa just fine. Been listening probably before you were born.  

A musician's political opinion is nearly worthless.  The local plumber's or bricklayer guy's are probably better because they live in the REAL world, working 8 to 12 hour days, making ends meet.  

Considering most musicians have liberal arts degrees (except for maybe that guitarist in Queen who was an astrophysist), I doubt most even took Econ 101 and 102.  People like Bela Fleck supporting a communist like Bernie Sanders, who even the OMB said his plans made no fiscal sense, speaks volumes about the non-critical thinking that most of these people do. 

Whatever. Just play the music already and dispense with the political posturing.  If I want political opinions I'll seek them out by those who can at least intelligently discuss them, their pluses and minuses.

Anyone giving a musician's or actor's or actress's political opinion any more than anyone else's deserves the lame government they get.  

Looking at my current 401K thanks to Bidumb and company shows me that I won't be spending $8k on any damned speakers anytime soon, that's for sure. 

@tylermunns - from what I understand, Merle actually wrote that song as satire, but it was taken at face value, as too often happens with satire....  Cause like most musicians, Merle was smoking plenty of marijuana, whether in Muskogee or anyplace else...

To me, an entertainer's opinion is worth every bit as much as anybody else's, even 'some guy on the internet', which is really what people on forums ultimately are.

I'd ask people who think entertainers/athletes' opinions are worthless, what it is that THEY do for a living, and why that makes them better or smarter human beings than musicians or athletes? 

@moonwatcher -

It’s like Frank Zappa said of these political types of music artists, "Shut up and play yer guitar".

WOW, you sure don't get FZ at all, do you???? 

I'd prefer not have a performer's politics take front and center. This is all too common these days. But I won't stop listening to Joni or Neil because we part ways politically. I don't care for Bruce Springsteens politics either, but I wasn't a big fan before I knew, so not much of an issue for me.

Kind a simple if you do not like an entertainers political opinions (who really cares?) Then do not listen, buy or view their material. 

No one is making you listen, unless you are in North Korea.