Music and Politics

Hi folks, i hope you are doing ok? This week we are meeting at the Crescent Club in Cullercoats, meeting at 7.30, I hope you can join us! I put a call out a few weeks ago for people to write a blog on either music, art, film, stories for our conversation, i’m thankful that the first persons to raise their head of the parapet that wasn’t a leader has risen to the challenge… I’ve put it out earlier than normal so you have time to listen to the playlist! or to skip through it! 

Thanks John for the work you have put into this… 

‘So Rob says can we have some music blogs. I’ve said I’ve got about 20 tracks

(might be 30 now) based on politics can I blog about that? it’ll have some spiritual aspect.

Rob -fine.

So here it is. Its a bit all over the place and maybe not just strictly politics but has a bit of theology dropped in. It’s distilled 60yrs worth of an old man’s music and ramblings 1960s- 2024 anyway.

It’s a blog based on a playlist listening to the music with a bit of context and explanation thrown in. Here’s the full playlist

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5fgiMqOUSgmsh3YKeea45x?si=K2UM5LZaRQSaobiYWClPIA&pi=qOPnKJzjQrSPp

I’ll run through the issues in the music for both those who’d like to listen and those who want to think and discuss the issues on Sunday but the music and listening time involved might be a barrier.

Tracking this political music over my life has shown me how my own awareness has grown over time. I apologise in advance for a longer blog than normal.

So which track and artist did I start with? Probably Big yellow taxi and Joni Mitchell way back in the 1970s with the classic “They paved paradise to put up a parking lot” on mindless environmental destruction on the playlist this has resonance with later tracks such as Young’s anti oil vampire blues and Diana Jones Appalachia.

Back in the late 70s I was listening to a lot of Neil Young picking up first on the injustice and brutality of slavery in the US south with his Southern man track but I’ve explored these issues over the years in more depth with soul and gospel singers and song writers which is a thread in the playlist which has carried through all the years with artists who come from the communities who’ve lived this more personally than the Canadian hippy folk rocker ever did (Nina Simone, Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight, Tammy Tyrell, Mavis Staples, Marvin Gaye, Al Green, Curtis Mayfield and upto the present Tre Bert and Mickey Geyton)

Moving into the 1980s another major influence was singer song writer Tracy Chapman‘s early music’s take on the injustice of poverty, being ignored by the powerful and our obsession with materialism. It has always blown my thinking as to how someone so young at that time got these things so powerfully. I’ve chosen ‘subcity’ from her Crossroads album which like her first also is full of these aubjects but she also sings about the spiritual and the lives of real people in tracks like Fast car and All that you have is your soul too.

For me in the 1980s political awareness grew also with the struggle in South Africa against Apartheid hence the The Specials and Eddie Grant tracks. Paul Weller Billy Bragg and the Pet shop boys creep in too though in this period.

In the 1990s Bob Dylan’s ‘we live in a political world‘ from his oh Mercy album sees him at his best with his everything is broken view of our western system

But looking at the political music I’ve been listening to there’s a theme of action for change too running alongside the ingrained injustice we live with and the lament that results. There’s change gonna come, revolution, times they are a changin, friendship train, ain’t no mountain high enough, walls come tumbling down, give me hope Joanna and free Nelson Mandela

People’s inhumanity to each other cannot be quiet music or ignored though and the Zombie and War songs shout and scream for themselves

I include Richard Thompson’s beautiful Beeswing song too just as a treat because people who live on the road are just as much made in God’s image as any of us and have a story to tell

More recently for me discovering Karine Polworts brand of Scottish folk asks questions about the deep contradictions’ life presents us with a bit like the Hebrew psalms in the Crow on the Cradle and Better things songs

and even more recently  Better times will come and Cracked and broken and beautiful from US bluegrass singer Diana Jones describe a beautiful and simple optimism for the future almost in keeping with Julian of Norwich famous phrase ‘All will be well and all manner of things will be well‘

For me politics and faith are the same being about the real issues that affect humanity. Both are full of contradictions and questions and tears .Being involved in political action isn’t so much taking sides as owning up to complicity in crimes of the past and giving back what has been stolen. Standing with the poor against the powerful. With David against Goliath.

So is this all sad and miserable music?

Not for me. I would go as far as to say it shouts at the devil with a smile.There a vibrancy in political protest music that finds the joy despite the hardship somehow and it’s even often music to dance to. Try these tracks LOUD What have you done for me lately, Respect and The draft daughters blues if you only listen to part of this playlist it might just be the best bit.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/43HroRztguUYlVjaOrDk1J?si=XdyKVkSITGO2jnBDN6ISjg&pi=rEAEpCRzRgSo9

 

Questions

What’s your favourite kind of music?

When people say Christians shouldn’t get into politics what do you think?

If you listened to the music what stood out for you?

If politics is about justice, who is it who needs justice?

Martin Luther King was angry about injustice towards black Americans. 

How do you reflect upon that? 

How has the earth and the land been wronged by humanity and is there anything that can be done to help its restoration? 

Do historic actions such as slavery, colonialism need to be apologised for and action taken to right wrongs?

What biblical stories come to mind after reading the blog?

How do we understand God and keep the faith in a world with so many faults?

John Morley

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5fgiMqOUSgmsh3YKeea45x?si=g86aVbeySxC-swq3MCUTsw&pi=Pw-QnXFPQtW98

 

 

Image by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay