[Newspoetry] Protest music is alive and well (fwd)

[Paul Kotheimer]

Thanks to Sara Schmidt, I have gotten the e-mail address of the columnist
I had wanted to alert to the existence of protest music.  I wrote her the
following letter.


***********************************

Dear Ms. Keller:

Here's just a quick note thanking you for your article "Does Protest Music
Have a Fighting Chance," and especially for going to the some of the right
sources (Dr. Charles "Bucky" Halker, Michael Cameron, and Ellen Rosner) up
there in Chicago for a pulse-check on protest music at the turn of the
millenium.

I'd like to assure you, as I'm sure others will, that protest music and
what Pete Seeger and others call the "Folk Music Process," is alive and
well, and dwelling, among other places, in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois.

Here is the text of some recent adaptations I have made in conjunction
with the Anarchist Chorus of Urbana in our weekly singalongs:

"OR-ELSE" What?  (to the tune of "Three Blind Mice")

(This simple round represents what the Democratic Party says back when
working folks, people of color, women, environmentalists, etc., give the
Dems the ultimatum that they legislate on behalf of their constituencies,
OR ELSE...)

"OR-ELSE" what?
"OR-ELSE" what?
Whatcha gonna do?
Whatcha gonna do?
It's us "OR ELSE" it's the Republi-kins.
Stay home from the polls, the Republican wins.
The two of us act just like Siamese twins,
so "OR-ELSE" what?

"OR-ELSE" what?
"OR-ELSE" what?
Where ya gonna turn?
When ya gonna learn
That cor'prate corruption has skewered us through,
And third parties fail, and whatever you do,
The deck of democracy's stacked against YOU,
so "OR-ELSE" what? 


***or how about this one, to the tune of the traditional Episcopal hymn
entitled "THE DOXOLOGY." A number of protest tunes have been written to
this tune, including "The Wobbly Doxology" by the Australian IWW in the
'20's and the "Lumberjack's Prayer" by loggers in the Northwest in the
20's or 30's, i think.  The idea that the Doxology is supposed to be about
the MEAL part of a Christian service hooked me up with the idea to write
the...

FRANKENFOOD TOXOLOGY

Gosh, all our foods have been deep-fried,
and gen-et-ic-'lly modified,
and everything we ever ate
had monosodium glutemate  *in-side.

Our beef cows eat their own fe-CES (yuck!)
and give us all mad cow disease.
The milk we feed our kids, our own,
is laced with Bovine Growth Hormone.  *Oh, no.

The corn and wheat we sorely need
cannot be grown from natural seed
because the land on which we toil
is blighted by depleted soil.  *What next?

Those corp'rate jerks who profit so
from poisoning us have got to go!
Our big priority should be
to feed us all sustainably  *right now!

So that is why we sing to thee
this FrankenFood Toxology.
Let's organize and not retreat,
but first let's have a bite to eat  *Bon Appetit.


****and then there's the question of where to look for protest song.
you've probably already heard the criticism that the Major Labels are NOT
the right place to look.  here's a song about that, called...

House of the Rising CD Sales
(to the tune of "House of the Rising Sun")

I cannot play a single note,
and I suck at playing chords.
That's why I'm here in Hollywood
at the MTV music awards.

My parents were both millionaires,
and they worked for R. C. A.
They took their boss for sushi and drinks,
and that's how I got here today.

When you sign your name on the dotted line,
you'll know just where it went.
It goes straight to the corporate mogul men.
They get ninety-three per cent.

And they spend that money on the fashion shows
and limousines and crowd control,
And when they need a bail-out, they
go straight on the public dole.

But if you could get such a hand-out, kid,
coming straight from Uncle Sam,
then you might say something dangerous,
and then I wouldn't be where I am.

So if you think you're some kind of musician, kid,
and you've paid me any mind,
then I am simply asking you,
why the hell do you wanna get signed?

***see, in the folk process, sometimes the words that feel like they've
existed forever (a feeling you mention in your article)--get worn out and
tired.  it's what i call the "Bare Bodkin Phenomenon," since even an
amazing text like the Hamlet "To Be or Not To Be" soliloquy can seem like
a boring cliche NOW that it's been quoted to death.  

that's why i try and change them however I can.  here are two more
examples.  the first one is a medly of two tunes you mention specifically
in your article.  It's a twist on a couple of "revered folksong classics" 
which ends up being a twist of the knife against the Baby Boomers who
made them so popular:

If I had a pencil,
I'd pencil in my mornings,
I'd pencil in my evenings,
'Way into next week.
I'd pencil in cocktails!
I'd pencil in a dinner date!
I'd pencil in lunch with Jane,
she's my personal assistant,
for Thursday, or maybe some time next week.

And if I had a sport ute,
I'd drive it in the morning,
I'd drive it in the evening,
commuting all over this land.
'Cause they're made in America!
They build 'em safe and comf'rtable,
And they've got a resale value
which is really much better than
any other car you can buy in this land.

And if I had a phone card,
I'd ring you in the morning,
I'd ring you in the evening,
anywhere in this land.
I could ring you in Jersey!
I could ring you in Tampa Bay,
because my long distance rates 
would be really quite affordable
to a-a-nywhere in this land...

This land is my land
This land is ...MY land,
from the brand new Starbucks,
to my house on Long Island,
from 'way up in Seattle,
to the beach in Miami,
This land was purchased,
And your rent was tripled,
And you were evicted...
By me.

***okay.  last one.  back in the 30's Woody Guthrie wrote a batch of words
to a traditional American fiddle tune called "Red Wing."  The tune is
probably most famous now by the name he gave it, "Union Maid."  well, it
occurred to me that there have been plenty of developments in front-line
activism by women since the 30's, and i wanted to let Guthrie fans know
that the Union Maid's granddaughter was in Seattle and DC and Philly in
1999-2000, and on the direct action/civil disobedience circuit, she's
known as the Radical Cheerleader:

There once was a rocker-grrl
with a freak flag to unfurl
and a puppet show on the WTO
with a message that intended to change the world.
She'd go to the center of town,
where her comrades were locked down,
and she never was afraid when the pepper spray sprayed.
She always stood her ground.  Singin'...

(CHORUS)

You can't catch me, I'm runnin' with the black bloc!
Stuff your crotch with a tube sock, copper,
I'm a-runnin' with the black bloc!
You can't catch me, I'm runnin' with the black bloc!
And I'll be runnin' with the black bloc
'Til the revolution is nigh, or 'til the day I die.

Now this rebel girl gets crass,
once she's caught a whiff of the old tear gas,
with a radical cheer against the riot gear
that goes "Acka-Backa Soda-Cracka Kiss-My-Ass,"
and tough as it may seem,
she will go to the extreme,
'til an end to oppression, with no concession,
is more than just a dream.  She'll sing...

(repeat CHORUS, twice if necessary...)

all these new song lyrics were written in the past two years, mostly by
me, with help and inspiration from the I.W.W. songbook, from my friends
and fellow activists, from my experiences as a Seattle N30, 1999,
participant, and from the music i get to experience here in Urbana.  i may
never have a pop hit, even though i sometimes try to write one.  i may
never be signed, even by a small record label.  but my contribution to the
Folk Process will, hopefully, still be having an impact against social and
interpersonal violence, unjust power, corporate greed, political
corruption, etc., long after any memory of the words or melody of "Oops I
Did it Again" (for example) have been completely obliterated.

That's the folk music process, and i'm stickin' to it 'til the day I die,
and for a while afterwards.

Check out <www.newspoetry.com> and <www.handmaderecords.com> for more
about me and my work.  I hope you will change your mind about the fighting
chance that people have through folksong and protest song.

sing-cerely yours,

paul kotheimer:)
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
THE HAND-MADE RECORD LABEL
www.handmaderecords.com

c/o the School for Designing a Society
409 North Race Street
Urbana, IL 61801
217 384 0299 phone (no fax)