Since I was driving a rent-a-car around in a bad radio zone (northeastern Connecticut) this weekend, I bought the album "Revival" by John Fogerty. I was amazed how political it was (though his old group, Creedence Clearwater Revival, was pretty strong against the Vietnam war and "fortunate sons" who could dodge service in it).
Not only does it have a song about the 1967 "Summer of Love" and some hippie-ish sentiments in "Natural Thing," but it has some anti-establishmentarian songs. In "It Ain't Right," Fogerty writes: "There goes your big black limousine / Shaking your booty for the magazine / Peekin' and posin' like a wannabe / ... Maybe you forgot how we live down here / People work hard for the money dear / You had such a hard day lookin' at the mirror /..." Then there's an anti-war song, "I can't take it no more": "[chorus] I can't take it no more [2x] / Sick and tired of your dirty little war / I can't take it no more / "You know you lied about the casualties / You know you liked about the WMDs [what a rhyme!] / You know you lied about the Detainees / All over this world / ..." And there's a clearly anti-Bush song, "Long Dark Night": "Georgie's in the jungle / Knockin' on the door / Come to get your children / Wants to have a war / "[chorus] Come on / Lord You Better Run / Be a Long Dark Night / Before this thing is done / "Brownie's in in the out house / Katrina on the line / Gulf is a disaster / But Georgie says it's fine. / [repeat chorus] "Rummie's in the kitchen / Messin' with the pans / Dickie's in the back / Stealin' everything he can /..." Next, there are two of what I think of as "utopian liberal" songs, in the vein of John Lennon's "Imagine." In "Don't You Wish It Was True," Fogerty writes: "What if tomorrow / Everyone was your friend / Anyone could take you in / No matter what or where you been / "What if tomorrow / Everybody had enough / The world wasn't quite so rough / Lord don't you wish it was true /..." In "River is Waiting," he writes: "... A new day is dawning / Come rise up / "We be sailin' at the first light / Come gather /..." Finally, in "Gunslinger," we see the internal contradiction in all of these sentiments: "This used to be a peaceful place / Decent folks hardworkin' ways / Now they hide behind locked doors / Afraid to speak their mind / "[chorus:] I think we need a gunslinger / Somebody tough to tame this town / I think we need a gunslinger / There'll be justice all around /..." The "town" is clearly a metaphor for the US, which Fogerty says needs to be cleaned up by a gunslinger. But Bush himself portrays himself as a kind of gunslinger, complete with folksy diction and cowboy language. Do we really need another Savior, John? Is Obama [the presumed Savior] really going to clean house? Of course, how important this music is depends on (1) how popular it is and (2) the extent to which it sways popular opinion. I don't think it's more than preaching to the converted, despite its revived Creedence style. (It won't be very popular, since it's not pop and it's not hip-hop.) Still, maybe it's a sign of the times, the general disgust that people have toward Bush and his cronies. By the way, I liked the music a lot, but then again I've always been a CCR fan. -- Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
