I'm back in the office today, still packing up for the move to new digs across campus.  UGH!  But I had a marvelous weekend at the Newport Folk Festival...(nobody calls it by its new "official' name)...the 50th Anniversary Year.  You can share the experience courtesy of NPR: the link above will take you there.  I forgive them a lot for providing this to the world-pass the link on to your friends.



ANYHOW after two days of marvelous music, culminating in a singalong in a gentle rain, I got to thinking...of Tom Lehrer of all things.  I met Tom Lehrer in the early '70s, at a party on Palm Sunday (thrown by a guy named Palms) dedicated to Easter Egg Decorating.  Lehrer took center stage by first, gazing at his egg for maybe twenty minutes, then commencing to write the "Our Father" Commencing with an the O at one end, spiraling down to the equator, and then, in reverse, continuing to the other end, culminating in an O of the same size.  I guess that's the kind of thing M. I. T. math types do in their spare time.  I liked, nay, adored Tom Lehrer, as most smarty-pants folks did in the 1970.  I still do-though my perspective on him and his work has changed-which brings me back to

RE-ANYHOW, one of the Tom Lehrer songs everyone of my age and ilk could sing, more or less in tune, was "Folk Song Army".  

 

The lyric is vintage Lehrer:

We are the folk song army.
Everyone of us cares.
We all hate poverty, war, and injustice,
Unlike the rest of you squares.

There are innocuous folk songs.
Yeah, but we regard 'em with scorn.
The folks who sing 'em have no social conscience.
Why they don't even care if jimmy crack corn.

If you feel dissatisfaction,
Strum your frustrations away.
Some people may prefer action,
But give me a folk song any old day.

The tune don't have to be clever,
And it don't matter if you put a coupla extra syllables into a line.
It sounds more ethnic if it ain't good english,
And it don't even gotta rhyme--excuse me--rhyne.

Remember the war against franco?
That's the kind where each of us belongs.
Though he may have won all the battles,
We had all the good songs.

So join in the folk song army,
Guitars are the weapons we bring
To the fight against poverty, war, and injustice.
Ready! aim! sing!

Anyone looking to complete his/her Piled Higher and Deeper Degree in Snarkology could do far worse than study at Lehrer's feet.  He was really good at that sort of thing.  And there's something appealing about his brand of ironic cynicism to a guy in his early thirties.  I'm now in my latish sixties, and I approach that attitude more gingerly now.  I want to moderate my innocence and not lose it.

Here's the thesis: If we lose the music, we lose the war.  I wrote a little in this tenor a while back-wondering when and how progressive reform lost contact with the broader popular culture.  The blog piece is someplace back in the attic storage area-if a link is necessary I'll provide one in the comment pile.  Overtly political music which is readily accessible and memorable enough to go as viral as the great protest songs of years past seems to have largely disappeared.  (Largely, but not entirely-see below).  Music is a mnemonic device: it subverts the conscious and plants ideas in the subconscious where they remain accessible as long as memory lasts-most reading this can sing the song by which they learned their ABCs, I'd wager.  This is the strength and glory of the protest song from Solidarity Forever to My Home Town.   

It can't be that our causes are less significant, less important than the causes which stimilated the greatest music of this genre.  My guess is that we present these causes in ways far too wonky to appeal to heart and head simultaneously.  Who is genius enough to write a song for single-payer health care?  Someone may be, I don't know.  But there may be a poet/lyricist who can write a song which enters the head through touching the heart, and convinces people that Clunkercare is not sufficient for a great nation, or even an average one.  I'm waiting for this poet/songster to arise and fulfill this need.  In the meantime, the old-timers feed my soul: Judy, Joan, Arlo, Mavis, and  Pete.



Especially Pete.  Forty-four years ago.  How much has changed?

What Did You Learn in School Today?
Words and Music by Tom Paxton

What did you learn in school today,
Dear little boy of mine?
What did you learn in school today,
Dear little boy of mine?
I learned that Washington never told a lie.
I learned that soldiers seldom die.
I learned that everybody's free.
And that's what the teacher said to me.
That's what I learned in school today.
That's what I learned in school.

What did you learn in school today,
Dear little boy of mine?
What did you learn in school today,
Dear little boy of mine?
I learned that policemen are my friends.
I learned that justice never ends.
I learned that murderers die for their crimes.
Even if we make a mistake sometimes.
That's what I learned in school today.
That's what I learned in school.

What did you learn in school today,
Dear little boy of mine?
What did you learn in school today,
Dear little boy of mine?
I learned our government must be strong.
It's always right and never wrong.
Our leaders are the finest men.
And we elect them again and again.
That's what I learned in school today.
That's what I learned in school.

What did you learn in school today,
Dear little boy of mine?
What did you learn in school today,
Dear little boy of mine?
I learned that war is not so bad.
I learned of the great ones we have had.
We fought in Germany and in France.
And some day I might get my chance.
That's what I learned in school today.
That's what I learned in school.

Tom Paxton is still around: Still fighting the good fight, taking it to the enemy (who, as Pogo reminded us, is us).   This one might have slipped under your radar.

GEORGE W. TOLD THE NATION
By Tom Paxton

I got a letter from old George W.,
It said, "Son, I hate to trouble ya,
But this war of mine is going bad.
It's time for me to roll the dice;
I know you've already been there twice,
But I am sending you back to Baghdad."

Chorus:
Hey! George W. told the nation,
"This is not an escalation;
This is just a surge toward victory.
Just to win my little war,
I'm sending 20,000 more,
To help me save Iraq from Iraqis.

And, so, I made  it to Iraq
In time for one more sneak attack,
And to my old battalion I was sent.
We drive around in our Humvees,
Listening to The Black-Eyed Peas
And speaking fondly of the president. (To Chorus)

Celebrities all come to see us,
Grateful they don't have to be us,
Politicians show their best face card.
Where is Bubba? Where's our leader?
Where's our favorite lip reader?
AWOL from the Texas National Guard

If you're hunkered in Fallujah
Wondering who it was who screwed ya,
Wondering what became of "Shock and Awe!"

(more)
You are feeling semi-certain
It has to do with Halliburton,
Dick Cheney's why you drew that fatal straw.

Good Music to All.