SATURDAY WOULD HAVE BEEN JOHN LENNON’S 70th birthday. This complex music icon still commands our imaginations decades after his murder. Lennon was outspoken, provocative, and one of our greatest musicians.
Two of his songs are classic anti-war protest anthems: “Give Peace a Chance,” and what is arguably his most famous song, “Imagine.”
The song has never lost its impact and its message is as important today as it was when Lennon first wrote it:
THE NEW VIDEO FROM SOUTH AFRICAN GROUP FRESHLYGROUND issues this challenge to Zimbabwe’s President Mugabe: “Oh congratulations, when will you ever change? You are chicken to change!” Not surprisingly, the group’s permits for performing next month in that country were revoked.
You may remember Freshlyground as the group who sang the World Cup theme along with Shakira. While that was the safe, corporate tune of a global event, “Chicken to Change” takes a much more pointed political stance. It’s in-your-face, yes, but jaunty—a highly enjoyable piece of pop music that also happens to have social change at its heart.
The video is a collaboration between the group and ZA News, a satirical South African web-tv puppet show. They’ve clearly got a lot of musical talent of their own, judging by this rendition of “This Land is Your Land.”
ARE YOU LISTENING TO MUSIC RIGHT NOW? To hear, play, or perform music is a freedom denied to many people worldwide. Music is censored and musicians are jailed, tortured, and even killed by repressive governments.
HEY, AYATOLLAH, LEAVE THOSE KIDS ALONE—Pink Floyd’s iconic song Another Brick in the Wall is agitating again, this time as an anthem for Iranian youth.
Canadian band Blurred Vision, fronted by two exiled Iranian brothers, Sohl and Sepp, recorded a cover with one significant difference: they rewrote the famous lyric, Hey, teacher, leave those kids alone substituting “Ayatollah” for ‘teacher.’
FIVE YEARS AGO on August 29, Hurricane Katrina made landfall in southern Louisiana. Today, the rebuilding process in some areas has stalled altogether.
Ted Hearne’s song-cycle Katrina Ballads is music written to mark the anniversary. The composer’s complete work is being issued on CD for the first time this month.
Katrina Ballads draws its “lyrics” directly from news coverage of the week following the tragedy. Hearne take the words of survivors, first-responders, the media’s talking heads and especially politicians, and creates a story that reverberates still, an open wound in America’s history.
The news sources quoted include notable names like Kanye West and Anderson Cooper, but Hearne saves the best moments for the politicians. George Bush’s “heckuva job” words to Michael Brown, then-director of FEMA, is the emotional high point of the piece.
Here is a video by Satan’s Pearl Horses and the Video Underground for another of the songs, “Barbara Bush 9.5.05.” This piece uses words taken from an interview Bush gave after visiting Katrina refugees in Houston’s Astrodome, when she said “they were better off”:
PROTEST AND MUSIC used to go together—songs like “Ohio,” “Fight the Power,” and “Get Up Stand Up” challenged authority—so where is our music of activism today? These hip hop artists (and one blues singer-songwriter) raise their voices against Arizona’s SB 1070 immigration law head-on. Give them a listen:
1. ‘Papers Please’–Talib Kweli
2. ‘Tear that Wall Down’–Chuck D
3. ‘By the Time I Get To Arizona’–Toki Wright
4. ‘Quicksand’–Ry Cooder
Ry Cooder’s song premiered on NPR and is now available on iTunes. Listen to it here.
5. ‘Back to Arizona’
Arizona hip hop artists DJ John Blaze, Tajji Sharp, Yung Face, Mr. Miranda, Ocean, Da’aron Anthony, Atllas, Chino D, Nyhtee, Pennywise, Rich Rico, and Da Beast joined together for this song:
World cup music: official is not necessarily better, as evidenced by the song commissioned by FIFA, “Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)” featuring Shakira in all her hip-shaking mastery. Despite being inspired by a Cameroonian marching chant, the result is a harmless, though hollow corporate creation meant to appeal to the masses.
Shakira’s heart is in the right place, but FIFA would have done better choosing a song by a local artist. Organizers made a small concession to the hosts by including Cape Town-based group Freshlyground on the track and billing it as a “collaboration.” And Shakira and Freshlyground will perform “Waka Waka” at the kick-off concert on June 10, and at the opening and closing ceremonies.
There is an alternative, and it comes from supporters of the home squad. It’s the uptempo, keyboard-heavy dance anthem “Shapa Bafana Shapa,” by top South African producer DJ Cleo. Cleo is an outspoken artist and, like many others, didn’t hide his feelings about a Colombian singing on the African cup’s official song. Luckily, he puts his money where his mouth is and delivers with an authentic song that is also accessible to all listeners.
What’s great about the track is the use of the vuvuzela: the plastic, trombone-length horns that create that distintive “buzzing” in stadiums. The word vuvuzela highlights the song’s addictive, ear-worm chorus:
