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Re: Any suggestions for bands? NOTRC



sara lamb wrote:

>>>I was wondering if some of you may have
>>>
>>suggestions
>>
>>>about bands who are 
>>>political/have a poltical message to their music,
>>>
1. Bruce Springsteen. Beleive it or not, the Boss is one of our *most* 
political musicians, after maybe Woody Guthrie. My favorite albums are 
"Nebraska," which is just Bruce and a guitar and a four track in hise 
house, and "Tunnel of Love." He gets away with his political content by 
using stories, the stuff of folk songs, as his medium, but if you pay 
atneiton, you'll find the man has his ear on the heart of the working 
class. "Born in the USA" is as good an example as any: it's an angry 
song, a protest song about our nation's betrayal of its youth in the 
post-Vietnam era.
2. Ani Difranco. I suggest her live album, "Living in Clip," which 
features her best songs from the first ten years of her career done 
live, which is where she shines. Brilliant lyrics, dazzling guitar. 
Also, her newest album, "Revelling/Reckoning" is not to be missed.
3. Mos Def. Don't know if you like hip hop. If you do, then Mos Def is 
highly reccomended. Not only does he grapple with the politics of race 
and class, he is hand-down one of the best rappers in the business, 
ever. His lyrics border on actual, honest-to-god poetry.
4. Amy Ray from Indigo Girls has an amazing, lush solo album out called 
"Stag" that makes me think she was destined to play indie rock, not folk 
pop.
5. Billy Bragg and Wilco have written music for some old unpublished 
Woody Guthrie lyrics called "Mermaid Avenue." I reccomed you avoid 
"Mermaid Avenue II," though.
6. Bruce Cockburn is a prolific Candian singer-songwriter. His album 
"Nothing But a Burning Light" is gorgeous, as is "The Charity of Night." 
One of my favorite little EPs he released, "You Pay Your Money and you 
Take Your Chance" is a live set where he reworks some of his 80's 
catalogue (like "Facist Architecture" and "They Call it Democracy") as 
acoustic numbers. In the 80s he had an unfortunate flirtation with boopy 
synthesizers, making it dificult for me to listen to his work from that 
period.

-John


-- 
++++++++++++++++++++++++++

"The world suffers
the disfigurement
of honored reciminations
that have made hatreds 
holy, consecrated
by the sure coherence
of their impulse,
advertised by headlines
crying peace.
Among persons
alignments are drawn
by the proclivities of which
may be argued
the righteousness of murder"

-Wendell Berry, "The Design of the House: Ideal and Hard Time"

++++++++++++++++++++++++++

http://www.johnpauldavis.org



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