'War can't give life/It can only take it away." Messrs. Whitfield and Strong at their finest, with Edwin Starr delivering a fire-and-brimstone preacher tone to make it all work. Masterful.
The in memoriam listing is a great idea, thanks for taking that on! Re. the dark underbelly of the recording industry--I'm curious where you will draw the line at "too dark". Is erasing writing credits as dark as sexual assault? Lots of darkness to go around!
The in memoriam happened because every day I listen to great music and am not always aware of the musicians who make it passing away. I want to honor them and their contribution.
If someone writes about something dark in their autobiography, then I'll decide whether to mention it on a case-by-case basis. The idea is not to be salacious but to understand their life in music, so only if it seems key. Erasing writing credits comes up a lot, so not likely to hold back on that. Criminal or psychopathic or sociopathic behavior, more likely to stay behind a paywall unless it's public knowledge. A conviction is one thing, an allegation completely another.
Thanks for the reminder that protest songs can intentionally misdirect us or pretend to be something else. Protesting can be cheap or expensive, loud or quiet. Through your series, I can now see all the forms protest songs can take on. Thanks again.
Trying not to get my guard hairs up here (carried my freak flag). As a music lover I like it all since music has the power to transform. Your passion shows through. Thanks.
I'm not sure what you mean here about getting your guard hairs up. If you could explain further. I do hesitate sometimes to write about the power of music as anything can be hijacked for ill purposes. But that's true of everything, including food and farming as we know.
Just having lived through protest periods from the civil rights movement of the sixties right into present day (a lifetime of protest), reliving those times is bittersweet.
My warrior side tends to resurface. Music is my redemption.
I did not know that. Examples like his show that it's not always about the money for the labels, because he had an extraordinary number of hit singles and albums.
I'm trying to remember the details without looking it up. I might get some of this wrong. As I remember, he was recording with RCA, which was owned at that time by General Electric. GE makes jet engines. Some of them go into warplanes.
It was the Vietnam era, and it was an obscure anti-war song. Some GE exec heard the song on the radio, got on the phone with RCA and said, "fire him."
And just like that, he was out of work. He did find a new label, of course, but his days as a major hitmaker were over.
It's interesting, looking at his wikipedia entry, that his father was an Air Force pilot and John grew up on air bases, and then becomes an outspoken advocate for many causes that would likely be anathema to people like his father and to GE.
I'll bet his autobiography is really interesting. You never know what's behind these stories, because I'm finding that personality clashes and rivalries play a bigger role than you'd think in whether someone makes it or not. If an artist didn't kiss up to the right people, they might have a contract but they got no support, which apparently happened with his first contract. A lot of falling-outs between artists and their managers and producers. Plus John was a long-hair who dressed the opposite of the corporate look, so that wouldn't go over well with GE. If I were continuing with the series I'd look into this because there are a lot of intriguing elements here!
Another well thought out piece. I found you as you were doing the protest series so have been following along, dipping into your back catalogue at times.
I’ll be interested to see where you end up going with this. Sometimes what looks like an altruistic move is one made to achieve certain goals by an artist or management. It can succeed or fail. A lot of it isn’t necessarily what it looks like.
I’ve never been one to be hung up on lyrics in the rock genre. The voice is one instrument in the band. Interesting that you quote Henley regarding the “Ohio” lyrics. I always considered him one of the better wordsmiths in the genre, particularly in his solo efforts. Bob Seger being another.
I’m glad I’m a paid member of your community. I’m looking forward to your insights.
Thanks, Daniel. I feel as if I'm just dipping my toe in the protest song waters. As you point out, protest songs can be a commercial decision or even a gamble. Norman Whitfield hung out in the clubs to stay on top of the curve, and I think he got impatient with Motown as it fell behind the trends and tried to milk the same formula, so he pushed to do protest songs.
I suspect protest songs are also a way to ditch a conventional reputation and become more edgy, Elvis doing that with some of his songs (although there seems to be personal sentiment there as well).
David Crosby quoted Don Henley and I used it because his quote took the words right out of my mouth. Lotta respect here for Bob Seger. "Turn the Page" is one of my favorite songs.
I never know what I'm going to say until I write it, so we'll see what emerges!
Your point about masking the message rings near and dear. I spent a few weeks of my life doing security for Judas Priest at their trial in Reno for that very thing.
Doing a quick read about it, since I wasn't aware of it, that must have been fascinating or challenging for you, as it sounds like it was a quite a circus.
I think it was the right legal decision, for so many reasons. We would have to indict every business and the government if we held rock bands accountable for using subliminal messaging to influence people to do things that might be perceived as counter to their best interests. Even the use of metaphors and similes could be considered submininal messaging as it slips in an idea without many people being aware that it's having an effect on them. Free will and other influences on those young men (alcohol, drugs, childhood trauma) seems to have also come up in the arguments, as they should have.
That case never should have gone to court. But it sounds like the band and Rob Halford in particular had a good grasp of why the allegations were absurd and unfair. But it does sound like they spent a lot of money defending themselves. Hopefully they made it back with even greater loyalty and support from fans.
Yes. They did okay after that. That notoriety you were talking about. You’re right, it was stupid but it sort of settled that general argument that had been raging for awhile. The funny thing is that now my memories are of how incredibly boring the trial itself was and how we would play golf during downtimes. Nothing says “Satan rocks” like The Metal Gods playing golf checking out the WSJ for financial stock tips. 😆
I would say that Fela Kuti paid the ultimate price for his political dissent and protest music. The Nigerian government perceived his art as such a significant threat that he was their public enemy #1. He was constantly imprisoned, beaten, and hospitalized. It led to the horrific raid on February 18, 1977, when the Nigerian army raided his compound, beating, raping, torturing, imprisoning, and eventually burning it to the ground. They even threw his elderly mother out the window, from which she would later die from the injuries she received. Yet, every time, Fela never backed down and came back stronger with his artistic yet caustic response and criticism of not just the Nigerian government but many throughout the continent (especially South Africa after the 1976 Soweto Massacre).
Yes, he was absolutely extraordinary in his commitment to using music for social and political change. That's an excellent example.
Without the eyes of the community or the world on them, musicians can disappear if they incite the ire of the powers-that-be. By disappear I mean both literally disappear or disappear from music. Pussy Riot being put in prison is an example of the former.
We tend to think it doesn't happen in democracies like the US, but it has happened in the latter sense in the form of blacklisting by record labels and radio stations, cancellation of record contracts, and other forms of commercial or legal punishment. As Ken Barber shared in another comment, John Denver had his contract cancelled because of an anti-war protest song that angered his label's parent company, a military contractor.
I will be talking about an example of a musician essentially ejected and blacklisted in my next post.
It's why even famous musicians like Bob Dylan insist that they're not writing protest songs. It's a much safer strategy if you want any longevity in the business.
'War can't give life/It can only take it away." Messrs. Whitfield and Strong at their finest, with Edwin Starr delivering a fire-and-brimstone preacher tone to make it all work. Masterful.
Totally agree. A brilliant collaboration that gave us one of the most memorable anti-war songs of all time.
The in memoriam listing is a great idea, thanks for taking that on! Re. the dark underbelly of the recording industry--I'm curious where you will draw the line at "too dark". Is erasing writing credits as dark as sexual assault? Lots of darkness to go around!
The in memoriam happened because every day I listen to great music and am not always aware of the musicians who make it passing away. I want to honor them and their contribution.
If someone writes about something dark in their autobiography, then I'll decide whether to mention it on a case-by-case basis. The idea is not to be salacious but to understand their life in music, so only if it seems key. Erasing writing credits comes up a lot, so not likely to hold back on that. Criminal or psychopathic or sociopathic behavior, more likely to stay behind a paywall unless it's public knowledge. A conviction is one thing, an allegation completely another.
Well, I know we can count on you to be thoughtful about it.
Thanks, Charles. I will try!
Thanks for the reminder that protest songs can intentionally misdirect us or pretend to be something else. Protesting can be cheap or expensive, loud or quiet. Through your series, I can now see all the forms protest songs can take on. Thanks again.
Well-said. I may just quote you on that!
Trying not to get my guard hairs up here (carried my freak flag). As a music lover I like it all since music has the power to transform. Your passion shows through. Thanks.
I'm not sure what you mean here about getting your guard hairs up. If you could explain further. I do hesitate sometimes to write about the power of music as anything can be hijacked for ill purposes. But that's true of everything, including food and farming as we know.
Just having lived through protest periods from the civil rights movement of the sixties right into present day (a lifetime of protest), reliving those times is bittersweet.
My warrior side tends to resurface. Music is my redemption.
I hear you. But we always have the music even when, and especially when, we have to let our warrior side emerge. To everything there is a season...
Remember the Good Old Duck and Cover Days (good title for a song).
John Denver did. Turned out his label was owned by a big BIG military contractor and he was suddenly without a contract.
I did not know that. Examples like his show that it's not always about the money for the labels, because he had an extraordinary number of hit singles and albums.
I'm trying to remember the details without looking it up. I might get some of this wrong. As I remember, he was recording with RCA, which was owned at that time by General Electric. GE makes jet engines. Some of them go into warplanes.
It was the Vietnam era, and it was an obscure anti-war song. Some GE exec heard the song on the radio, got on the phone with RCA and said, "fire him."
And just like that, he was out of work. He did find a new label, of course, but his days as a major hitmaker were over.
It's interesting, looking at his wikipedia entry, that his father was an Air Force pilot and John grew up on air bases, and then becomes an outspoken advocate for many causes that would likely be anathema to people like his father and to GE.
I'll bet his autobiography is really interesting. You never know what's behind these stories, because I'm finding that personality clashes and rivalries play a bigger role than you'd think in whether someone makes it or not. If an artist didn't kiss up to the right people, they might have a contract but they got no support, which apparently happened with his first contract. A lot of falling-outs between artists and their managers and producers. Plus John was a long-hair who dressed the opposite of the corporate look, so that wouldn't go over well with GE. If I were continuing with the series I'd look into this because there are a lot of intriguing elements here!
Thanks for bringing this to my attention.
Another well thought out piece. I found you as you were doing the protest series so have been following along, dipping into your back catalogue at times.
I’ll be interested to see where you end up going with this. Sometimes what looks like an altruistic move is one made to achieve certain goals by an artist or management. It can succeed or fail. A lot of it isn’t necessarily what it looks like.
I’ve never been one to be hung up on lyrics in the rock genre. The voice is one instrument in the band. Interesting that you quote Henley regarding the “Ohio” lyrics. I always considered him one of the better wordsmiths in the genre, particularly in his solo efforts. Bob Seger being another.
I’m glad I’m a paid member of your community. I’m looking forward to your insights.
Thanks, Daniel. I feel as if I'm just dipping my toe in the protest song waters. As you point out, protest songs can be a commercial decision or even a gamble. Norman Whitfield hung out in the clubs to stay on top of the curve, and I think he got impatient with Motown as it fell behind the trends and tried to milk the same formula, so he pushed to do protest songs.
I suspect protest songs are also a way to ditch a conventional reputation and become more edgy, Elvis doing that with some of his songs (although there seems to be personal sentiment there as well).
David Crosby quoted Don Henley and I used it because his quote took the words right out of my mouth. Lotta respect here for Bob Seger. "Turn the Page" is one of my favorite songs.
I never know what I'm going to say until I write it, so we'll see what emerges!
Your point about masking the message rings near and dear. I spent a few weeks of my life doing security for Judas Priest at their trial in Reno for that very thing.
Doing a quick read about it, since I wasn't aware of it, that must have been fascinating or challenging for you, as it sounds like it was a quite a circus.
I think it was the right legal decision, for so many reasons. We would have to indict every business and the government if we held rock bands accountable for using subliminal messaging to influence people to do things that might be perceived as counter to their best interests. Even the use of metaphors and similes could be considered submininal messaging as it slips in an idea without many people being aware that it's having an effect on them. Free will and other influences on those young men (alcohol, drugs, childhood trauma) seems to have also come up in the arguments, as they should have.
That case never should have gone to court. But it sounds like the band and Rob Halford in particular had a good grasp of why the allegations were absurd and unfair. But it does sound like they spent a lot of money defending themselves. Hopefully they made it back with even greater loyalty and support from fans.
Yes. They did okay after that. That notoriety you were talking about. You’re right, it was stupid but it sort of settled that general argument that had been raging for awhile. The funny thing is that now my memories are of how incredibly boring the trial itself was and how we would play golf during downtimes. Nothing says “Satan rocks” like The Metal Gods playing golf checking out the WSJ for financial stock tips. 😆
That made me laugh out loud. And what a tough job you had playing golf with clients. I went into the wrong business!
Oh the stories I could tell. 😀
I would say that Fela Kuti paid the ultimate price for his political dissent and protest music. The Nigerian government perceived his art as such a significant threat that he was their public enemy #1. He was constantly imprisoned, beaten, and hospitalized. It led to the horrific raid on February 18, 1977, when the Nigerian army raided his compound, beating, raping, torturing, imprisoning, and eventually burning it to the ground. They even threw his elderly mother out the window, from which she would later die from the injuries she received. Yet, every time, Fela never backed down and came back stronger with his artistic yet caustic response and criticism of not just the Nigerian government but many throughout the continent (especially South Africa after the 1976 Soweto Massacre).
Yes, he was absolutely extraordinary in his commitment to using music for social and political change. That's an excellent example.
Without the eyes of the community or the world on them, musicians can disappear if they incite the ire of the powers-that-be. By disappear I mean both literally disappear or disappear from music. Pussy Riot being put in prison is an example of the former.
We tend to think it doesn't happen in democracies like the US, but it has happened in the latter sense in the form of blacklisting by record labels and radio stations, cancellation of record contracts, and other forms of commercial or legal punishment. As Ken Barber shared in another comment, John Denver had his contract cancelled because of an anti-war protest song that angered his label's parent company, a military contractor.
I will be talking about an example of a musician essentially ejected and blacklisted in my next post.
It's why even famous musicians like Bob Dylan insist that they're not writing protest songs. It's a much safer strategy if you want any longevity in the business.
Great article.
Thanks, Thea!
Excellent piece, as always. And holy moly, that Edwin Starr clip is *amazing*! Never seen that one before, thanks for posting it -
Thanks, Hugh.
I know! I just couldn't believe the guy playing the keyboard from the floor!