The Revolution Starts Now? Or the Sounds of Silence?

Where’s the music to help Inspire today’s much needed resistance?

Folk, rock, soul, gospel music weren’t just the soundtrack to such vital movements as civil rights, antiwar agitation, social justice, anti-poverty and more from the 1950s through the ‘60s. It served as commentary on the times and current issues, calls to awareness and activism, guideposts towards better and socially and spiritually higher places, succor and comfort to those in pain, struggling and repressed, and much more.

And now at this critical juncture we are hurtling towards a 2024 election that looks to be the most crucial and consequential in my nearly seven decades of life. But where today is the music that was so inextricably interwoven into the fabric of progressivism, resistance and true populism of yore? I’m listening for it, but what I hear is largely… crickets. Are there any answers blowin’ in a headwind against the forces of repression? Political music icon Bob Dylan continues to ask the song’s essential questions in the sublime 2002 version below.

When I began writing an entertainment column from a Leftist perspective for the small but mighty Progressive Populist digest in the late 1990s, we instituted an annual year-end review of the political and progressive music over the previous 12 months. It started out as a lengthy and quite comprehensive overview. But over the next 15 years or so the worthwhile pickings from notable musical creators got smaller and slimmer. It finally reached the point where I strove to find enough significant songs and albums that addressed political and social issues to merit a roundup, and sadly ended the tradition.

Which brings us to where things stand right now. Resurgent repression and criminalization of political movements, people and cultural currents that don’t fit into the false-Christian, authoritarian, anti-democratic and white supremacist right-wing agenda is rampant. Our republic and its body politic is dangerously infected with capitalist greed, racism, sexism, anti-homosexual and transsexual panic, xenophobia, divisiveness and sectarian political conflict plus much more. Conservative demagogues rabble-rouse and gin up fears that morph into hatred and even violence. Any sane leftist and/or progressive is likely alarmed at the prospect of the GOP taking control of the Senate, much less winning the presidency. Especially if the heartless and soulless amoral madman tRump winds up returning to the Oval Office.

Now is the time for all good men and women (and those who may be genderfluid) to come to the aid of our nation, to adapt the old typing exercise line. But, again, where are the musical artists from the left side of the aisle who are on the right side of the many pressing issues the US now faces? Lucinda Williams stepped up to comment almost presciently on the tRumpster in a 2020 song whose key line – “Yeah, it’s comin’ down” – is especially resonant as his first trial of many for 91 felony indictments unfolds.

One major act I am wondering about is Bruce Springsteen, who fashions himself as (and I believe largely is) a blue-collar champion and working-class hero. He’s written songs of social commentary and done benefits for worthy causes. On the other hand, The Boss also had a hit song about a Vietnam vet returning home to find his nation had forsaken him, “Born In The U.S.A.,” gets misinterpreted as a pro-American anthem (by those who don’t listen to what the verses say rather than just the chorus). He’s just one of the many artists with public impact whose voice and commitment is sorely needed right now.

There are some acts who have at least stepped up with their music and public statements in recent years, most notably Neil Young and Steve Earle. My favorite rabble-rousing tune from recent times is by the latter in 2004 – a pungent call-to-action to the right-thinking majority to battle the right wing evils and inanities that, again, resonates even more strongly is today’s roiling political landscape.

Taylor Swift, perhaps today’s biggest pop music superstar, has made some admirable political statements. And I have been tickled that some male musical performers – like my fellow Austinite who pens smart songs of social and political commentary James McMurtry; see below – have worn dresses at their performances in states that have passed anti-drag-show laws. But we need so much more from them and so many others. As soon as possible.

Please don’t suggest that Bob Dylan return to political music. He’s done far more than his fair share on that front over his career. And his political and topical songs and works of social commentary are so timeless that they remain relevant and resonant today. I recall the impact of hearing his “Masters of War” when first released in 1963. It hit me just as deeply in 1984 when I saw Bob in 1984 at London’s Wembley Stadium (listen below). After the next Dylan concert I enjoyed four years later in the dawn of his “never endsing tour” at Radio City Music Hall, my friend Jon Pareles noted in his New York Times review, “As Mr. Dylan fired up his songs again, it became even more obvious how contemporary his songs remain, even those that are pushing the quarter-century.” With the Ukraine conflict still raging as I write this. “Masters…” still applies to the times 35 years later. That’s the gold standard for great political songwriting.

What we need right now is more new songs from contemporary acts as well as veterans that speak as timelessly with truth to twisted power. The best political music helps rally the troops, foster solidarity, and spread potent truths and insights. I pray that the voices of many musical artists soon rise in song to help us oppose and defeat the dangerously dystopian dark forces of GOP, MAGA and conservative zealots.

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My Weird Life Postscript

Music has been like lifeblood to me since I got my first transistor radio as 1958 became 1959. While adding videos to this post, I was reminded just how blessed my life has been to know, hang and even work with and in some cases cherish the longtime friendship of a number of awesome talents heard in all the above clips: Williams and Earle, Dylan band members Charlie Sexton and Tony Garnier (2002) and my dear, late and much missed mate Ian McLagan (1984), Eric Ambel and Will Rigby in Earle’s band The Dukes. and McMurtry and gifted Austin songstress Betty Soo.

Share some of your favorite timeless topical songs!

This post is adapted from my long-running column in The Progressive Populist, sister publication of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Storm Lake Times, subject of the acclaimed 2021 PBS documentary, “Storm Lake.” Check out the Populist’s range of original and well-chosen Leftist writings from the heartland at www.populist.com, and please consider subscribing to its biweekly print edition.