Multisyllabic Vocabulary
Feb 4, 2007 Rock and Roll
Friday, February 14, 1964. I walked on to a makeshift stage at a country church south west of Longmont Colorado with a Harmony guitar in hand, and five Beatles songs in my head. Five days earlier, on Sunday night, Ed Sullivan had introduced the Fab Four. Monday morning, I bought the guitar and a small amplifier, the down payment was my life savings at the time, from Dick Bachman at Bachman Music in Longmont. I learned the songs and had my first ‘gig’ on Friday. Since then, I’ve picked, plucked, pranced, and piano pounded in a few hundred bars, taverns and nightclubs throughout the western us.
Holiday Inn Lounges… done ‘em… pool halls with a crappy stage in the corner… yup… ski resorts, golf resorts, country clubs, monster bars with country on the main floor and rock and roll in the basement.
Rock and roll, blues, protest rock, folk songs, hard rock… punk rock, new wave, metal and mosh… Zep and Zombies, Zappa and Zevon… Berry and Blondie, Beach Boys and… well duh… Beatles… Donovan and Dylan, the Knack and Greg Kihn… Sid Vicious and Stephen Stills…
Since the seventies, seems to be one song title gets yelled in every one of those places…
One thing makes me really glad about being an old fart… I can play what I want…
I’m doing sixties now for a lot of reasons, but in the middle of the gig I played last night, one of those reasons really came to mind.
Ya see, I remember Rosa Parks, and George Wallace, and Birmingham, and Medgar Evers, and Martin Luther King… Diner sit-ins, and fire hoses, and night sticks, and the bodies of three young men…
From hundreds of stages, I’ve watched, observed and listened… heard an overly large population of people whose multisyllabic vocabulary is pretty freakin’ limited. 80% of it in half a dozen words…
n——, whiskey, redneck, pickup, she-it, and freebird…
Ok, Free Bird is really two ONE SYLLABLE WORDS, but that’s not the way you hear it when the Jack and Coke forces it from somebody’s mouth… loudly…
I guess maybe I play some southern rock… Southern Cross, and of course Southern Man… sorry, Sweet Home Alabama isn’t on the list… neither is Free Bird…
Why celebrate somebody whose life seems to be depositing samples of his gene pool everywhere south of the Mason-Dixon line without any concept of personal responsibility…
Oh, well… I guess you can shout it out all you want… odds are pretty good you won’t hear it from me…
Quack!
Total – Chicago 1968
Nov 7, 2006 Politicians / Politics, Rock and Roll
What’ll you tell the people, Andrea
When you come back from Chicago
What’ll you tell the people, Andrea
When you come back in a shroud
Revelation in your mind
Degradation you can find
in your mind
CHORUS:
Police and politics
Hassles arise
Police and politics
and people die
The Gestapo has risen again
the SS troops and Mayor Daly’s friends
beat my friends
CHORUS
INTERLUDE
Policeman’s club
is covered with blood
the cameraman falls
but his picture is taken
Revelation in your mind
Degradation you can find
in your mind
CHORUS
My friend died today
What’ll you tell the people, Andrea
When you come back from Chicago
What’ll you tell the people, Andrea
When you come back in a shroud
Copyright Ron Lynch Chalice 1968, 1986, 2004 All Rights Reserved.
What a Magic Word, this Freedom
Sep 4, 2006 Music Styles, Politicians / Politics, Racism, Suppression of Ideas, Suppression of People
The freedom to believe… or not to believe
The freedom to speak… or to remain silent
The freedom to vote… or to abstain
Freedom (Paul McCartney – New York City 2001)
Freedom (Richie Havens – Woodstock 1969)
Chimes of Freedom (Bob Dylan 1964)
Songs of Freedom (Bob Marley 1992)
Songs of Freedom (Santana)
We Shall Overcome (Guy Carawan, Candy Carawan from a piece by Charles Tindley)
Blowin’ in the Wind (Bob Dylan)
Your turn…..
Vietnam
Sep 1, 2006 Blues, Folk / Indigenous, Other Music Styles, Rock and Roll, War
There are hundreds… here are a few…
Feel Like I’m Fixin’ to Die Rag — Country Joe and the Fish
War — Bruce Springsteen
Where Have All the Flowers Gone — Pete Seeger
Universal Soldier — Donovan
The Ballad of the Green Berets — SSgt Barry Sadler
The Eve of Destruction — Barry McGuire
I could work on this list alone for weeks…
Reggae Rules!
Sep 1, 2006 Racism, Reggae, Suppression of Ideas, Suppression of People, War
No appropriate discussion of political implications in music would be complete without the inclusion of Reggae. Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Jimmy Cliff, Toots and the Maytalls… the list is endless.
Some of my favorites (in no particular order):
Reggae Down Babylon (Jimmy Cliff) — reggae down apartheid!
Buffalo Soldier (Bob Marley) — the US government using former slaves to fight indigenous Americans…
Downpressor Man (Peter Tosh) — the Jamaican police state.
Music Styles – Starter Thread
Sep 1, 2006 Music Styles, Uncategorized
We’ve created categories for the music styles in the list below. If you’d like us to add a style please let us know by adding a comment to this post. While we’re getting off the ground, you can add any post regarding a music style by posting a comment to this thread. We’ll move it to the appropriate category so others may comment on it.
Music Style categories: Blues, Country/Bluegrass, Folk/Indigenous, Hard Rock/Metal, New Age, Pop, Rap/Hip Hop, Reggae, Rock and Roll, World Music, Other
I’ve left out Jazz because no politically oriented jazz immediately comes to mind. But of course I may be without a clue…
Thanks,
Duck
