Jazz (and other musics) respond to world events

[Rooster_Ties]

Saw Spike Lee's "4 Little Girls" last night (for the first time) - an excellent documentary about the bombing of an all-Black church in Birmingham in 1963, in which four girls, ages 11 through 14, were killed. I had fully expected to hear John Coltrane's "Alabama" used in the soundtrack, and was not surprised when I did.

And that got me thinking about other music written specifically in response to world-events (and in some cases, released to the public shortly after those events occured).

The few that came to mind were...

"Alabama" - written by John Coltrane - in response to the Birmingham church bombing of 1963.

"Birmingham Sunday" - written by Richard Fariña, recorded by Joan Baez and first released in 1964. (It was also included in the Spike Lee documentary, and I had never heard it before tonight.) The lyrics are...

Come round by my side and I'll sing you a song.

I'll sing it so softly, it'll do no one wrong.

On Birmingham Sunday the blood ran like wine,

And the choirs kept singing of Freedom.

That cold autumn morning no eyes saw the sun,

And Addie Mae Collins, her number was one.

At an old Baptist church there was no need to run.

And the choirs kept singing of Freedom,

The clouds they were grey and the autumn winds blew,

And Denise McNair brought the number to two.

The falcon of death was a creature they knew,

And the choirs kept singing of Freedom,

The church it was crowded, but no one could see

That Cynthia Wesley's dark number was three.

Her prayers and her feelings would shame you and me.

And the choirs kept singing of Freedom.

Young Carol Robertson entered the door

And the number her killers had given was four.

She asked for a blessing but asked for no more,

And the choirs kept singing of Freedom.

On Birmingham Sunday a noise shook the ground.

And people all over the earth turned around.

For no one recalled a more cowardly sound.

And the choirs kept singing of Freedom.

The men in the forest they once asked of me,

How many black berries grew in the Blue Sea.

And I asked them right with a tear in my eye.

How many dark ships in the forest?

The Sunday has come and the Sunday has gone.

And I can't do much more than to sing you a song.

I'll sing it so softly, it'll do no one wrong.

And the choirs keep singing of Freedom.

"Ohio" - written by Neil Young, recorded with CSN&Y - in response to the Kent State killings of 1970. Lyrics...

Tin soldiers and Nixon coming,

We're finally on our own.

This summer I hear the drumming,

Four dead in Ohio.

Gotta get down to it

Soldiers are cutting us down

Should have been done long ago.

What if you knew her

And found her dead on the ground

How can you run when you know?

Gotta get down to it

Soldiers are cutting us down

Should have been done long ago.

What if you knew her

And found her dead on the ground

How can you run when you know?

Tin soldiers and Nixon coming,

We're finally on our own.

This summer I hear the drumming,

Four dead in Ohio.

and maybe this one sort of qualifies too, kinda, though not entirely...

"Kadish (Symphony No. 3)" - Leonard Bernstein - dedicated to the memory of John F. Kennedy, though the work was substantially written before the Kennedy assassination (or at least much of it was). If I remember right, this work was really in homage to Bernstein's father (who I believe had recently passed away), or at least that is how the work was begun.

I'm sure there are others I'm forgetting - including probably several classical works in response to the Holocaust. I'm particularly interested in any other jazz-related recordings that somehow relate to world events, although any works (including non-jazz) would be interesting to hear about too.

PS: What album did the studio version of Coltrane's "Alabama" first come out on??? I can't seem to find this on-line, and I'm ashamed to admit that my copy of "Alabama" is from the 3-CD retrospective of Trane's Impulse albums.

Edited August 20, 2003 by Rooster_Ties

[brownie]

Oliver Nelson's album for Impulse 'The Kennedy Dream' which was composed and

recorded after the 1963 assassination of JFK.

[WD45]

Henri Texier wrote a tune called Don't Buy Ivory Anymore. I assume it is about poaching in Africa. The only version I am familiar with is by Bojan Zulfikarpasic. A heart wrenching thing, it is.

[brownie]

The studio version of 'Alabama' was on the Coltrane Impulse album 'Live at Birdland'.

[Rooster_Ties]

The studio version of 'Alabama' was on the Coltrane Impulse album 'Live at Birdland'.

Oh.... THAT'S why I'm so confused. ( ) I knew it was a studio recording, so I never thought to look for it on an album titled "Live at....".

Thanks!!!

Edited August 20, 2003 by Rooster_Ties

[Joe G]

Don't forget The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald...

(Seriously, I always liked that song.)

[Rooster_Ties]

Don't forget The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald...

(Seriously, I always liked that song.)

Wow, I never new until your post that this was about a contemporary ship wreck. I've heard the song before, but never paid to much attention to it. I was born in '69, so it was never on my radar in '75. (I just found this link: S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald Online.)

I had always assumed that it was about the tragic sinking of a ship from one or two hundred years ago. Seriously!!

Edited August 20, 2003 by Rooster_Ties

[Jim Dye]

This week, I just revisited one of my favorite rock albums of the past 15 years or so.

Bob Wiseman Sings Wrench Tuttle - In Her Dream

Bob is a member of the band Blue Rodeo. This is his first solo record from 1989.

There are several songs about world events here. a couple about the French bombing of the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior.

But the most stunning song on the CD is called Bhopal (Drifnet Plan). It is a scathing indictment of Union Carbide and all the events that led up to this tragic accident. I'll post the lyrics when I can find them or when I get home later.

[Joe G]

Rooster, being born is '69 is no excuse; I was born in '70, and I had the 45 (can't remember what the B side was...). But I thought the same as you for a long time, too.

The church mentioned in this verse:

In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed,

in the "Maritime Sailors' Cathedral."

The church bell chimed 'til it rang twenty-nine times

for each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald.

is very close to Hart Plaza in downtown Det., where the Jazz Festival is held every year (That's coming up soon, I just remembered). We walk right by it on our way there.

Edited August 20, 2003 by Joe G

[catesta]

Don't forget The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald...

(Seriously, I always liked that song.)

A great one.

[Joe G]

I used to have the solo album that Ginger Baker did with Charlie Haden and Bill Frisell. Going Back Home was the title. Some good stuff as I seem to remember. The last tune on there was a rant about East Timor. I thought it was pretty harrowing.

[Jazzmoose]

Wow. This is the second place on the net in as many weeks that I get to mention Mingus' Remember Rockefeller at Attica. It must mean something...

[A Lark Ascending]

Charlie Haden did a piece called 'For a Free Angola' on his album, 'Closeness.' I think he got arrested and deported from Portugal in the early/mid-70s.

His Ballad of the Fallen was a response to US policy in Central America in the early 80s.

And, of course, Liberation Music Orchestra was a marvellous evocation of the late 60s - especially the free-form depiction of the '68 Democratic Convention.

[brownie]

Richard Davis (with Joe Beck and Jack de Johnette) recorded 'Song For Wounded Knee' for Flying Dutchman after the 1973

occupation of the massacre site.

[Jim Alfredson]

"Biko" by Peter Gabriel about the murder of Stephen Biko in South Africa.

GREAT song.

[Jim Alfredson]

"Sunday Bloody Sunday" by U2.

There aren't enough political songs these days, IMHO. At least not in the mainstream like in the 60s. It would seem like someone would stand up and write some shit about what's goin' on!!!

That's another good one... not about a single event, but of the times.... Marvin Gaye's "What's Goin' On?" that whole record. The crazy thing is it still rings true today.

[Rooster_Ties]

"Biko" and "Sunday, Bloody Sunday"!!!

How could I ever have forgotten those two???

Excellent examples.

[connoisseur series500]

Billy Harper, "Somalia"

And Larry Willis' heartbreaking "Ethiopia" expressing the sorrow of hunger and poverty.

Both are outstanding tunes, btw.

[A Lark Ascending]

Most 'political' songs tend to be over-simplistic. Much as I love 'Ohio' as a performance (and the outrage comes across impressively) the lyrics are pretty naff. It wasn't for nothing that Dylan abandonned his 'finger-pointing' songs for something more ambiguous.

One political song that really works through the obliqueness of its imagery is Elvis Costelo's 'Shipbuilding'. The Falklands War pilloried by understatement. The Robert Wyatt version is breathtaking.

There's an English writer in the folk world, Maggie Holland, who has produced some outstanding songs with contemporary relevance. 'The Perfumes of Arabia' was written in response to the first Gulf War - the perfumes in question being the smell of petrol on our hands in the filling station. Martin Carthy does it brilliantly. But her masterpiece is a song called 'A Place Called England', a head on confrontation with the Right who would have us fill in the Channel Tunnel to keep out the 'foreigners'; and a wonderful celebration of England as an evolving culture, enriched by all who make their homes here. June Tabor's version has my spine tingling and eyes watering every time.

Edited August 21, 2003 by Bev Stapleton

[maren]

One political song that really works through the obliqueness of its imagery is Elvis Costelo's 'Shipbuilding'. The Falklands War pilloried by understatement. The Robert Wyatt version is breathtaking.

The minute I opened this thread I thought of 'Shipbuilding' -- yes, the Robert Wyatt version.

Another Attica piece: Frederic Rzewski's 'The Greater Coming Together' ("Attica is in front of me..."). Some other things of his (e.g., The People United) leave me cold, but this one I find really moving...

Edited August 26, 2003 by maren