Book & Author - 33 Revolutions per minute - A history of protest songs from Billie Holiday to Green Day

Book and Author S inger-songwriter Tom Robinson has said that combining music and politics is a double-edged sword: “If you mix politics and pop, one lot of criticism says you’re exploiting people’s political needs and ideas and sympathies in order to peddle your second-rate pop music, and another says you’re peddling second-rate political ideals on the back of your pop career. Either way they’ve got you.” Lynskey’s book 33 Revolutions Per Minute explores this struggle and shows that even the careers of those artists nowadays recognized as musical representatives of the civil rights movement were often coloured by disap- sues in entertainment? pointment, doubt, discouragement and misunderstanding. Taking his readers on music, protest songs, politics and history. In an informative, witty and at times cyn- a journey through seventy years of protest music and shows, Lynskey suggests that, besides the thrills and life-changing moments, it was and still is dificult to be a musician with strong political convictions. 33 Revolutions Per Minute poses two pertinent and pressing questions: what right does a musician have to discuss politics? And is there a place for serious political is- ical style, Lynskey tells us of these songs’ conception and furnishes the reader with relevant but never prurient insights into the artists who wrote them. Lynskey makes his readers aware of the less glamorous side of writing/performing protest songs. “Strange Fruit”, described by people in the audience at the time as akin to experiencing a physical assault, was banned or From Holiday to Green Day “Strange Fruit”, written by Jewish Communist Abel Meeropol and made famous by Billie Holiday, was arguably the irst protest song that didn’t function as propaganda and could be considered as art. For this reason, it is an appropriate launch point for Lynskey’s musical light. Lynskey dedicates 33 chapters to 33 songs, covering 1939-2008, and ending with Green Day’s “American Idiot”. Altogether well over a 1000 songs pass review, making this a standard work for anyone interested in 104 33 Revolutions per minute - Dorian Lynskey called his sentiments facile. Some artists were discouraged from writing politically charged songs by their managers – an exemplary case being the initial rejection by Tamla Motown’s Berry Gordy of Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On.” Gordy told Marvin Gaye that he was “ridiculous” when Gaye proposed a protest record, whilst musical director Maurice King gave The Temptations a lesson in Hitsville’s politics of caution; “Do not get caught up in telling people about politics, religion, how to spend money or who to make love to, because you’ll lose your fanbase”. ignored by many radio stations and not heard by most American citizens. Bob Dylan distanced himself from his early protest songs because he didn’t want to be a poster-child for the counterculture movement, whilst the more stern political musicians Other artists also struggled with their political identities. The FBI held extended iles on many famous musicians, with artists such as John Lennon, Pete Seeger and Phil Ochs viewed as threats to national security throughout the 1960s and 70s. COINTELPRO (the covert branch of the FBI) which, since 1956, had been surveilling, iniltrating, harassing, and sabotaging “subversive” groups, with special attention paid to the civil rights and antiwar movements, was disbanded in April 1971, but the gov- Book and Author ernment continued to monitor black artists in other guises throughout the decade. Role models Contrary to other authors who have focused solely on American protest songs, Lynskey explores developments in both the States and Britain. In parts IV and V in particular, the author’s comparative analysis of punk and hip-hop in both countries is refreshing and illuminating. Joe Strummer is a key igure in these two parts. People in the music industry either love the Clash and Strummer (fans include Public Enemy’s Chuck D. U2’s Bono, Crass’ Steve Ignorant, Billy Bragg and Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong) or hate him (detractors such as NME journalist Paul Morley or REM’s Peter Buck). Lynskey puts the Clash alongside early Bob Dylan and Public Enemy in terms of their respective political clout. Whilst there are ways to read Punk as non-political, the Clash did not allow for such a reading – a misunderstanding of the genre which Lynskey argues has been productive. We can see a similar situation in hip-hop - if it wasn’t for Public Enemy one can only speculate about how political hip-hop would have been. Furthermore, Lynskey notes that perfection does not create a big following. The Clash grew up in public, they made mistakes and it was their imperfections that inspired so many people to be like them. Different people read different messages in Clash songs; that’s why artists who are so dissimilar - like Bono and Billy Bragg - both say Joe Strummer is their role model. “To create a successful protest song in the twentyirst century is a daunting challenge, but the alternative, for any musician with strong political conviction, is paralysis and gloom.” 106 33 Revolutions per minute - Dorian Lynskey Book and Author you outline history’s major events and picked songs that dealt with these events before selecting one that stood out in particular, or did you have a speciic set list in mind? In other words: what came irst, the songs or the history? “The songs came irst, not the history, but as I was choosing them I wanted songs that had a distinct space around them. Some people wonder why, for example, Joan Baez wasn’t one of the selected 33 artists. She is part of the book, but since I already had a Bob Dylan chapter I didn’t want to dedicate a chapter to her, or to Phil Ochs. So people actually complained about your choices regarding what you included and what not? This must have been frustrating considering the amount of years, genres and artists you cover in your book - which counts a whopping 660 pages. “When I read non-iction books I don’t really care about what an author left out, unless stuff wasn’t included out of ignorance. You are a music journalist; what I liked about your book is that it has an academic approach, yet it is written in a very popular, witty and sometimes raw style, exactly the style you apply when you write for the Guardian and other publications. Was this a conscious decision? “I deinitely did not approach the project tive: “To create a successful protest song in the twenty-irst century is a daunting chal- If you have got Stevie Wonder it is hard to also do Marvin Gaye. I wanted songs that I was quite surprised that various people had issues with what I have put in and left in an academic way, because I am not really an academic. All I have is an under- lenge, but the alternative, for any musician with strong political conviction, is paralysis and gloom.” were quite distinct, yet kind of hung together in a more general narrative - which is why there are certain areas/countries that I could not explore because they are so distinct. When you look at Australian protest songs for example, many are about the treatment of Aboriginals. Or Irish rebel songs. I didn’t want the reader to absorb an entirely new country each chapter. There is out. People come up to me and ask why I didn’t discuss so-and-so song and I say “well, probably because I didn’t want the book to be 1500 pages long and unreadable”. The book is meant to be read as a narrative, although many people read it out of order because they are interested in a few particular artists or time periods, which is ine too. Certain politicians, musicians and graduate degree in English Literature. I approached it like a critic. But in some cases I wasn’t as opinionated as I would be in a newspaper column, because it wasn’t needed. You don’t need my opinion every time I briely discuss a song. I didn’t want to be objective, but I tried to give my opinions some weight. For example it was important to me, when criticising Thatcher, AUTHOR Q & A Your book, which combines political sciences with cultural and social history, covers roughly 70 years of music. What was your approach? Did a little bit of that in the middle of the book: I wanted to include Jamaica and Nigeria. It seemed a natural step to go from James Brown to Fela Kuti.” other public igures crop up throughout the book and sometimes one song contributes to another song in a different chapter. I wanted a certain cohesion. Otherwise, it is just a bunch of stuff that happened.” Paralysis and gloom Regardless of these wonderful role models, contemporary musicians have a harder time producing protest songs than their twentieth century predecessors. Lynskey concludes his book with the rather sobering observation that the discourse around politics and pop has become absurdly unforgiving. “The age of the heroic activist musician is over and the disincentive toward writing protest songs is not COINTELPRO but the audience impatience with any musician who purports to do more than entertain”, according to Lynskey. Unfortunately there isn’t much of an alterna- Book and Author songs”. I don’t think there is such thing as “The history” of anything.” Scholars widely agree that the Black Power movement provided the model for the women’s movement, the gay liberation movement and other political and cultural minority empowerment movements to move forto take a few quotes from a biography that was broadly sympathetic to her. It was an attempt not to make the whole thing about hating Thatcher or hating Nixon. The academic bit for me was making sure it was properly researched and footnoted. I was absolutely adamant that readers would know exactly where every quote came from. In certain cases it took forever to ind the conirmation I was looking for. The book is solid when it comes to its facts, but I wanted its style to be argumentative and witty. I wanted to present my take on protest songs and the history behind them. That’s why I chose the title “A history of protest songs” rather than “The history of protest ward and gain some political traction. Some people say the music that came out of the Civil Rights and Black Power movements was also the model for music that came out of the gay rights and women’s movement. Do you agree with this? Or do you think this undermines what was happening on the other side of the Atlantic? “I think it is true on a political level that black power inluenced some of the models of feminism and gay rights. With music, not so much. When you try to make a list of gay protest songs or feminist protest songs which are as directly polemical and political as Black Power music you are going to be disappointed, because there Book and Author aren’t many. By its nature, when you write about gender or sexuality, a lot of the songs that end up having political potency are very personal. That is quite different with Black Power. I tried to ind notable feminist songs prior to Riot Grrrl, because I wanted more of a female didn’t consider themselves as political in voice in the book, but I couldn’t ind any explicit protest songs I could use. I needed that way.” songs that self identiied as protest songs. [...] People often say that one doesn’t have to be a protest singer in order to be political, of course you don’t. You can read politics into all kinds of songs, particularly when a songwriter is female or gay. In certain points of history just writing about a relationship was already political. But I could not hang a chapter on people that Whilst reading your book it becomes clear that being a protest singer doesn’t mean a person is overall politically correct. Misogyny and homophobia are, for example, disturbing features of reggae, soul, contemporary hip-hop and dancehall. Do you think that the fact that many protest singers can’t even absorb the mes- 110 33 Revolutions per minute - Dorian Lynskey sage of previous singers is an indication that music can’t be seen as a vehicle for social change? “I don’t know if you can say that people haven’t learned. People have different experiences. Like Rastafarians aren’t too concerned with gay rights, but that is okay, because they don’t have to measure up to some sort of liberal ideal. The history of political movements is full of friction between different groups. There was friction between Black Power and gay rights. There was misogyny in many left wing movements. A big inluence on hip hop was the Nation of Islam which looked down on gays through writing the book, what I found interesting is that these musician’s experiences are also the experiences that a lot of activists or politically concerned citizens have; they are all dealing with contradictions and compromises. Being involved in politics is dificult and frustrating. People who you admire on one level let you down on a different one. Certain movements just concentrate on their own areas. And yes, in some cases at the expense of others.” 111 33 Revolutions per minute - Dorian Lynskey general frustration. Songs are more likely to respond to a broader sense that there are things to protest about.” Speaking of the Occupy movement; do you expect that any decent protest songs will come out of it? So, can you give me one song that taps into the current situation? “In Britain, there was Plan B with the song ‘Ill Manors’, which is about class politics and the riots last summer. That was a very deinite, unapologetic attempt to write a political song about Britain as it is right now and it was fairly mainstream. [...] Unlike events like Hurricane Katrina that suddenly inspired a lurry of responses, the economic crisis has been slow to inspire cessful? Is there a particular theory or formula? “Generally, I am not very interested in theory. I don’t write in theoretical terms. I am interested in people and their responses to certain events and certain environments. What I like about all the individual stories is the ambivalence, the contradictions and awkwardness. The regrets some artists have. The sense that sometimes people didn’t quite know what they were doing. [...] I realised that each story is its own special case, I don’t think there is any theory that can explain all the weird constellations of factors that make a song a hit - for- and Jews. I don’t think it is a matter of not learning; they are not obliged to be part of a “I don’t think so – not directly anyway. The point is that music rarely comes from the protest songs. Older musicians do discuss it in their songs, like Bruce Springsteen or get about politics for a moment - just the factors that make it a hit. They’re so unpre- liberal dream rainbow coalition. People are lawed, look at the Occupy movement and the arguments within the movement about whether they are equally representing female, black, gay and disabled people. They have had serious rows about it. And this is a pretty impressive radical movement. There is always tension between people. And music relects those tensions. Midway heart of these movements. You can see examples of movements who did attempt this. For example the Black Panthers formed their own soul band which didn’t go anywhere. Movements don’t make the music; what happens is that artists are inspired by these movements or major changes. Like Civil Rights, anti-apartheid or the fear of a nuclear war; musicians will tap into the Ry Cooder, but somehow the crisis hasn’t inspired many younger bands yet. I’m still hopeful though. These things take time.” dictable and it really is hit and miss. This is what I ind so exciting and interesting; that you can never predict which things are going to catch ire. And then there are the questions: “What if ‘Born in the USA ‘had sounded different, maybe it wouldn’t have been misunderstood as much?” “What if Bob Marley’s music hadn’t been remixed for a rock audience would he still have been Writing songs, and in particular writing political songs, is very dificult. After analyzing all these different songs, do you have a clearer view on what makes a protest song suc- 112 33 Revolutions per minute - Dorian Lynskey this huge international star? Or would he only have been big in Jamaica? “ So this history of protest songs isn’t as coherent as one might think? “During the interviews [for his book Lynskey interviewed over 40 people] [...] I had to try and hone it to a general argument. But really the point is that if there was only one argument the book wouldn’t have been so long. The point is to show rather than tell. [...]When you read about all these different songs and these different situations the message I am trying to put across is that there is incredible diversity and complexity. It is not a thesis. It is history and histories are full of random facts and loose ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Dorian Lynskey is a music writer for the Guardian. He also writes for Q, The Word and Spin, among other publications. 33 Revolutions is his irst book. threads and anomalies.” 33 Revolutions per minute A history of protest songs, from Billy Holiday to Green Day Dorian Lynskey HarperCollins (2011) ISBN 978-0-06-167015-2