Music

Gil Scott-Heron and the prison system

David McDonald ( Solidarity 209) says that nobody of Gil Scott-Heron’s stature should end up in jail (in Heron’s case, for cocaine possession). I think I know what David is saying here — that it is a shame to see such a talented musician get so low. However, Heron would never have claimed any privileges for himself and neither should we. Nobody, no matter who they are, should go to jail just for using drugs, particularly if, as in Heron’s case, drugs are making them ill. Over 25% of the world’s prison population are in US jails (2 million of its 307 million population). And 10.4% of all black...

The other America

I have harboured the usual Hollywood and rock ‘n’ roll-inspired English white boy road trip fantasies ever since my teenage years, and a couple of weeks back, I finally found myself out on Highway 61. As I approached the celebrated Interstate — top down on the bright red Mustang convertible hired for the occasion, the inevitable choice of Dylan CD blaring from the speakers — I was met by a sign reading “lane closures in both directions”. That’s not quite how I imagined it was going to be. Obvious lack of infrastructural investment was not the only thing that struck me about the state of the...

Gil Scott-Heron: a man of many pieces

May saw the passing of Gil Scott-Heron, a musician and activist whose talent and importance cannot be over-stated. “The Godfather of Hip Hop” tag was one he shunned; besides being a cliché it also fails to do justice to a career of over 20 albums and an artist who refused to compromise. Gil’s politics were unashamedly revolutionary. His songs spoke of the nature of exploitation and alienation with unparalleled eloquence. He also tried to paint a picture of an alternative to capitalism. Indeed his work of the 70s is like a blueprint for socialism, forming a major element of the Black Panther...

Dylan at 70: his 1960s "Protest Songs" revisited

This month the American singer and songwriter Bob Dylan marks his 70th birthday. In the early 1960s he was reckoned to be a “protest singer”, a direct voice of the left. His songs referred straightforwardly to political issues — the black civil rights movement in the USA, anti-militarism — and he performed at political events like the 1963 civil rights March on Washington. Since then he has produced a long stream of new songs, and repeatedly been charged with “selling out”, first when he used an electric rather than an acoustic guitar in 1965. He was largely off the public stage in 1966-74...

Don't follow leaders: Bob Dylan in China and Vietnam

Bob Dylan recently performed in China and Vietnam for the very first time, prompting critics to denounce him for “selling out” — and not for the first time. New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd led the charge. In a recent column she denounced the singer, ending with these powerful lines: Maybe the songwriter should reread some of his own lyrics: “I think you will find/When your death takes its toll/All the money you made/Will never buy back your soul.” Strong stuff indeed. But of course Bob Dylan wasn’t writing those lines about “protest singers” who had betrayed their values. He wrote them...

Inquiry needed into Smiley Culture’s death

The family of dancehall-reggae pioneer Smiley Culture are demanding a full and open inquiry into the circumstances surrounding his death. After the police raided his home in connection to a drugs bust, Smiley Culture allegedly stabbed himself in the heart with a kitchen knife. Since the end of his music career, Smiley Culture (aka David Emmanuel) had become involved in the African diamond industry and had links to some unsavoury forces in countries such as Azerbaijan. But the police’s story of his death is bizarre, claiming that Emmanuel asked to make a cup of tea before the police took him...

Bieber fever

Type the words “Justin Beiber” into Google and you’re presented with 139 million results; page after page of gossip, photo shoots and the occasional online shrine in the 17-year-old “sensation’s” name. A wave known as “Bieber Fever” has swept the world. This “fever” and the influence he has over (mostly) teenage girls are somewhat worrying after his recent interview with Rolling Stone . I really wish I could be taking him out of context, when asked about the subject of abortion after rape. His response was “everything happens for a reason.” Where have we heard that one before? Well, he does...

Searching for a more tolerant England

The average anti-war song is often a pretty basic affair and they often work best like that. Edwin Starr’s version of “War” is the archetype of this. It is literally a shout of pain. And then there are songs about soldiers returning to a land that would rather forget, as with Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA” or most memorably in Eric Bogle’s “And the band played Waltzing Matilda”. But in Let England Shake Polly Jean Harvey has attempted something more considered and nuanced, something more lyrical, poetic and thoughtful. Harvey tries to play the role of an unofficial war-artist in her...

A "soundtrack for the movement"?

The Ruby Kid, aka Daniel Randall, is a political activist and hip-hop artist. He has been a member of Workers' Liberty since 2002 and has been recording and performing music since 2007. Here, in an article originally published on his MySpace blog , he responds to an ongoing debate around the meaning of "protest music" in 2010, and whether the new youth and student movement needs "a soundtrack". For more info on The Ruby Kid, visit his website . Things are kicking off a bit these days. You’ve probably noticed. Comparisons to the Thatcher era abound and, while the workers’ movement isn’t as...

Realising their potential?

Jarvis Cocker’s work with Pulp during the Britpop era did much to keep class in the public consciousness at a time when it was being written-out of the rhetoric of New Labour, and barely noticed by the Britpop crowd who were getting high on the hype of “Cool Britannia”. If this will be the theme of a “reformed” Pulp then it will a welcome return. Cocker’s social commentary had its fair share of revolutionary sentiment. On ‘Different Class’, Cocker conjures up the image of a disadvantaged people rising up to claim what they feel is theirs — “Just put your hands up, it’s a raid! We want your...

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