Download - 33 Revolutions Per Minute
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33
REVOLUTIONS
PER MINUTE
- A HISTORY
OF PROTEST
SONGS,
FROM BILLIE
HOLIDAY TO
GREEN DAY.
BY:
ELKE WEESJES
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Book and Author
Singer-songwriter Tom Robinson hassaid that combining music and politicsis a double-edged sword: If you mix poli-
tics and pop, one lot of criticism says youreexploiting peoples political needs and
ideas and sympathies in order to peddle
your second-rate pop music, and another
says youre peddling second-rate political
ideals on the back of your pop career. Ei-
ther way theyve got you. Lynskeys book
33 Revolutions Per Minute explores thisstruggle and shows that even the careers
of those artists nowadays recognized as
musical representatives of the civil rights
movement were often coloured by disap-
pointment, doubt, discouragement and
misunderstanding. Taking his readers on
a journey through seventy years of protest
music and shows, Lynskey suggests that,
besides the thrills and life-changing mo-
ments, it was and still is difcult to be a
musician with strong political convictions.
33 Revolutions Per Minute poses two per-
tinent and pressing questions: what right
does a musician have to discuss politics?
And is there a place for serious political is-
sues in entertainment?
From Holiday to Green Day
Strange Fruit, written by Jewish Com-munist Abel Meeropol and made famous
by Billie Holiday, was arguably the rst
protest song that didnt function as propa-
ganda and could be considered as art. For
this reason, it is an appropriate launch
point for Lynskeys musical ight. Lyns-
key dedicates 33 chapters to 33 songs, cov-ering 1939-2008, and ending with Green
Days American Idiot. Altogether well
over a 1000 songs pass review, making this
a standard work for anyone interested in
music, protest songs, politics and history.
In an informative, witty and at times cyni-
cal 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 expe-
riencing a physical assault, was banned or
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ignored by many radio stations and not
heard by most American citizens. Bob Dy-
lan distanced himself from his early pro-
test songs because he didnt want to be a
poster-child for the counterculture move-
ment, whilst the more stern political mu-
sicians called his sentiments facile. Some
artists were discouraged from writing po-
litically charged songs by their managers
an exemplary case being the initial re-jection by Tamla Motowns Berry Gordy of
Marvin Gayes Whats 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 Hitsvilles
politics of caution; Do not get caught upin telling people about politics, religion,
how to spend money or who to make love
to, because youll lose your fanbase.
Other artists also struggled with their
political identities. The FBI held extended
les 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. COINTEL-
PRO (the covert branch of the FBI) which,
since 1956, had been surveilling, inltrat-
ing, harassing, and sabotaging subver-
sive groups, with special attention paid
to the civil rights and antiwar movements,
was disbanded in April 1971, but the gov-
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Book and Author
ernment continued to monitor black art-
ists in other guises throughout the decade.
Role modelsContrary to other authors who have fo-
cused solely on American protest songs,
Lynskey explores developments in both
the States and Britain. In parts IV and V in
particular, the authors comparative analy-
sis of punk and hip-hop in both countries
is refreshing and illuminating. Joe Strum-mer is a key gure in these two parts. Peo-
ple in the music industry either love the
Clash and Strummer (fans include Public
Enemys Chuck D. U2s Bono, Crass Ste-
ve Ignorant, Billy Bragg and Green Days
Billie Joe Armstrong) or hate him (detrac-
tors such as NME journalist Paul Morley
or REMs Peter Buck). Lynskey puts the
Clash alongside early Bob Dylan and Pub-
lic Enemy in terms of their respective po-
litical clout. Whilst there are ways to read
Punk as non-political, the Clash did not al-
low for such a reading a misunderstand-
ing of the genre which Lynskey argues has
been productive.
We can see a similar situation in hip-hop
- if it wasnt for Public Enemy one can
only speculate about how political hip-hop
would have been. Furthermore, Lynskeynotes that perfection does not create a big
following. The Clash grew up in public,
they made mistakes and it was their imper-
fections that inspired so many people to be
like them. Different people read different
messages in Clash songs; thats why artists
who are so dissimilar - like Bono and BillyBragg - both say Joe Strummer is their role
model.
To create a
successful protest
song in the twenty-
frst century is a
daunting challenge,
but the alternative,
for any musician
with strong
political conviction,
is paralysis and
gloom.
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Paralysis and gloom
Regardless of these wonderful role mod-
els, contemporary musicians have a harder
time producing protest songs than theirtwentieth century predecessors. Lynskey
concludes his book with the rather sober-
ing observation that the discourse around
politics and pop has become absurdly un-
forgiving. The age of the heroic activist
musician is over and the disincentive to-
ward writing protest songs is not COIN-TELPRO but the audience impatience with
any musician who purports to do more
than entertain, according to Lynskey. Un-
fortunately there isnt much of an alterna-
tive: To create a successful protest song in
the twenty-rst century is a daunting chal-
lenge, but the alternative, for any musician
with strong political conviction, is paraly-
sis and gloom.
AUTHOR Q & A
Your book, which combines political
sciences with cultural and social his-
tory, covers roughly 70 years of mu-
sic. What was your approach? Did
you outline historys major events
and picked songs that dealt with
these events before selecting one
that stood out in particular, or didyou have a specic set list in mind?
In other words: what came rst, the
songs or the history?
The songs came rst, 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, JoanBaez wasnt one of the selected 33 artists.
She is part of the book, but since I already
had a Bob Dylan chapter I didnt want to
dedicate a chapter to her, or to Phil Ochs.
If you have got Stevie Wonder it is hard to
also do Marvin Gaye. I wanted songs that
were quite distinct, yet kind of hung to-
gether 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 didnt want the reader to absorb an
entirely new country each chapter. There is
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Book and Author
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.
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 art-
ists you cover in your book - whichcounts a whopping 660 pages.
When I read non-ction books I dont re-
ally care about what an author left out, un-
less stuff wasnt included out of ignorance.
I was quite surprised that various people
had issues with what I have put in and left
out. People come up to me and ask why
I didnt discuss so-and-so song and I say
well, probably because I didnt want the
book to be 1500 pages long and unreada-
ble. The book is meant to be read as a nar-
rative, although many people read it out of
order because they are interested in a few
particular artists or time periods, which is
ne too. Certain politicians, musicians and
other public gures crop up throughout
the book and sometimes one song contrib-
utes to another song in a different chapter.
I wanted a certain cohesion. Otherwise, itis just a bunch of stuff that happened.
You are a music journalist; what I
liked about your book is that it has
an academic approach, yet it is writ-
ten in a very popular, witty and some-
times raw style, exactly the style youapply when you write for the Guard-
ian and other publications. Was this
a conscious decision?
I denitely did not approach the project
in an academic way, because I am not re-
ally an academic. All I have is an under-
graduate degree in English Literature.
I approached it like a critic. But in some
cases I wasnt as opinionated as I would be
in a newspaper column, because it wasnt
needed. You dont need my opinion every
time I briey discuss a song. I didnt want
to be objective, but I tried to give my opin-
ions some weight. For example it was im-
portant to me, when criticising Thatcher,
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Book and Author
to take a few quotes from a biography thatwas broadly sympathetic to her. It was an
attempt not to make the whole thing about
hating Thatcher or hating Nixon. The aca-
demic 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 nd the
conrmation I was looking for. The book is
solid when it comes to its facts, but I want-
ed its style to be argumentative and witty.
I wanted to present my take on protest
songs and the history behind them. Thats
why I chose the title A history of protest
songs rather than The history of protest
songs. I dont think there is such thing as
The history of anything.
Scholars widely agree that the BlackPower movement provided the mod-
el for the womens movement, the
gay liberation movement and other
political and cultural minority em-
powerment movements to move for-
ward and gain some political trac-
tion. Some people say the music thatcame out of the Civil Rights and Black
Power movements was also the mod-
el for music that came out of the gay
rights and womens movement. Do
you agree with this? Or do you think
this undermines what was happen-
ing on the other side of the Atlantic?
I think it is true on a political level that
black power inuenced some of the mod-
els of feminism and gay rights. With mu-
sic, 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
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Book and Author
arent many. By its
nature, when you
write about gen-
der or sexuality,a lot of the songs
that end up having
political potency
are very personal.
That is quite dif-
ferent with Black
Power. I tried tond notable femi-
nist songs prior to
Riot Grrrl, because
I wanted more of
a female voice in the book, but I couldnt
nd any explicit protest songs I could use.
I needed songs that self identied as pro-
test songs. [...] People often say that one
doesnt have to be a protest singer in order
to be political, of course you dont. You can
read politics into all kinds of songs, partic-
ularly 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 didnt consider themselves as political
in that way.
Whilst reading your book it becomes
clear that being a protest singer
doesnt mean a person is overall po-
litically correct. Misogyny and hom-
ophobia are, for example, disturbing
features of reggae, soul, contempo-
rary hip-hop and dancehall. Do you
think that the fact that many protest
singers cant even absorb the mes-
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sage of previous singers is an indica-
tion that music cant be seen as a ve-
hicle for social change?
I dont know if you can say that peoplehavent learned. People have different ex-
periences. Like Rastafarians arent too
concerned with gay rights, but that is okay,
because they dont have to measure up to
some sort of liberal ideal. The history of
political movements is full of friction be-
tween different groups. There was frictionbetween Black Power and gay rights. There
was misogyny in many left wing move-
ments. A big inuence on hip hop was the
Nation of Islam which looked down on gays
and Jews. I dont think it is a matter of not
learning; they are not obliged to be part of a
liberal dream rainbow coalition. People are
awed, look at the Occupy movement and
the arguments within the movement about
whether they are equally representing fe-
male, 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 reects those tensions. Midway
through writing the book, what I found in-
teresting is that these musicians experi-
ences are also the experiences that a lot of
activists or politically concerned citizenshave; they are all dealing with contradic-
tions and compromises. Being involved in
politics is difcult 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.
Speaking of the Occupy movement;
do you expect that any decent protest
songs will come out of it?
I dont think so not directly anyway. The
point is that music rarely comes from the
heart of these movements. You can see ex-
amples of movements who did attempt this.
For example the Black Panthers formed
their own soul band which didnt go any-
where. Movements dont 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
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general frustration. Songs are more likely
to respond to a broader sense that there
are things to protest about.
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
denite, unapologetic attempt to write a
political song about Britain as it is rightnow and it was fairly mainstream. [...] Un-
like events like Hurricane Katrina that
suddenly inspired a urry of responses, the
economic crisis has been slow to inspire
protest songs. Older musicians do discuss
it in their songs, like Bruce Springsteen or
Ry Cooder, but somehow the crisis hasnt
inspired many younger bands yet. Im still
hopeful though. These things take time.
Writing songs, and in particular
writing political songs, is very dif-
cult. After analyzing all these differ-
ent songs, do you have a clearer view
on what makes a protest song suc-
cessful? Is there a particular theory
or formula?
Generally, I am not very interested in the-
ory. I dont write in theoretical terms. I aminterested in people and their responses to
certain events and certain environments.
What I like about all the individual sto-
ries is the ambivalence, the contradictions
and awkwardness. The regrets some art-
ists have. The sense that sometimes peo-
ple didnt quite know what they were do-ing. [...] I realised that each story is its own
special case, I dont think there is any the-
ory that can explain all the weird constella-
tions of factors that make a song a hit - for-
get about politics for a moment - just the
factors that make it a hit. Theyre so unpre-
dictable and it really is hit and miss. This
is what I nd so exciting and interesting;
that you can never predict which things are
going to catch re. And then there are the
questions: What if Born in the USA had
sounded different, maybe it wouldnt have
been misunderstood as much? What if
Bob Marleys music hadnt been remixed
for a rock audience would he still have been
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this huge international star? Or would he
only have been big in Jamaica?
So this history of protest songs isntas coherent as one might think?
During the interviews [for his book Lyns-
key 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 wouldnt have been
so long. The point is to show rather thantell. [...]When you read about all these dif-
ferent songs and these different situations
the message I am trying to put across is
that there is incredible diversity and com-
plexity. It is not a thesis. It is history and
histories are full of random facts and loose
threads and anomalies.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Dorian Lynskey is a music writer
for the Guardian. He also writes
for Q, The WordandSpin, among
other publications.33 Revolutions
is his rst book.
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