Another playlist addition

[Thomas Eckhardt]

As for the contradictions inherent in the American Dream and the hollow
rhetoric of "freedom" so prevailing these days, inevitably Neil Young
comes to mind. His "Freedom" album and especially the electric version of
"Rockin' in the free world" is, I believe, a profound statement on the
contradictions we are all dealing with at the moment not only in our
off-topic posts but in our lives, in our discussions with friends,
acquaintances etc. Yes, this is popular culture. Listen to the bribed cop
in "Crime in the City" (best heard on Young's live album "Weld", recorded
during the time of or shortly after the Gulf War) saying

I get paid by a ten year old
He says he looks up to me
There's still crime in the city
But it's good to be free

Cruel social satire, I'd say, debunking the hollow concept, the empty
phrase, the glorious utopia of "freedom". The economy, stupid. But things
get more paradoxical in "Rockin' in the free world". What about

There's colours on the street
Red, white and blue
People shufflin' their feet
People sleepin' in their shoes
There's a warning sign on the road ahead
There's a lot of people saying
We'd be better off dead
Don't feel like Satan but I am to them
So I try to forget it every way I can

Hard to forget after 1109, I assume. And the US need desperately to
understand why some people think they're Satan. Read an interesting
article in Salon today about US-Americans' ignorance of geography and
history (thanks to Nika for pointing us to the article about irony on
Salon, by the way, I have felt irritated by people who thought irony was
just some sort of cynical smart-assism for quite some time now -
"Baldrick, do you know what irony is?", but I am digressing). Of course,
I have no idea how much of this article is true, because most
US-Americans I know, and certainly the ones I converse with on this list,
are at least as and often more educated and politically aware than I
believe myself to be.

But back to Neil Young. The final lines of "Rockin' in the free world"
are:

We got a thousand points of light
For the homeless men
We got a kinder, gentler machine gun hand
We got department stores and toilet paper
We got styrofoam boxes for the ozone layer
Got a man of the people says keep hope alive
Got fuel to burn
Got roads to drive
Keep on rockin' in the free world

Of course, this is not only a matter of lyrics. One has to listen to
Young's voice and the music. It is at the same time scathing social
satire and a desperate attempt to cling to the American Dream. At least
that's what I think. Mobility, the road, yes, but also: Fuel, oil, the
necessary preconditions for Jack Kerouac's utopia. Yet, when Young comes
to "Got fuel to burn/Got roads to drive" to this listener this seems to
be as much desperation as it is, despite everything that came before,
celebration. Full of heart-felt contradictions. And a way better song
than "God bless America".

Reminds me, and I know that I am beginning to ramble now, of the ending
of that greatest of all Vietnam movies, Michael Cimino's "Deer Hunter",
when, after all that we have been made to witness before - after that
wonderful, rightfully drawn-out wedding scene, after lives have been lost
and people have been crippled in both body and soul - a few persons come
together in a bar and start to sing "God bless America". Is this a
statement? What kind of statement is it? Violent contradictions and irony
abound, yet this also seems meant to be taken seriously. It is real in
some hard to describe way, and from my personal aesthetic point-of-view
it is great.

Which reminds me of another Salon article in which the author said that,
although he thinks the wrong people have been touting the flag for all
his life, he still liked the Stars and Stripes, because for him the flag
represented the right to burn just that flag (he certainly should not
attempt to do that now, at least not in public, I guess). I quite liked
that. Reminded me of "Ohio". Oh well...

I don't know what to make of all this in terms of political statements or
anything. To say that these impressions got by songs and movies point to
the fact that the political situation now is full of contradictions seems
a little trite. It has always been that way. But these contradictions,
one desperately hopes, would have to be taken into account by the
US-government in its attempt to fight the conditions that led to the
terrible and indefensible attack of September 11.

Thomas


lorentzen-nicklaus schrieb:

>                   t h e   w o r l d   i s n' t   f a i r
>
>                        when karl marx was a boy
>                        he took a hard look around
>                 he saw people were starving all over the place
>               while others were painting the town (buh, buh, buh)
>                         the public spirited boy
>                       became a public spirited man
>                 so he worked very hard and he read everything
>                        until he came up with a plan
>
>                       there'll be no exploitation
>                         of the worker or his kin
>                no discrimination 'cause the color of your skin
>                         no more private property
>                          it would not be allowed
>                         no one could rise too high
>                          no one could sink too low
>                  or go under completely like some we all know
>
>                       if marx were living today
>                    he'd be rolling around in his grave
>                and if i had him here in my mansion on the hill
>             i'd tell him a story t'would give his old heart a chill
>                     it's something that happened to me
>
>                     i'd say, karl, i recently stumbled
>                            into a new family
>                      with two little children at school
>                      where all little children should be
>                         i went to the orientation
>                       all the young mommies were there
>                 karl, you never have seen such a glorious sight
>                  all these beautiful women arrayed for the night
>               just like countesses, empresses, movie stars and queens
>                    and they'd come there with men much like me
>                         froggish men, unpleasant to see
>                           were you to kiss one, karl
>                          nary a prince would there be
>
>                        oh karl the world isn't fair
>                        it isn't and it never will be
>                          they tried out your plan
>                          it brought misery instead
>                       if you'd seen how they worked it
>                         you'd be glad you were dead
>              just like i'm glad i'm living in the land of the free
>                         where the rich just get richer
>                     and the poor you don't ever have to see
>                           it would depress us, karl
>                               because we care
>                        that the world still isn't fair.
>
>                     ~~~ randy newman: bad love [1999] ~~~
>
> kfl