Are all folk musicians political?

Subject: RE: Are all folk musicians political?
From: reggie miles
Date: 07 Feb 21 - 04:58 AM

If a political folksinger sings a song in the middle of some backwoods tree covered hollow and no one is there to hear it, does it make a difference? Most songwriters write from a perspective of appeasing their own personal muse or demon. Even if they are the only ones to ever hear the song, the writing and singing of it to an audience of one can be enough to sooth the savage beast or nagging feeling within.

Songs are, in many ways, the way in which we, as songwriters, come to terms with the world in which we find ourselves. They are wakeful dreams, a means of wrestling with the challenges we face. I would argue that the lyrics of any song are important enough to the songwriter to write them and that's enough. "... actually important, relevant, or meaningful...", those are abstract subjective notions. What might be "important, relevant, or meaningful" to one person certainly may not be the same to someone else but who is the judge? Who becomes the arbiter of importance, relevance, or meaningfulness?

I recently found out that one of my political folk songs, has been being sung by other performers for years, in an area of the country I've never visited, Nashville. Those singing it weren't even aware that it was my song. They attributed me as who they heard sing it but they weren't aware that I wrote it.

I haven't sang the song that much myself. I have so many of my own songs, that it's a challenge to give them all enough time, sharing them during performances. And I am always writing new songs. Something has got to give. I let some songs slide, as I endeavor to work up new songs, or songs to which I've previously given less of my time.

I gave the political folk song in question plenty of my energy and it reaped some rather unique attention, having made its way into an MTV B-Sides music video. Still, I saw no particularly significant resonance, at least not from among listeners in the region where I primarily perform. Who'd a thunk that somehow my song would find its way to Nashville and reap so much attention? I certainly didn't envision any of that happening. Nor did I knowingly have a hand in any of that happening. It just happened.

As the writer of the political folk song, I certainly felt the song was important, relevant and meaningful. I wouldn't have written it, if I didn't feel that way. But I cannot control the way any given listener responds to it. In this particular instance, it seems that location played a primary factor in the song finding the resonance it needed to survive. Somehow my political folk song found its way into the souls of those it was written about and they helped to bring it to the Nashville area.

I found out all of this after being contacted, about a month or so ago, by a Nashville resident, who shared this with me. He told me that I have many fans in the area because of my song. That was and still is such a strange revelation to hear.

I've noticed that many of the songs I write resonate with listeners below the Mason Dixon Line. That's likely due to the particular finger style pickin and bottleneck slidin that I use when I play. It's made me feel as though I'm living in the wrong part of the lower 48. I've attempted to make some inroads to perform more in the Deep South but thus far, I've had little to no success in that endeavor.

So, who deems a song "important, relevant, or meaningful?" Perhaps it's whether the song finds resonance among those listening. I played an open mic once and when I stepped away from the stage, I was approached by a young woman who was working in the kitchen. The kitchen was located in a separate room in the back, behind the bar. She told me that she couldn't get the words of one of my songs out of her head. I wasn't even aware that I could be heard from way back there in the kitchen. Does getting one's lyrics stuck in the heads of listeners qualify as relevance? Well, if you're a songwriter, that's an important quality to include in your songs. You definitely want to be able to write songs that will stick with listeners.

I'd offer that considering universal themes in your songwriting is important, if one's goal is hoping to find resonance and relevance in the hearts and minds of others. But to circle back to what I stated earlier, I think that first and perhaps foremost, songwriting is a personal journey in which the songwriter searches for truth, understanding, and meaning in a world that can often make those concepts challenging to find. To thine own self be true.

Subject: RE: Are all folk musicians political?
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 07 Feb 21 - 05:48 AM

I do declare it's snowing - must play "Snowfalls" by The Albion Band!!

Subject: RE: Are all folk musicians political?
From: The Sandman
Date: 07 Feb 21 - 06:14 AM

I am being nice to Bonzo,much nicer than if i met him face to face. here is a sensible quote
Does getting one's lyrics stuck in the heads of listeners qualify as relevance? Well, if you're a songwriter, that's an important quality to include in your songs. You definitely want to be able to write songs that will stick with listeners.

and writing songs means not just the melody it means the feckin words
.And people who come on to this forum and try and tell songwriters that there words are only important to themselves are well wide of the mar, of course they are important to themselves but they are important to listeners too. the eesnce is here..
that the words have to be listened too for a judgement to be made ,therefore words are important, if people deliberately close their ears ti the words how can they make a judgement.
it is like trying to talk to closed minds or rather like the woman in the film, shirley valentine who talks to the wall
I have given several examples, earlier in this thread of political songs that describe situations [joe peel, roll on the day, england motorways, shoals of herring, that are meaningful to many, but do not give an opinion, they let the song be told through the WORDS

Subject: RE: Are all folk musicians political?
From: The Sandman
Date: 07 Feb 21 - 06:22 AM

Here is an example of a well crafted song with well crafted lyrics that does not give an opinion or is political, which highlights observers comment for what it is a half truth.
Icarus
Anne Lister
I never wanted to fly high: I was too fond of walking
So when you said you'd reach the sky, thought it was a way of talking
But you told me you'd build some
Wings, you'd found out how it could be done
But I was doubtful of everything, never thought you'd reach the sun.
You were so clever with your hands, I watched you for hours
With your glue and rubber bands, feathers and lace and flowers
And the finished wings gleamed so bright, like some bird of glory
Began to envy you your flight, like some hero's story.
You asked me to go along with you, tried all ways to dare me
But I looked at the sky so blue and said the height would scare me
But I carried the wings for you up the path to the cliff face
Kissed you goodbye and watched your eyes already bright with sunlight.
It was so wonderful at the start to watch you soaring higher
It was a pain in my heart—the wings seemed tipped with fire
Like some seagull or some lark heading for the heaven
Like some ember or some spark vanishing from earth for ever.
And I believed you'd reach the sun, I believed all you'd told me
Do a thing no man had ever done and catch a star to please me
And then I saw the white wings fold, saw the feathers tremble
Watched you drop like a ball of gold, the waves and waters ripple.
Well some are some who are born to rise and some are born to follow
Some who head right for the skies, some walk in the hollow
And as I watched your body fall I knew that really you had won
For your grave was not the earth but the reflection of the sun.

Subject: RE: Are all folk musicians political?
From: The Sandman
Date: 07 Feb 21 - 06:26 AM

and anotherTHE SHELLBACK SONG
Words & Music by EWAN MACCOLL

I am a bold sea-faring man, I come from everywhere;
Name any point of the compass you like, you're bound to find me there.
Born in a gale in the Roaring Forties, entered in the log -
Sent up aloft to the tipper t'gan's'ls, and christened in navy grog.

All that I own are the clothes on me back and the tools of the sailor's trade;
Me fid and me palm, a few needles, a spike, a knife with a good, keen blade.
I've a hunk in the fo'c'sle, a place on a bench in the galley where I can feed,
And a hook for to hang me old oilskins up. What more does a shellback need ?

Been up in the rigging with Lascars and Swedes when the stormy winds do blow;
Bunted the royals with Arabs and Finns with the boiling sea below;
Hauled on the braces with Friesians, damn near drowned in the same big wave;
Chinamen, Yankees and Scousers and all of 'em bloody hard men to shave.

I've sailed both Atlantics and doubled both Capes more times than I can tell;
Fought the big seas in a parish-rigged barque and froze at Cape Farewell.
I've cursed the calms in the Doldrums when you'd swear the wind was dead;
Laid to off the Horn in a westerly gale that would blow the hair off your head.

I've shipped in high-loaded East Indiamen, been crew on a coastal barge;
Come bowling along on a smart clipper ship when she was running large.
Schooners, lime-juicers and barcatines, they're all well-known to me,
And I've worked as a flying fish sailor dodging the reefs in the China Sea.

To the maggoty beef and weevily bread, I've added me word of abuse;
I've pounded hard biscuit to powder and mixed it with bug-fat and jaggery juice.
With the galley awash for a week on end, I've gore hungry early and late;
Been served with pea-soup that could stand on the poop deck and scare off a blue-nosed mate.

I've signed on in short-handed Yankee ships with masters who know the score;
I've sailed with the drinkers who can't navigate a course past the bar-room door.
I've been with masters who're seamen and know how to treat a sailor well,
And some of the others, the miserable buggers, have made me life a hell.

I know all the boarding-house keepers ashore from Cardiff to Tokyo;
Know all the crimps and waterfront pimps from Riga to Callao.
I've spent me advance at Rasmussen the Dane's, I've lodged with Paddy West,
And I've know the slop-chest to take half of me screw while Big Nellie she took the rest.

I've sailed out of Rio in ballast, I've loaded grain in Frisco bay;
Raced with a cargo of tea from Shanghai on the old Thermopylae;
I've carried nitrates from Iquiqui and whisky out of Leith;
Sailed in the woolrace on old Cutty Sark, with the wind between her teeth.

Goodbye, you square-riggers, your voyaging's done, farewell to the days of sail;
Goodbye, you Cape-Horners and every tall ship that ever defied a gale;
Goodbye to the shellbacks who rode the winds through a world of sea and sky,
Your roving is ended, your seafaring's over; you mariners all, goodbye.
t

Subject: RE: Are all folk musicians political?
From: The Sandman
Date: 07 Feb 21 - 06:49 AM

here is a political song that does not give an opinion, but the lyrics are important
Song lyrics Anthony John Clarke - The Broken Years
The whole family's sitting watching TV
The only thing that makes me feel better
And no one plays the radio
The news is always bad

The kids, they've been keeping daddy up all night
Rock 'n' Rolling, shouting, fighting
Tomorrow is the marching season
We'll meet at the roundabout

I want to eat at the same table
I want to break the same bread
I want to march down the same streets
I want to hear the same bands
I want to sing the same songs
I want to say the same prayers
Together we can mend the broken years

Jimmy would get married in September
First of all he had to write a letter
Requesting dispensation
Just to be with the girl he loved
And in the end, hardly anybody came
Mother' side all blamed it on the weather
Three cheers for the broken years

I want to eat at the same table
I want to break the same bread
I want to march down the same streets
I want to hear the same bands
I want to sing the same songs
I want to say the same prayers
Together we can mend the broken years

(Instrumental)

Connor's late for school again
He's out of breath and running at the double
Get his education
He had to take the long way 'round
For even if he stayed out on the main road
Chances are he'd run into some trouble
Three cheers for the broken years

With all the pretty colours on the pavement
The green and gold that lighten through it all
And all the little broken shops and houses
With those badly spelled slogans on the wall
It's no wonder that everybody's leaving
It's no wonder at all, at all, at all
Three cheers for the broken years

I want to eat at the same table
I want to break the same bread
I want to march down the same streets
I want to hear the same bands
I want to sing the same songs
I want to say the same prayers
Together we can mend the broken years

Eat at the same table
Break the same bread
March down the same streets
Hear the same bands
Sing the same songs
Say the same prayers
Together we can mend the broken years

Subject: RE: Are all folk musicians political?
From: The Sandman
Date: 07 Feb 21 - 07:22 AM

This is a music forum , I am showing well written songs with well crafted lyrics to illustrate the point that lyrics have meaning to more people than just the song writer, and that these lyrics can be political and also non political [icarus] etc, this is in reply to guest Observer
Backwoodsman, if you do not like it you can go beneath the line or go to a different post

Subject: RE: Are all folk musicians political?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 07 Feb 21 - 07:34 AM

Yes it's a music forum. Dick tells us how important the words are. But it's a MUSIC forum. Songs are words AND MUSIC. The incessant posting of sets of lengthy lyrics, WITHOUT THE MUSIC, is vexatious in the extreme, and makes no point that I can personally glean. Name the bloody song, make your point and give us a YouTube link to somebody you enjoy singing it. Deal?

Subject: RE: Are all folk musicians political?
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 07 Feb 21 - 07:42 AM

Spot on, Steve.

Subject: RE: Are all folk musicians political?
From: The Sandman
Date: 07 Feb 21 - 08:04 AM

no, you can do that for yourself.

Subject: RE: Are all folk musicians political?
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 07 Feb 21 - 08:08 AM

How many listened to this when first broadcast??

Subject: RE: Are all folk musicians political?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 07 Feb 21 - 08:57 AM

And how many people do you think are going to do that as a result of wading through your huge sets of lyrics? Telling us who you like singing 'em on YouTube would be an incentive. Beating us round the head with masses of stuff to scroll through is a total DISincentive.

Subject: RE: Are all folk musicians political?
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 07 Feb 21 - 09:13 AM

”And how many people do you think are going to do that as a result of wading through your huge sets of lyrics? Telling us who you like singing 'em on YouTube would be an incentive. Beating us round the head with masses of stuff to scroll through is a total DISincentive.”

...and simply C&P-ing lyrics to songs which have some political content, with just a “Here’s a political song” type of comment (or even no comment at all) adds absolutely nothing to any kind of discussion - it’s just wasting bandwidth and server-space.

If Sandman thinks we rely on him to educate us as to what constitutes a ‘political’ song, it says far more about his over-inflated ego than it does about anyone else here.

Subject: RE: Are all folk musicians political?
From: The Sandman
Date: 07 Feb 21 - 10:10 AM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDtGpJQkMGw Alan Taylor.
backwoodsman
I do not read your posts good night, Steve Shaw is perfectly able to go and find you tube clips
why not seek out some of the clips instead of your perpetual arguing below the line, put in some effort go and find clips of the songs,instead of arguing in the bs section .
you lot remind me of alf garnett