The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #140990   Message #3243276
Posted By: Genie
22-Oct-11 - 08:57 PM
Thread Name: Singing Songs You Don't Agree With
Subject: RE: Singing Songs You Don't Agree With
I'm with Codger. [[Most songs that I sing have major aspects that I totally disagree with: they convey dysfunctional ideas of love; brutality; manipulation; sexist, racist or classist attitudes; animal abuse (as in cowboy or hunting songs); jingoist nationalism; Christian dogma ...   
. I can't imagine restricting myself to songs I agree with, because it would leave blessed little to sing. ...

What attracts me in songs are the underlying aspects of common experience, which are more abstract, more emotional, and ultimately more important than what the songs are overtly "about"; I sing to connect with life, not to proselytize my beliefs. Pathos, affection, misfortune, loss, injustice, joy, sharing, humor: that's the level at which songs resonate for me; the rest is window-dressing.

By the way, singers with agenda make me want to gag, no matter how much I may agree with their views.]]

Unpaid song circles and jams are one thing - and I tend to sing songs I really relate to in those, even though I sometimes do a story song that's clearly divergent from my own personal story. But when I play paid gigs - mostly at retirement communities & the like - I commonly get requests and try to honor them if I know the song and it works well for my playing and my voice.   There are songs like "Carry Me Back To Old Virginny" which I'm often requested to sing but basically won't do except as an instrumental, because I have real trouble with lines like "There's where I labored so long for old Massa" and "That's where this old darkie's heart am long to go" (even if I sing "there's" and "that's" instead of "dere's" and "dat's).    But when I'm requested to sing Tammy Wynette's "Stand By Your Man," I sometimes give in and sing it but I ham it up so much as to make it a kind of spoof of that kind of country song.   
It often comes down to how well I can 'distance' myself from the perspective of a song that's written from a point of view I can't really empathize with or embrace.    If I can pull it off basically as a storyteller, without seeming to endorse a policy or viewpoint that I find offensive, I'll probably do the song.   If not, I sing something else.

Genie