December 22, 2002

HORSEFEATHERS 2002 POPULAR MUSIC AWARD

     Popular music both reflects and shapes our culture. Was it the 60's that produced rock 'n roll, or the music that created the '60's? World War ll lives in many of our memories through the songs it produced. 'Til We Meet Again, Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy, Oh How I Hate to Get Up In The Morning--a few bars of these songs and an era of national purpose is evoked. Those songs helped create and sustain the mood. What songs will do this for the young people of today, growing up during a climactic clash between civilization and barbarism?

     Frankly, Horsefeathers has been disappointed by the musical output generated in response to the attacks of 9-11. Bruce Springsteen's seemed a politically correct attempt to generate sympathy for the victims without naming the villains. A kind of generic rock rhythm supported "poetic" and confusing lyrics that seemed to transmute a villainous act into a religious epiphany. The generic victims were redeemed through "the rising" up to a heavenly abode wherein evil would not exist. One might almost think that the murderous slaughter of thousands of innocents provided the welcome opportunity for religious redemption. The lyrics seemed banal and trite, mostly designed to defuse any anger we might feel towards the killers, as we grasped the deeper significance of these tragic events. If a fireman was climbing the stairs of the WTC, not just to try to rescue trapped human beings, but to get to a blissful heaven, how could we feel outrage when he had been granted such an enviable opportunity?

     Countless songs have been written, most of them instantly forgettable. The country singer Alan Jackson has, however, written an enormously popular song about 9-11, Where were You (When The World Stopped Turning?), but this is a song about victimhood. While tuneful and easily hummable the lyrics are trite--reminding us to pray, love our families and not take life for granted. No anger is expressed, but rather, sympathy and identification with the victims. While it possesses an admirable simplicity and directness, by contrast with Springsteen's conscious 'artfulness', it nevertheless exploits the easy identification with victims. Haven't we all felt unfair pain in our lives? This is easily equated with the losses of 9-11 survivors.

     Neil Young was first out of the gate with his song, Let's Roll which, unlike most of the banal, culturally sensitive pop music to follow, did honor our own aggressive response to the barbarians. His lyric included the lines:"
"You've gotta turn on evil
When it's coming after you
You gotta face it down
And when it tries to hide
You gotta go in after it
And never be denied."

     The problem with Young's song: it was musically gimmicky, with its ringing cellphones to introduce the tune. It seemed too crafted, too clever by half, and ultimately trite. It was more like a documentary dramatization of Todd Beamer's last moments than a musically original response to the events of 9-11. Although a serious and honest effort it lacked the musical emotional resonance to give it staying power.

     Horsefeathers has found one song, released since 9-11 that is so fine it deserves to live, so powerful it stirs the blood, so affecting it touches the heart. The lyric, simple, affecting, and direct is rendered overwhelmingly powerful by the equally simple, anthem like martial music, a music that evokes righteous anger and a readiness to take up arms against our enemies. The lyric runs strongly against the politically correct tide that insists on empathizing with our adversaries and reasoning with them. The song: Freedom's Child. The composer/singer Billy Joe Shaver, is a man who has lived a life with more than its share of personal tragedy. Rather than assume a stance of poetic self pitying victimization he chooses the path of struggle and resistance, one which conveys a realistic sense of hope. "Freedom's child" will fight to the death against the enemies of freedom and the song has an infectiously vitalizing quality, despite the real tragedy it evokes. The album: Freedom's Child
The lyric and music reenforce each other and Horsefeathers is certain our readers will share our pleasure in its forthrightness. It is a bold and proud defense of freedom in the face of enemies who seek to destroy us. While noting that the lyrics minus the martial music are a pale simulacrum of the song, we quote the central verse:
With his colors flying high and his gun in hand
Volunteered to fight and die in a foreign land
Just another minor chord in a worn out song
Freedom's child is marching there singing freedom's song

No effete, liberal, political correctness here. The 2002 Horsefeathers, 5 feathers popular music award goes to Billy Joe Shaver for Freedom's Child.