When Words Fail: September Songs
In the wake of this week's tragedy, we grasp for some way to help and some way to express what we feel. Music has always been there for us - but today, and in the days to come, what songs do we play? What do you listen to from your collection of music? What do you play on the radio? What do you perform at the cafe, or sing among friends? What songs speak to us here, now?
The songs that follow somehow seem relevant. Either because of the intense emotion they convey, the wisdom they contain, or the images they conjure up. I'm compiling this list by keeping an ear to the radio, reading the FolkDJ-List playlists as they appear on that listserve.
The first few come from my friend, WWUH DJ Ed McKeon, who had the job of finding three hours of music to put on the air starting at 6am the morning following the attacks. He ended his show with a song I'd never heard before - "Tower Song," by Townes Van Zandt. It's a love song, and yet it seems to speak, today, to politics as well. It's part lament, but part gentle accusation too. Part of the lyric runs:
The wind blows cold outside your door
It whispers words I've tried before
But you don't hear me anymore
Your pride's just too demanding
You built your tower strong and tall
Can't you see, it's got to fall someday...
Among the songs you'll find classic folky anthems, spirituals and unusual poetic gems. One source of consistently uplifting songs, noted by Scott in Canada, is the entire 'Hope'chapter in the book Rise Up Singing (Sing Out Press). Also, a bluegrass DJ from St. Louis mines the treasury of high and lonesome old-timey gospel.
Here is a list, which I expect will expand in the coming days.
"Tower Song"
Townes Van Zandt
for complete lyrics:
http://home3.swipnet.se/~w-36794/tvz/tvz_029.html
"Everything Is Broken"
Bob Dylan
for complete lyrics:
http://www.bobdylan.com
"A Hard Rain's A'Gonna Fall"
Bob Dylan
"Broken Things"
Julie Miller
more conservative choice:
"Blowin in the Wind"
Bob Dylan
Simon & Garfunkel
"Bridge Over Troubled Waters"
"Auchwitz"
Francesco Guccini
translated & recorded by Rod Mac Donald, Man On A Ledge, (Shanachie)
"Imagine"
John Lennon
"American Tune"
Paul Simon
"How Will I Ever Be Simple Again?"
Richard Thompson
"Reuben James"
Woody Guthrie
"Turn Turn Turn"
Pete Seeger/Bible
"The Crow on the Cradle"
Sydney Carter
performed by Pete Seeger among others. For lyrics and midi
version of melody:
http://www.crixa.com/muse/unionsong/songs.html
"Weave Me the Sunshine" (thanks Scott)
Peter Yarrow
".....Well, I've seen the steel and the concrete crumble..."
"Will the Circle Be Unbroken"
"How Can I Keep From Singing"
"'Til The Circle Is Complete"
Al Grierson
"Where Have All the Flowers Gone?"
Pete Seeger
"Time (The Revelator)"
Gillian Welch
"There But For Fortune"
Phil Ochs
"Candles in the Rain/Lay Down"
Melanie
"Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream"
"Peace Will Come"
Tom Paxton
"The Other Side"
Don Conoscenti
"I loved you then and I still do....now I'm over on the other
side...."
" Fields of Gold"
Sting
"Paz...Queremos Paz"
"By the Rivers of Babylon"
"All My Trials"
More songs - one bluegrass DJ reaches deep into the tradition -> 2.
Hugh Blumenfeld, Editor
hugh@balladtree.com
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