Music, Politics, Humor, Life, etc.
I'm writing this on September 21, The International Day of Peace as declared by the United Nations in 1981. It's Thursday, and I just found out that Joe Glazer died on Tuesday. Joe Glazer, who lived in Chevy Chase MD in his later years (he had lived in Madison when he became interested in the labor movement) was a great song collector and songwriter who specialized in labor songs in particular, and in political songs in general. He called himself a "musical agitator for all good causes." As I wrote in this column in June of 2001, he had a lot to do with the popularization of what some say is the greatest rallying song to date, "We Shall Overcome."
Joe founded the Labor Heritage Foundation of Washington DC, which is "Dedicated to strengthening the labor movement through the use of music and the arts." He was very supportive of other artists and even came to our shows when we played in the DC area. His songs were political, but he was very much in favor of humor in songwriting. In 1981, he told the New York Times, "Protest songs use humor, they tell about terrible conditions, but you still have to be able to laugh and sing and tell a joke. You know, that's a very important thing - life goes on."
Later that day I noticed another email, this time from the amazing Prince Myshkins. It turns out there was a Peace Day outdoor concert at the UW's Union Terrace that evening, in the chattering teeth of an unseasonably cold evening. The Myshkins -- Rick Burkhardt, vocals and accordion, and Andy Gricevich, vocals and guitar -- were scheduled to play for about half an hour. I hustled down and used my jacket sleeves like a muff to warm my hands while watching Rick and Andy freeze fingers. These chapped chaps, who met at the U of Illinois in 1995, moved to San Diego while pursuing about four careers in the arts simultaneously. They now live at least part of the time in Madison. Both poets, they also work in experimental theater all over the country, but I know them best as brilliant musicians and astonishing political songwriters. Though there is little stylistically that ties their songs to those of Joe Glazer, they could also use the phrase "musical agitators for all good causes" to describe themselves. And like Joe, they are funny. Their messages are political, but their wordplay is unrelentingly sidesplitting. It's hard to give them justice by quoting their lyrics but here are some anyway. These are the first and third verses of "A War Without An End," and one of the choruses:
Excerpts from A War Without An End
©2004 Rick Burkhardt & Andy GricevichThere's someone on the phone-he's just post-graduation
from the nation's finest school of phone solicitation
his delivery is lame; his diction's the same
his name is so mundane it has to be a fabrication
...
What's he trying to sell you? What does his incessant
soft soapy soliloquy actually portend?
Did you just hear him wrong, or did you comprehend
that what he's trying to sell you is a war without an end?
...
A war without an end-a train without a station
a boat without floatation, a ladder without rungs
a honeymoon vacation without a destination
a song without a tune by a singer without lungs
A megacorporation without a regulation
plus a shadow government without a government
and a 401K without a dividend
a joke without a punchline and a war without an end
While sitting waiting for the Myshkins to start, gazing at the Windex blue waters of Lake Mendota and thinking of Joe Glazer, another creative force came to mind which had connections to both of these entities: Charlie King. Charlie is an exceptional songwriter, also very often funny, and also very much a "musical agitator for all good causes." Charlie lives in Massachusetts but actually introduced us to the Prince Myshkins way out in California, where we all did a concert together. Coincidentally to my train of thought that evening, Charlie is also spoken of very highly in Joe Glazer's 2001 autobiography, Labor's Troubadour. Here's a lyric from one of Charlie's lighter songs:
Excerpt from Growing Up and Slowing Down
Lyrics © 2005 C. King, Pied Asp Music Music © J. McCutcheon,
Appalsongs
I'm getting out of the drivers seat, I'm gonna ride the trolley
Wise men walk where fuels rush in, fossil fuels are folly
Green house gases vaporizin', icebergs meltin', oceans risin'
Startin' wars and spewin' poison, I'm gonna take the trainYou support our troops with a stick-on ribbon, who am I to scoff?
Just slap it over your gas cap, Friend, and never peel it off!
Not all the songs of Joe Glazer, the Prince Myshkins, or Charlie King are funny, but as a writer of (I hope) humorous songs, I'm drawn to the funnier ones. But I do think humor is a tool -- not a covert tool, but a very open tool -- in voicing opinion in a way that isn't menacing. I also think it helps the artist maintain a sense of perspective when presented with such feedback as the email I came home to that night:
"There was a time several years ago when my wife and I never missed one of your concerts. Then you started bashing our president and we stopped attending your performances. I think he is the best president since Abraham Lincoln."
I don't often get political in my lyric writing, and this epistle once again reminded me of the roller coaster ride of those who do, and the need to keep a sense of humor about it all. Hats off to Charlie King, the Prince Myshkins, and to the treasured memory of Joe Glazer.
WEBLIOGRAPHY
Labor Heritage Foundation:
www.laborheritage.org/
Joe Glazer:
wfma.net/glazer.htm
The Prince Myshkins:
www.princemyshkins.com/
Charlie King:
www.charlieking.org/
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Labor's Troubadour by Joe Glazer, U of Illinois Press, 2001