Here is another guest blog by Leslie Lehr.
Last night, I took my sister to the Crosby Stills Nash & Young Concert at the Hollywood Bowl. Yes, Neil Young was there too, in the name of Peace, for the Freedom of Speech Tour. For nearly three hours, we reveled in anti-war sentiment. It was hard not to get teary eyed at the lyric "we have all been here before." No only with Iraq, but with Israel.
We grew up in Ohio, where my boyfriend's big brother was at Kent State when President Nixon ordered the National Guard to fire on the students, inspiring the CSNY lyric "four dead in Ohio." We were younger than the boys being drafted, but we wore POW bracelets all through high school. Our parents, young professors at OSU, had their cars rocked by student protesters. That environment is, I realize now, part of what drove me to marry a Vietnam Vet who became a Conscientious Objector and finally, one of the first V. Vets Against the War. It was patriotic.
At intermission, I called my teenage daughter and asked, "Where are the peace songs now?" She listed a few here and there - Rufus Wainwright, Kanye West - but it didn't seem the same or nearly enough. Is the tolerance level higher because there is no draft for Iraq? Does it seem like we are only directly affected if our loved ones enlist?
As we watched the thousands of fallen Americans faces flash on the concert screen, my sister, a network anchor in Santa Barbara, explained that since 2003 there has been such a stringent policy against photographing the flag-draped caskets of our children killed in service that it is hard to keep the deaths in the news. Evidently, if President Bush went to one funeral, cameras would follow him, but he has not, and will not, go to any.
As the concert ended, I felt as though the boomer generation has failed. I have voted in every election and I try to maintain pacifism in my own life. Yet here is this awful feeling of deja vu. The lyrics that linger now are "Teach your children."
How?
Thoughtful question and great story Leslie. Where are the peace songs? I think we have them in our hearts and souls. We sing them to our children, so that they may carry that same song in their hearts and sing it to the world. The lessons a parent teaches are bigger than any stage the world has to offer and when sung together is sweeter than any symphony could ever sound. At least that is what I believe. Thank you.
Posted by: gavin at August 6, 2006 05:39 AMThanks, Gavin. I've spoken to a lot of folks since the concert, some as elated as I was and some who felt the musical efort could divide us further by strengthening a backlash from the right - just as the Dixie Chicks have experienced as they are forced to cancel concerts left and right, years after the one anti-war (Bush) remark. So how do we preach beyond the choir?
Posted by: leslie at August 9, 2006 02:59 PMHi Leslie -
I'm a songwriter and I grapple with the same kind of question you're posing. I came of age in a time when artists (even pop artists) responded to the world around them with relevant songs, and I try to take that approach today. I'm disappointed that it's not more prevalent, and I'd like to attempt to answer your question from one musician's perspective.
Let me start by saying I think a new generation deserves its own fresh topical songs. In part because it's an easy target for conservatives to paint a bunch of people singing old hippie songs as, well...old hippies, and tar everyone with the same old "irrelevant, pipe dream" brush. And in part because songs about today will resonate more with today's audience than will songs about dreams of long ago.
But the world today is far more complex than the world was then. The Vietnam era hippies were the first generation to break the mold, and they honestly believed that they could "change the world, rearrange the world". Today's generation is more cynical and more jaded. Also, the music business today is driven by youth culture and by commerce, not by content. And that business makes money by feeding those jaded kids a carefully focus-grouped diet of "artists" designed to keep them wrapped up in their own universe, buying products that reinforce their self-envisioned lifestyle.
In order for people to write the kind of songs you desire, today's artists have to care enough, be aware enough, and be articulate enough to express those emotions. And on most of the big stages these days, most of those folks ain't got it.
It's great that Neil Young can still get angry after all these years, but he's up against a machinery that doesn't embrace him and his message the way it once did. I think these days the message necessarily has to be more complex to reach a more complex world.
What's the solution? I think Gavin is on track. It's basically think globally, act locally. Teach your own children. Seek out local artists who sing what you like, and support them. To preach beyond the choir you just have to increase the choir one singer at a time. Don't worry about the "right" or the backlash. Speak your mind with no apology - life is short.
I was in the Middle East earlier this year. That experience combined with watching Bush's attempts to create theocracy in the US led me to write a song called "The bible's last stand". It's not strictly a 'peace' song, but it does tackle an issue that's in our faces at this very moment. If you'd like to hear it go to my website at www.spinachworld.net/music.html and click the song title, then the "mp3 play" link. You can read the lyrics there too.
We all just have to raise our own small voices in hopes of awakening some passions in others.
Posted by: mark at August 9, 2006 03:33 PM