Whaddaya think, gang?
Ready for another soundtrack?
A pandemic, an insurrection… any old thing will get one going in ol’ Daddy Gibs’ mind.
My last one (“American Soundtrack for an Apocalypse”) got me through last year.
Honestly, it’s just what I do.
Originally, the working title to this one was “Soundtrack to the Upcoming Civil War”.
Fortunately, I have a girlfriend who is more upbeat and positive than me.
To put it mildly, these are, um… interesting times.
We live in an age where the words, “black lives matter” can be an inflammatory statement.
We live in an age where a request to wear a mask (for protection of others, and ourselves) can be met with rage.
In this upside-down world, we’re forced to question all our beliefs.
Sometimes we’re left to wonder if everything we know is wrong.
This playlist began percolating in my mind, right after the 2018 Parkland, Fla high school shootings.
I’d had enough, and was digging deep for the strength of my convictions.
Which became the name of the playlist of songs that dropped into my mind over time.
Now you have it.
(NOTE: I’ve left some of the songs out of my little capsule reviews down below. I thought I’d spare you my verbosity on some of them, at least.)
Some of these songs are social commentary.
Some are protest songs.
Some are testaments of belief… in God, to love, or in humankind
Some just spill over with a quiet sense of beauty.
Some lead me down the path of righteousness. Some just lead me into trouble.
Some of them are just intended to poke the bear. Some are howling out against injustice.
All are trying to get at the truth.
All of them are sung by people who really mean it.
All of them make me want to get off my ass and get things done.
* * *
Peter Himmelman – “Damage and the Dust”
This song is to blame for this soundtrack. It started the whole thing.
It’s usually the first thing I reach for when I go looking for my convictions.
It’s not a “statement song.” It doesn’t have an overt societal message.
But it is a pure bliss, straight-ahead rocker, with an opening guitar lead that comes screaming out like a siren, insisting that you pay attention.
Then a blazing harmonica kicks in.
Lyrically? There’s this girl, a lost soul, and people look down on her.
And all the singer knows is that he wants to lift her up, “from beneath the damage and the dust.”
And boy, does he mean it.
Peter Himmelman is probably best known for having Bob Dylan as a father-in-law.
He should be better known for his inspirational songwriting.
And for giving one of the most incredible TEDx Talks ever, about his obsession with slain journalist Daniel Pearl. (The twist at 11 minutes in is great.)
Beth Orton – “Ooh Child”
Remember the Five Stairsteps and their soft soul-pop song from 1970?
Beth Orton does.
Beth reimagines it, in such a sweet, sad way.
It’s like a mother, trying to tell her child, everything’s gonna be alright… even if she’s not sure that it is.
Brad Paisley – “Welcome to the Future”
Well, we oughta have one cowboy hat song in here. And no cowboy hat has written a finer, subtler “protest song” than Mister Paisley has here (along with his pal Chris DuBois).
It was a “sneaky” country hit – I really do believe it went over the heads of most his fans, so it didn’t offend them that he was talking about the election of the first black President.
He starts by singing the praises of technology (you can have video games on your phone now) to how his grandfather used to send letters home during World War II from a station in the Philippines (and now Brad’s on a video chat with a company in Tokyo).
“So many things I thought I’d never see… happening right in front of me.”
Then, in the quiet last verse, he remembers a friend in high school, a running back on the football team.
“They burned a cross on his front lawn – for asking out the homecoming queen.”
He doesn’t give any more specifics than that.
He doesn’t have to.
“I thought about him today,” Brad recalls. “And everyone who’s seen what he’s seen.
“From a woman on a bus, to a man with a dream.”
I still can’t really believe that it was actually played on country radio.
Bob Dylan – “Master of War”
Nobody does righteous indignation like Bob Dylan.
There is nobody – nobody – who is better at the body-slam putdown than Brother Bob.
Look no further than “Positively 4th Street,” or “Idiot Wind,” to hear him let loose on an ex-wife, a former friend, or a lowly music critic, leaving scorched earth behind.
In this song, Bob unleashes his wrath on those who “build the big guns… build the death planes… build all the bombs.”
And he doesn’t find much charity in his heart for them.
“Even Jesus would never forgive what you do.”
It’s early Dylan, pure protest Dylan… You can picture him alone on a stage in Greenwich Village, strumming these haunting minor chords.
Just in case we’re not clear, he puts the nail in the coffin with his final verse:
And I hope that you die, and your death will come soon
I’ll follow your casket, on a pale afternoon
I’ll watch while you’re lowered, down to your deathbed
And I’ll stand over your grave ’til I’m sure that you’re dead
Bruce Springsteen – “Vigilante Man”
I have to confess, a lot of my favorite Springsteen songs have been his covers.
Doing other people’s songs allows him to loosen up, and have a good time, I always felt.
This one came from the great Smithsonian tribute album to Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly (A Vision Shared).
It’s Woody’s cautionary tale about the vigilantes who roamed Dust Bowl America and took the law into their own hands.
(To steal Dave Chappelle’s line: “Who does that sound like now?”)
Bruce takes it and pours gasoline on it, then lights a match.
He means it.
Buffalo Springfield – “For What It’s Worth“
Still one of the best protest songs of its time, or any time.
(My Number One protest song coming up later…)
Crowded House – “Chocolate Cake”
Leave it to these cheeky Australian lads to happily skewer our American appetite for excess. (And Britain’s too – Andrew Lloyd Webber comes in for some fun mockery.)
They don’t have much patience for it, frankly. As they crow in the triumphant last verse, “The excess of fat on your American bones, will cushion the impact as you sink like a stone!”
Oh, dear.
The Chicks – “Truth No. 2”
Patty Griffith – “Trapeze”
Patty Griffith is an unsung American treasure. These are two of her finest songs.
The (formerly Dixie) Chicks always did have a knack for choosing songs that fit them to a T. “Truth No. 2” suits them just fine, with Natalie Maines spitting fire with lines like, “You don’t like the sound of the truth, coming from my mouth.”
If you don’t know Patty, it’s worth taking the time to get to know her.
And you could do worse than start with “Trapeze.”
It’s a tale of a circus performer, a woman who flies through the air in the big tent, without a care in the world.
Until she has her heart broken by some guy.
Patty’s voice melds with the great Emmylou Harris, as they sing:
“Some people don’t care if they live or they die/Some people want to know what it feels like to fly.”
But the trapeze artist eases her heartache with a potion from the lady of the snake tent – after that, her heart never ached again.
“One of these nights, the old girl’s going down,” Patty softly warns us.
It’s beautiful, and elegiac, and at the end, Patty and Emmylou reach a crescendo, their voices mingling and tangling and reaching higher and higher, until they come crashing down with a soft “Hallelujah… hallelujah… hallelujah…”
Indigo Girls – “Shame On You”
These two gals just can’t help themselves. They’re troublemakers, God bless ’em.
And I’m here for all of their mischief, I have to admit.
They just couldn’t understand all the kerfuffle about immigrants, so they wrote a song.
After singing the praises of their friends who clean windows for a living, or the beautiful music of Chicano City Park, they go “roadblock tripping in the middle of the night, up in Gainesville town.”
When the cops ask them to step outside, ‘cause they’re looking for illegal immigrants, they gleefully remind them, “Funny, I think we were in the same boat back in 1694.”
John Fullbright – “Gawd Above”
This one’s bound to offend some people, but…
Imagine God as a fun-loving (if a little bit vengeful) mischief-maker.
“You think it’s hot, down there in July?/I got the means and a kitchen to fry!”
The Proclaimers – “The More I Believe”
Oh the flip side, you’ve got the fun-loving, energetic Reid twins from Scotland.
These lads are known for “movie hits” like “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” and “I’m On My Way” , and they couldn’t sing a love ballad without jumping up and down.
In this one, they profess their love for The Lord, trading off yells of encouragement back and forth.
No matter your religious beliefs, it’s infectious.
Girls – get yourself a man who believes in you the way these guys believe in their God!
Los Lobos – “Will the Wolf Survive?”
It’s a subject for debate… but Los Lobos may just be America’s finest band.
And this is their theme song (written at the urging of The Blasters, who felt they needed one).
In it, they tell the story of three characters: A wolf protecting his family, an old man trying to make a decent living, and an honest, hard-working band just trying to spread the word, and spread joy – which Los Lobos has done over the last 40 years.
Todd Snider – “Ballad of the Kingsman”
This guy is another hidden American treasure.
And this is the song that caused me to fall in love with him.
It’s Todd at his sneaky, subversive best – hiding a powerful message behind his stoner persona.
Built around the objections to the 1963 Kingsmen’s version of the reggae song, “Louie, Louie” (which actually led to an FBI investigation of the lyrics), he finds a theme of parents blaming their kids’ troubles on the lyrics of popular songs (from Marilyn Manson to Eminem).
The final verse is the most angry, scathing putdown of cultural finger-pointing I’ve ever heard (along with shots at U.S. military escalation, the education system, and Sunday schools, for good measure).
It may offend you. It may fire you up. But if you let it, it’ll make you smile.
Steve Earle – “Copperhead Road”
If there were any justice in this world, Steve Earle would be the most successful country artist of the last 40 years.
But he was too brash, too authentic, too outlaw to be accepted by country radio.
Instead, Steve became one of the most literate spokesmen for liberal America.
He even had a radio show on Air America. (Remember the short-lived antidote to Rush Limbaugh and conservative talk radio?)
His plain-spoken ways – and his powerful, well-stated beliefs – make him an easy listen, and a real force of nature when he spouts off, which is often.
He also is one of the best song writers of the last 40 years.
Sorry, that is not open to debate.
This song is an American novel in three verses, telling the story of three generations of contraband dealers in the hills of Tennessee.
There’s grandad, making moonshine and dealing with The Revenue Man, and there’s dad “running whiskey in an old black Dodge.”
Then there’s the son, volunteering for the Army “’cause they draft the white trash first ‘round here anyways.”
He comes home from Vietnam “with a brand new plan… planting seed from Columbia and Mexico.”
But that brief description doesn’t do justice to how Steve winds the tale of these three bootleggers through the holler down in Copperhead Road, as one vignette leads to another.
And it is fiery, starting with a bagpipe (really), then a lone mandolin, before ending in a dancing firestorm of electric guitars and drums, as it all comes crashing gloriously down.
The Neville Brothers – “Sons and Daughters”
This is a Reagan-era protest song, from New Orleans’ favorite house band.
The Neville’s always bring the funk, and the party, but here they bring a quiet indignation, and they try to open our eyes, to the story of a young man, sentenced to 352 years hard labor at Angola prison – for a crime he did not commit.
Marvin Gaye – “What’s Going On?”
For my money, this is the greatest protest song of my lifetime.
It’s powerful but simple.
It’s empathetic, but Marvin pulls no punches.
It’s realistic, but hopeful.
And it’s the most soulful vocals you’ll ever hear.
Robert Palmer – “Every Kinda People”
I always thought this was originally a sound-of-Philadelphia song, or a hidden Motown gem.
Nope. Just smooth, stylish British boy Robert Palmer, doing his “blue-eyed soul” thing.
And singing the most beautiful, hopeful lyrics imaginable.
Stevie Wonder – “As”
The man has written at least three of the greatest love songs that anybody ever could: “I Believe When I Fall in Love,” “Ribbon in the Sky,” and “I Was Made to Love Her,” just off the top of my head.
All of those have been used as wedding songs by various friends, for good reason.
But this song (from his Songs in the Key of Life masterpiece) in particular is just a great testament to love.
And it just moves, finishing up with a Sunday morning revival ending.
Reckless Kelly – “American Blood”
I came late to the Reckless Kelly party – I hadn’t heard of this outlaw country troubadour until recently, but you’ll find him in the same corners as Steve Earle.
It’s another tale of US military war, and the price young men and women pay for those wars.
It’s pretty blunt, and pretty right on the mark.
U2 – “Jesus Christ”
As with Springsteen, U2 are another band whose covers I love.
As with Springsteen, this was a Woody Guthrie song, from the Vision Shared album.
As with Springsteen, it is torched with gasoline and matches.
Bono and The Edge each let fly with fury and abandon, until the gospel chorus comes flying in to lift it up to higher levels.
Woody was a subversive character, for sure.
(Heck, he was the original Antifa leader, with “THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS” scrawled across his guitar.)
This song is him at his impish troublemaker best: “Well, the bankers and the preachers, they nailed him to the cross… and they laid Jesus Christ in his grave.”
As he points out in the last verse, “If Jesus were to preach today what he preached in Galilee… They would lay Jesus Christ in his grave.”
David Baerwald – “Stranger”
After that rip-roaring song by U2, I felt the need to end on a quiet note.
And this song, pleading as it does for comfort and human kindness, does the trick.
Not many people know the name David Baerwald.
You may remember his pop-rock combo in the ‘90s, David & David.
You might recall some of the songs if you heard them: “Welcome to the Boomtown,” “Swallowed By the Cracks,” or “Ain’t So Easy”.
You probably know his work with Sheryl Crow, organizing and co-writing her Tuesday Night Music Club album.
This song, off his incredible first solo album, Bedtime Stories, is written after seeing a military veteran on the street, homeless and begging for food.
To the gentle finger-picking of an acoustic guitar, Mr. Baerwald pleads the case of others just like him: “Three hundred thousand men, all different, all the same/Piled up like driftwood in the pouring rain.”
He asks, “Hey stranger, is there nothing I can do? You lost it all for me, there must be something I can do for you.”
It’s something we all could be asking.
It’s not too late.
Daddy Gibs 