A Soundtrack for a Civil War

I originally wrote a version of this in 2021, with the less-combative title, “A Soundtrack for Our Times.”
Time, and recent events, have caused me to shave it down, and call it what it always has been: A soundtrack for the Civil War that we are entering.

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.

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 4^th 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

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…)

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 suit them to a T. “Truth No. 2” fits them just fine, weaving in their beautiful banjo and fiddle, while Natalie Maines spits fire with, “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.

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, mischievous (if a little bit vengeful) imp.

“You think it’s hot, down there in July?/I got the means and a kitchen to fry!”

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.

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…. The DA man’s got a chopper in the air, I wake up screaming like I’m back over there… But I learned a thing or two from Charlie don’t you know… So you better stay away from Copperhead Road.”

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.

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.

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.”