Americana and The American Dream
Poster by Shepard Fairey
(Click photo to enlarge)
Neil Young's new album with Crazy Horse has definitely struck a chord which is resonating not only across Americana but the Old World as well.
The songs on Americana reinterpret traditional folk songs in such a way as to breath new life and meaning into them to such an extent as to be almost unrecognizable to those who learned the songs in their childhood. And that makes some uncomfortable to go where they haven't been before.
For example, in the traditional song “Oh Susannah”, the music is a family focal point to provide relief from the grim times of the Great Depression. Those who fail to draw the line between yesterday and today's global meltdown are missing the major message of Americana . The "Even Greater Depression" of the early 21st century is the story of our lifetime. To miss this point is to fail incredibly.
Even the artwork of Shepard Fairey and Day at the Gallery where the images project populist ideals of the common man against the brutality of the state sponsored repression and economic bondage.
Mixed media (stencil, silkscreen, and collage) on canvas
43 1/2 x 30 inches
Image courtesy of the artist and Perry Rubenstein Gallery, Los Angeles.
© Shepard Fairey/OBEY GIANT ART
(Click photo to enlarge)
For Neil Young's “God Save the Queen,” the British anthem that was repurposed for “America (My Country, ’Tis of Thee)”; this version moves from British fealty to “Confound their politics/Frustrate their empty tricks” to a final chorus of “Let freedom ring.”
Freedom (1989) by Neil Young -
"The rock and roll coda of the Cold War"
On this day 236 year ago -- July the 4th, 1776 -- the thirteen American colonies declared independence from Great Britain and announced they would no longer be a part of the British Empire.
Written by Thomas Jefferson, the American Declaration of Independence is now seen as a universal human rights statement:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
And on January 1st of this year, we wrote about Freedom in a New Year, which has been viewed -- in hindsight -- as somewhat prophetic for the events that would soon unfold.
Neil Young's album Freedom -- which was released in 1989 just as the Berlin Wall fell -- has been called "the rock and roll coda of the Cold War".
"Rockin' In The Free World" by Neil Young
The album contains the song "Rockin' In The Free World" and is one of Young's most popular, important and prophetic songs of his vast catalog.
The song has become an iconic anthem and it's status continues to rise as more and more artists cover the song. Young's lyrics are considered to be an indictment of the politics of the 1980's. In today's post-9/11 world, the lyrics seem prophetic and even more meaningful than when originally written on the eve of the '90's as the Berlin Wall fell.
Twenty years on, the song "Rockin' In The Free World" has become an encore finale for bands around the world, as well as, a coda for the days that used to be.
So. Freedom ... Is It All Really Just An Illusion Now?
Here's a look back as we look forward...
The President and the Press:
Address before the American Newspaper Publishers Association
Waldorf-Astoria Hotel
New York City, April 27, 1961
Addressing the American Newspaper Publishers Association at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City on April 27, 1961, U.S. President John F. Kennedy said at the peak of the Cold War's Cuban Missile Crisis:
"The very word "secrecy" is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings. We decided long ago that the dangers of excessive and unwarranted concealment of pertinent facts far outweighed the dangers which are cited to justify it."
For what it's worth...
Buffalo Springfield: "For What It's Worth" - Monterey 1967
[Continued]
"Even today, there is little value in opposing the threat of a closed society by imitating its arbitrary restrictions. Even today, there is little value in insuring the survival of our nation if our traditions do not survive with it. And there is very grave danger that an announced need for increased security will be seized upon by those anxious to expand its meaning to the very limits of official censorship and concealment. That I do not intend to permit to the extent that it is in my control. And no official of my Administration, whether his rank is high or low, civilian or military, should interpret my words here tonight as an excuse to censor the news, to stifle dissent, to cover up our mistakes or to withhold from the press and the public the facts they deserve to know."
Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young's "Chicago"
"We can change the world, re-arrange the world"
[Continued]
"[We have an] obligation to inform and alert the American people -- to make certain that they possess all the facts that they need, and understand them as well -- the perils, the prospects, the purposes of our program and the choices that we face.
Without debate, without criticism, no Administration and no country can succeed -- and no republic can survive. That is why the Athenian lawmaker Solon decreed it a crime for any citizen to shrink from controversy. And that is why our press was protected by the First Amendment-- the only business in America specifically protected by the Constitution -- not primarily to amuse and entertain, not to emphasize the trivial and the sentimental, not to simply "give the public what it wants" -- but to inform, to arouse, to reflect, to state our dangers and our opportunities, to indicate our crises and our choices, to lead, mold, educate and sometimes even anger public opinion."
"But there's a warnin' sign on the road ahead
There's a lot of people sayin' we'd be better off dead."
Freedom: Kent State University, Ohio - 1970
[Continued]
"And so it is to the printing press -- to the recorder of man's deeds, the keeper of his conscience, the courier of his news -- that we look for strength and assistance, confident that with your help man will be what he was born to be: free and independent."
JFK - 1961
"We got a thousand points of light
For the homeless man"
Freedom: Berlin Wall, Germany - 1989
Yet the song "Rockin' In The Free World" is often misunderstood and attacked on false interpretations and misplaced understandings. Witness some of the near violent comments that have been left on this blog over the years in reaction to some of our previous postings on the song's lyrical analysis (see comments here and here.)
There are those who have argued that "Rockin' in the Free World" espouses anti-freedom ideals, to which we have taken serious issue with in the past.
As always, we live in dangerous times where those who stand for freedom are often accused of treason and worse. Such times are now and the struggle for freedom -- even among those who feel they are actually free -- is more paramount than ever. The right to live and speak freely is an inalienably human right that can never be assumed nor taken for granted.
"We got a kinder, gentler,
Machine gun hand"
Freedom: Tiananmen Square, China - 1989
So, what does it all mean? A comment on Freedom in a New Year:
You need only understand the true context of George Bush’s “thousand points of light” reference. It has nothing to do with a call to civic and charitable involvement. Rather, it is a reference to Illuminism, an encoded esoteric call to arms signaling to all the wreckers throughout the world that the time has come to declare out in the open (in George Bush’s own words), a “New World Order”.
A Question for Reflection on the 4th of July: Is the United States a representative democracy or a mirage democracy? by Kevin Zeese:
In the United States more and more recognize the disconnect between government and the needs of most Americans. They see how crony capitalist policies lead to the largest wealth divide we have known with increasing poverty, joblessness, underemployment and insecurity. At the same time the Congress, Treasury and Federal Reserve funnel trillions of dollars to the big banks, but demand cuts for programs that would create jobs, fund state and local government, build the infrastructure, provide basic necessities and protect the environment. This is the first generation of Americans who see that their children are likely to be worse off than they are.
So. The American Dream. How could something so good, go bad, so fast?
"American Dream" by Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young
Say what you will about Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young's 1988 album American Dream, but it did contain some quite lacerating and scathing commentary on the state of the American Dream.
The video is clearly an indictment of the rampant corruption of the U.S. President Ronald Reagan's administration and the Iran-Contra coverup scandal where high ranking government officials secretly facilitated the sale of arms to Iran, which had been specifically prohibited by Congress (The Boland Amendment).
And here we are 23 years later. My how things have changed for that American Dream...
You wake up in the middle of the night.
Your sheets are wet and your face is white,
You tried to make a good thing last,
How could something so good, go bad, so fast?
American dream, American dream
American dream, American dream.
Don't know when things went wrong,
Might have been when you were young and strong.
American dream, American dream.
Don't know when things went wrong,
Might have been when you were young and strong.
American dream, American dream.
Reagan White House Staffer Fawn Hall - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Traitor and/or Patriot?Reagan White House Staffer U.S. Marine Corps officer Oliver North's Mug Shot - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Socrates stated: “Republics decline into democracies, and democracies degenerate into despotisms."
Traitor or Patriot?Army PFC Bradley Manning
Is exposing a war crime a war crime?
"The year 1776, celebrated as the birth year of the nation and for the signing of the Declaration of Independence, was for those who carried the fight for independence forward a year of all-too-few victories, of sustained suffering, disease, hunger, desertion, cowardice, disillusionment, defeat, terrible discouragement, and fear, as they would never forget, but also of phenomenal courage and bedrock devotion to country, and that too, they would never forget."
--David McCullough from 1776
Thomas Jefferson
"When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty."
Author of American Declaration of Independence
So how exactly could something so good, go so bad, so fast?
We are still living with war, shock and awe, "Mission Accomplished", torture, and collateral murder in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Libya, Iran, Somalia and on & on & on ...
"There's colors on the street
Red, white and blue"
Pearl Jam covers "Rockin' in the Free World"
Freedom: Philadelphia - Final Spectrum Concert - 10/31/2009
2008 - Leia's Daddy: Find the Cost of Freedom
Never get to fall in love, never get to be cool."
... it will be blogged, streamed,
tweeted, shared and liked
~~Gil Scott Heron, 1970
Cairo, Egypt - February 12, 2011
Mixed media (stencil, silkscreen, and collage) on canvas
(Click photo to enlarge)
this blog is my blog, this blog is your blog, this blog was made for you & me.
happy independence day!
let freedom ring.
peace
thrasher & thrashette
by thrasher@PermaLink: 7/04/2012 03:35:00 AM
41 comments
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41 Comments:
Spot on!
Looks genuine :)
Is 'Americana' that good - surely all this is over the top? !
Check today's Google logo for some American inspiration: This Land Was Made for You and Me!
https://www.google.com/
Americana is probably the best NY & CH album since EBKTIK best is a loose term but the sound they make is so real and has been comming to this point for years .Eddie Vedder once said Neil Young is the king of mountain funk .He sure got that right
"even greater depression"?
Love your blog, but you really need to read some history. The depth of the Great Depression is unfathomable to folks who are living today. This is more like the late seventies and early 1980s in terms of suffering. Not a good time. Needs to improve. Too many hard working folks suffering.
But comparing it to the Great Depression is like comparing Afghanistan to WW II.
Raincheck is absolutely right.My dad and mom lived trough the Great Depression(the stories they told me were gut wrenching) and there is no comparison with today at all.
There are people in your community who are suffering right now because they are going without housing, food, and medical attention. No, they're not being photographed in soup lines or shanty towns. They live in places where newspaper journalists and photographers are not permitted to go because it's not the kind of news people want to see on television.
Those food lines or work programs in photographs from the Depression are no longer available to people today because federal, state, and local funding did away with 1/2 of their workforce of investigators and counselors who worked with this group.
Look at the statistic, more people today are living in poverty than ever. Unfortunately, we don't see them because we're in denial that poverty exists in our country. Instead, we make up s responsible for the way they came into the world.
The point is that if only one person is suffering today due to socio-economic or religious oppression, it's one person too many. When only one person is denied medical benefits or a house or food to put on the table, that's one person too many.
The entertainment and household-cleaning product industry profited greatly during the Great Depression. It was during this time that "marketing" grew into prominence in advertising on radios and movie houses. Who do you think was filling the movie houses, dance halls, saloons, and buying up the cleaning products?
Your grandparents that survived the Great Depression are the young kids I see today living in poverty. The kids that go to underfunded schools and live in economically depressed, abandoned neighborhoods. The reason why your grandparents got out of their poverty is because of the emergence of the middle class during post WW2. They were probably white. A whole group of people who were black got left behind creating a disparity and divide that exists even today.
The programs that assisted your grandparents out of their poverty are no longer available to these children today because of the color divide. When people see black kids suffering it's not the same as seeing white kids suffering. Nobody feels guilty cutting programs for blacks and non-white groups. If there was a majority of white kids suffering, you bet our politicians would do something about it.
Thanks to all and hope everyone had a nice 4th ... wherever you are.
@Raincheck & Tim - your points are well taken. We could do side by side comparison of global stats today vs the 1930's. Obviously, data sets between the periods vary greatly. And wee could debate whether today is worse than the 30's. But rather than belabor that excercise, maybe we can agree on a couple of things. The gap between the have's & have's not is far greater today than the 30's.
Also, personally, we don't think the global collapse has reached the bottom as of yet. Only after the fact can one determine where the bottom occurred. So check back with us in maybe a few decades and we can settle whether this is The Greater Depression or not.
finally, we hope we're totally wrong on this, but time will tell.
"Let freedom ring "
I wonder... is this the freedom that Jefferson imagined , the freedom that allows Wall Street to hijack a country and bring it to it's knees ?
Or possibly the freedom celebrated by Canadians , on the 200th anniversary of the victory of 1812.
When subjects loyal to the crown sent Yankees back home , riding a horse of defeat .
There will be " Oil Rich Indians in space " before Neil Young comes to Canada to disrespect our Sovereign.
Maybe .... once again ....two hundred years later we will send a defeated Crazy Horse back to their land of Liberty where they belong !
Long Live our Gracious Queen !
Showing the freeloading union thugs who trashed the capital in Madison, WI is a disrespect to the meaning of "freedom." I want to be free, as a Wisconsin taxpayer, from paying toward the full pension and health care of government workers who bitch about contributing ANY of their own money toward those causes. I guess that's why Scott Walker was re-elected resoundingly after the joke of a recall effort, huh?
As for the poor woman in Egypt, whose picture Thrasher also throws up several times a year, she is now doomed as the Muslim Brotherhood takes over Egypt...rendering her basic right to womanhood null and void.
Carry on...
Jefferson imagined that a government by the people would become "enlightened" through art, literature, music, and scientific discovery which is why he supported public school education.
That woman is no more doomed than woman over here with our own right wing religious groups that continue to lobby to suppress women's rights and fight for gender equity. As for your comment about thugs in Wisconsin, all I can say us that by not supporting the teachers we undermind the very principle on which our country was founded. Our founding fathers were perceived as thugs and religious zealots remember when our revolution began. Our freedom came at the cost of a slave economy and the indigenous cultures otherwise our experiment with democracy would have failed miserably.
Sorry, but that freedom you want from not paying into something to make things equitable is selfish, arrogant, and typically ignorant like most Americans are when it comes to the first 150 years of their own American history.
A man must be as mad as a hatter if you think you change the world with a plastic platter. Best record since EBKTIK? It's nowhere near as good as Ragged Glory - it's a covers record slightly sloppy and indulgent - there's no big message in it!
@MNOTR - you raise a good point about women's rights. in essence, this is about all human rights, which leads to where Sun Green was coming from with Mother Eaarth rights.
So until those fundamental rights are addressed than things like unions certainly matter.
We don't really get the thugs part, tho? Teacher, police & firefighter unions are thugs? Makes no sense.
Take out greed, corruption and manipulation for speial interests and most policy works out fairly as enacted.
I don't mind paying my fair share for public services. I don't even mind helping those that can't help themselves. But able body indivuals getting assistance should be putting in effort, somewhere in the public endevour, to 'earn' their keep.Clean the streets, empty the trash, paint over graffiti, I don't care. No free lunches man. And drug tests for welfare recipients too.
I work for my keep and so do you folks. Let's get rid of the crap.
@SONY - Are you saying that those who have the least, you fear the most?
I get what you mean, Sony, but welfare ended 20 years ago. No one is getting a free ride except for the few people abusing the system. And there are millions of Americans in distress. Teachers are working in schools for 5 years without contracts and let go. There is no job security for teachers without a union. I know 3 teachers right now who were told they wouldn't have jobs next school year. All have babies on the way. Where are they going to get medical help if they don't have insurance? How are they going to pay their bills if they can't find a job? I know people working 2 jobs, battling cancer, and stuck with 20 % deductables..
americans love to use the word' "Freedom" but it's the last thing they have. It's like, "Free speech". Good luck expressing it. Section 8, foodstamps, SSI, Stimulus package, the military... All forms of welfare.
No one can live off what you decribed as welfare. It's still a hardship and some people do need assistance to get started because minimum wage jobs don't pay for living expenses when you lose your job to layoffs.
SSI is for people who are disabled and cannot work. While I do agree that people take special liberties here, for the majority of the people who are disabled, it really is a great program.
Personally, I've seen people move out of the poverty cycle through the military, housing assistance, food stamps, SSI. What has been your personal experience? What do you see? What is your experience or are you going by second-hand information?
What's your beef, Dean? You do many people a great disservice by trashing programs that so many need to get through hard times or if they are disabled.
Are you saying you like to see people suffer when they fall on hard times? It's their own fault for being born into a family where the Dad was making meth in the garage?
@MNOTR - you raise another good angle on this. That until everyone becomes more compassionate to others' suffering, we're never going to get too far.
the consciousness of one.
I promise you, I don't have a beef with anyone. Just saying that when Sony mentioned "Welfare" there a lot of social programs that do the same under different names.
I do know lots of welfare mothers that have multiple kids/baby daddies that will always be on the system. I'm not happy paying the taxes I do and watch people milk the system. I pay school taxes in two districts and have no kids. Was paying in three districts. I listen to welfare moms complain about how little they get. They live on welfare yet, have i-phones, cigarettes, drugs and tattoos. lol. I pay for them, I have the right to bitch about them.
@dean - of course you have the right to bitch about anyone. But can we ask, do you bitch about the elite 1% and their yachts, vacation homes, offshore tax havens, and the other forms of "elite welfare"? Or bitch about the corporate welfare system?
The point here is why bitch about the "welfare of the 99%" when it is miniscule compared to the welfare benefits which the elite & corporations receive.
Class warfare is being waged. Which side are you on? Sounds like you side with the 1% elite/corporate types to us.
peace
Maybe Dean should push for free oral contraceptives for all the women folk making themselves get pregnant!
Sorry Dean, you're not off the hook yet. People who sit around and complain instead of working to resolve the problem are also part of the problem, too.
You don't want to pay for birth control and public school education for kids pro-created like rabbits into a "welfare-system?"
Advocate for federal/state funded planned parenthood programs and life skill training classes for young girls in your community.
Freedom does not give you the right to sit around and do nothing but complain.
@MNOTR - "welfare ended 20 years ago"?
That statement alone renders you, respectfully, a clueless individual. There are more Americans on food stamps right now in 2012 tha ever before. What are food stamps? They are a form of societal welfare...period. When is your next vacation from posting mindless ramblings that make no sense?
@Thrasher...never mind...keep drinking the left wing cliche/slogans...unions are thugs based on their leaders and their attempts at public intimidation...you seem smarter than to simply parrot the MSNBC talking points...yet that's all you do...at least you admit Barry's promise to close to Guantanamo has been broken...I'll give you that...
by the way MNOTR - name one right wing religious group that is lobbying to supress womens' rights...name one...
I agree the 1% gets welfare also. They at least did something to get where they are. Everyone that is against the 1% has no problem supporting facebook or apple. Those two companies are doing pretty well for themselves last I heard.
I don't care who gets pregnant. By now, I had hopes that if you can't afford to feed yourself, getting pregnant six times is not the best idea. Most of the people that I know, NOT everyone. Don't jump on me, are not the brightest people.
Where I live we have parenting classes, job training, birth control, all free. Welfare is just easier.
I don't have a problem paying for public education. I have a problem paying in multiple districts and I have a problem with people that don't contribute to society milking the system.
Fingers crossed my reply wasn't deleted.
Please don't defend the evangelicals and catholics. Pew Forum lists all the religious groups working to overturning Wade vs. Roe and this fight over women's reproductive rights.
And "welfare" ended with Clinton. In place are family/job services offered through state/local government agencies that will help people out in emergencies for a limited amount of time.
You have a beef about paying for protection programs out of your property taxes? Go after the a politicians giving all the tax breaks in your community to corporations and 1% while giving NOTHING back and leaving the burden of paying for social programs to the working class and their property.
The money never trickels down into the communities like we are told. It ALWAYS stays up at the top. When Americans are not paying their fair share, it drives up the property taxes of working class to cover what was left over after the vandals took the handle. We got bamboozled. Sideswiped. Shystered. We got the screws and now everyone is wondering why their property taxes are so high? It's not because of Obama. It's their own stupidity voting for the shyster politicians who promised "small government" and gave all the tax savings to the wealthy 1%
@MNOTR - you are right...shame on those who would attempt to stop the murder of tiny little babies in their mother's womb...it's a "choice" after all...long live the American way...when Neil wrote 'Act of Love he certainly saw all sides of the issue...
If you take government money you can't complain about anything including the 1% If people depend on social programs and handouts, you can't ever use the word, "Freedom" You are owned my government.
Working class people have to right to complain about the 1% Blogging about it won't change a thing. If we are on about the wealthy, lets add the Catholic church to the list. Also, what about the Cancer Society ? The take in billions each year, all tax free, never say where that money goes and haven't made any changes since the 70s' Hate the rich? Hate them all. Don't pick and choose.
@Dean - thanks. so now we know what you hate. but what do you really love?
@Anon, what's immoral is catholic bishop lobbyists forcing women into bearing more children by not supporting safe, oral contraceptives. This attack on women's right to control the size of their family and the health of their own body is not biblical nor historical. Women should not be considered immoral for protecting their health.
@Thrasher
lol What do I hate?
That should have read, "You are owned BY government."
@ Dean: Government was established because the colonies couldn't survive without it. Where are getting these ridiculous ideas that a person can't ever use the word freedom if you get government assistance? Real freedom to a young child is having choices about what kind of life he or she will have as an adult. Poverty is not freedom. Disability is not freedom. Government programs that help children and people who are disabled make the connections they need to their future, than I would say that government provides freedom to it's citizens.
Government afterall provided freedom to millions of slaves and women who were considered legally the "property" of white males. Government provided freedom to millions of children born with disabilities in the 70s by making it illegal to deny them education and housing.
Freedom isn't the right to do what you want. All civilized people should have a framework to work within that does not infringe upon the rights of others.
Unless the "catholic bishop lobbyists" are raping these women, how are they, "Forcing" women into bearing more children?
The size of a family is not biblical nor historical, It's financial. Can't afford kids, don't have them.
@MNOTR - you keep ignoring even addressing the innocent little baby's life being snuffed out...typical leftist tactic to only address that which you choose to...so a choice to have an abortion = "womens' health"? What if the mother-to-be is 100% healthy? What about the baby's health?
Why am I arguing with a mental patient?
I still love Neil Young even if this site tends to become Occupied by morons...me included I guess...
Responding to Dean & Anonymous:
@Dean, religious leaders have been controlling what women can and cannot do for centuries. What I know about the faith of Abraham, Jesus, and Mohammed is that we are to treat others the way we would want to be treated. So what do the earlier faith followers do? Exlude women for about 2000 years from the same economic opportunities offered men. Why? Oh because God told them woman are inferior and incapable of doing except being chaste and virginal or immoral and sexy. And oh, if that man is beating the shit out of his wife or girlfriend, drinking or drugging away the nest egg and household finances, women are STILL counseled by "ordained by God" to stand by their abusive man.
Okay, now back to you Anonymous. You're 100% on the guesswork. Still worried about all those close calls you had after having sex without considering it could have resulted in a little baby? Or is that something you think is the only the women's responsibility? Typically, men are never penalized for having sex. Woman are. Woman are called whores and immoral thanks to bible stories which is why so many young girls hid their pregnancies because it was considered SHAMEFUL. Not for the man, of course, because to them it's a score.
Make abortion illegal? Only until we find a way to make men responsible for the life they created, too. A man impregnates a woman from a one nighter and he automatically forfits 1/2 of his wages to the woman and baby & must pay for medical expenses! Simple as that! Sound ridiculous? Why don't we call on the bishops to lobby for responsibility!
Fact, abortion rates drop dramatically when oral contraceptives are available. Fallacy, women do not use abortions as birth control. They do it as a very last option after boyfriend (sometimes married) failed at providing adaquate protection.
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