Day 39: August 21 - Let's Talk
They say talking about music is like dancing about architecture. I never was very good at similes
Woody Guthrie - Talkin’ Dust Bowl Blues
Walkin’ Blues was a sort of comic folk song genre where singers would tell funny, moving, political, or just nonsensical stories over a simple progression. Guthrie popularized the genre, though Chris Bouchillon started it and Dylan really made it big. This is just a classic good time, Guthrie weaves a wacky tale about trying to drive out to California to escape the Dust Bowl, the 1930s drought that wreaked havoc across much of the Great Plains. I love this song and I adore Guthrie’s mix of silliness, warm-heartedness, and clear-eyed sense of justice.
Georges Aperghis - Recitation #9
A bit of a departure from the Guthrie, Greek modernist composer often uses words, noises, and the voice in unique, expressive, and abstract ways. Here, a seemingly disparate sequence of sonic events (breaths, spoken words, sung text) are built, beginning with a spoken ‘de-sir’ and prepending new syllables and gestures, revealing a simple, but arresting sentence. Listen closely, trying to remember at least one sound idea, like the high sung descending line or the word ‘desir,’ and use those as signposts to tell you where you are in sequence. You’ll start to hear how it is unfolding and static all at once - the repetitions will allo you get accustomed to the new sounds and start to appreciate them. Performed in the audio by Martin Viard and the video by Sarah Maria Sun.
Text:
sire
desire
this desire
is this desire
what is this desire
therefore what is this desire
sometimes for clarity, therefore what is this desire
sometimes for health, sometimes for clarity, therefore what is this desire
I fight against my desire, sometimes for health, sometimes for clarity, therefore what is this desire
Tracy Chapman - Talkin’ Bout A Revolution
Tracey Chapman’s gives a bouncy, but stark, Guthrie-esque, warning to those in power who keep people down: “Poor people gonna rise up and take their share” and they better “run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run.” Though this song is, musically, light and fun, it’s message speaks to the whispered discontent and anger pervasive in our increasingly unequal society. Obviously fitting for today, it’s important to note how long these struggles have gone on for: Chapman wrote this song in 1988, thirty-two years ago, but was politically activated when in 1978, 10 years before that, when she, aged 14, wandered into a race riot over busing and segregation and was confronted by a man pointing a gun at her. Chapman would also have been born the same year that the Civil Rights Act was passed, 56 years ago, and a century after the Emancipation Proclamation, itself a limited measure and the result of decades of organized abolitionist efforts. More than a half-century has passed since then and people are still disgruntled and quietly raging.
Aaron Copland - Lincoln Portrait
A classic of Americana. Coplan employs a full orchestra to convey the grandeur, heft, and import of Lincoln’s life and words, spoken throughout the piece. Majestic and regal, it’s a fitting tribute to the 16th president. The music is expansive, building into sectional climaxes, and lush with Copland’s signature style: 5ths and open harmonies, jaunty folk melodies with snap rhythms, deceptive cadences to a borrowed chord, tasteful modernist touches, and rich, clear orchestration. James Earl Jones brings even greater weight to Lincolns words, marking strongly each refrain of ‘and this is what he said:’. Perfect for the penultimate piece in a 4th of July pops concert. Performed here by Seattle Symphony Orchestra under Gerard Schwarz with James Earl Jones narrating.
Bob Dylan - Talkin’ John Birch Paranoid Blues
Dylan was a Woody Guthrie acolyte. His first album was mostly covers except two songs: a “Talkin’ Blues” number about moving to New York and ‘Song To Woody,’ in which he odes about his hero and his influence on him. Dylan kept making Talkin’ Blues songs through the early 60’s, including this one, about a man seized by a McCarthyish anti-communist fever who joins the John Birch Society (a far-right group devoted to rooting out communism which is the seed for the current far-right movements, as well as the conservative journal National Review). Anyways, this guy joins the society and starts trying to root out communism everywhere he can find it, except he can’t find it and shenanigans ensue. Live from Brandeis University in 196e, a year before Tracy Chapman was born, a year before the Civil Rights Act was passed.
BONUS: Christopher Allen Bouchillon - Talking Blues
Just a little taste of the origin of the Talkin’ Blues genre. Chris Bouchillon was known as the ‘Singing Comedian,’ though, clearly, humor has changed a bit since 1926. Still has a charm, though.