April 17, 2010

Yes, this post IS on education


The soldier up above is teaching kids American style in Iraq. Or Afghanistan. Maybe Yemen. Wherever.

It's one of the photos a guy named ribeye280 used in video he put together to back up Gil Scott-Heron's protest rap "Work for Peace." That song was released in 1994, but it's not outdated. We're still teaching kids the same way. In fact, compared to other methodologies used in American education, this kind's lasted way longer than most.

It's about that time in the year when I get to talk about whatever I think the kids need to know about the music people have been listening to in the past sixty years. Mostly it means the industry of music-making from Motown to hip-hop, but I'm not going to stint on protest music, because boy, do we still need it.

Gil Scott-Heron, the acknowledged father of political rap, wrote "The Revolution will not be televised" back in 1970 and "Work for peace" 24 years later. He's a good place to start if I want to really educate my students.

Take the refrain:
The military and the monetary,
The military and the monetary,
The military and the monetary,
They get together whenever they think it's necessary.
Durability, that's what I like in my music. Music that stays relevant.

Music that lasts for decades, and speaks to the very core of American values.





4 comments:

  1. We must have led parallel musical lives back then...I was wild about Gil Scott-Heron when he was being played only on WRVR, our late great NYC jazz station, in the early '70's. I was a fan of not only "The Revolution Will Not be Televised", but also his song-poem, "Winter in America":

    From the Indians who welcomed the pilgrims
    And to the buffalo who once ruled the plains
    Like the vultures circling beneath the dark clouds
    Looking for the rain
    Looking for the rain

    Just like the cities staggered on the coastline
    Living in a nation that just can't stand much more
    Like the forest buried beneath the highway
    Never had a chance to grow
    Never had a chance to grow

    And now it's winter
    Winter in America
    Yes and all of the healers have been killed
    Or sent away, yeah
    But the people know, the people know
    It's winter
    Winter in America
    And ain't nobody fighting
    'Cause nobody knows what to say
    Save your soul, Lord knows
    From Winter in America

    The Constitution
    A noble piece of paper
    With free society
    Struggled but it died in vain
    And now Democracy is ragtime on the corner
    Hoping for some rain
    Looks like it's hoping
    Hoping for some rain

    And I see the robins
    Perched in barren treetops
    Watching last-ditch racists marching across the floor
    But just like the peace sign that vanished in our dreams
    Never had a chance to grow
    Never had a chance to grow

    And now it's winter
    It's winter in America
    And all of the healers have been killed
    Or been betrayed
    Yeah, but the people know, people know
    It's winter, Lord knows
    It's winter in America
    And ain't nobody fighting
    Cause nobody knows what to save
    Save your souls
    From Winter in America

    And now it's winter
    Winter in America
    And all of the healers done been killed or sent away
    Yeah, and the people know, people know
    It's winter
    Winter in America
    And ain't nobody fighting
    Cause nobody knows what to save
    And ain't nobody fighting
    Cause nobody knows, nobody knows
    And ain't nobody fighting
    Cause nobody knows what to save

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  2. I was in Europe in the early 70s chasing down Italian MSS, so I missed much of the early political rap here at home. In London they were all into punk and glam rock.

    I just listened to the song you sent the lyrics for. (YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGlRsjHTkbs). Love the last two lines, because I'm so reaching that point. Have no idea what to try and save anymore.

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  3. That was what was appealing to me then and now. London and the rest of Europe must have been a very different scene than America back then since there was no war to protest, and no military-industrial complex to deal with.

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  4. Very informative post and i must say that this is really what we all need to know, this is the real picture of the difference, thanks for posting.

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