(Columbia Records)
John Mellencamp's early summer release, Trouble No More, managed to raise questions and red flags about the prevailing politics of the times.
The album drew a lot of fire for its last song, \To Washington."" The song jabs and rips into the presidency of President Bush, pinning the chief executive down with his own rhetoric. Mellencamp pointed out how the administration shifted blame and hesitated to accept responsibility long before Bush's questionable State of the Union address. ""To Washington"" was a proletarian songwriter's answer to an ivory tower presidency.
The first couple of verses deal with the 2000 election and the next declares that the nation is worse off since Bush was put in the White House. By the fourth verse Mellencamp is saying the National Guard is policing the world ""from Baghdad/ To Washington.""
While the first four parts of the song can be pushed aside as one man's rant, it is the closing verse that puts Bush's religious ideals next to his political motives in attacking Iraq. Mellencamp sows some sarcasm next to Bush's personal beliefs.
""What would be the reason/?? To think that this is right?/ From heaven/ To Washington/ From Jesus Christ/ To Washington,"" Mellencamp sings.
""To Washington"" has brought Mellencamp a staggering amount of criticism. He has been accused of anti-Americanism and compared to Osama bin Laden. Arguably, the accusations and comparisons are unfair, seeing as how Mellencamp has largely been responsible for Farm Aid, a concert series that assists small American farmers. In one interview he said, ""A 51-year-old guy who's made as many records as I have can still piss off the right wing."" The singer hasn't been apologetic, instead offering explanation and defense of his song.
Mellencamp pointed to the song's history, which extends back to 1902. ""To Washington"" has been covered by Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers. From there, it has been remixed and recreated by such artists as Woody Guthrie and Utah Phillips. Mellencamp sees his take on the song as one more version in a long line of manifestations, each adapted to a new generation.
Therein is the point of ""To Washington"" and Trouble No More. The album is not a collection of loud and obnoxious protest songs, nor is it a cynic's cry. What Mellencamp manages to do on Trouble No More is distill more than 100 years worth of American anger into 12 tracks. The songs weren't recreated with the intent of criticism. Instead, they vocalized dissatisfaction as long as there was disparity of wealth and privilege. Mellencamp merely brought the songs together in his own voice.
He makes it obvious that an enormous amount of American music stems from a sense of outrage at the abuses of power. It helps Mellencamp's case that he draws a good portion of the album from blues and folk artists. The two genres have managed to maintain skepticism of authority and anger at excess. From Woody Guthrie's ""Johnny Hart"" to Willie Dixon's ""Down in the Bottom,"" the album remakes these covers without losing their fire.
Mellencamp, who has always been the songwriter for the working class, manages to combine a history lesson on American music with an intelligent manner of protest. He makes it obvious that rural people are not necessarily conservative nor are they complacent. His album, Trouble No More, has gotten him into plenty, but that's right on par for a man whose ""Authority Song"" showed how much he disliked it.
(Capitol Records)
In an uneasy era where the act of voicing political dissent is frowned upon, it has become increasingly rare to hear popular bands use their music as a form of protest. It is especially surprising, then, that this summer's most overtly political album was not only released by one of rock music's most popular acts, but also one that has been up until now largely apolitical, Radiohead.
On some levels, Radiohead's experiments in political expression on their latest album, Hail to The Thief, which thematically compares the United States and the country in George Orwell's novel ""1984,"" make sense. The actions of the Bush administration and their subsequent societal impact have been so drastic and sweeping that they have become hard to ignore, making them an obvious source for material. The band benefits from sounding so invested in the subject.
On tracks like the opener ""2 + 2 = 5,"" for instance, singer Thom Yorke effectively channels his resentment of the political climate and uses it as an excuse to let loose and sing with more passion and anger than he has in years. Even more promisingly, by sticking to the political theme the band gives the album a sense of focus and cohesion that their last release, the uneven Amnesiac, desperately lacked.
Artistically, however, their foray into politics comes with a few trade-offs. Since a number of the album's political references, in particular the album's title, a reference to President Bush's ""stolen"" victory of the seat, will inevitably date themselves, the album loses some of the timelessness that is largely associated with truly classic albums. Likewise, Yorke's grandstanding is frequently too vague to be overly biting. Even confrontational tracks like the haunting ""We Suck Young Blood,"" presumably a cynical swipe at the army, refuse to name names, and eventually this takes away much of the statement's impact.
Equally unsettling is the fact that the cover art, a montage of American signs arranged to mirror a world map, apparently an attack on consumerism, seems a bit hypocritical given the shameless merchandising blitzkriegs Radiohead is guilty of perpetrating. Each Radiohead release is inevitably accompanied by a barrage of posters, buttons, stickers and perhaps most unnecessarily, different versions of the album featuring additional packaging.
Regardless, despite inconsistencies and the occasional excursions into mediocrity that its hour-long length necessitates, the album is commendable for taking such risky stance. When the Dixie Chicks, a country band with a sizable fan base, criticized the president, they found themselves banned from numerous radio playlists and watched their album sales diminish. Even though rock music has conventionally been a more welcoming forum for the left than country music, the fear of such a backlash has nevertheless silenced any number of artists with similar views, leaving Radiohead, a British band, virtually alone in voicing opinions deemed un-American.
Although common wisdom currently dictates that protest music is inefficacious, Radiohead seems to be using their popularity to challenge that notion as well. Consider their concerts alone, at which Radiohead typically draws around 40,000 people. This adds up to a number of people large enough that, if mobilized, could ultimately become a legitimate force in instituting political and social change.
Although it may not be the artistic achievement that Radiohead clearly wants it to be, Hail to the Thief represents a welcome return of dissent to popular rock music, and an important first step toward conveying those views to a significantly large audience.
(Reprise Records)
Neil Young and Crazy Horse's recent release Greendale is a concept album that takes the listener to a hypothetical town of Greendale. The album sees the town through the words and actions of the Green family, who live just outside of it on the Double E Ranch.
On the surface, it seems like the band takes it easy and is content to pass off small-town tales centered on one place. However, Greendale speaks to a lot of the quiet grumblings that go on without headlines or intense debate.
The dissent begins with the first song, ""Falling From Above,"" as Grandpa Green's character wonders how his generation can survive in the ever-changing world. Young sings ""How can all these people/ Afford so many things?/ When I was young/ People wore what they had on.""
Later, Grandpa is given another moment as a curmudgeon as he sees the problems of justice. He is exhausted and voices it with, ""Some people have taken pure bullshit/ And turned it into gold.""
By the time the album is over, Young and Crazy Horse are making environmental statements in the album's closing track, ""Be the Rain."" Young is calling for escape to the wilderness, singing, ""We got to get there/ Alaska/ We got to be there/ Before the big machines.""
While the storyline takes a few asides with a murder and some character development, the essence of Greendale is one family's struggle to hold together until the next day.
Along the way, there's a painful story that wades through the hypocrisy of overzealous police, the overwhelming lure of money and ongoing personal alienation. Through it all Young keeps his focus on the Greens and manages to sympathize with a continually marginalized family. The album may not point to current national politics, but it does serve as a reminder that dissent in the home usually indicates problems on a much larger scale.
