The protest song has a long history in popular music. One thinks of Meeropol’s Strange Fruit sung by Billie Holiday, that chilling song about lynching; Sam Cooke’s A Change is Gonna Come; Dylan’s Blowing in the Wind or A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall; or Nina Simone’s Mississippi Goddam. There are a great number of songs, composed or performed by artists who effectively use their position to raise awareness of an issue of justice – racism, war, domestic violence, discrimination, or environmental destruction. And we’re grateful to them for being prepared to put their heads above the parapet and risk losing some of their fans for the greater good.
But my goodness – Van Morrison is releasing three tracks to protest the anti-virus safety measures in the UK. He refers to “fascist bullies,” wants “no more lockdown” and claims “crooked scientists [are] making up crooked facts.” In this he joins that other UK grumpy anti-science musician, Noel Gallagher, who is refusing to wear a face mask, despite the legal requirement to do so. Morrison’s line about government measures enslaving people is actually downright offensive.
Van Morrison’s so-called protest songs are unlike real protest songs which rail against genuine injustices. He’s tilting at windmills when he goes against the scientific community’s growing body of evidence regarding mask wearing, social distancing and large gatherings of people.
The Northern Ireland Health Minister has rightly called Van Morrison’s songs “dangerous.” With the ‘R’ number for the virus over 1 in Britain and Northern Ireland, and the UK Prime Minister (whose own performance during the pandemic has been less than impressive) saying that the UK is now seeing a second wave of the virus, it’s no time for conspiracy theory touting by well known artists. We’re all frustrated by the restrictions the virus is enforcing on us, but wealthy artists venting their frustration? Pul-ease.
If Van Morrison wants to write a protest song, there is plenty of material to do with the virus. There’s the abysmal record of the UK government in dealing with the virus by being slow to lockdown, failing on PPE for medical staff, failing on testing and tracing, failure to close borders on time, and failing to protect its elderly population in nursing homes. All resulting in terrible loss of life. And then there’s the government’s failure to plan properly for the economic impact of the virus, which has resulted in Britain’s economy being hardest hit of any advanced economy – which in turn has hit its poorest and most vulnerable citizens the hardest.
That’s before we even get to the problems worldwide for the poor and disadvantaged whose lives have been devastated by the pandemic.
There’s so much here to genuinely rail against, that Van Morrison’s impatient moaning looks utterly self centred.
Here’s Nina Simone’s real protest song:
All I want is equality
For my sister my brother my people and me
Yes, you lied to me all these years…
You don’t have to live next to me
Just give me my equality
Everybody knows about Mississippi
Everybody knows about Alabama
Everybody knows about Mississippi goddam, that’s it
As the coronavirus pandemic rages on, some of us are still in lockdown, some are beginning to see an easing of restrictions, but all of us can look forward to a near future significantly different to what we’re used to.
So, we’ve been choosing a few songs to reflect on, maybe to lift our spirits a bit as things progress.
This week’s song is Jessie Mae Hemphill’s – Lord, Help the Poor And Needy, first released in 1990, and then covered by Cat Power, Tom Jones and Shemekia Copeland.
Lord Help the Poor and needy
In this land
Oh Lord Help the Poor and needy
In this land.
It’s a good reminder of the suffering that the coronavirus has caused. Some of us have lost loved ones, some of us may have been ill, some of us have been hit financially.
But the people hit worst have been those living in poverty, both on our own doorsteps, but especially in the developing world.
I think of India, where my wife works, helping desperately poor children. Here millions of people make their homes in slum communities, living cheek by jowl, with families crowded into small shacks, and they have no possibility of social distancing.
Migrant labourer, his face contorted with anguish as he sits on the roadside in Delhi speaking to his wife about their sick baby boy,
And poor people who work in the homes of the wealthy now have no means of earning money – we’ve had first hand reports of people on the brink of starvation and who are much more concerned about that than catching the virus. And there are millions of migrant workers who suddenly lost their jobs because of the lockdown who have been stranded, penniless, with no shelter and no way of getting home. (Check out this Guardian story)
The same desperate picture is repeated in many other parts of the world. For many of us, sheltering during the lockdown has been, let’s face it, no real hardship. We’ve decent homes, have plenty to eat, and are spoilt for choice for entertainment. We can manage.
Yet still you hear people grumbling about their situation. Conspiracy theories are rife, and if only we could get back to the Mall, we could put our dreadfully restricted lockdown lives behind us. (Check out this disturbing piece from the Washington Post).
Compared with the real suffering out there, most of us, I guess are OK. But Jesse Mae Hemphill’s song reminds us of the solidarity we share together, rich and poor:
Lord help the human race
‘Cause we all die together
And we face the morning sun.
In the end we all face the same enemy. We’re all members of the human race, so we need to stand with each other, particularly in these difficult times.
There are plenty of ways to make a contribution. Here’s one:
Saphara Covid-19 response – Help us to help the most vulnerable.
As the coronavirus pandemic rages on, we’re choosing a few songs to reflect on, maybe to lift our spirits a bit as we go through it.
This week’s song is B B King’s There Must Be A Better World Somewhere. It was on the album of the same name, B B’s twenty seventh studio album released in 1981, and for which he won a Grammy.
Like a lot of blues songs, it bemoans the way things are, the woman who’s breaking hearts, but looks hopefully toward a better future.
Some of us are merely inconvenienced by the lockdowns we’re experiencing – none of our family are sick, we’ve got enough to eat, to drink and to entertain ourselves with – and, really, so what if our movement is curtailed a bit for a while? Others of us have been sick or have lost loved ones. Some of us have lost jobs and have been hit financially. And many people around the world are quite literally starving because of the necessary lockdowns. For a lot of people, it’s been a tough time.
B B’s song reminds us of the old Persian adage: This too will pass. Hang on in there. (And if you can, reach out to someone who needs some help).
If it ain’t here, maybe in the year after
Instead of tears, I’ll learn all about laughter
Meanwhile, I’m stuck out here, Lord knows it just ain’t fair
But I know, yes, I know that there must be a better world somewhere
Fabrizio Poggi is one of Europe’s finest exponents of the blues. Fabrizio has recorded over twenty albums and has shared stages with numerous top blues artists including The Blind Boys of Alabama, Eric Bibb Sonny Landreth, Ruthie Foster and John Hammond. He’s the author of four books on the blues and was nominated for a Grammy a couple of years ago, along with Guy Davis, for their Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee tribute album. He also has a Hohner Lifetime Award, and has been twice a Blues Music Awards nominee.
Fabrizio and his wife, Angelina live in the north of Italy, just south of Milan, where they’ve been sheltering over the past couple of months as Italy as suffered under the onslaught of Coronavirus.
On the 20th February, Italy’s “patient 1,” the first case of domestic transmission of the virus was confirmed and it has gone on to kill nearly 29,000 people. Italy became the first country to enforce a nationwide lockdown in early March, but the country still suffered terribly, with hospitals overwhelmed and the virus spreading to all parts of the country.
After almost two months under lockdown, the longest so far of any European country, Italy is now set to begin slowly easing restrictions. But the economic forecast for the country is bleak, with experts predicting a crisis not seen in decades. And in Italy’s poorer south,Living in people have been running out of food and money, with the Red Cross delivering food parcels.
A few days into lockdown, we saw images of people across Italy singing and playing music from their balconies as they came together to say: “Andrà tutto bene” (Everything will be all right). But the devastation of the virus has changed that and people are saying “Everything will not be all right.”
Down at the Crossroads got the opportunity to talk to Fabrizio and Angelina in their home in north Italy to find out what’s its been like living in Italy these past couple of months, how they’ve been coping and about the music Fabrizio’s been sending out to encourage people.
Gary: How are you and Angelina and your families? You’re living just south of Milan, in the north of Italy, which has been in the thick of the coronavirus outbreak for the past few months. What has it been like for you and Angelina?
Fabrizio: We are fine for now, so far. We have survived through a lot of bad things. We try to go on.
It’s very tough, we are mostly inside all day long. We have the opportunity to communicate with people through technology, but it’s hard. Most of the people we know are sick and we lost many friends.
Angelina: It is a tough time, we lost friends, people we know. We lost a very dear, deep friend who was also our doctor. Her name was Patricia, and it was very, very sad for us. She was always helping people, she was on the front line, and she died giving her life to people. Now we are not in the worst part. But it is still sad, when you go out to the supermarket, the few times you can go, and I can’t wait to come back home.
I only have some relatives, and I’m happy for that, because my parents were very old and I can’t imagine…and Fabrizio’s mother is very old, but fortunately, she’s safe. And we are happy for that.
Fabrizio: People know nothing about the future, which is also tragic, because we can’t see a real future which is in these days why I keep on playing and trying to bring a little light to people. Everything seems very dark.
Gary: What’s the situation in Italy right now? I gather things are a little better.
Fabrizio: Well it is hard to say, because the information…sometimes it’s a real mess up. One day optimistic, one day negative. The terrible thing about this virus is that we don’t know much about it. It’s hard to trust information because you don’t know who has control. So, people are sad about this.
Gary: We saw the videos of people trying to keep their spirits up singing from balcony to balcony. That was incredible.
Fabrizio: Yes, we were all over the news a lot. But probably not so many people were actually singing from balconies! From what we saw on the TV, it seemed like everybody in Italy was on their balcony singing! But that was just the media! We are not so happy as we appear.
Gary: You’ve been posting some nice videos of you singing and playing your harmonica, which have been very touching. How important do you think music can be at a time like this?
Fabrizio: Music is always important. The story of African-American music is that it was music that was born to uplift. Spirituals, blues are two sides of the same coin. Music brings people out of the tunnel, to believe, to hope for a better future.
And I want to try to play that kind of music for the people, because of the meaning inside the songs. So, playing Precious Lord or Amazing Grace or I Want Jesus to Walk With Me, is me trying to reach other people’s souls.
Gary: Some of the songs you’ve been posting are spirituals or hymns, like Amazing Grace. Is faith important right now, Fabrizio?
Fabrizio: Yes, I think that these songs contains a real message. They say, I’ve been there before you when there was no hope, just desperation – take my hand and I will walk with you gives some hope, some light, some hope for a better life some day.
Guy Davis, Katleen Scheir from Belgium and I have just recorded a version of We Shall Overcome. And we’re trying to raise funds for Doctors Without Borders.
Angelina: We choose We Shall Overcome because it has a very important message and we connected Italy, Belgium and the United States. It says that music has no borders. We had borders before the virus and now we have more borders because we have to stay at home. But music can go everywhere, can help people everywhere, all over the world. People are maybe not in the same country, don’t speak the same language, are different – but when they sing and play, they are the same.
Gary: Wonderful. Tell us about some of the music you’ve been listening to over the past couple of months – what has helped?
Fabrizio: Every kind of music that moves me and in some way touches me was welcome these past two months. I listened to everything from blues to old spirituals, from jazz to classical. I just appreciate the music because it is a wonderful gift, a gift of beauty. But all my life I’ve not just listened to blues – my ears are always wide open!
Gary: Now, I remember we met on that wonderful pre-Grammy’s concert in the City Winery in New York City a couple of years ago. Being nominated for a Grammy in 2018 must have been an incredibly proud moment for you, Fabrizio.
Fabrizio: I remember that City Winery evening very well. The best memories! And yes, I was very proud. It was like a dream come true, something I really didn’t expect. Great memories, a lot of people I love were there, and it was a great experience I will cherish in my heart for the rest of my life.
Gary: Did you ever think when you first lifted the harmonica that the road would take you there?
Fabrizio: No, not at all. If a friend of mine had come to me in my little room in the middle of nowhere in Northern Italy and said to me, You know Fabrizio, one day you will challenge the Rolling Stones at Madison Square Gardens in New York for a Grammy, I would have said, my friend, don’t kid with me, it will never happen!
And I owe a lot to the Rolling Stones. Because I discovered the blues from the Rolling Stones, John Mayall, Eric Clapton – as many people of my generation did. At that time, in Italy you couldn’t hear Muddy Waters or John Lee Hooker. So, in a way, I won two times at the Grammys – once to be there, and for me it was a wonderful experience, and secondly, for the victory of the Rolling Stones – in some way, they were like my musical fathers. So, without the Rolling Stones, no Fabrizio at the Grammys!
Gary: You’re very generous, Fabrizio, because I think a lot of people felt that the record you and Guy made was much more of a traditional blues album and should have taken the award.
Fabrizio: I think for most of the journalists there, they felt that the Rolling Stones didn’t win the Grammy just for that album. They had never won a Grammy for an album, just one back in the 80s they had won for a video, but they had never won one for, Exile on Main Street or Let It Bleed, which were historic albums. So the Grammys owed the Rolling Stones an award. And that was the time.
Gary: Did you get to meet any of them?
Fabrizio: The night before at the City Winery in New York at the blues party, which you were at – someone said that Keith Richards is in town. So maybe he’ll show up. But he didn’t! But I had the opportunity to jam with some Rolling Stones musicians!
Gary: As we eventually come out of this terrible situation, what are you hoping for? Can the world be different?
Fabrizio: I hope it will be better. I hope we learn something from this tragedy, but I’m not sure. I’m not really optimistic. Musicians have been very much affected by this tragedy, and I don’t know what the future for music is. Aside from the big stars, what will happen to little clubs, to musicians who don’t have a lot of money? I’m afraid there may be dark times. And I hope that people around the world will understand that now is the time to support musicians. If not, they will not survive any more. Music may change for ever and we will lose something very important.
Too many people take music for granted, think that music is free, that musicians don’t need to pay bills. Now it’s time for us to grow up and understand that music is life. Musicians give us their talent their creativity.
Gary: Presumably, Fabrizio, not being able to perform has had a financial impact on you?
Fabrizio: Well, you know, the most beautiful reward a musician has is the clapping hands, and people who come up to you and tell you your playing was amazing. So this is a very big loss. Playing for people live on stage, connecting with them is something that can’t be done in the same way with technology.
Gary: Eventually we will come out of this. And what about for you and Angelina – what are you looking forward to?
Fabrizio: To go back our old life. And to start again to hug people! Because, yes you can communicate with your eyes, but a hug can communicate something that is hard to communicate with words. So, when some doctor tells me, OK, Fabrizio, go ahead and hug someone, that will be a very bright day!
Gary: Lovely to talk to you both, I hope you stay well. And we are looking forward to seeing some more nice videos from you.
We’re choosing a few songs that have particular resonance at this challenging time. This time, we’re going with Bob Dylan’s Lord Protect My Child, recorded on May 2, 1983. Dylan decided not to include it in his Infidels album, but it appeared eight years’ later on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991.
Reviewer Jonathan Lethem called the song “an achingly candid blues-plea which [provides] a rare glimpse of Bob Dylan-the-parent.” It is indeed a great blues song, with Dylan in fine form and you wonder why it didn’t make the cut on Infidels.
Anyway, I got to thinking about this song because my daughter is a doctor, currently caring for Covid-19 patients in an Intensive Care Unit in a hospital in central London. She’s right in the thick of things in this pandemic, and she’s very brave. But, as a parent, you can’t help but be concerned for her, even with all her PPE (Personal Protective Equipment). You pray with Dylan:
No matter what happens to me, no matter what my destiny
Lord, oh Lord, protect my child.
It’s what every parent feels about their children – no matter what happens to you, you just want your children – no matter what age they are – to be safe and to be happy.
I pray the same for you and your families.
Here’s Dylan’s album version and then a great version by Susan Tedsechi, who really does justice to the bluesy tones of the song.
We’re picking a few songs to help keep our spirits up at this time in a series we’re calling Blues in the Time of Corona, borrowing a bit from the title of Gabriel García Márquez’s famous novel.
Today’s song is the traditional gospel song He Will See You Through, performed by Rhiannon Giddens and Arturo Turrisi on their album There Is No Other. The song begins with Turrisi’s gentle piano, before Giddens’s voice breaks in, full of reverence and inspiration.
The lyrics of the second verse seem particularly apt right now:
When you think the world’s gone crazy
He will see you through
When it looks like the end of days
He’ll surely see you through.
None of us has seen anything like we’re going through at the moment: industry and business is largely shut down, we’re confined to our homes, but worst of all, people are suffering and dying. The world truly has gone crazy and it looks like the end of days. If there’s anything we can learn from the last weekend – Easter – it is that God is not some vague cosmic force, but God comes right in amongst us in the midst of our trials. God is with us, even when things look their bleakest, to “see us through.”
We’re picking a few songs to help keep our spirits up at this time of crisis in a series we’re calling Blues in the Time of Corona, borrowing a bit from the title of Gabriel García Márquez’s famous novel.
Today’s song is Keb’ Mo’s Life is Beautiful from his 2006 album, Suitcase. It reminds us that in all the chaos out there and the suffering of many people, there is still beauty in the world.
Life is beautiful, life is wondrous
Every star above shining just for us
Life is beautiful, on a stormy night
Somewhere in the world the sun is shining bright
It reminds me of something Anne Frank said in her diaries. Anne Frank was a thirteen-year-old girl in the Netherlands when her family was forced into hiding by the Nazis attempted extermination of the Jews. For two years they hid in the sealed-off upper rooms, concealed behind a movable bookcase, in a company building owned by a business partner of Anne’s father. Anne kept a diary of this time, before the family was eventually discovered and sent to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Here’s what she wrote whilst in hiding:
“At such moments I don’t think about all the misery, but about the beauty that still remains. This is where Mother and I differ greatly. Her advice in the face of melancholy is: ‘Think about all the suffering in the world and be thankful you’re not part of it.’
My advice is: Try to recapture the happiness within yourself and God; think of all the beauty in yourself and in everything around you and be happy. I don’t think Mother’s advice can be right, because what are you supposed to do if you become part of the suffering? You’d be completely lost. On the contrary, beauty remains in the nature, sun, freedom and yourself. If you just look for it, you discover yourself and God, you will stand out.”
There is still beauty in the world. Let’s take the time to appreciate it.
We’re locked down, confined to our homes, doing our best not to panic in the face of the barrage of news about coronavirus. It’s easy to get to blues just now, but remember – the blues are about joy and hope, as well as hard times. So, at Down at the Crossroads, we thought we’d post a few songs over the next few weeks to help keep our spirits up, in a series we’re calling Blues in the Time of Corona, borrowing a bit from (and mangling!) the title of Gabriel García Márquez’s famous novel.
Today’s song is that famous old standard, Trouble in Mind, which laments the trouble and problems the singer faces, which are enough to make him throw himself into the river, but then he realizes, “sun gonna shine in my back door some day.” As the old Persian adage has it, “This too will pass.”
Here’s a fine version by Brooks Williams and Guy Davis:
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Van Morrison’s so-called protest songs are unlike real protest songs which rail against genuine injustices. He’s tilting at windmills when he goes against the scientific community’s growing body of evidence regarding mask wearing, social distancing and large gatherings of people.
