Costs of War-Protest Songs: Can Music Help Solve Political Problems?

What does the above video have to do with War? Protest and the tools we use to enhance those efforts. Agree or not with the protest of prisoners and prison standards, one must admit that protest put to tune, enhances any statement of objection for any cause.

Costs of War-Protest Songs: Can Music Help Solve Political Problems?

The influence of music is enormous. Culture within a generation dictates the rhythm while circumstance dictates the cause projected. Politics are often voiced in song as people try to deliver their point of view. Costs of war,facts about the Vietnam War, facts about the war in Iraq, prison outrage, abortion rights, the list goes on and on of course.

While walking my dog this morning I found myself singing an old song of Joan Baez's, called "Prison Trilogy". The song is about how prisoners were/(are?) treated in the USA. While singing the song I remembered my Dad's response to "Prison Trilogy" and other political songs of my generation. He got angry with me as I protested the war in Vietnam, singing songs of outrage that defined my ideals, as I washed the family dishes in our suburban home. A fledging finding her way, effected directly by the draft of my young classmates, for a war that made no sense to me, I would find my own voice. Yes, it was and is a generational thing, as politics of the day change. We are influenced by peers, the media, and the struggles of others, noted by us as unique individuals. My dad, just like so many of any group regarded collectively, decided years ago about his political stance and that was that!. True for many in any generation and I guess even mine. I admit to it.

Despite all, I do honestly think that protest can be spoken in a song more directly than it can be said in discussion. In song one can get away with voicing their views, on any subject, more poignantly and certainly more aggressively than what might be allowed in normal conversation. (Light bulb moment I think for getting teenagers to tell you what they are thinking! LOL)

Bringing back the song, "Prison Trilogy" as an example of protest that was greeted with mild consequence, for good or bad, the point was received but not fully absorbed. Because of the tune and Joan Baez's glorious voice, I sang that song when I was young without considering the other side of that issue. I never thought once about the fact that people were in prison for a reason. Yet... I think mans inhumanity to man explodes in the scenario, especially now with the hopeful closing of Guantánamo. Every issue is more complex than what is ever sung or voiced but song is a good reference to history; it voices the artistic side of the issue along with the importance felt. The good thing about protest in song is that it causes us to 'think' about the differences. Eventually and hopefully we refine, collect them and decipher their truths and non-truths; our protests, and try to change things for the better.

by Kathy Ostman-Magnusen
copyright 2009

PRISON TRILOGY (BILLY ROSE) LYRICS
by Joan Baez

Billy Rose was a low rider, Billy Rose was a night fighter
Billy Rose knew trouble like the sound of his own name
Busted on a drunken charge driving someone else's car
The local midnight sheriffs claim to fame

In an Arizona jail there are some who tell the tale how
Billy fought the sergeant for some milk that he demanded
Knowing they'd remain the boss, knowing he would pay the cost
They saw he was severely reprimanded

In the blackest cell on "A" Block
He hanged himself at dawn
With a note stuck to the bunk head
Don't mess with me, just take me home

Come lay, help us lay
Young Billy down

Luna was a Mexican the law called an alien
For coming across the border with a baby and a wife
Though the clothes upon his back were wet still he thought
That he could get some money and things to start a life

It hadn't been to very long when it seemed like everything went wrong
They didn't even have the time to find themselves a home
This foreigner, a brown-skin male thrown into a Texas jail
It left the wife and baby quite alone

He eased the pain inside him
With a needle in his arm
But the dope just crucified him
He died to no one's great alarm

Come lay, help us lay young Luna down
Were gonna raze, raze the prisons to the ground

Kilowatt was an aging con of 65 who stood a chance to stay alive
And leave the joint and walk the streets again
As the time he was to leave drew near he suffered all the joy and fear
Of living 35 years in the pen

And on the day of his release he was approached by the police
Who took him to the warden walking slowly by his side
The warden said "You won't remain here but it seems a state retainer
claims another 10 years of your life"

He stepped out in the Texas sunlight
The cops all stood around
Old Kilowatt ran 50 yards
Then threw himself on the ground

They may as well just laid the old man down
And we're gonna raze, raze the prisons to the ground
Help us raze the prisons to the ground

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