Do singers in other countries sing as much about traveling and the road, getting from one place to another whether by air, train, car, truck, or feet? In Ireland, singers often sing about a place, but it's generally with a sense of either exile or nostalgia. It's hard imagine Germans singing about goin' down to Stuttgart town, but maybe they do. I can't think of many songs by the Beatles or Stones or Who about traveling ("Goin' Mobile" does come to mind), but Bob Dylan's epic "Blood On The Tracks" is a litany of place names. And that's just one album.
Americans sing less about the joys of moving on and more about the necessity of it -- what Canadian Joni Mitchell called the urge for going. Willie Nelson sang that "still is still moving to me," which captures the urge for going about as well any song I've heard. Maybe the greatest American song of all -- "This Land Is Your Land" -- is not only about the road and the land, but how it belongs to all of us -- how we are it and it is us.
This morning, I discovered this wonderful photoessay written in 1935 by Ilya Ilf and Evgeny Petrov for Pravda. Every time they found a place that they thought represented America, the residents assured them that it did not: "They said that the genuine America was the southern states, while others affirmed that it was the western ones. Several didn't say anything but vaguely pointed a finger into space." That sounds about right...
Although John Steinbeck never achieved the stylistic heights of Fitzgerald, Faulkner, or Hemingway, when he wrote The Grapes Of Wrath, he wrote one of the genuinely great American novels of the 20th Century. The epic of the Joad family resonates profoundly: Literally swept away by the Dust Bowl, the battered clan migrates west to the promised land of California only to find that themselves reviled and rejected by those who came before them. Fleeing the law, Tom Joad goes underground and by doing so transforms himself into an icon of the dispossessed. Henry Fonda as Tom famously captured this moment in the classic John Ford film. Tom attempts to assuage the fears of his worried, only half-understanding mother by assuring her that "Wherever there's a fight so hungry people can eat, I'll be there." He leaves his disintegrating family to merge with the larger family that lives "wherever you can look." He disappears into the night to reemerge as a solitary figure questing hopefully into the dawn:
Woody Guthrie captured the novel's Depression-era spirit of solidarity in his protest ballad "Tom Joad." Where the film's monologue stressed middle-class aspirations of "people...eatin' the stuff they raise, and livin' in the houses they build," Guthrie turned his attention to a class army of the hungry, the weeping, and the disenfranchised. It's telling that in Ford's film, children laugh when they were hungry; in Guthrie's song, they cry. Where Ford's view is ultimately and unsurprisingly romantic, Guthrie -- an Okie himself -- retains a hard edge.
Post-war prosperity seemed to bear out Ford's vision, at least in part. But as Reaganomics and globalization began to suffocate the middle class like as boa constrictor, Tom Joad suddenly seemed as relevant as ever. In 1995, Bruce Springsteen updated the famous monologue in "The Ghost of Tom Joad." Here, the homeless huddle under a bridge, denied even the community of a migrant camp. A teeming road leads to poverty and exploitation. And yet, the singer won't surrender his anger even if it does depend on the fading hope of his belief in a ghost. Three years later, Rage Against The Machine released their own fiery take, keeping the ghost alive for a new generation.
For it seems that Tom Joad won't go away, even as the middle class dreams of the Ford film fade for millions. Recently, Rage guitarist Tom Morello joined Bruce Springsteen on stage for what must be the definitive performance of "The Ghost Of Tom Joad." Morello's soft voice combines with Springsteen's defiance and remarkable empathy to form an anthem culminating in a Morello guitar solo that captures all of the frustration and rage conveyed by the lyrics in a literal attempt to summon forth old Tom's ghost. A video of the performance made its way to YouTube, spreading Tom Joad's words in a way that Steinbeck or Ford of Guthrie could never have imagined:
You just can't keep a good man down...
The New York Times reports that tainted blood thinner manufactured in China has shown up in eleven countries. The Food and Drug Administration requires a budget of $56,000,000 to adequately inspect overseas drug manufacturers. While the Bush Administration hasn't budgeted for this, it does promise improvements. One place they could find the money is Iraq, where the money spent on two days of war would guarantee medication safety. Don't look to John McCain to solve the problem: His "intellectually dishonest" budget would slash discretionary spending to reduce the corporate tax rate and to extend the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy.
Citizen K. read: Christine Falls, Benjamin Black One Man's Place, John F. Deane
In Texas, voting begins a month prior to election day, and the state posts results as they become available. Texas political observer Rick Casey has mulled over the initial numbers and predicts an Obama victory next Tuesday. He notes that turnout will be high everywhere, but that the early returns indicate a fantastically high turnout the in the Obama strongholds of East Texas and Travis County. Obama isn't conceding the Latino vote without a fight, either, as this video shows. Note that he follows through on appealing to young voters: You can download an mp3 of a reggaeton campaign song.
Nationally, Democrats continue their migration to the Illinois senator. This New York Times article breaks down the latest numbers, which show Obama leading Clinton in every constituency except white women. And even there, he's made noticeable inroads. Although she continues to hang on in Ohio, with her Texas hopes fading, you have to wonder how much time she has left. Although I've learned never to count out a Clinton, there's more than a good chance that the race for Democratic party presidential nomination will be down to one candidate by a week from tomorrow.
Clinton and Obama debate tonight on MSNBC at 6pm Eastern time. Howard Fineman thinks it's the beginning of the end.
I've read The Great Gatsby a half dozen times. And these kids make me want to read it again. As a word smith, I'll take Fitzgerald over any 20th Century novelist. Gatsby contains arguably the most lyrical prose in any American novel: "...the silver pepper of the stars..." and "the full bellows of the earth..." appear in the same paragraph. (I'd be happy to write something like either once in my life.) Its treatment of the themes of aspiration and class and the careless destruction wrought by money resonate through the years. But I've never considered the book from the perspective of a young immigrant -- I never even thoughtto. Now, I'd like to see the green light as they see it.
This arrived in yesterday's mail. It's the only known recording of a live Woody Guthrie performance. Under the TLC of the Woody Guthrie Foundation, the recording has been cleaned up and prepared for general listening. The package includes a 72-page book of photographs, reminiscences, a transcripts of the recording, and an explanation of the restoration process. A must for fans of folk and/or political music.
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