Ten For Today: A Little Protest

Joni Mitchell, Infinity, DDDBM&T, Sylvia Robinson, Milton Wright, T-Connection, Lou Reed, Iris DeMent, Jesse Ahern, Jon Butcher

This week, a group of friends and I held the first in a series of protest music “teach-outs” in Boston. (Thanks to the locals who came, especially those I had not met before!) It was a very special and life-affirming gathering of 100 people or so, and I don’t remember the last time I was so moved by such a thing. In this very dark and difficult moment, I crave the cathartic act of experiencing awe, and that happened here. It’s hard to articulate without sounding corny, because it SOUNDS like I might be ascribing magic powers to the shared experience of a group of creative and creative-adjacent people who were able to set aside their fear for a few minutes and bathe in the solidarity, sometimes while singing along. As one of the artists who performed said the next day, in a ridiculously moving email chain that MIGHT have made me tear up two or three times, “There was hope in the air and it felt so good to breathe it in.”

(Poster by Joanne Kaliontzis)

I don’t really believe in magic (see also horoscopes), but I do believe in the capacity of people to hold each other up. Look for the helpers, right? And help comes in all kinds of surprising forms.

Anyway, the presentation as conceived, uses Which Side Are You On, James Sullivan’s smart book about 20th-century history and protest music, as a starting point. What I love about James’ book, which came out in 2019, is that it positions as protest music a lot of music not traditionally thought of as such. I was looking for something else on my bookshelf, saw it, picked it up, and a couple of hours later couldn’t remember what I had been looking for. And I called James. We started planning.

We drafted the legendary Ed Valauskus to be our music director. He assembled a band, which I named The Paid Protesters. (Thank you. Yes, I am very proud of myself and even though I tend to shy away from the spotlight, if there were a band-naming achievement award, I would indeed nominate myself for it this year.) Then we engaged friends and developed a list of singers we love. The idea for now is six singers per show doing two songs each – one from the book, and one of their choice. I think we were expecting that the second song would be a cover for most people, but Quelle Surprise! People are writing protest songs.

(I find this bit kind of hilarious, because the local paper of record, where James has done some wonderful work as a well-utilized arts freelancer, recently ran an article written by not James that contained the following sentence: “The lack of modern protest music in the United States is a phenomenon decades in the making, but now the silence is louder than ever.” Over my morning coffee, I said to the dog, “For crissakes, the guy who literally wrote the book on this topic actually works for them.”)

James worked some deft curatorial magic with the singers, and after the first show, I can honestly say I would not have changed a thing. He provides some context, and there is a bit of discussion at the end.

We called it a “teach-out,” inspired by one of my recent obsessions, The Flying University. This was an underground educational movement that started in Poland around the beginning of the last century, and was then revived in the late 70’s and early 80’s as dissidents attempted to educate Poles in an totalitarian environment where a regime destroys and then controls educational institutions. Hello??? Basically, people shared knowledge in non-traditional venues. Like living rooms. And nightclubs. I am currently enrolled and working on a Ph.D.

Anyway, the team of amazing people we surrounded ourselves with put together an incredibly beautiful show.

The next one of these is August 13 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. (If you’re local and interested, you will find more information here.) We’ll keep going until it seems like we should stop. In the meantime, we’re being very intentional about including people from historically marginalized communities as we put these together. We might experiment with structures and locations. We are building a website that will document these moments. We will put together a how-to guide with some curriculum ideas. AND --- this is the big thing – we are hoping that other people in other places will take whatever they want from what we’ve done, and do their own. Wouldn’t that be a great little movement?

Why do this? Aside from the forementioned craving? Well, it’s an organizing event. Like I’ve been saying all along, we should all be taking this time to find our people. Things are going to get a lot worse before they get any better. And, as one of my favorite radio DJs says every time he’s on the air playing subversive soul and funk corkers, “We are all in this together.” This is why at every event where I am given the opportunity, I give people an assignment: Talk to two people you haven’t met before. I made James say it at the show this week. I was very excited when about a half dozen people used that as their opening when they introduced themselves to me.

Anyway, trying to extend that night a little, and for the benefit of the people who weren’t there, here are Ten For Today: A Little Protest. I could also write a book about it (not as good as his). Picking 10 is hard.

This is by a Canadian woman, and it was released in 1969.

Soul singer Billy Butler co-wrote this one in 1969, and performed it with this band. The sound effects might change, but the song remains the same.

Here’s a Moog protest song from 1970 that has pictures! I think it’s a pretty great track from a band often used as a punchline.

Here’s a 1974 gem by singer, producer, and Sugar Hill Records founder Sylvia Robinson, “The Mother of Hip-Hop.” She had some early chart hits on her own and as half of Mickey & Sylvia, but she may be best known as the producer of early rap classics “Rapper’s Delight” by the Sugarhill Gang and “The Message” by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. In other words, she had advanced degrees in music, culture, and society. In this protest song she wrote, she has some questions for Richard Nixon.

If you’ve been around here a while, you KNOW that I believe Milton Wright’s two 70’s albums are criminally underappreciated. (He was a judge, In court. So that’s funny. But also sad.) Lucky for us, he is still out there performing, so he’ll be at the August edition of our show, doing this song of his from 1975.

This one is from 1977, but it certainly feels right for today.

I am sure this seemed very timely in 1989. Now it seems timeless.

They don’t look like Jesus to me either, Iris. This is from 1996.

Jesse Ahern is a new friend who played at our show. He was recommended for our series by my contractor. Honest to God. The contractor is a naturalized citizen who has contributed immeasurably to our country by fixing stuff in my house so that I don’t hurt myself at my advanced age, and by introducing us to Jesse. This was released last fall.

Our show opened with legendary Boston guitar player Jon Butcher doing his version of Jimi Hendrix’s version of “The Star Spangled Banner,” which in protest music lore is of course one of the most amazing examples of adaptive reuse we have. It was a showstopper in a show full of showstoppers, but you’ll have to take my word for it until we edit the video. He also did this original, which was released just last month.

That’s it for today. I am grateful to you for reading. It’s amazing to me that there are people I am not related to who read this stuff. Actually, the people I am related to don’t even read this. I remember once discussing a poll that said my boss, Mayor Walsh, had a 78% approval rating. I said, “Oh my God, I don’t even have a 78% approval rating in my family.” Too much protesting maybe. They’re okay though. They’re not aligned with the regime. We all have that going for us. Be kind. Kindess is resistance. As is singing along.

Joyce

P.S. The above-mentioned Milton Wright is doing a concert performance of his funky, soulful musical in Boston on Sunday, July 20. We would love to see you if you’re local that weekend. You will find details at this link.

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