Rovics is not without his critics though, and they are not without wit...
Well I go from town to town Just me and my guitar You can see me at all the protests Up on stage I'm such a star But when the cops start charging You can find me at the back I'll be keeping safe my fingers While all you kids' skulls get cracked And afterwards I'll write songs poking fun at your whole crew I'm a better folksinger than you
All this time spent traveling It gets lonesome on the road And you know I can't stand these rockstars But I've got these seeds to sow Why should I consider the power and privilege I possess Baby when I get nervous up on stage, how 'bout I picture you undressed? Save your talk of patriarchy, I'll go out and screw I'm a better folk singer than you
And why eat dumpstered food that at Whole Foods could be bought? And why wear patched up clothing when there's new clothes from sweatshops? Your cultures of resistance are just silly and passe Unless, of course, those cultures support gigs for me to play Trite exaggerations of anarchists are cool I'm a better folksinger than you
Following this brings a question: Why do Anarchists get Knighted? -one calls them Sir. is it because they were very good Anarchists, or that the Monarchy did not bother to find out that they openly avowed Anarchy? A lot of Anarchists deny that those are Anarchists if they accept the accolade.
Clever, response! Take a song which manages to poke fun at some of the least attractive aspects of activism while remaining sympathetic to the movement and invert it into a personal attack on an individual who has more time for your politics than 90% of the people on the planet.
"To take a Jingoistic jump - is there an mp3 by a British band to put up to stop this American domination of our cultural scene. Seize the Day?"
Nice one Ilyan !
"Clever, response! Take a song which manages to poke fun at some of the least attractive aspects of activism while remaining sympathetic to the movement and invert it into a personal attack on an individual who has more time for your politics than 90% of the people on the planet. "
I like a lot of Rovics songs and have reprinted some of them here in the past. The lyrics weren't a personal attack by me, they were a personal attack by another anarchist folksinger who knows David.
Pastiche is a double-edged sword and anyone - anyone - who gets too big for there boots deserves a bit of ridicule. Anarchy - revolution disguised as sarcasm !
I'm a huge Rovics fan (I actually shook his hand once!), and this song is easily one of my favourites - probably because I like to think he wrote it about me :)
Keeping a good sense of humour and an ability to look at oneself from a different perspective is important, which is why both of the songs above are important songs. Sure, hard-left culture has it's failings, and we may sometimes appear a bit sectarian or exclusive. But then again, mr Rovics is a bit of a liberal at heart (when he's not writing songs that endorse the T word :P ), so he's unlikely to truly understand our outlook on some things without some research.
I am hoping to visit John Bowden in HMP GlenOchil, or at least post him a compilation CD to let him hear what hasn't been on the radio since 1980.
Trouble is you can't take 'pirate' CDs into prison - I did ask the prison and was told 'everyone ask's that'.
I've approached a few singer-songwriters/copyright owners, and so far Dick Gaughan and Ani Difranco have given permission. I asked Rovics out of politeness even though I know he makes his stuff freely available. I forgot to ask 'Seize the Day' until this moment ! But if any of you know other great anarchist or prisoner songs that are worth adding, preferably copyright free, then please say here.
I sent a sub to The Earth First!Journal-subscriptions, POB3023, Tucson, AZ85702, USA, and they sent me a cd "Keep It Wild!" for free. The overseas surface mail sub is $40. no foreign cheques. It is some 14 Earth First! songs from about ten years ago.
I had a "Free Hawai'i" sticker from that occupied Nation, and sent them a photo of it stuck on my car, and they sent a CD of the Aloha March 2000. there is a very touching Queen's Speech on it. You will understand that with so many bigotted inmigrants pouring into in Wales fleeing the immigrants flooding into their country, I dare not put up a Free Wales! sticker.
I think Bessie Smith died around 1939, is her work out of copyright now? If the work is out of copyright the CD would not be pirate? Might prisoners have an mp3 CD player? You would get about 200 songs on one CD.
The only real answer is to terminate Civilisation. Go read Edward Carpenter on that. "Civilisation, Its Cause and Cure"
Thanks for the reminder Ilyan, Seize the Day just gave me instant permission to use 'Club X-Ray'. If anything can bring a smile to a man under lock-down conditions then surely that will, 'gallows humour'.
Dick Gaughan and Ani Difranco also agreed readily, nobody has refused so far. Famous singers are far nicer than I'd have expected never having written to any of them before.
However if the prison governor is refusing him even stamps then I may need a lawyer to get it into him, or he may not be allowed a CD player. Of course I have no idea of his musical taste - he may play it once and hate it. Copyright law has been extended again, I'm afraid so your other suggestion is out-of-bounds unless you can get permission for me from the copyright owner, and email a copy of the track. I haven't even heard of the artist I'm afraid.
I thought I should add, although David Rovics shares all his stuff, I asked his permission to use it in case the prison authorities demand proof. He agreed and wished John and the ABC all the best "we need them now more than ever". Anyway I just wanted you to know I never doubted David was a good guy, I'll stop rabbiting on about this but I hope to be the first person to take a homemade compilation into prison.
I gotta give Rovics shoutz and gr33ts for giving away high quality mp3s of every single song he's ever written almost right away after printing up CD's he sells along the way to make his living.
I can't think of anyone even half as commercially successful as him who's shown themselves willing to take THAT risk ever.
It's nice maybe to bring him down a peg with a song that cuts him down once in a while so his head won't get so big that it doesn't fit through the doorway. But maybe if we can spend just as much energy finding nice ways to nudge other people in the "industry" toward pulling off some of the same "coups" that Rovics found himself good at, we can really become the changes we want to see, and then many of us will inspire Rovics so much he'll consider "behaving" the way you wish he would.
So I wrote to David, asking him for permission to include his songs, which he gave. And then I joked, it's my birthday in October, how about coming to Scotland to play a gig. And he said' Okay, you set it up and I will' . And he normally plays in the UK with Attila the Stockbroker, the punk-poet legend from my youth. So Attila said he'd come too. So everyone is welcome to my birthday party, you just may have to pay 4 quid at the door. Somewhere in Edinburgh, sometime in October.
David and Attila in October in the UK - keep your diaries free ! I just tickled myself.
Comments
Hide the following 12 comments
I'm a better folksinger than you
14.05.2007 10:58
Well I go from town to town
Just me and my guitar
You can see me at all the protests
Up on stage I'm such a star
But when the cops start charging
You can find me at the back
I'll be keeping safe my fingers
While all you kids' skulls get cracked
And afterwards I'll write songs poking fun at your whole crew
I'm a better folksinger than you
All this time spent traveling
It gets lonesome on the road
And you know I can't stand these rockstars
But I've got these seeds to sow
Why should I consider the power and privilege I possess
Baby when I get nervous up on stage, how 'bout I picture you undressed?
Save your talk of patriarchy, I'll go out and screw
I'm a better folk singer than you
And why eat dumpstered food that at Whole Foods could be bought?
And why wear patched up clothing when there's new clothes from sweatshops?
Your cultures of resistance are just silly and passe
Unless, of course, those cultures support gigs for me to play
Trite exaggerations of anarchists are cool
I'm a better folksinger than you
Danny
Homepage:
http://www.riotfolk.org/member_music_lyrics.php?id=7&song_id=464
An Odd Leap
14.05.2007 13:35
Danny could have made it easier for us to hear "I am a better Folk Snger" by putting
To take a Jingoistic jump - is there an mp3 by a British band to put up to stop this American domination of our cultural scene. Seize the Day?
Ilyan
Nice response.
14.05.2007 13:44
Me
sigh
14.05.2007 14:31
Nice one Ilyan !
"Clever, response! Take a song which manages to poke fun at some of the least attractive aspects of activism while remaining sympathetic to the movement and invert it into a personal attack on an individual who has more time for your politics than 90% of the people on the planet. "
I like a lot of Rovics songs and have reprinted some of them here in the past. The lyrics weren't a personal attack by me, they were a personal attack by another anarchist folksinger who knows David.
Pastiche is a double-edged sword and anyone - anyone - who gets too big for there boots deserves a bit of ridicule. Anarchy - revolution disguised as sarcasm !
Danny
Listen British?
14.05.2007 15:44
Download: - mp3 5.0M
Any more entries to make this an even better Internatioanl Eisteddfod?
Here is one from Afghanistan sung in Farsi. I hope it comes across. It is from The Revolutionary Association of Women of Afghanistan.
Ilyan
Guilty As Charged
14.05.2007 17:07
Keeping a good sense of humour and an ability to look at oneself from a different perspective is important, which is why both of the songs above are important songs. Sure, hard-left culture has it's failings, and we may sometimes appear a bit sectarian or exclusive. But then again, mr Rovics is a bit of a liberal at heart (when he's not writing songs that endorse the T word :P ), so he's unlikely to truly understand our outlook on some things without some research.
Dave C
e-mail:
Gitboy@Action4peace.org
Copyright-free anarchist songs anyone ?
14.05.2007 17:47
Trouble is you can't take 'pirate' CDs into prison - I did ask the prison and was told 'everyone ask's that'.
I've approached a few singer-songwriters/copyright owners, and so far Dick Gaughan and Ani Difranco have given permission. I asked Rovics out of politeness even though I know he makes his stuff freely available. I forgot to ask 'Seize the Day' until this moment ! But if any of you know other great anarchist or prisoner songs that are worth adding, preferably copyright free, then please say here.
Danny
Legal CDs
14.05.2007 21:34
I had a "Free Hawai'i" sticker from that occupied Nation, and sent them a photo of it stuck on my car, and they sent a CD of the Aloha March 2000. there is a very touching Queen's Speech on it. You will understand that with so many bigotted inmigrants pouring into in Wales fleeing the immigrants flooding into their country, I dare not put up a Free Wales! sticker.
I think Bessie Smith died around 1939, is her work out of copyright now? If the work is out of copyright the CD would not be pirate? Might prisoners have an mp3 CD player? You would get about 200 songs on one CD.
The only real answer is to terminate Civilisation. Go read Edward Carpenter on that. "Civilisation, Its Cause and Cure"
Ilyan
Good people
14.05.2007 23:40
Dick Gaughan and Ani Difranco also agreed readily, nobody has refused so far. Famous singers are far nicer than I'd have expected never having written to any of them before.
However if the prison governor is refusing him even stamps then I may need a lawyer to get it into him, or he may not be allowed a CD player. Of course I have no idea of his musical taste - he may play it once and hate it. Copyright law has been extended again, I'm afraid so your other suggestion is out-of-bounds unless you can get permission for me from the copyright owner, and email a copy of the track. I haven't even heard of the artist I'm afraid.
Danny
darkest cloud
15.05.2007 08:38
Danny
Lets Each Bring The Other Up.
17.05.2007 19:36
mp3s of every single song he's ever written almost right away
after printing up CD's he sells along the way to make his living.
I can't think of anyone even half as commercially successful as him
who's shown themselves willing to take THAT risk ever.
It's nice maybe to bring him down a peg with a song that cuts him
down once in a while so his head won't get so big that it doesn't
fit through the doorway. But maybe if we can spend just as much
energy finding nice ways to nudge other people in the "industry"
toward pulling off some of the same "coups" that Rovics found
himself good at, we can really become the changes we want to
see, and then many of us will inspire Rovics so much he'll consider
"behaving" the way you wish he would.
right?
marco
Homepage:
http://www.stealthispodcast.org
Attila too
21.05.2007 00:14
David and Attila in October in the UK - keep your diaries free ! I just tickled myself.
Danny