DOCSLIB.ORG

Mermaid's, Song

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Mermaid's, Song Page 1 6 of 7 DOCUMENTS In These Times July 26, 1998 Mermaid's, Song BYLINE: By Thad Williamson; Thad Williamson is author of What Comes Next?: Proposals for a Different Society (National Center for Economic and Security Alternatives). SECTION: Pg. 30 LENGTH: 1893 words In the past 10 years, there has been a proliferation of material dedicated to Woody Guthrie. In 1988, Bob Dylan initiated a tribute album called Folkways: A Vision Shared. A few years later, Bruce Springsteen self-consciously styled an album after one of Woody's most famous songs, "Tom Joad." And, most importantly, the Smithsonian Institution took over the Folkways catalog, leading to the re-release of hundreds of old folk recordings, including several by Guthrie himself. Yet another tribute album, this one produced by indie folk queen Ani DiFranco, is on the way. But as important as tributes from today's artists may be as a device to lure the uninitiated to Guthrie's music, they run the risk of truncating their hero's legacy into a dozen or so well-known, worked-over anthems. Now we have cheerful recordings of "Do Re Mi" from both John Mellencamp and Nanci Griffith -- as well as DiFranco's own dystopian live version of the Dust Bowl lament. Which prompts a question: Is there anything more that Guthrie's would-be heirs can do with that tune? Or, for that matter, is there anything left to do with the "Guthrie canon" as a whole? The great accomplishment of Billy Bragg and Wilco's new album, Mermaid Avenue (Elektra), is that it begins to liberate Guthrie's creative spark from the constraints of that canon. Bragg, a British singer who burst on the scene in the early '80s as a one-man, electric-guitar-and-angry-lyric act, and Wilco, a critically acclaimed band with roots in folk, country, pop and rock, show that Guthrie had a lot on his mind and a lot to say, even after the Dust Bowl ended. They present him not as a nostalgic slice of Americana but as an uncensored radical. Theirs is the Guthrie who wrote in 1946 that "the job to be done is to get this thing called socialism nailed and hammered up just as quick as we can." On Mermaid Avenue, Bragg and Wilco set previously unpublished lyrics to music. The result is not a tribute album, but what Bragg terms a "collaboration": Bragg selected the lyrics from archives that Guthrie's daughter Nora recently established in New York and then collaborated with Wilco to put new music to Guthrie's words. Together, they have created a stunning album, one that revitalizes Guthrie's spirit without simply "updating" his songs for a new generation. Though he successfully recorded dozens of children's songs while living on Coney Island's Mermaid Avenue from 1946 to 1950, Guthrie had difficulty composing and recording high-quality "serious" songs immediately following the war -- in part because the old folk melodies he drew on during the Dust Bowl and his Columbia River days seemed inappropriate to newer material. Bragg and Wilco try to overcome Guthrie's songwriter's block by recasting his words as tastefully crafted folk rock. In his landmark recordings of the '30s and '40s, Guthrie counted on memorable lyrics, rudimentary guitar playing, simple melodies and a well-worn, sincere voice to bring his songs to life. On this record, Bragg and Wilco strive for a pop-folk sound, making most of the numbers upbeat and utilizing strong doses of piano and organ, guitar twang and back-up vocals. Bragg tones down his hard-rocking side, and nowhere is the music allowed to overpower Guthrie's Page 2 Mermaid's, Song In These Times July 26, 1998 words. But Bragg and Wilco's arrangements express a exuberant vitality throughout most of the album, making the few moments of explicit melancholy all the more effective. And unlike a typical Guthrie recording, there is real evidence of songcraft here -- the backup music really does shape the texture and meaning of each song, and Bragg and Wilco even afford themselves the luxury of using more than three chords. The result, in several cases, is nothing short of a revelation. "She Came Along to Me" and "The Unwelcome Guest" stand out as moving political anthems that reflect the complexities of Guthrie's state of mind. "She Came Along to Me," given a typically upbeat arrangement by Bragg and Wilco, can be heard as a commentary on Woody's relationships with women, as a slightly backhanded but nonetheless sincere proclamation of gender equality and, finally, as a utopian vision of a time, 10 million years in the future, when "all creeds, all kinds" will be "alike" and "working together," having placed "all the fascists out of the way." All this in three verses! On the other hand, Bragg crafts "The Unwelcome Guest," a sobering attack on wealth and privilege, as a hymn to solidarity. Here, Guthrie expresses his own political vocation by imagining himself riding on a beautiful black horse as a modern day Robin Hood, taking back the wealth the rich have stolen from the workers. The narrator acknowledges that he will be cut down by the mighty, but hopes that his legacy will live on as "other brave men" take up the task anew. Although the future will not see an easy end to the class war, Guthrie holds out hope for the day when "they'll take the money and spread it out equal just like the Bible and the prophets suggest." Such sentiments fit Bragg's own sensibilities perfectly, and on this track the spirit of Guthrie's deepest convictions pulsate through Bragg's thick, distinctively British voice. Bragg and Wilco slow the tempo down without letting it turn into a dirge, utilizing a pedal-steel line as the backdrop and harmonica fills between verses. In the final verse, Wilco's Jeff Tweedy sings a high harmony part alongside Bragg, creating a compelling, two-textured finale. This track stands on a par with any of Guthrie's greatest songs, even if it took half a century and a fellow traveler's voice for the song to come to fruition. Besides the political anthems, Mermaid Avenue's most moving moments come in a pair of introspective songs, "Another Man's Done Gone" and "One by One," which reflect some of the intense personal pain Guthrie experienced in the immediate postwar years. It was at Mermaid Avenue that Woody and Marjorie Guthrie lost their eldest daughter, Cathy, in a fire. And it was during these years that Huntington's chorea first began to manifest itself in Guthrie, in the form of increasingly erratic behavior that eventually made normal family life impossible. Tweedy brings "Another Man's Done Gone" to life in 90 brief seconds with an aching vocal, accompanied only by piano. "Sometimes I think I'm gonna lose my mind," Guthrie wrote, in what appears to be an apology to his wife, as well as a plea for understanding. Explaining both his wanderlust and undying love for "the people," Guthrie reflected: "Maybe if I hadn't of seen so much hard feelings, I maybe could have not felt other peoples," a couplet given a perfect reading by Tweedy. And it is not possible to hear "One by One," in which a cascading organ line sets an ethereal tone for an even more explicit meditation on the experience of age and the passing of time, without bringing to mind Guthrie's own gradual debilitation. Woody Guthrie is no longer around to turn newspaper headlines into folk-songs and his guitar into a "fascist-killing" machine. Yet, his vivid sense of both the suffering and the earthly joys entailed in being human -- and his insistence on the necessity of human solidarity -- remain deeply relevant. Bragg and Wilco, as well as Nora Guthrie, should be commended for liberating Guthrie's spirit from the printed pages he left behind, and for pouring that spirit out into appealing, infectious, deeply moving music. Still, the question remains: Will Woody Guthrie be regarded at the end of the 20th century as museum piece holding a sentimental place in leftist memory? Or will he live on, as he hoped, as an angry prophet whose words even now speak to the very present? For all of Bragg and Wilco's fine efforts, the answer to that question lies not in the artistic merit of their "collaboration" with Guthrie, but in how those who hear it choose to respond. Page 3 Mermaid's, Song In These Times July 26, 1998 LOAD-DATE: April 16, 1999 LANGUAGE: ENGLISH GRAPHIC: Photo 1, Billy Bragg; Photo 2, Woody Guthrie; Photos 1 and 2, PHOTOS COURTESY OF ELEKTRA RECORDS Copyright 1998 Institute for Public Affairs.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Full Pamphlet F+B/C@Start
    THE KEY TO DEMOCRATIC REFORM A Genuine Expression of OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS IS SIMPLICITY, VIABILITY AND LEGITIMACY the Will of the People: a viable method of “Following consultation, the government will introduce legislation democratic Lords reform to implement the second phase of the House of Lords reform.” With this single sentence in the 2001 Queen’s Speech, the Labour government gave notice that it was intent on Billy Bragg fulfilling it’s historic commitment to reform the House of Lords. The choice between a democratic second chamber or one which remains predominantly a house of patronage will have to be resolved. Whilst those in favour of the democratic option push for an elected house, supporters of an appointed chamber counter that it would not be sensible for the Commons to legislate so that the House of Lords became a rival chamber. Thus the debate becomes polarised. This pamphlet sets out the case for a viable democratic second chamber that does not challenge the primacy of the House of Commons. BILLY BRAGG is a lifelong supporter of the Labour Party. Songwriter and activist, he was a founder member of RED WEDGE. His recent UK tour was sponsored by the GMB. Born in Essex, he now lives with his family in West Dorset. During the last general election, he set up a tactical voting website which resulted in an end to the Conservative stranglehold in Dorset and the first Labour MP in the county for over 30 years. Published by www.votedorset.net £1.00 A Genuine Expression of the Will of the People A viable method of democratic Lords reform Billy Bragg Published by www.votedorset.net Text ©Billy Bragg 2001 Design & Production: Claire Kendall-Price, Wildcat Publishing (01305 269941) Printed by Friary Press, Dorchester 2 3 It is clear from the commitment batch of peers is created.
    [Show full text]
  • BILLY BRAGG Stereo MC’S Tiggs Da Author Rag ‘N’ Bone Man
    PRESENTS 2016 BILLY BRAGG Stereo MC’s Tiggs Da Author Rag ‘N’ Bone Man Your guide to this year’s festival PLUS Reviews, Interviews and much more! 1 12 ARTIST VILLAGE AND SMALL SCULPTURE SHOW MAP 2016 Queue to buy tickets on the day BOX OFFICE LEIGH-ON-SEA CC CHALKWELL PARK VILLAGE ROOMS BEACH GREEN HUT STAGE IDEA13 PICNIC STAGE STAGE AREA 1 SHOW TENNIS GROUND 2 5 COURTS FIRST AID TEATRO METAL BBC 3 VERDI ART ESSEX 12 MARKET CYCLE WESTCLIFF STAGE SCHOOL OAK VILLAGE 6 -ON-SEA CC POLICE PLACE STAGE SKATE PARK 11 7 GLOBAL INFO VILLAGE POINT 10 4 ESTUARY FIRST AID ART GROUP METAL & LOSTMISSING EXHIBITION ART 8 MINI CHALKWELL HALL SCHOOL CHILDERNPERSONS 9 GREEN (BUILDING) TOILETS RIVERSIDE MINI GREEN 9 JULY 2016 CHALKWELL PARK 11AM - 10PM PRESS & STAGE TO CHALKWELL STATION PRODUCTION STAGE villagegreen16 www.villagegreenfestival.com Twitter: @vg_festival vg16 Instagram: villagegreenfestival Facebook: villagegreenfestival 1 Alexis Zelda Stevens 4 Redhawk Logistica 7 Cool Diabang & Sonja Kandels 10 Josh Langan 2 Cool Diabang 5 Luke Gottelier (performance at 4.15) 11 John Wallbank 8 Julia McKinlay 3 Stuart Bowditch 6 Luke Gottelier 12 Small Sculpture Show 9 Stuart Bowditch VILLAGE GREEN STAGE RIVERSIDE STAGE MIDDLE AGE SPREAD DJs URBAN ALLSTARS DJs This collective of popular DJs sell out every gig The mighty Urban Allstars, spinning all things they do, and they’re bringing their floor-filling skills funky on the decks to get you into the groove. to work the park. BLACK CAT DJs 11.50 - 12.20 PETTY PHASE The band of Soul Brothers will be serving up a All the musical unpredictability and charisma that sexy platter of Rhythm & Blues, Northern Soul, girl punks should have, plus some.
    [Show full text]
  • The Woody Guthrie Centennial Bibliography
    LMU Librarian Publications & Presentations William H. Hannon Library 8-2014 The Woody Guthrie Centennial Bibliography Jeffrey Gatten Loyola Marymount University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/librarian_pubs Part of the Music Commons Repository Citation Gatten, Jeffrey, "The Woody Guthrie Centennial Bibliography" (2014). LMU Librarian Publications & Presentations. 91. https://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/librarian_pubs/91 This Article - On Campus Only is brought to you for free and open access by the William H. Hannon Library at Digital Commons @ Loyola Marymount University and Loyola Law School. It has been accepted for inclusion in LMU Librarian Publications & Presentations by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons@Loyola Marymount University and Loyola Law School. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Popular Music and Society, 2014 Vol. 37, No. 4, 464–475, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03007766.2013.834749 The Woody Guthrie Centennial Bibliography Jeffrey N. Gatten This bibliography updates two extensive works designed to include comprehensively all significant works by and about Woody Guthrie. Richard A. Reuss published A Woody Guthrie Bibliography, 1912–1967 in 1968 and Jeffrey N. Gatten’s article “Woody Guthrie: A Bibliographic Update, 1968–1986” appeared in 1988. With this current article, researchers need only utilize these three bibliographies to identify all English- language items of relevance related to, or written by, Guthrie. Introduction Woodrow Wilson Guthrie (1912–67) was a singer, musician, composer, author, artist, radio personality, columnist, activist, and philosopher. By now, most anyone with interest knows the shorthand version of his biography: refugee from the Oklahoma dust bowl, California radio show performer, New York City socialist, musical documentarian of the Northwest, merchant marine, and finally decline and death from Huntington’s chorea.
    [Show full text]
  • For Those About to Rock’ Cybersimulcasting Live Music on the Internet
    position the experience of different and purcliasing details are available at: and tests of the misuse of market power. nations in promoting competition in http YAvww.circit. rmit.edu.au/publics/ 5 Extending across: carrier interconnection; information and communications sectors ipm_book.html service provider and content creator access to distribution channels; and end-user access to to provide some guidance and signposts services. through the policy development maze. 1 Nevertheless, the study does recognise national differences. For example, in Australia, legislation targeted the development of a dual network Published by RMIT University Press in Ross Kelso is Senior Research Fellow infrastructure between 1991-1997 and carriers for the International Research on December 1999, The Information Policy have invested significantly in infrastructure Maze: Global Challenges - National development. Similarly, in the UK, policy has Communication and Information Responses is the result of a three-year supported infrastructure duplication. With the Technologies at RMIT. project conducted by the Centre for announcement of the US National Information Infrastructure agenda in 1993 there was a Dianne Northfteld is a Research Fellmv International Research on Communication coincidence of industry investment in and Information Technologies infrastructure and new services. at CIRCIT at RMIT and the Harvard (“CIRCIT”) at RMIT, Melbourne Information Infrastructure 1 Including regulation of horizontal and vertical Project, Kennedy School of Australia, and the Program on Information agreements between firms; control of mergers Resources Policy (“PIRP”), Harvard and acquisitions; regulation of horizontal and/or Government, Harvard University. University, U.S.A, Further information vertical integration activities of individual firms; [email protected] ‘For Those About to Rock’ Cybersimulcasting Live Music on the Internet Therese Catanzariti offers a lively analysis of the intellectual property issues in cybersimulcasting.
    [Show full text]
  • Representation Through Music in a Non-Parliamentary Nation
    MEDIANZ ! VOL 15, NO 1 ! 2015 DOI: 10.11157/medianz-vol15iss1id8 - ARTICLE - Re-Establishing Britishness / Englishness: Representation Through Music in a non-Parliamentary Nation Robert Burns Abstract The absence of a contemporary English identity distinct from right wing political elements has reinforced negative and apathetic perceptions of English folk culture and tradition among populist media. Negative perceptions such as these have to some extent been countered by the emergence of a post–progressive rock–orientated English folk–protest style that has enabled new folk music fusions to establish themselves in a populist performance medium that attracts a new folk audience. In this way, English politicised folk music has facilitated an English cultural identity that is distinct from negative social and political connotations. A significant contemporary national identity for British folk music in general therefore can be found in contemporary English folk as it is presented in a homogenous mix of popular and world music styles, despite a struggle both for and against European identity as the United Kingdom debates ‘Brexit’, the current term for its possible departure from the EU. My mother was half English and I'm half English too I'm a great big bundle of culture tied up in the red, white and blue (Billy Bragg and the Blokes 2002). When the singer and songwriter, Billy Bragg wrote the above song, England, Half English, a friend asked him whether he was being ironic. He replied ‘Do you know what, I’m not’, a statement which shocked his friends. Bragg is a social commentator, political activist and staunch socialist who is proudly English and an outspoken anti–racist, which his opponents may see as arguably diametrically opposed combination.
    [Show full text]
  • Chunga 12 I Learned That Mike Glicksohn and It Is a Pleasure to See Them Again
    13 s e p t e m b e r 2 0 0 7 “But wouldn’t it be cheaper just to use a man in a suit?” Chunga is a darkened theater where Lee Hoffman and Ron Bennett sit in the middle third row. Rich brown leans forward in the row behind them, and he won’t stop talking. Other fans are expected, and all three look over their shoulders in anticipation. In the projection booth, Bob Tucker is pouring shots from a green-labeled bottle. One for each reel change — two cartoons, a news reel, the serial chapter, the A picture, and the B picture. A pleasant odor of bourbon and popcorn fills the darkness as he throws the switch. Available by editorial whim or wistfulness, or, grudgingly, for $3.50 for a single issue; PDFs of every issue may be found at eFanzines.com. Edited by Andy ([email protected]), Randy ([email protected]), and carl ([email protected]). Please address all postal correspondence to 1013 North 36th Street, Seattle WA 98103. Editors: please send three copies of any zine for trade. In this issue . The Ascent of Hokum Art Credits A premonitory caution . 1 in order of first appearance Terminal Eyes Marc Schirmeister front cover by Andy Hooper . 2 William Rotsler 3, 26 Take the Hokum and Run (Celluloid Fantasia reprints) Stu Shiffman 7, 9, 10 by Stu Shiffman . 5 Ken Fletcher 12, 14, 15 Woody Guthrie, the Singing Sidekick by Stu Shiffman . 6 Ian Gunn 14 The Most Monstrous Show on Earth! Michael Dobson 15 (bottom), from by Bob Webber .
    [Show full text]
  • Carmel Pine Cone, September 19, 2008
    Late-night surprise: Mountain lion charges into woman’s bedroom By CHRIS COUNTS was reading in bed, ” recalled Jane Chanteau, who lives off “I hit him, and I yelled really loud,” she explained. Palo Colorado Road. “I woke up when my cat let out a horri- Much to the 73-year-old grandmother’s surprise, a lion SECONDS AFTER a late-night encounter with a moun- ble scream. It sounded like a cat fighting, only much louder.” pulled its head from beneath the bed. tain lion this week, a Big Sur house cat did the most logical Opening her eyes in the dimly lit bedroom, Chanteau “He jumped up on a box about four feet away, sat down thing possible — it scampered under its owner’s bed. thought she saw a dog chase her cat, a black and white 11- and just looked at me,” she said. “He wasn’t aggressive at all. Unfortunately for the cat, the mountain lion — following year-old named Bearli, under the bed. The intruder’s head He was calm.” close on its heels — tried to do the exact same thing. was also under the bed, so Chanteau gave him a good whack “It was about 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, and I dozed off while I on his behind. See LION page 9A BULK RATE U.S. POSTAGE PAID CARMEL, CA Permit No. 149 Volume 94 No. 38 On the Internet: www.carmelpinecone.com September 19-25, 2008 Y OUR S OURCE F OR L OCAL N EWS, ARTS AND O PINION S INCE 1915 Fierce advocate for historic buildings dies at 86 Kenney’s sentence to be By MARY BROWNFIELD with, because she had definite ideas about how she wanted things done,” said former Carmel City life without parole ENID SALES — a dedicated preservationist Councilwoman Barbara Livingston, who met touted as a hero by some and vilified by others for Sales more than 50 years ago when both were liv- ■ Convicted of two murders her fierce fights against the demolition of historic ing in the San Francisco Bay Area.
    [Show full text]
  • (At) Miracosta
    The Creative Music Recording Magazine Jeff Tweedy Wilco, The Loft, Producing, creating w/ Tom Schick Engineer at The Loft, Sear Sound Spencer Tweedy Playing drums with Mavis Staples & Tweedy Low at The Loft Alan Sparhawk on Jeff’s Production Holly Herndon AI + Choir + Process Ryan Bingham Crazy Heart, Acting, Singing Avedis Kifedjian of Avedis Audio in Behind the Gear Dave Cook King Crimson, Amy Helm, Ravi Shankar Mitch Dane Sputnik Sound, Jars of Clay, Nashville Gear Reviews $5.99 No. 132 Aug/Sept 2019 christy (at) miracosta (dot) edu christy (at) miracosta (dot) edu christy (at) miracosta (dot) edu christy (at) miracosta (dot) edu christy (at) miracosta (dot) edu christy (at) miracosta (dot) edu Hello and welcome to Tape Op 10 Letters 14 Holly Herndon 20 Jeff Tweedy 32 Tom Schick # 40 Spencer Tweedy 44 Gear Reviews ! 66 Larry’s End Rant 132 70 Behind the Gear with Avedis Kifedjian 74 Mitch Dane 77 Dave Cook Extra special thanks to Zoran Orlic for providing more 80 Ryan Bingham amazing photos from The Loft than we could possibly run. Here’s one more of Jeff Tweedy and Nels Cline talking shop. 83 page Bonus Gear Reviews Interview with Jeff starts on page 20. <www.zoranorlic.com> “How do we stay interested in the art of recording?” It’s a question I was considering recently, and I feel fortunate that I remain excited about mixing songs, producing records, running a studio, interviewing recordists, and editing this magazine after twenty-plus years. But how do I keep a positive outlook on something that has consumed a fair chunk of my life, and continues to take up so much of my time? I believe my brain loves the intersection of art, craft, and technology.
    [Show full text]
  • Ghost Gig: Redskins Programme
    13th December 2019 marks slick, The Redskins were Chris Dean was not keen the anniversary of the highly your band’ and lead singer on broader pop and politics politically charged band Chris Dean once claimed allegiances. Discussing Red Redskins playing our New that his ambition was to Wedge, the Labour Party SETLIST Cavendish Street site. The have his band ‘sing like affiliated movement, he noted original concert took place the Supremes and walk that ‘if the Labour Party are in 1985, only a week after like the clash’ (from NWNM organising a tour, the one thing Lean on Me (second single on CNT, 1982)* 6.15 New Order played the same reissue sleevenotes). Their you can be sure about is that Reds strike the blues* 4.34 venue, and were the subject first single Lev Bronstein it’ll sell out’. He in fact talked Hold on!* 3.18 of a ghost gig last year. As (Trotsky’s real name) was about setting up a Redder Unionise (b side of Lean on Me) 4.53 we noted then, 1985 was a released in 1982, followed by Wedge. Certainly they would Kick over the statues! (single, Decca/London 1985)* 2.27 curious and eclectic musical Lean on Me (‘a love song to have not been interested in decade. For Redskins though workers’ solidarity’ said the the Live Aid event that took Ninety nine and a half won’t do (reissue NWNM) 4.20 1985 would have been seen NME) before the band signed place earlier that summer. Take no heroes!* 5.33 as the year of the SDP/ for Decca/London Records.
    [Show full text]
  • Attachment and Detachment in Caryl Phillipsâ•Ž a Distant Shore
    Kunapipi Volume 26 Issue 1 Article 16 2004 ‘Of, and not of, this place’: Attachment and detachment in Caryl Phillips’ A distant shore Benedicte Ledent Follow this and additional works at: https://ro.uow.edu.au/kunapipi Part of the Arts and Humanities Commons Recommended Citation Ledent, Benedicte, ‘Of, and not of, this place’: Attachment and detachment in Caryl Phillips’ A distant shore, Kunapipi, 26(1), 2004. Available at:https://ro.uow.edu.au/kunapipi/vol26/iss1/16 Research Online is the open access institutional repository for the University of Wollongong. For further information contact the UOW Library: [email protected] ‘Of, and not of, this place’: Attachment and detachment in Caryl Phillips’ A distant shore Abstract Interviewed about his novels in 2003, Caryl Phillips declared ‘These all seem to be the same book, part of a continuum’ (Morrison). Obviously, his seventh work of fiction, A Distant Shore (2003), does not disrupt this sense of great cohesion, also acknowledged by his commentators. Although the contemporary setting of A Distant Shore is unusual for a novelist who has occasionally been labelled a chronicler of the African Diaspora, this new book constitutes another memorable stage in Phillips’ subtle, yet dogged fictional exploration of the tension between attachment and detachment, between belonging and unbelonging that has been part of human life since the beginning of times, especially for the migrant. If this concern sticks to Phillips’ novels almost like a second skin, it is addressed more openly in his non- fiction, notably in his ecentr collection of essays A New World Order (2001).
    [Show full text]
  • MUSICAL INTERLUDE: the PLOT of the PLAY THROUGH POP CULTURE (Page 1 of 2)
    MUSICAL INTERLUDE: THE PLOT OF THE PLAY THROUGH POP CULTURE (Page 1 of 2) Overview: Write the story of Romeo and Juliet through song titles. Grade: 6-12 Goal: To use contextual clues to relate the Shakespeare text and current songs. State Standards: English Writing Applications §2; Theater Arts §1 Outcomes: Students will research the play for clues to the characters, fully describe the arc of the play through modern lyrics and mood of the music played, and engage critical thinking skills to determine their choices. Activity: 1. Students will research current music to find connections of meaning through lyrics and musical expression to the plot of the play 2. Students will create a list of song that accurately describes the arc of the plot of the play, paying attention to particular words and moods that connect the song and the original text. 3. Have students share their lists, playing a few selections in class as time permits. Reflection: • What difficulty did you have finding the right songs, if any? • Were certain points of the play harder than others for which to find a current expression? • Does your soundtrack point to a certain interpretation of the story as you see it? • Were there certain characters you chose to highlight? Why? See example on the next page. - 30 - MUSICAL INTERLUDE (Page 2 of 2) By Daniel Moattar, from Urban High School, Cathleen Sheehan’s English class, April 2009 ------------------------- Act I: 1. Unnecessary Trouble (Hard-Fi, Stars of CCTV) 2. Older Guys (Teenage Fanclub, Thirteen) 3. The Wrong Girl (Belle and Sebastian, Fold Your Hands Child You Walk Like a Peasant) 4.
    [Show full text]
  • The Essential Billy Bragg Ukulele Song Sheets Uketunes
    The Essential Billy Bragg Ukulele Song Sheets UkeTunes Contents A NEW ENGLAND 3 THE MILKMAN OF HUMAN KINDNESS 4 TO HAVE AND TO HAVE NOT 5 A LOVER SPEAKS 6 IT SAYS HERE 7 THE SATURDAY BOY 8 BETWEEN THE WARS 9 THE WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN 10 LEVI STUBBS’ TEARS 11 GREETINGS TO THE NEW BRUNETTE 12 IDEOLOGY 13 THERE IS POWER IN A UNION 14 SHE’S GOT A NEW SPELL 15 THE PRICE I PAY 16 WAITING FOR THE GREAT LEAP FORWARDS 17 SEXUALITY 18 MOVING THE GOALPOSTS 19 TANK PARK SALUTE 20 YOU WOKE UP MY NEIGHBOURHOOD 21 ACCIDENT WAITING TO HAPPEN 22 UPFIELD 23 BRICKBAT 24 THE SPACE RACE IS OVER 25 THE BOY DONE GOOD 26 NO POWER WITHOUT ACCOUNTABILITY 27 ST. MONDAY 28 SOME DAYS I SEE THE POINT 29 TAKE DOWN THE UNION JACK 30 HANDYMAN BLUES 31 A13 TRUNK ROAD TO THE SEA 32 NOTE: All songs and chords assume a GCEA tuned ukulele. Any tab that uses the G string assumes a “low G”. These song sheets are my best attempt at transcribing the songs, but may not be totally accurate. DISCLAIMER: All song sheets in this book are intended for private, educational, and research purposes only and not for financial gain in any form. It is acknowledged that all song copyrights belong to their respective parties. (v1.0) Billy Bragg (https://uketunes.wordpress.com/) Page 2 UkeTunes A New England { 1983 } Intro: [F] / / / | / / / / | / / / / | / / / / | I was [F] twenty-one years when I wrote this song I'm [C] twenty-two now but I [Dm] won't be for long [Bb] People ask me when will you grow [F] up to be a man But all the [C] girls I loved at school are al-[Bb]-ready pushing prams
    [Show full text]