all music is what awakens from you when you are reminded by the instruments. It is not the violins and the cornets. It is not the oboe nor the beating drums...It is nearer and farther than they.

walt whitman. leaves of grass.

Singing America

Surviving America

dizzy gillespie, swing low sweet cadillac, 1967

I Hear America SingingWalt Whitman

I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear, Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it

should be blithe and strong,

The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam,

The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off

work, The boatman singing what belongs to him in his

boat, the deck- hand singing on the steamboat deck,

The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing

as he stands, The woodcutter's song, the ploughboy's on his way

in the morn- ing, or at noon intermission or at sundown,

The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work,

or of the girl sewing or washing, Each singing what belongs to him or her and to

none else, The day what belongs to the day—at night the party

of young fellows, robust, friendly,

Singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs. 1867

I TOO, HEAR AMERICA SINGING

Julian Bond

I too, hear America singingBut from where I stand I can only hear Little

Richard And Fats Domino.

But sometimes I hear Ray Charles

Drowning in his own tears

or Bird Relaxing at Camarillo Or Horace Silver

doodling, Then I don't mind

standing a little longer. 1960.

“When you say America you refer to the territory stretching between the

icecaps of the two poles. So to hell with your barriers and border

guards!- Diego Rivera

The white cracker who wrote the National Anthem knew what he was doing. He set the word "free" to a note so high nobody could reach it.Tony Kushner, Angels in America (1993)

I sing because I’m happy. I sing because I’m free.

I pledge allegiance to my Grandma For that banana pudding, our piece of Americana...Built a republic, that still stands I’m trying to lead a nation, to leave to my little man’s Or my daughter...The scales was lopsided, I’m just restoring order...The streets raised me, pardon my bad manners I got my liberty, chopping grams up Street justice, I pray God understand us I pledge allegiance to all the scramblers

This is the Star Spangled Banner

R

Made in America. 2011

what is the political?

Hannah Arendt: the activities of ordinary citizens who through the

exercise of their agency in contexts of public interaction shape the conditions of their

collective existence, spaces of communal identity, and social

action

art as a form politics can take

John Street: music’s political potential shouldn’t be limited to either sonic

cause or measurable musical effect. “Music embodies political values and

experiences,” he writes, “and organizes our response to society as political

thought and action. Music does not just provide a vehicle of political expression,

it is that expression.”

Expressly PoliticalImaginatively PoliticalRhetorically PoliticalMagnetically Political

I believe, in fact, that attempts to bring political protest together with ‘popular music’- that is, with entertainment music- are for the

following reason doomed from the start. The entire sphere of popular music...is to such a degree inseparable from consumption, from the

cross-eyed transfixion with amusement, that attempts to outfit it with a new function remain entirely superficial.

And I have to say that when somebody...accompanies maudlin music by singing something or other about Viet Nam being unbearable, I find, in

fact, this song unbearable, in that by taking the horrendous and making it somehow consumable, it ends up wringing something like

consumption-qualities out of it.

Los Hermanos Banuelos“El Lavaplatos” 1926

One day very desperate,because of so much revolution,

I came over to this side of the borderwithout paying the immigration.

Oh, what a fast one,I crossed without paying anything.

On arriving at the station,I ran into a friend,

who gave me an invitationto work on el traque.I supposed el traque

would be some kind of warehouse,but it was to repair the track

where the train ran.Oh what a friend,

how he took me to the track.When I got tired of the track,

he invited me again,to pick tomatoes and thin beets.And there I earned indulgences

walking on my knees;about four or five miles

they gave me for penance.

Ethel Waters, “Supper Time,” 1933

written by Irving Berlin

Ken Gonzales-Day“Erased Lynchings”

TROUBLE EVERY DAY. 1965.

Wednesday I watched the riot . . .Seen the cops out on the streetWatched 'em throwin' rocks and stuffAnd chokin' in the heat

And I'm watchin' and I'm waitin'Hopin' for the bestEven think I'll go to prayin'Every time I hear 'em sayin'That there's no way to delayThat trouble comin' every dayNo way to delayThat trouble comin' every day

Hey, you know something people?I'm not blackBut there's a whole lots a timesI wish I could say I'm not white

'Cause the fire in the streetAin't like the fire in the heartAnd in the eyes of all these peopleDon't you know that this could startOn any street in any town

Thee Midniters “Whittier Boulevard” 1965

Chicano Blowouts/Student Walkouts Young Chicanos for Community Action

Brown Berets

1970

1962