Few taking chance on peace songs
'60s sentiment may not play in modern culture
03/15/2003
AUSTIN - In the Vietnam era, popular music and the anti-war movement went hand in hand: "Bad Moon Rising," "Give Peace a Chance," "War."
But the prevailing tune today seems to be the sounds of silence. As war looms in Iraq - and as country stations play Darryl Worley's pro-war anthem "Have You Forgotten?" - many musicians wonder why they're not hearing more songs about peace.
"The culture starts getting more frivolous after years of peace and prosperity," says John Mellencamp, the first high-profile artist to release a new anti-war song, "To Washington."
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The debate over activism and music is growing louder, with Friday's furor over Dixie Chicks singer Natalie Maines' remarks on President Bush. Earlier this week, she told a London concert audience she's "ashamed" that Mr. Bush is a Texan, but late Friday she apologized after some radio stations decided to boycott the Chicks' music.
While Ms. Maines softened her anti-war stance, others wish more musicians would take one. And it's not just the old-school lefties who are upset at the lack of protest songs. At last month's Grammy Awards, where anti-war statements were muted, 27-year-old singer India.Arie rhapsodized about the role of music during the Vietnam War - a war that ended before she was even born.
"At that time, music mattered," she told reporters backstage. "But my generation is outside of that ['60s peace] movement. The further we get from a time with that much political change, the more we forget."
"I think we've lost hold of the spirit," says 32-year-old singer Ani DiFranco, who attacks U.S. military policy in her songs and during her concerts. "Part of me feels shame that in such dire times, there's such a lack of activism."
In Austin, where thousands of musicians gathered for the 17th annual South by Southwest Music and Media Conference, a panel discussion Friday dug into the issue of "Activism and Protest."
"Looking to pop stars for leadership in today's world is a futile search," says panelist John Sinclair, ex-manager of the radical Vietnam-era rock band the MC5. "A lot of them are millionaires with shares in the oil companies, and they're gonna benefit from this war."
Yet others say it's simply too early to expect a new crop of anti-war songs. "You can't write a song and record it and make it all happen in the two months that it's become apparent we're getting into this war," says another panelist, John Doe of the punk band X.
The Vietnam War raged for years before stars such as John Lennon and John Fogerty began singing about peace. In fact, the first war-related Vietnam-era hit was Staff Sgt. Barry Sadler's patriotic "The Battle of the Green Berets," which went to No. 1 in 1966.
"Anti-war songs didn't make it above ground until the war had gone on and on and on," says folk singer Barbara Dane, who helped compile The Vietnam Songbook in 1969. "Early on, I'd sing a [peace] song and people would wince and say 'Why are you doing that?' "
Today, there's a different sort of skepticism.
"I'd be a martyr and throw myself out a window if I thought it would do any good, but nothing's going to stop this war, and everybody knows it," says 31-year-old Chan Marshall, a South by Southwest performer who sings under the stage name Cat Power. "War is not gonna stop if the 10 people who run the world say it isn't gonna stop."
Others aren't so pessimistic. Although most tunes written after Sept. 11 dealt in grief, confusion and anger, a few expressed the need for peace instead of retaliation: Sleater-Kinney's "Combat Rock," hip-hop artist Michael Franti's "Bomb da World" and System of a Down's "Boom."
But those tunes didn't get airplay, and other anti-war songs have yet to show up on the pop-culture radar. The world's most media-savvy singer, Madonna, hopes to change that with the upcoming video to her single "American Life." The tune is not about war - it deals with celebrity life and rhymes "pilates" with "hotties" - but in the video, fatigues-clad models lob hand grenades at a fashion show as a crowd applauds.
"I am not anti-Bush. I am not pro-Iraq. I am pro-peace. I hope this provokes thought and dialogue," she said in a statement.
Protest songs date back further than pop music itself, from turn-of-the-20th-century union tunes to Depression-era folkie laments. But it was Vietnam that forged them into the pop consciousness - and made "Green Berets" and Mr. Worley's "Have You Forgotten?" look like exceptions to an unwritten music-world policy.
Country singer Worley's pro-war hit features such lyrics as "Some say this country's just out looking for a fight/After 9-11, man, I'd have to say that's right." And in the sentimental tradition of World War II songs, the Dixie Chicks hit No. 1 on the country charts last week with "Travelin' Soldier," a Bruce Robison-penned tale of puppy love that ends with the soldier dying in Vietnam.
But if a major artist wrote today's equivalent of "Give Peace a Chance," would it stand a chance of becoming a hit?
During Vietnam and the heyday of free-form FM, radio courted the booming counterculture. "But now just about every radio station in the country is owned by giant corporate conglomerates who have a very good interest in not rocking Bush's boat," says R.E.M. bassist Mike Mills, another South by Southwest panelist.
Mr. Mellencamp doesn't have high hopes for "To Washington," his rewrite of an old country-folk tune. The song - which will be on his next CD and can be heard at www.mellencamp.com - features new lyrics about Mr. Bush and ends by asking "What is the thought process to take a human's life? What would be the reason to think that this is right?"
"I can assure you, 'To Washington' is not going to be played on the radio," the singer says. "If Justin Timberlake wrote [Bob Dylan's] 'Masters of War' today, nobody's gonna play that either."
This week, Beastie Boys issued a new peace rap, "In a World Gone Mad," on their Web site, www.beastieboys.com. With its Bush-bashing lyrics and clanging rhythms, the song seems an unlikely candidate for tons of airplay. Still, the trio "felt it was important to comment on where the U.S. appears to be heading now," band member Adam Yauch wrote on the Web site.
Even if today's radio did play anti-war songs, it's debatable what impact they'd have in an age where rock songs help sell every imaginable product. In an unintentionally ironic sign of the times, Wrangler's new patriotic TV ad uses snippets of Creedence Clearwater Revival's 1969 hit "Fortunate Son." (Mr. Fogerty, the song's author, signed away the rights to the tune early in his career.)
"It's hard to get people to take songs to heart," Mr. Mills says, "when they know that the next time they hear it, it'll be pushing salad-oil or cars or chicken."
While pop music's impact may be diluted by its commerciality, protest music can still be a key tool for anti-war forces, he adds.
"After the sheer shock of 9-11, it was unseemly to start harping on anti-war stuff right away, but I really hope people will start writing protest songs. Certainly, we're writing a few."
And even if the new protest songs never make it to the radio, "There's still a real hunger for them in the underground," says Ms. Dane, the folk singer. "The pop world might be insulated from all this, but there's tons of new stuff being written and sung in the coffeehouses."
"Maybe we can't change the world," says Ms. DiFranco, "but we can engage and inspire a roomful of people to leave that room feeling stronger. It's that old saying: 'Each one, teach one.' "
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