Songs of Resistance

By ROB PATTERSON

Used to be at the end of every year in this space I would do an overview of the best and most notable political/topical music from the last 12 months. That is, until there was such a dearth of it that there wasn’t much worth writing about.

One might think that with the ascent of Trumpism and all the related ill winds wafting through our nation’s body politic that the popular music community would rise to the occasion and take up the cause. Nope. It’s been awfully quiet out there, sadly.

But to the credit of last year, one of its finest album releases is also one of the best political albums ever. It’s sadly doubtful that as many people who should hear Songs of Resistance 1942-2018 by Marc Ribot may never get the pleasure, given how the commercial music game is wired. It’s something of a musical landmark and a work of wonder to listen to, plus an important statement.

It’s a challenge to even introduce Ribot to those who don’t know of him yet may well have heard his vibrant and imaginative guitar work. He’s released 40 albums that cover a truly global range of styles. Just some of his vast range and honor roll of musical associations include Tom Waits, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, Elvis Costello and his wife Diana Krall, John Mellencamp, Elton John/Leon Russell, Allen Ginsburg, Nora Jones and The Black Keys. He is one of the most masterful and magical creative musical forces on the planet, albeit working in the margins of the mainstream.

Songs of Resistance reflects Ribot’s feelings about the election of Donald Trump and the dangers it has created with a musical, lyrical and artistic eloquence. It’s a sophisticated work rich with stylistic breadth and an informed sense of historicity. He utilizes singers known to the general music listener such as Tom Waits, Steve Earle, Meshell Ndegeocello, Tift Merritt and Syd Straw alongside lesser-known yet impressive talents to great effect. This may not be the much needed protest album by a major name artist that might rouse the public to action. But it is a landmark work that’s also moving if not inspirational that emphasizes that centrality of songs to political resistance movements.

Two of the tracks reach back to songs from the resistance against Benito Mussolini’s World War II-era fascism yet carry current meaning. Two others are numbers that were an essential element in the Civil Rights movement. Ribot himself wrote a number compositions that draw on everything from recent news to historical and traditional precedents. Every one of the 11 songs offers an abundant listening experience along with both comfort and motivation in these troubled times.

“Every movement which has ever won anything has had songs,” Ribot notes. Maybe only one of these numbers, the Ribot original “Knock That Statue Down,” has the singalong appeal one might hear as protestors storm the ramparts. But no matter; that challenge remains for the artists whose fans number in the millions to find the boldness and commitment that current events are begging them to display.

What Ribot shows is how political songs can be superior musical works that defy cliche and can crackle with energy and creative imagination, which this set displays in abundance. Let’s now hope others in the musical community realize as he did that the time to stand up and resist is now.

Populist Picks

Song: “If I Had a Hammer” by Mickey Leigh’s Mutated Music – Pete Seeger’s 1949 classic gets a neat update into sleek, fast loud rules punk rock mode that reminds of The Ramones, which makes perfect sense as Leigh is the brother of Joey Ramone, and an accomplished rocker with a significant if lesser known legacy of his own. The tune comes with an accompanying populist street scenes video that’s an utter delight.

Documentary Film: Operation Odessa – The almost unbelievable story about how three larger-than-life criminal characters conspired to sell a Soviet submarine to a Colombian drug cartel for importing drugs into America is a colorful and at times even hilarious tale. Director Tiller Russell dresses the affair in flashy yet appropriate “Miami Vice” colors as he wades into that city’s criminal underworld.

Rob Patterson is a music and entertainment writer in Austin, Texas. Email orca@prismnet.com.

From The Progressive Populist, February 15, 2019

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