>>>>
<excerpt>on a tangent, i heard about a joan baez performance in s.
america years ago
(might have been chile) where the government wasn't worried about what
she
said to the audience--apparently, the government had civil rights abuses
up
to there--but they wouldn't allow her to sing at all!! the belief was
that
if the people broke into song, it would inspire them to possibly revolt
(!)
--dig that!!!
t-bird
</excerpt><<<<<<<<
That's a beautiful story, and a beautiful idea.
But I'm still pretty dubious. The bitterness of my original joke that
"the revolution will not be turntable-ized" comes from a profound love of
music and respect for its power, but a profound suspicion that
revolutionary energy will be neutralized in aesthetic enjoyment, or for
that matter just plain fucking expended in acrobat gyration ;-) The
solace of soul, the steamvalve of funk, Saturday Night Fever--I'm sure
the arguments are familiar to you. As much as I love music, and as much
as I know that it can spur people to action under certain circumstances,
I see even radical counter-cultural music like rap at its most powerful
to be essentially a consolation, an aesthetic resolution, rather than an
act or an incitement. But maybe sometimes it CAN be all of those.
On another tangent, maybe the REAL revolution IS turntable-ized, though;
maybe it's a ... well, you can't call it a "quiet" revolution, I guess
;-) -- but maybe it's a non-violent revolution, a revolution of
DISARMAMENT, a social, cultural revolution, where people come together
and barriers come down through song and dance. That's a sweet idea to me.
Anyway, thanks to those of you who challenged me on my cynical cheap-pun
shot ;-)
Peace.
JimX