The first songs to express personal emotions appeared more than 3,000 years ago in Deir el-Medina, a village on the Nile. By coincidence this was also the location of the first successful labor protest in history.
I just finished the "Music" history you wrote. I really appreciate your work. I gained many wonderful insights and deeper appreciation to music's power over me and over society. You helped me gain confidence to be more honest and emotional in my music and to explore the hidden power it contains. My daughter in law is a singer and when I shared some of your writing with her, she enthusiastically accepted my offer of a copy.
Have you seen the 1991 Bill Moyers interview with Dr Bernice Reagon Johnson "The Songs Are Free"? She was founding member of Sweet Honey in the Rock and one of the original Freedom Singers working directly with Fanny Lou Hamer on voter registration in the south. She talks about it from an individual standpoint "when we sing, we announce our existence" and "you can not sing a song and not change your condition"; as well as how in larger group protests when the police would enter to try to intimidate and shut things down, someone would start a song and everyone would join in and RECLAIM the air / the space / the power in the room....it's fascinating. Happy to share this video - it's right in there with everything you are talking about.
I just finished the "Music" history you wrote. I really appreciate your work. I gained many wonderful insights and deeper appreciation to music's power over me and over society. You helped me gain confidence to be more honest and emotional in my music and to explore the hidden power it contains. My daughter in law is a singer and when I shared some of your writing with her, she enthusiastically accepted my offer of a copy.
Have you seen the 1991 Bill Moyers interview with Dr Bernice Reagon Johnson "The Songs Are Free"? She was founding member of Sweet Honey in the Rock and one of the original Freedom Singers working directly with Fanny Lou Hamer on voter registration in the south. She talks about it from an individual standpoint "when we sing, we announce our existence" and "you can not sing a song and not change your condition"; as well as how in larger group protests when the police would enter to try to intimidate and shut things down, someone would start a song and everyone would join in and RECLAIM the air / the space / the power in the room....it's fascinating. Happy to share this video - it's right in there with everything you are talking about.
The left being tuneless is a lot more meaningful than many realize.
Wonderful read. Along with your brother’s work, you two make quite the musical duo.
I’ve shared this piece with others who will benefit from your clear aerial perspective on the role and relationship between music and politics.
As they say, politics is downstream from culture.
This is a great case study.