Late arrivals at the Hotel Protest
The Iraq invasion has brought the Eagles back to the recording studio, with the White House reportedly unhappy at their banging the anti-war drum. But just how daring are they?
Not being one of those elitists who think that just because something is popular, it must be bad (I am undoubtedly an elitist, just not one of those elitists), I am not ashamed to admit that I have for many years been a fan of the Eagles, whose Greatest Hits 1971-1975 competes with Michael Jackson’s Thriller for best-selling album of all time.As I don’t aspire to be a music boffin, I will leave debates about the Eagles’ musical merits to the experts; all I know is that it was with some cheeriness that I read of the release, this week, of their first studio album in more than 20 years.
Long Road Out of Eden is being hailed as a protest album, an excoriating indictment of US culture and foreign policy. Knowing of the Eagles’ huge popularity with much of Middle America, the White House is reported to be uneasy about another recruit to the anti-war ranks. But this double-CD from one of the most successful bands in popular music also raises the question of where the boundary between necessary compromise and gross exploitation lies. There seems to be no Archimedean point outside the system any more; even as our most popular artists deplore the commercialization of culture, they take part in little parables of concession and conciliation - as do most of us.
Growing up in the Chicago suburbs during the Reagan era, I didn’t encounter the Eagles until long after they had broken up. I listened to Don Henley’s “Dirty Laundry” and “Boys of Summer” before I listened to the Eagles, apart from the ubiquity of songs such as “Lyin’ Eyes” on the radio, which I found risibly country & western. In the 1980s, Chicago did not do country; that was for Southern crackers. Now we have all grown up: country music has gone mainstream and I have learned not to call yahoos crackers.
This week, some 20 years after I discovered the Eagles and memorized all the words to “Hotel California” (although I only just ascertained what “colitas” are, Don Henley’s impeccable enunciation having left no doubt as to the word, only its meaning. I vaguely assumed it was some kind of pungent-smelling desert herb. I wasn’t wrong), the Eagles are back with their first studio album since 1979, hell having frozen over in the meantime. And as it seems to be the year for the éminences grises of American rock to take a stand against a war that more than 70 per cent of the nation opposes, Long Road Out of Eden, like Bruce Springsteen’s Magic and Neil Young’s Living With War, criticizes American aggression, complacency and consumerist culture.
Actually, the album contains love songs, humorous sequels to Eagles classics, and “How Long,” an upbeat tune with a country feel that was written in 1972 and has been number 25 or so on the country charts for 10 weeks; so that by my count, only three and a half out of 20 tracks on the double-CD protest the state of America today. But hey, that’s three more than we had last month, and at this point I’ll take what I can get. Besides, the band have said it is the politics that got them back together.
As a result of the success of “How Long,” the Eagles have been invited to perform for the first time at the Country Music Awards in November, which suggests that their “protest album” is not rocking any swift boats in the red states, at least not yet. This is somewhat surprising, because the songs that do venture into social commentary lambast a stereotypical version of Middle America, while the song “Frail Grasp on the Big Picture” launches a direct attack on evangelicals.
Moreover, the Dixie Chicks were cold-shouldered by the CMA last year following the enormous success of their “comeback” single, “Not Ready to Make Nice”, an unrepentant up-yours to the ex-fans who burned their records in the wake of lead singer Natalie Maines’ controversial comment in London in 2003 that she was ashamed that President Bush is from Texas. (Of course, he’s not; he’s from Connecticut. I think we should all be ashamed of him, but there you go. Feel free to burn my CDs.)
The Dixie Chicks remain chicas non gratas with much of the South, and the CMA declined to invite them to perform, but the Grammys, which cater to a far broader and less bellicose segment of the US, were not so reluctant. The grande dame of protest music herself, Joan Baez, introduced the act as “three brave women” who are using “the power of music” like Woody Guthrie, the great American protest singer, to unite the country.
Her optimism would seem premature, judging by the vitriol that was heaped on to websites in the wake of the Dixie Chicks’ sweeping the Grammys; they’re clearly not the only ones who are not ready to make nice. Seventy per cent may disapprove of the war, but that doesn’t mean they approve of people who criticize it. (It makes no sense to me, either).
A few weeks ago, the Eagles invited the Dixie Chicks to open for them at a concert in Los Angeles, thereby firmly pinning their protest badges to their long black leather coats. Of course, what took a great deal of moxie from the Dixie Chicks in 2003, when most of America, especially the red states, were “rallying behind the troops” by supporting the government’s decision to send them into a situation where they were likely to get their heads blown off, appears somewhat less daring from the Eagles today.
That said, Don Henley can’t fairly be accused of belatedness; he has always written songs featuring social criticism, especially of materialism (think “her mind is Tiffany-twisted / She’s got the Mercedes bends”), and he has been an environmental activist for years. One of his big causes was been protecting a site called Walden Pond from developers. Walden Pond is a 61-acre lake in Massachusetts, besides which the celebrated 19th- century naturalist and philosopher Henry David Thoreau lived and wrote one of his best-regarded works.
The echo of Thoreau is instructive. He also protested what he considered an immoral tax by going to jail and subsequently writing the pamphlet “Resistance to Civil Government”, more commonly known as “Civil Disobedience”, Thoreau oppugned the poll tax because it supported two things he opposed: slavery, and a war that was deeply dividing the country. The slave-holding Southerners supported America’s expansion into Texas because they felt it was the nation’s “manifest destiny” to spread empire, and its value systems; the Whigs, who included Abraham Lincoln, considered it an unprincipled land grab and opposed the ensuing war with Mexico as an unjust imperial excursion into the sovereign territory of another state. Sound familiar? Except for the part where the other party actually opposes the war?
An intelligent and articulate man, Henley obviously sees the parallels (”Well ain’t it a shame / ‘Bout our short little memory / Never seem to learn / The lessons of history,” he sings in “Frail Grasp on the Big Picture”), but he does not seem to be advocating civil disobedience. On the contrary, he is insisting in interviews that resistance can be successfully mounted only from within the system. It is for this reason, he says, that the Eagles have signed an exclusive one-year deal with Wal-Mart, arguing that it can’t be any worse than the “evil” of the major record labels; he also insists that the giant company is working hard to improve its environmental credentials, and adds for good measure that it is no bad thing for someone who wants to change the world to have “the direct line to the CEO of Wal-Mart”.
This may not be entirely untrue, although it is certainly convenient; it will also undoubtedly seem a bit rich, pun intended, to a lot of people: the Eagles reportedly earned £100m during last year’s tour alone. They can’t need the money.
“We are artists,” Henley said, “but we are also businessmen and we try to live in the real world.” His song “Business as Usual” offers a wry reflection on such compromise, singing of efforts to “do good” and “be righteous” that are ground down by “business as usual”. The song ends: “Business as usual / Day after day / Business as usual / Feel like walking away.” But of course, he hasn’t, at least not yet. And although there is no escaping the cynicism of his position, I’m not sure that Henley is trying to.
For my part, it was such a relief to encounter in Long Road Out of Eden a song that began with pilgrims and prodigals on the road to Utopia and ended with a lesson learned from Caesar on the Appian Way about the dangers of empire (”it’s hard to stop this binging / once you get a taste”), that I am prepared to forgive the Eagles a multitude of sins.
Sarah Churchwell is a senior lecturer in American literature and culture at the University of East Anglia
© 2007 Independent News and Media Limited
These guys are all media whores who will cash in whenever they can. They got enough bucks to take care of themselves so they don’t give a shit about anyone else.
I applaud the entertainers who take a stand on social issues. Better the Eagles and the Ddixie Chicks and Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen than Ann Coulter and her hate speeches.
since1492 is absolutely correct. Where the FUCK were the Eagles when the Dixie Chicks were getting PERSECUTED by the Neocon NAZIs back in 2003? And why aren’t the Eagles, Toby Keith, etc … joining the Dixie Chicks or at least apologizing to them if they really are against the ILLEGAL pro-NAZI occupation in Iraq?
I don’t care how much money they make as long as the message is a good one.
I was sickened at a concert a few days ago to hear a well known country star singing a newly penned “flag-waver”, its sentiments so dreadfully misguided. I felt like weeping, as the audience stood and cheered.
Thank goodness for the Eagles, Springsteen, Neil Young and the Dixie Chicks - and John Fogerty has a good protest song out now too.
“you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave…”
If you do you will incur the wrath of some on this forum.
For sure, none of you critics have ever made a mistake, an error in judgment or been wrong. That’s what makes it so easy to for you to ’shoot’. For me, the Eagles will have to make hundreds of errors before I throw stones at them. I can only remember the hours of joy they brought/bring to my life. Can you make any such claim for the value of your life? Will we even know you passed through?
ezeflyer - wrath is what the people in Iraq are experiencing. The Eagles will continue to experience something quite different no matter what as long as they continue to define themselves as “businessmen”. Fuck the Eagles!
hoa binh
I guess its safe to protest now. The old ‘rockers’ will come out of the woodwork now that they dont have to suffer economic consequences if they protest ! I dont have an issue with the Eagles ‘protesting’ now but lets not deify them as the ’second coming’.
Only one question matters: Do you want to be a judge of activist bona fides or do you want to end war and other injustices? It’s a no-brainer. Let’s welcome anyone and everyone who wants to do his or her part, whenever and wherever he/she chooses to do it.
The Eagles are STILL doing their exploitation thing after all these years. Many of us felt they were ‘ripping off’ lo’ those many years ago, as well.
Dead on, Since1492. These guys have always been capitalists, nuthin’ new here.
Where’s the radical edge of Ani DiFranco, who never sold out to record companies? So many artists know how to play the game just safely enough to make their millions and hint at social criticism. They are the entertainers of the empire.
marxymark : But the radical edge-type artists don’t reach a huge audience - they sing to the choir. The message needs to reach people who are normally middle of the road or right wing - they would never hear the radical edge.
Maybe some of the artists now coming up with protest songs are doing so for purely commercial reasons, but do their motives really matter, if people are listening and, more importantly THINKING!? I think not.
Unfortunately, the term “popular culture” is an oxymoron far more often than not, and the gatekeepers of mainstream media are careful not to let anyone or anything truly revolutionary or subversive attain widespread public appeal.
One day, in the not too distant future, a collapse of some sort will so shake the corporate system that it will lose the ability to suppress creativity and originality as it has. But, human nature being what it is, there will still be those are too lazy to think for themselves, and those who are happy to take advantage of the lazy and uninformed as opportunities present themselves.
What we need is a paradigm shift.
When most of the major rock groups of the 60’s started to get serious about revolution, that marks the point in time when the hippies became yuppies en masse. Say you want a revolution…everywhere I hear the sound of marchin’ chargin’ feet boy… you better get it on right away…tear down the walls motherfucker.. because we need more room for another BMW.
Three frigging songs that can be called “protest” songs, oh baby so easy for the D-jocks to play the shit out of the album and not air any fucking “PROTEST SONGS”.
During the war in Vietnam there were protest songs upon protest songs and the D-jocks had to play them or think of something to say. No one marching, no protest songs-hey man, there aint no protest out there. Look at your news “few thousand around the Country protest war”, it didn’t happen, just a few weenies. The only prob with Bush is that he hasn’t secured the Iraqi oil yet, damn whats that all about? See the price at the pump when I filled up the Hummer?
Anniesee,
A few commercial rock success has-beens will cash in on the momentum of anti-war sentiment. Good for them! I’m interested more in those who push the envelope, though. Billy Bragg, Phil Ochs, Ani DiFranco, Woody Guthrie, and Gil Scott-Heron come to mind. And from Latin America there’s Victor Jara, Silvio Rodríguez, Pablo Milanés, Piero, Mercedes Sosa, and many more.
When we are in a house that’s burning down, we don’t talk or sing about adjusting the furniture. We get the hell out and build a new house. I wonder which pro-war Democrat the Eagles will endorse?
I agree marxymark - we badly need a Billy Bragg over here, and a new Woodie Guthrie, but beggars can’t be choosers. I’m just happy to see anybody on two legs, or even on one leg singing a protest song.
We shouldn’t be too critical of any allies we have, even if they arrive late or are a bit tepid for our tastes. If we divide ourselves, the neocons will yet again conquer. Nudge them in the correct (not right!) direction, but don’t be hypercritical. We need all the friends we can get to restore our country’s sanity, and if the Eagles sway a few red-state voters into our fold, if they increase the pressure on the pusillanimous Pelosi and the other gutless Democrats to confront the most lawless, corrupt, brutal, arrogant, incompetent and divisive administration in history, my hat is off to them.
Come and sing a simple song of freedom
Sing it like you’ve never sung before
Let it fill the air
Tell the people everywhere
We,the people,here don’t want a war
Bobby Darin
from 1963(?):
(M. Jagger/K. Richards)
What a shame
Nothing seems to be going right
What a shame
Nothing seems to be going right
It seems easy to me that everything can be alright
What a shame
They always wanna start a fight
What a shame
They always wanna start a fight
Well it scares me so
I could sleep in the shelter all night
Well alright
What a shame
You all heard what I said
What a shame
Y’all heard what I said
You might wake up in the morning
And find your poor self dead
NEIL YOUNG LYRICS
“War Of Man”
The little creatures
run in from the cold
Back to the nest
just like the days of old
There in the safety
of a mother’s arms
The warmth of ages,
far away from harm again.
Ears ringin’
from the battle fire
The tired warrior
aims a little higher
The black falcon
or the little sparrow
The healing light
or the flash of the barrel.
No one wins
It’s a war of man,
No one wins
It’s a war of man.
Silver mane flyin’ in the wind
Down through the planets
on the run again
No one knows where
they’re runnin’ to
But every kind is comin’
two by two.
Out on the delta
where the hoofbeats pound
The daddy’s runnin’
on the frozen ground
Can’t smell the poison
as it follows him
Can’t see the gas and machines,
it’s a war of man.
No one wins
It’s a war of man,
No one wins
It’s a war of man.
The windows open
and the little girl dreams
The sky’s her playground
as she mounts her steed
Across the heavens
to the other side
On wings of magic
does the little girl ride.
The baby creatures
run in from the cold
Back to the nest
just like the days of old
There in the safety
of a mother’s arms
The warmth of ages,
far away from harm again.
No one wins
It’s a war of man,
No one wins
It’s a war of man,
No one wins.
[ www.azlyrics.com ]
GIVE ME LIBERTY Spartacus Jones 2001
Don’t tell me what I’ve got to think or say.
That’s none of your damn business, anyway.
Don’t tell me now I need security;
There’s only one thing you can do for me:
Give me liberty
Give me liberty
Give me liberty
Give me liberty
I’m not afraid of foreign enemies
They cannot take away my liberties
I’m not afraid of things that they might do
From what I see, I’m more afraid of you.
Give me liberty
Give me liberty
Give me liberty
Give me liberty
You hide behind the flag but here’s a fact
I see right through your phoney patriot act.
I think it’s time you finally figured out
What my America is all about:
Liberty
Give me liberty
Give me liberty
Give me liberty
Don’t tell me how it’s all for my own good.
I’d tell you where to shove that if I could.
I’ll say this just one time so get it right:
I won’t give freedom up without a fight
Give me liberty
Give me liberty
Give me liberty
Give me liberty
It’s in the hoof-beat of a horse running wild;
It’s in the heartbeat of a new born child;
It puts the hope in every dream we dream;
And when we’ve got it we’ve got everything:
Liberty
Give me Liberty
Give me Liberty
Give me Liberty
Don’t tell me what I’ve got to think or say
That’s none of your damn business, anyway
Don’t tell me all about security
There’s only one thing you can do for me:
Give me Liberty
Give me Liberty
Give me Liberty
Give me Liberty
Give me Liberty
The promise of this land
Give me Liberty
We hold it in our hands
Give me Liberty
It’s time we make a stand
Give me Liberty
Stand up for Liberty!
Give me Liberty
It’s been our dream so long
Give me Liberty
The one thing that makes us strong
Give me Liberty
You know we can’t go wrong
Give me Liberty
As long as we have Liberty
Give me Liberty
It’s like a beacon bright
Give me Liberty
That shines through the darkest night
Give me Liberty
We’ll make it home all right
Give me Liberty
If we follow the light of Liberty
Give me Liberty
Keep your security
Give me Liberty
Show some integrity
Give me Liberty
Just give me Liberty
Give me Liberty
And I’ll do all the rest myself…..
You’re welcome to download this tune for FREE
at www.spartacusjones.com
Liberty & Justice,
SJ
I’ve recommended this band before, and I’ll likely do it again.
System of a Down is, in my opinion, the most prolific and consistent protest group of our day.
Now some of you (especially you pre-generation Xers) might not like the music itself, it’s fast, it’s hard, and the singing has been called ‘insane’ by more than one acquaintance of mine. (the singer, having formerly sung opera, has a very versatile voice) The lyrics though, will leave the vast majority of you feeling refreshed and/or energized about a variety of the issues we face today.
If you’re willing to take my advice I offer you the recommendation of listening to the album ‘Toxicity’. Their other offerings are good, but that is what I believe is the best introduction to their work.
I have to offer my friend David Rovics to y’awl. In the tradition of Woody Guthrie et al. Travelin’ singin’ &c. Organize a concert in your town, You won’t be sorry. Endorsed by Pete Seeger, Amy Goodman, Cindy Sheehan and me.
http://www.davidrovics.com
Great lyrics and songs. Download ALL of his stuff for free but send him some $$$ anyway. His song topics include:
Afghanistan
Anthemic Resistance
Anti-Sprawl
Anti-War
Automobile Deaths
Bicycles
Colombia
Cuba
Depleted Uranium
Ecology/Environment
El Salvador
Endangered Species
Gender Relations
George W. Bush
Global Justice
Global Warming
Guerrilla Gardening
Indigenous People
Indonesia
Iraq
Korea
Kurdistan
Labor/Labor History
Land Mines/Cluster Bombs
Latin America
Love Songs
Marijuana
Media
Mexico
Nuclear Bomb
Palestine
Pirates
Police Brutality
Politics
Polyamory
Poverty
Prisons
Protests
School of the Americas
Star Trek
Street Music/Busking
Street Violence/Guns
The Draft
Tsunami
Venezuela
Viet Nam
War Against Terror
War Veterans
World War II
the lesser of two evils??? doing business with walmart is like dancing with the devil. you get dirty. does henley believe in his message or doubt the intellgence of his audience?