Protest Music Revisited

Comment

Comment by Patrick Dodd on February 13, 2013 at 10:32am

lool, Yes Bob, I was tagged, "The Dark Angel of Folk Music" by a reporter, and a friend used to often say, "oh great another Patrick Dodd slit your wrist song".  For decades I did nothing but very serious social justice music.  Then my wife and I started a radio show with the goal of reaching beyond "the converted"; we remained radically political, but changed the way we talked, mixed comedy with music and believe it or not lectures in a way that the common worker would not feel preached at or talked down. It was loads of fun and reached quite a few folks, it also helped me to add some light to the load and made me stretch as a writer.  However, I can't agree more that the bulk of a social justice writers work is most often dark, but nobody said it was gonna be easy.  I would love to hear some of your work.  I think that other social justice writers don't get as hung up on light and dark or at least we look for our light and dark in different ways.  You can find my work at patrickdodd.com if you're interested I am always into comments from fellow SJ types, as I'm sure you've found we are a rare breed of cat. Also I would love to know what type of guitar you play, I am one of those dyed in the wool acoustic fanatics.

Comment by Bob Crain on February 12, 2013 at 9:43pm

Ah yes friends, got lots of those (though you can never have enough) by "popular" I was more talking about the music industry and the current music listener, neither is really interested in socially conscious songwriting, I know I do lots of it.

At rehearsal last night there was discussion of comments made after our last gig that our songs are "too dark" we need to have some happy bright songs. I think that socially conscious songs can be presented in a lighthearted manner and many of my songs are, however it is hard to be lighthearted about war, gun violence, and the destruction of the environment.

I write the songs are "presented" to me to write....unfortunately I don't get the happy love songs about beautiful spring days and puppy dogs, those must go to someone else, maybe someday.

This is a very important subject to me and lies I believe at the heart of solution to some of the worlds ills. We as artists have a responsibility to be at the forefront of change and to present the issues in a format different from the "news". Unfortunately very few listening at the moment maybe that will change but I will keep writing and performing the songs that come to me and that need to be written, what more can you do?

Comment by Patrick Dodd on February 12, 2013 at 3:05pm

Bob;  I hear what your saying.  I like to think that peace lies way down a road that begins with justice, but justice is something that the conscience demand now.  As to the popularity issue I guess it's all a question of who you want to be popular with.  I don't feel like I've ever lacked for friends even when I am way out on the edge as to mainstream group think. 

Comment by Bob Crain on February 12, 2013 at 6:19am

Patrick, I prefer "socially conscious" myself....justice would be in the eye of the beholder however being socially conscious means you are awake and aware of what is going on around you. You don't win any popularity stakes being socially conscious though, those days are long gone.

Cheers

Bob

Comment by Lon Milo DuQuette on February 11, 2013 at 3:19pm

Posted before... but it's worth another shot for this venerable group.

http://youtu.be/9nH5BcwLIkk

Comment by Patrick Dodd on February 11, 2013 at 3:14pm

Hi. My name is Patrick Dodd and I have been a social justice songwriter and activist for the past 25 years.  I have played in forest camps, migrant camps, jails, strike lines and on what a reporter called the "rickety stages of the on-going revolution" since I gave up my straight touring gigs.  I've been lucky enough to have had over 4 million downloads (or so the folks who handle that part of my life so I can stay in the streets fighting have told me), and some rewards they tell me were meaningful, and I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to reading your thoughts on this subject.  However, for my own purposes, and like most of my friends who are full timers in this little known field, the term Protest Music sounds like a college course about the past.  Social Justice is a term that allows the artist to visit so much more about an issue than just what is wrong about it.  Standing for a higher moral right on an issue is not always a protest, it is also an affermation and a summons.  I have been jailed for standing beside people and singing about their worth and dignity as human beings, and I wasn't protesting anything, I was simply standing for something.  Now enough jabber from an old man to long in the saddle,  I'm currently recording a suite of songs that I wrote about the lives of Marijiauna Farmers in Southern Oregon called the Outlaw Farmer Project, and I have a very impatient lawyer on the line who keeps swearing about how I said I wasn't gonna do this anymore.  I hate to see her blood pressure get to high.  Keep Writing. Keep Fighting.  You can find more about the Outlaw Farmer project at my web site or on Face Book.

Comment by Patrick Dodd on February 11, 2013 at 2:37pm

Just as a way to introduce myself; http://www.patrickdodd.com

Comment by Antonio Cotichini on May 2, 2012 at 12:43pm

That's a good reason to write a new protest song, Alan...

Who leads the media when they did't inform about a protest situation?...

Comment by Alan Williams on May 2, 2012 at 12:21pm

Anybody else see where Tom Morello was trying to get 1000 guitarists to play in New York yesturday as part of the Occupy May Day protest?  I heard about it ahead of time but nothing on the news about it. 

Comment by Jason Derrick on January 24, 2012 at 11:24am

Thanks, Antonio!

@Jonah: Love the tram idea (and a very relevant song as well)! I wonder what the folks on my bus during my daily commute to work would think of a guy in the back strumming his git...hmm...

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