Some Musings on Music and Politics

With the shock waves of the presidential election still spreading, I got to thinking about an artistic phenomenon that occurs in times of great change. Let me start with last Friday, when we had over some friends who were saddened by the election of Donald Trump. The conversation soon turned from politics to Leonard Cohen, the singer-songwriter who died the day before the election, and his amazing song "Hallelujah." We listened to various versions, from Jeff Buckley's well-known performance to an Israeli army choir interpretation in Hebrew. Then, the next evening, "Saturday Night Live" opened with Kate McKinnon, known for her satiric portrayal of defeated presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, singing "Hallelujah." The song ends with Cohen's verse: "I did my best; it wasn't much. I couldn't feel so I tried to touch. I've told the truth; I didn't come to fool you. And even though it all went wrong, I'll stand before the Lord of Song with nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah!" The song is seen by many as sorrowful, but Cohen himself felt it was a "rather joyous song" and explained, "This world is full of conflicts and full of things that cannot be reconciled, but there are moments when we can transcend the dualistic system and reconcile and embrace the whole mess, and that's what I mean by 'Hallelujah.'" In that more positive spirit, McKinnon/Hillary followed the song's conclusion with an exhortation to those disappointed in the election outcome (the majority in terms of popular vote): "I'm not giving up and neither should you." All that got me thinking of the historic convergence of music and politics. After all, Bob Dylan, singer-songwriter and five-decade cultural influence, has just been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Dylan is well-known for a musical opus that includes "Blowin' in the Wind" and "The Times They Are a-Changin'," which became anthems for the American civil rights and anti-war movements of the 1960s. Looking for an exploration of politics in music, and vice versa, I found books such as Politics in Music: Music and Political Transformation from Beethoven to Hip-Hop by Courtney Brown, Music and Politics by John Street, Talkin' 'Bout a Revolution: Music and Social Change in America by Dick Weissman, and 33 Revolutions per Minute: A History of Protest Songs, from Billie Holiday to Green Day by music critic Dorian Lynskey. And as far as Cohen's song is concerned, there is The Holy or the Broken: Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley, and the Unlikely Ascent of 'Hallelujah' by Alan Light. But I note that none of these histories go past 2013. The defining songs of the next generation of political protest have yet to emerge. Watch and listen in 2017. I'm betting new rallying music is in the offing. In the meantime, for fans of "Hallelujah," see https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Broken-Leonard-Unlikely-Hallelujah/dp/1451657854