Sunday, 8 March
I bought "Sweet Cherry Wine" by Tommy James and the Shondells yesterday and can't stop listening to it. When I first heard it, probably sometime as a kid in the 70s I didn't like it. In fact, I didn't like much of the pop music that was made around the time I was born. But now I do like it, understand it and appreciate it - as much for the message as for the music.
But this winter I heard the song late at night, in the car. It was on the drive into Billings in -3 degree weather, but I felt insulated by the snow swirling around the highway and the windows and by the rich complex sounds coming out of the speakers when it cued up. It was one of those "transported by the music" moments.
It transported me again yesterday as I was baking birthday cake with the sun streaming into the kitchen window and again today, this time up the steepest part of my run. The sun was shining, it was warm and the song was perfect. And this time I didn't just hear the lyrics, they registered in a different way. The anti-war message is clear from the outset and I always knew it was there. But today what struck me was its gentleness.
Protest songs that evoke anger are necessary because they could spur us to take action against injustices. They are effective and logical and make sense in their graphic approach, explicit warnings and harsher tones, notes, rhythms. (hear "War (What Is It Good For?"). This one with its loving cup message more eases the listener into a feeling good groove with a more subtle approach. I wish I were satisfied with the live versions that are the only ones I could find on Youtube, I'd post the link for you to hear it. But then, if you'd like to hear it, you know what to do. Asa's "Jailer" (below) does the same thing...a gorgeous voice and its message against repression is lifted up to our ears by means of a groove. It may or may not be your kind of protest song...And so, it is good that there are so many different types of these songs that advocate an end to what we all know is wrong. The message, if it is echoed in enough types of medium might just be heard sometime.
I find subtlety so beautiful and I am so much more effectively convinced by it than by overt descriptions, explanations, images. And it works on me so well (when I'm able to grasp it, that is) that I over-apply it in what becomes my own soft and blurry discourse. And any subtle message can so easily and so often go unperceived. Indeed, if I have one now, it is probably obscured by the jangle of these words that lack the musicality that can make the medium a more beautiful message.
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