Rosanne Cash engages with the pressing issues we face with her new angry yet hopeful song, “Crawl Into the Promised Land.”
Rosanne Cash has released a timely new song with John Leventhal, “Crawl Into the Promised Land.” The song tackles many of the issues we have been facing in 2020. In a handwritten note accompanying the song on her website, Cash asks about “Why we elected such an unfit person to guide us, Why do we kill Black people with impunity, Why our leaders dismantle and mock every institution. . . .”
Cash adds that the “magnitude of the moment requires time and an ocean of reflection.” Recognizing that an election is approaching, the song lyrics ask us to be delivered from Tweets and lies. But it is deep down a song of hope. I even detect what seems to be a reference to her father Johnny Cash (“The old man surely must have known / To kick the lights and make his stand / Would give us strength back from the brink.”
The video that accompanies “Crawl Into the Promised Land” song is a “visual corollary,” offering images including the Civil Rights, women’s rights movements, and such important figures as the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The video was directed by Phyllis Housen and Eric Baker. Check it out.
When Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band were closing out their 1999-2000 reunion tour with the E Street Band, Springsteen introduced a powerful new song, “American Skin (41 Shots).” The song, about an incident of police brutality, has prompted a few covers, none as powerful as one by Living Colour during the Montreux Jazz Festival on July 20, 2001.
Springsteen had debuted the song in Atlanta on June 4, 2000. And before the band closed the tour at Madison Square Garden, some called for a boycott of the concerts or called Springsteen names because of the song. Springsteen wrote “American Skin (41 Shots)” about NYPD officers killing Amadou Diallo in February 1999.
The police officers stopped Diallo at his front door because they thought he resembled a suspect. The immigrant from Guinea reached for his wallet and the four officers fired 41 shots, hitting Diallo 19 times and killing him. A year later, the officers were acquitted of second-degree murder and reckless endangerment.
Although officers, the New York City mayor, and others criticized Springsteen for the song, time has been kinder to the writer than to the critics. The compassionate song was not vilifying anyone but highlighting the racism in society that has led to so many other killings just since Diallo’s.
41 shots, Lena gets her son ready for school She says, “On these streets, Charles You’ve got to understand the rules If an officer stops you, promise me you’ll always be polite And that you’ll never ever run away Promise Mama you’ll keep your hands in sight”
Springsteen’s live performances of the song are powerful, often bringing up each member of the band one-at-a-time for the repeated refrain of “41 shots.” Others have covered the song, including Jackson Browne.
Living Colour performed “American Skin (41 Shots)” live at the Montreux Jazz Festival around one year after Springsteen had debuted the song. The band’s version is both powerful and heartbreaking, all the more painful because of its continuing relevance today with the deaths of those such as Breonna Taylor and George Floyd.
In some quarters, most people who know about Bryan Stevenson and his work see him as a hero. But many do not know about the wonderful work he has been doing for decades. The new HBO documentary True Justice: Bryan Stevenson’s Fight for Equality hopefully will reach a wider audience about the work done by Stevenson and the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), which Stevenson started in 1989.
Stevenson and his colleagues at EJI in Montgomery, Alabama have worked to help wrongly convicted and unfairly sentenced defendants. They have won reversals for more than one-hundred people on death row. And Stevenson has personally argued before the U.S. Supreme Court several times.
Stevenson and EJI also work to educate the country about the history of racial injustice. They created the National Memorial for Peace and Justice and the Legacy Museum in Montgomery, working to educate people about 4,400 victims of lynching.
Great Work and a Fascinating Man
The accomplishments are amazing, and the documentary provides insight into the racial discrimination present in our criminal justice system. Just hearing Stevenson’s clients discuss their cases and see reactions to the lynching memorial make watching True Justice worthwhile. But Stevenson, who has long shied away from participating in a documentary despite his many awards and public appearances, makes this film essential viewing for all Americans.
Stevenson is an amazing person, perhaps one of the closest things we have to a saint walking among us. His work is humble and selfless, as the documentary lightly touches on the sacrifices Stevenson has made to do to work he has done. But Stevenson does not see himself that way, as the glimpses we get of his personal life show someone who is happy in the choices he has made.
Stevenson is a great speaker whether talking intimately to the camera or appealing to a large crowd. Maybe the nearest we get to understanding what drives him is his stories about his family and grandmother. For example, he recounts a story when as a child he had laughed at another kid who stuttered. He tells how his family corrected him, not with punishment, but by telling him to apologize to the other little boy and to hug him and tell him he loved him. The response the young Stevenson receives surprises him, but one can see the foundations of his life reflected in that moment.
Movie viewers will soon learn more about Stevenson because his memoirs, Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption, is being made into a film starring Michael B. Jordan. The film is set to be released in January 2020, but you should take the opportunity to catch the real thing now. HBO currently is allowing everyone to watch True Justice on its website for free.
Singer-actor Trini Lopez was born in Dallas on May 15, 1937. At the age of 26, he had his first hit recording with “If I Had a Hammer.”
Lopez’s released a live album as his first record, Trini Lopez at PJ’s, in 1963. That album featured his live version of “If I Had a Hammer” that became a hit song for him.
Although the song seems timeless, Pete Seeger and Lee Hays wrote “If I Had a Hammer” in 1949 and first recorded it in 1950 as “The Hammer Song” with The Weavers. I believe the first time I heard the song was in the version by Peter, Paul & Mary. They had a top ten hit with the song in 1962, one year before Lopez’s release.
Other artists continued to record the anthem, even immediately after the hit versions by Lopez and Peter, Paul and Mary. For example, Sam Cooke featured a live version of the song on his 1964 album Sam Cooke at the Copa. And Martha and the Vandellas included their version on the 1963 album Heat Wave.
There is something about the song about the hammer. It reminds me of “The Riddle Song (I Gave My Love a Cherry)” where the final verse of the songs answers the riddles about the cherry, the ring, the chicken, and the baby. Perhaps the way “If I Had a Hammer” is similarly structured gives it the timeless quality of the old English folk song, “The Riddle Song.”
As others have noted, though, with “If I Had a Hammer,” Seeger and Hays beautifully combined activism with a popular song format. The lyrics re-purpose the working person’s hammer, the laborer’s song, and the work bell. And the writers use those tools as patriotic instruments to change the world and protect civil rights.
And while “The Riddle Song” is melancholy like a lullaby, “If I Had a Hammer” has more energy. Lopez’s driving version really captures that it is a song about the hammer of justice, the bell of freedom, and the song about love between my brothers and my sisters.
What is your favorite version of “If I Had a Hammer”? Leave your two cents in the comments.
Folk, blues, and jazz singer Barbara Dane was born in Detroit on May 12, 1927. Smithsonian Folkways recently released a retrospective of the singer and political activist who has worked with many musical giants of the 1950s, 1960s, and beyond.
In her long career, Dane performed and recorded with artists such as Louis Armstrong, Memphis Slim, Otis Spahn, Memphis Slim, Willie Dixon, Pete Seeger, Mose Allison, Big Mama Thornton, Lightnin’ Hopkins, T-Bone Walker, and many others. Below she sings with Louis Armstrong on the Timex All-Star Jazz Show, which was broadcast on CBS on January 7, 1959. Armstrong famously described Dane with the compliment, “She’s a gasser!”
She also made a wonderful album with The Chambers Brothers. Here, they perform “I am a Weary and Lonesome Traveler” from Barbara Dane and the Chambers Brothers.
A new album from Smithsonian Folkways collects a number of Dane’s recordings into a retrospective. Below is a promo for the two-CD retrospective, Hot Jazz, Cool Blues & Hard-Hitting Songs (2018).
More on Barbara Dane
Dane has had a long career with great music while also being active politically for such causes as the civil rights and anti-war movements. If you are unfamiliar with her work, her website is a good place to start. And another resource is the audio documentary, A Wild Woman Sings the Blues: The Life and Music of Barbara Dane.
Finally, fortunately for us, Dane continues to be active. Below is a video of her performing and talking about her career at the San Francisco Library in 2014.
Happy birthday Ms. Dane!
What is your favorite Barbara Dane recording? Leave your two cents in the comments.
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(2018).