Funky16Corners Radio v.89 – Things Got To Get Better (Get Together)
Playlist
Sir Joe Quaterman & Free Soul – So Much Trouble On My Mind (GSF)
Raymond Winnfield – Things Could Be Better (Fordom)
Spoken interlude: Malcolm X
Gene Chandler – In My Body’s House (Checker)
Nat Turner Rebellion – Plastic People (Delvaliant)
Spoken interlude: Noam Chomsky
Donny Hathaway – The Slums (Atco)
Spoken interlude: Dorothy Day
Sebastian – Living In Depression (Brown Dog)
Senor Soul – Don’t Lay Your Funky Trip On Me (Whiz)
Spoken interlude: Rev Martin Luther King Jr
Della Reese – Compared to What (Avco)
Impressions – Mighty Mighty (Spade and Whitey) (Curtom)
James Brown – Funky President (People It’s Bad) (Polydor)
Spoken interlude: Terence McKenna
James Brown – Get Up Get Into It Get Involved (King)
Spoken interlude: Saul Alinsky
Soul Searchers – We The People (Sussex)
Isley Brothers – Fight the Power (T-Neck)
Spoken interlude: Jesse Jackson
Stevie Wonder – We Can Work It Out (Tamla)
Unifics – People Got to Be Free (Kapp)
Spoken interlude: Michelle Obama
S.O.U.L. – Love Peace and Power (Musicor)
Mohawks – Baby Hold On (Cotillion)
Impressions – We’re a Winner (ABC)
Closing: Rev Martin Luther King Jr
Funky16Corners Radio v.89 – Things Got to Get Better (Get Together)
Greetings all.
As first hinted at, then promised, and finally warned about (for those of you who are diametrically opposed politically), Funky16Corners Radio v.89 – Things Got To Get Better (Get Together), aka the ‘election mix’ has finally arrived, been posted at the top of the blog, where it will remain until the election is over.
I know I normally run Halloween themed posts this time of year, but we have real things to be scared about.
There is a Halloween set in this week’s Funky16Corners Radio Show on Viva Radio (Friday night at 9PM) so you can get your fix there.
As far as I can recall, I haven’t approached the readers of the Funky16Corners blog with anything sociopolitical since the ‘Two From the Stonewall Jukebox’ post back in July of 2009, and before that the posts about the Presidential election of 2008.
Though I think most of you have some idea of my political orientation, it’s not a frequent subject here, because ultimately Funky16Corners is about music.
However (big however coming here)…
We are currently in the midst of a very dark time, not just in the US, but worldwide.
The rise of the ultra-right and the ensuing anti-immigrant, anti-gay and ultimately anti-intellectual wave that is poised to wash away decades of important social gains in this country is the single most important issue at hand.
Having grown up in the 1970s, I find the idea that this great country would ever descend again into a maelstrom of religious lunacy, open hatred of immigrants and homosexuals, demonization of organized labor (especially teachers) and hateful, empty Rand-ian ‘libertarianism’ is beyond insane.
The economy is in terrible shape, and is unlikely to get better any time soon, and those that have been able to return to work often find that the salaries are lower and the benefits non-existent.
How have some of our countrymen reacted to these challenges?
Not well.
An increasingly angry minority, funded by the mega-rich have become a political force, eager to build fences (literal and figurative) to keep those they consider ‘undesirable’ from participating fully in our democracy.
The rise of these deeply ignorant ‘patriots’ (they love to wrap themselves in the flag, unable to embrace its true meaning), marching alongside religious ideologues and plutocrats has woven together a rancid fabric, its warp and weft rife with xenophobia, racism, class warfare, homophobia and various and sundry fringe hatreds.
You may step back and see these negative forces as smaller, separate issues, but the truth is that they are all part of the same, ugly reaction.
When the going got tough, the right got nasty.
Those institutions tasked with keeping us informed have collapsed under the collective weight of corruption by and collusion with those that have the most to gain by a population ignorant of the truth.
I still have a basic faith in the goodness of the human race, but it is being sorely tested.
I want my children to grow up in a world where they are indifferent to the color of a person’s skin, the language they speak or their sexual preference, but we are surrounded by those that would deny them that future.
This includes people of supposed deep religious faith who forget that their own freedom to worship and express the tenets of their faith includes the freedom of others to find their own path. These are the people who continually fight to deny gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans their civil rights.
These are the people who want to rewrite the textbooks in our schools to cleanse them of science and fill them with creationism and revisionist (racial and political) history.
This also includes a lot of people, many of them radicalized after the attacks of 9/11, who have turned against American citizens of Muslim faith, and stoked fears (alongside similarly radicalized anti-Muslim forces in Europe and Scandinavia) of all Muslims, as well as immigrants in general.
These are the people who allowed 30 years of Republican propaganda to turn them against organized labor, while simultaneously building an obscene faith in big business that allowed massive deregulation and tax cuts, as well a cheering our way into two insane wars.
This is the same big business that – thanks to a bizarre Supreme Court decision – is now allowed to flood the political system with piles of cash (anonymously) to attack those that would put a stop to our slow (but seemingly inevitable) march to plutarchy.
Please don’t mistake this as an endorsement of President Obama specifically, or the Democrats in general.
Despite promises to the contrary, the President has continued to fight the right of gays to serve in the military, and has stated that he opposes the idea of gay marriage.
Many of those that serve with the (D) next to their name have also thrown their lot in with the ‘whatever big business wants’ crowd as well.
There may be something “trickling down” onto the middle class and the poor, but it’s not money.
However (another big one here), the alternative is people like Joe Miller in Alaska, Sharon Angle in Nevada, the execrable Rand Paul in Kentucky, deeply ignorant Christine O’Donnell in Delaware, Ken Buck in Colorado, Marco Rubio in Florida and countless others who have embraced the insane ideas of the radical right.
These people are only the larger public face of this movement.
While they run for national office, their foot soldiers are poised to fill seats in state legislatures, county and local office, and worst of all, school boards.
There are those that would have you believe that the system is utterly broken, and that an appropriate response is not to vote at all.
This is insane.
Is there any among you that really think that the way to right a staggering democracy is to withdraw from it?
Not only should every one of you exercise your right to vote, but you should do what you can to convince your family and friends that they should as well, because one thing the forces of the radical right do, religious or otherwise, is vote.
These are the people that are counting on apathy to help them get their hooks into the government where they can start to punch holes in the Constitution they ironically wave like a battle flag.
So what does this have to do with Funky16Corners?
Like the mighty James Brown says:
People, people we got to get over before we go under!
Tell’em Godfather!
The majority of the soul and funk music we celebrate here was created during a time when the forces of the right were attempting to tighten the screws of the status quo, while the forces of peace, racial equality and sexual liberation were battling in the streets (and the ballot box) to upend it and seize their rights.
Soul and funk are the sounds of struggle and liberation. Not every number here has an explicit political/social message, but the music of black America, created in the 60s and 70s in its core rarely says anything else.
Funky16Corners Radio v.89 is an attempt to string some of the more powerful musical statements of the time together, along with spoken intervals by important thinkers.
Things get off to a depressing, yet wholly realistic start, but work their way up through anger, defiance and ultimately (hopefully) triumph.
Not every number here carries an explicit message, but taken together they make an important statement.
The voices heard between the songs include some very well known (civil rights figures like Dr Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and Jesse Jackson), and some lesser known (Dorothy Day*), and in a few cases dreadfully misunderstood and demonized (Saul Alinsky**, Noam Chomsky), but their words all have in common is their relevance to the world we live in today.
I’m not saying that things are going to be fixed if the opponents of democracy are defeated in this election (since many of them clearly won’t be), but rather (to borrow an old saw) the journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step, and stepping into the voting booth and making yourself heard is that step.
Far too many Americans take a pass on that important responsibility, and if they continue to do so, they’ll have no one to thank but themselves when the world around them gets worse.
So, once again in the words of James Brown:
Get Up, Get Into It, Get Involved.
Educate yourself.
Educate others.
Don’t allow hatred and disinformation to go unchallenged.
Don’t be afraid.
Peace
Larry
*Dorothy Day is an especially important figure in the history of social justice and charity. If her name is unfamiliar, dig a little deeper and read about this great woman.
**Saul Alinsky has been demonized by the right to the point where his name has become a kind of shorthand (with just the tiniest bit of anti-semitism attached to it) for leftist subversion. I doubt most of the people that throw his name around as an epithet have read anything about him. His voice – like most of those in this mix – was an important one in the struggle to transfer power from the haves to the have nots (which goes a long way to explaining why those that shill for the mega-rich hate him so). If all you’ve ever heard about him are bad things, do yourself a favor and read up on his life (outside of right wing web sites).
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