My Post-Election Recovery Playlist

It’s been a month since this country, or to be precise, the Electoral College, broke my heart and elected Donald Trump president.   Solace has come in the company of like-minded others, which led me to the mantra of the Civil Rights Movement:  courage, compassion and creativity.  The arts, especially music and poetry, have always been a way to speak truth to power, and a generative place for addressing systemic injustice. 

The relationships among social change, intellectual curiosity and love for humanity generated this playlist.  Accordingly, this group of songs spans decades, crosses genres and weaves beauty, anger and sensuality with the call to provoke conversation and action.    

1.      One Voice/The Wailing Jennys

2.      Ohio/CSNY

3.      March of the Billionaires/Cracker

4.      Enough/The Band of Heathens

5.      I Will Not Go Quietly/Don Henley

6.      Joy/Lucinda Williams

7.      They Want More/Ages and Ages

8.      None of Us Are Free/Solomon Burke

9.      If It Takes a Lifetime/Jason Isbell

10.  Hole in the World/Eagles

11.  Blooming through the Black/Parsonsfield

12.  Find the Cost of Freedom/CSNY

13.  Finlandia/Indigo Girls w/Girlyman

14.  I Wrote a Song for Everyone/Mavis Staples

15.  Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee/Indigo Girls

16.  Blanco Y Negro/DeSoL

17.  My Shot/Hamilton Original Broadway Cast

18.  The Revolution Starts…/Steve Earle

19.  This Land Is Your Land/Neil Young & Crazy Horse

20.  Divisionary (Do the Right Thing)/Ages and Ages

The Wailin’ Jennys tap into the beauty and spirit of human potential, an important place to begin.  “This is a song for all of us/singing with love and the will to trust” reminds us that we all have what Ralph Waldo Emerson called the “Divine spark.”  

Songs 2-5 identify how institutionalized power causes human suffering and political imbalance.  “Ohio” reminds us that what is happening now is nothing new—that song was written in 1970 after the shootings on the Kent State campus.  “March of the Billionaires” by Cracker is particularly appropriate with Trump’s chosen cabinet.  This sentiment is echoed in “Enough” by Band of Heathens:

You got enough seeds for all your farmers
You got enough mouths for them to feed
You got electricity and coal mines
You got enough poverty and greed        

While Cracker and the Heathens name the injustices, Don Henley offers a clear response in “I Will Not Go Quietly”:

Yeah, I'm gonna tear it up
Gonna trash it up
I'm gonna round it up
Gonna shake it up
Oh, no, baby, I will not lie down

This song riffs off Dylan Thomas’ classic poem “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night,”  demonstrating the power of language as protest.

Songs 6-10 speak to the darkness--and the hope--that comes on the heels of disaster.  Lucinda could have spoken for me on Nov. 9:  “You took my joy/I want it back.”   Following that, Ages and Ages sing about how overwhelming it can be to work toward justice.  You could see this vision as bleak, but you could also see it as realistic. Solomon Burke captures this feeling of hopelessness in “None of Us Are Free.”  He sings:

And there are people still in darkness

and they just can’t see the light                                                                                                       

If you don’t say that it’s wrong                                                                                                   

That says it’s right

His roots in 60’s soul have a deliberately gospel feel connecting to the spirituality of the Civil Rights Movement.  By shining a bright light on how “none of us are free as long as one of us is in chains,” he shows the universality of our humanity.

Jason Isbell expands on the theme of being chained in “If It Takes a Lifetime”—whose major chords and contrasting stoic lyrics show the time (a lifetime?!) and patience it takes to overcome one’s demons, whatever they may be.  But ultimately, there’s hope. That’s echoed on a larger scale with the Eagles’ “Hole in the World,” written in the aftermath of 9/11:

They say that anger is just love disappointed.
They say that love is just a state of mind.
But all this fighting over who is anointed
Oh, how can people be so blind?

Ironically, that cataclysmic event united the country in many ways, but unfortunately our designated common enemies—Islam and Iraq—turned out to be false foes.  Perhaps that’s where this current divide resides: not just in economics, but in determining who is standing in the way of the American Dream, real or imaginary.

Songs 11-14 are sometimes sober, sometimes uplifting, sometimes both.  From Parsonsfield’s “Blooming through the Black”:

She's blooming through the black
born of destruction
burned but she's coming back

The next two songs are about patriotism, albeit from different perspectives.  There is the inevitable point where the ultimate loss has to be acknowledged, which CSNY does so beautifully in “Find the Cost of Freedom,” the B side to “Ohio.”  This focus on loss moves to a song of hope for unity, not only in the words but in the harmonies, where the Indigo Girls and Girlyman sing “Finlandia” together.   

Mavis Staples closes this set with a John Fogerty song, “Wrote a Song for Everyone.”

Saw the people a standin' thousand years in chains.
Somebody said it's diff'rent now, look, it's just the same.
Pharaoh spins the message, round and round the truth.
They could have saved a million people, how can I tell you?

 Her version turns this swamp rock masterpiece into a gospel stomp: seeing the truth clearly requires some energy and verve, which Mavis delivers.

Songs 15-16 get at the individual and collective history of the United States: the indigenous and the immigrant.  In “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee,” the Indigo Girls rock this Buffy St. Marie song, particularly appropriate with what is happening at Standing Rock.  DeSoL take a another approach in bringing a Nuyorican feel to “Blanco Y Negro.”  This song is about how difference shouldn’t make a difference in how we see one another.

Songs 17-19 are patriotic, but not in a jingoistic way.  “My Shot,” from the Hamilton musical, is nothing less than a summons to speak out and speak up for the ideals of democracy.  This call for revolution against the British leads into a modern revolution with Steve Earle singing “The Revolution Starts…Now.”

The revolution starts here
Where you work and where you play
Where you lay your money down
What you do and what you say
The revolution starts now

 Both songs are calls to act—immediately, wherever you are, whatever you do.  Because, as Neil Young channels Pete Seeger, “This Land Is Your Land.”   This 60’s anthem reminds us that those of us who object to the current president-elect are not moving to Canada.  This place and its ideas and ideals, as flawed as they are, belong to us. 

And then there is the last song:  “Do the Right Thing.”  This is more than a call for revolution.  This is a call for love and justice. 

Music has always been a way of responding to our fears—from hymns to gospel to folk to blues to jazz to rock to hip hop.  This playlist covers my many emotional, aesthetic and political responses to the election.  Despair and hope.  Diversity and unity.  Fighting back and building community.  I would love to hear what your playlists look and sound like.  Feel free to respond to this blog and share what has offered you emotional sustenance over the last few weeks.