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Despite the rise of far-right nationalism in Europe, the more insidious sentiments of xenophobia underlying "Brexit" in his own country, and the thinly-veiled demagoguery of Donald Trump's ambitions to "Make America Great Again," musician Billy Bragg remains optimistic.
"I've been coming to America for 35 years and I think it's a pretty great place," Bragg says in his conversation with Takeaway Host John Hockenberry. "It's changed over that time, but mostly it's changed for the positive."
Bragg has mixed "pop and politics" over his three-decade career, and his blend of folk, minimalist punk, and populist activism has solidified him as a leftest guardian of the everyman. Bragg says the biggest enemy to American democracy this election cycle isn't ISIS, or some foreign threat, but cynicism within ourselves.
"These are strange times," Bragg says. "It's not just you, and it's not just us. But together, hanging onto each other — those of us who believe in internationalism and empathy and curbing our cynicism — we're gonna get through this."

Click on the 'Listen' button (The Takeaway) to hear our full conversation with Billy Bragg.
A New Britain? Billy Bragg On Brexit And The Nation's Future. By NME Blog, 14th July 2016

Von Billy Braggs Facebook-Seite:
Now Trump has been crowned as the Republican candidate for president, we need to start treating him as the serious threat to global stability that he clearly is. Here Ryan Harvey, Tom Morello and Ani DiFranco team up with Woody Guthrie to show how its done.


View on YouTube - Tom Morello of Prophets of Rage and Rage Against the Machine thinks dangerous times demand dangerous songs. Schön, dass es das noch gibt! In einer neuen Rubrik veröffentlicht: Ästhetik des Widerstands.

Die spannende Geschichte des Songs: Woody Guthrie Wrote of His Contempt for His Landlord, Donald Trump’s Father (NYTimes, Jan.25)
Und sehr interessant ist auch der aktuelle Streit um die Copyrights von Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land”:

While money is at the heart of almost every copyright case, the lawsuits over “We Shall Overcome” and “This Land” also have a decidedly political tinge — they seek to decide who gets to co-opt the message of songs that were written in service of a particular point of view.
According to Nora Guthrie, a daughter of Woody Guthrie, having the copyright for “This Land” has let her prevent the song from being exploited in ways that her father — well known for his Communist sympathies — would never have approved of, including what she said were attempted uses by Ronald Reagan, the National Rifle Association and the Ku Klux Klan.
“Our control of this song has nothing to do with financial gain,” Ms. Guthrie, the longtime keeper of her father’s cultural legacy, said in an interview. “It has to do with protecting it from Donald Trump, protecting it from the Ku Klux Klan, protecting it from all the evil forces out there.” (NYTimes, JULY 12, 2016)

Wenn Sie Billy Bragg nicht kennen, hören Sie hier mal rein. Mein Lieblingslied: Billy Bragg & Wilco - "Hesitating Beauty" from "Mermaid Avenue", a 1998 album of previously unheard lyrics written by Woody Guthrie, put to music written and performed by Billy Bragg and Wilco. Ansonsten ist er bekannt für A New England.


View on YouTube


Nachtrag:
Four years ago Ry Cooder sang about the Republican Convention in Tampa. With only a few little tweaks in the lyrics, he could have sung the same song for Cleveland:

Goodbye my honey, farewell my baby
Don’t look for me around convention time
I’m bound for Tampa, in the great state of Florida
To see some distinguished friends of mine

Mitt and Rick and the pitbulls, the jolly ride and step forth
To the highest bidder each will guarantee
I’d give all my money sir if Palin calls me honey
And shakes the pizzas on my tree

‘Cause I’m goin’ to Tampa in the morning
Got my credentials in my overalls
But I can’t take you with me little darling
I’m going down to get my ashes hauled

Well here’s a proposition to entertain a motion
Bring back Willie Horton to us now
We’ll spook the congregation and petrify the nation
And blame the folks from Mexico somehow

And let me introduce a man who all know well
He can play a very important role
State rights is his game, Jim Crow is his name
And Jim’s our little ace in the hole

‘Cause I’m goin’ to Tampa in the morning
Saints of latter days will heed the call
We’ll shout hallelujah in the evening
I’m going down to get my ashes hauled

Well the NRA woman told the tea party man
Gonna make love to you with a gun in my hand
That tea party man said, ‘that’s all right
Got a smoking bomb under my pillow at night

Well we’re all going to Tampa in the morning
Honey will you miss me when I’m gone
Now hope you pack my old bed sheet
I’m going down to get my ashes hauled

Yes, I’m goin’ to Tampa in the morning
Honey will you miss me when I’m gone
Now hope you pack my old bed sheet
‘Cause I’m going down to get my ashes hauled

Via Any Major Dude With Half A Heart bei facebook


View on YouTube. Wenn Sie Ry Cooder nicht kennen: - das ist der mit Paris Texas. Ganz großartig hier: John Hiatt & Ry Cooder Riding with the King - This recording came from the King Biscuit Flower Hour in 1983, while Hiatt was promoting the release of his sixth album, Riding With the King.